Is a Virus Living or Non-Living

Viruses in my opinion are Non-Living, because they might "hijack" or move but that could just be a chemical reaction when it gets into contact with another cell, like metal and magnets. This Link has some more information. This chemical reaction somehow causes the virus to reproduce.

Soil Bacterium Helps Kill Cancers

Title Of Article: Soil Bacterium Helps Kill Cancers
Author: Caroline Parkinson
Source: Web
Date: 5 of September, 2011 (Updated recently in Thursday March 8th, 00:58 GMT)

A bacterium found in soil can be the main factor of curing cancer. This enzyme triggers the drug to activate and then the drug can do its job by curing the cancer. The specialty of this enzyme is that it can work anywhere, so it doesn't need oxygen to stay alive, this could be the center of tumors where there is no oxygen. A type of drug which can cure cancer is only activated when it this enzyme is injected into the body.

This article connects to the cells unit we are studying by how certain viruses/cells can kill other cells. This is a great news for the society and especially ones who has cancer because they now know that there is a bigger chance of their disease being cured. I found this article when looking online for cures of cancer. This came from a extremely reliable source which is BBC and this is an official site that has and official sponsor. I learned that a certain enzyme triggers a drug that cures cancer and now curing cancer is a step closer! I felt happy watching this because all the innocent people that died of cancer and those that are dying wont have to see this happening to the younger youths.

Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14761417

NASA Orbiter Catches Mars Sand Dunes in Motion

Title: NASA Orbiter Catches Mars Sand Dunes in Motion
Author: Science Daily Team
Source: Web- (MLA Citation)NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "NASA orbiter catches Mars sand dunes in motion." ScienceDaily, 21 Nov. 2011. Web. 25 Nov. 2011.
Date Article Written: Nov.21, 2011

This article talks about sand dunes on Mars and the difficulties of a human settlement on Mars. Several days ago NASA's reconnaissance team has detected high speed winds on Mars's surface up to 80 MPH however they can barely move what 10 MPH of wind on Earth can move. This is caused by Mars's thin air. Scientists used to know that there were strong winds on Mars however they didn't recognize the wind could reach speeds of 80 MPH or above. The observations tell scientists that the surface of Mars is more dynamic then thought. "Sand moves by hopping from place to place," said Matthew Golombek, a co-author of the new paper and a member of the Mars Exploration Rover and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter teams at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Before the rovers landed on Mars, we had no clear evidence of sand moving." t
This observation means that Mars has a low gravity and the air on Mars must be very thin in order to slow the wind force down that much.

This news is good for the society because we now know more about Mars and it's features. Astronauts can find this information beneficial because they know that they will need strong suits to resist that much sand blowing. I chose this article because I was interested about NASA's recent operations about Mars. I found this article while browsing Science Daily in my free time because I enjoy learning more about science. This article came from Science Daily and I trust this site because it always cites it's resources and who interviewed who and I have never received any false information from them. I learned that there are dunes on Mars and are stronger than what we expected them to be. I felt good while reading this because it is good to know we are making progress to reach new planets.

States of Matter

Here is a chart of all states of matter. All states of matter have a definite mass and all are expandable. Solid has everything as definite and Gas has the most indefinite. Liquids have 2 definite and 1 indefinite and I think this means that materials that have faster moving molecules have a higher amount of indefinite's. This information can conclude to one thing: scientists have done more studying for an element of gas compared to elements of liquid or solid. Also when the Volume, Shape, Mass get more definite, the compressibility decreases. I think this is because the slower the molecules move, the less compressible it gets. Over all I think this was a good experiment because we learnt a lot of things. ( experiment was with the cold water, room temperature water, and the hot water.)

Black Hole Mysteries Revealed?

Title of Article: Birth of Famous Black Hole: Longstanding Mysteries About Object Called Cygnus X-1 Unraveled
Author: Science Daily
Source: Web- (MLA Citation)National Radio Astronomy Observatory. "Birth of famous black hole: Longstanding mysteries about object called Cygnus X-1 unraveled." ScienceDaily, 17 Nov. 2011. Web. 19 Nov. 2011.

Date Article Written:  Nov.17, 2011

Astronomers have discovered what a black hole really is! A mass so dense that not even light can escape! This way astronomers now know how black holes form precisely under specific conditions what there capabilities are, and what we need to do if one ever decides to visit the solar system."Because no other information can escape from a black hole, knowing its mass, spin, and electrical charge gives a complete description of it," said Mark Reid, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). "The charge of this black hole is nearly zero, so measuring its mass and spin make our description complete," he added. This means that all the dimensions and qualities of a black hole has been measured and this is all we can ever know about it.

This article connect to our previous unit about density because a black hole is so dense that nothing can get out of it that we know. This could be good for the society because we know what one of the deadliest thing in the universe is so we might have a chance of surviving. I chose this article because black holes interest me the most in the unit of space. This article came from a reliable source because science daily always cites it's resource and the people who talk about the discovery are professors. I agree with the scientists theory that we learnt all we can about black holes because we can't send any satellites to inspect black hoes because we won't receive any signal.

Using Light, Researchers Convert 2-D Patterns Into 3-D Objects

Title of Article: 
Author: Science Daily
Source: Web-(MLA citation) North Carolina State University. "Using light, researchers convert 2-D patterns into 3-D objects." ScienceDaily, 10 Nov. 2011. Web. 14 Nov. 2011.
Date of Article Written: Nov. 10, 2011


Researchers from North Carolina State University have discovered  a new way of packaging without anything physically touching it. You simply get a stressed thin plastic sheet, then print bold black lines on it, and finally when you put it under a lamp since the printed ink absorbs more heat it starts to tighten and folds in. If the black bold lines are printed correctly the plastic sheet will make a 3D shape. "This is a novel application of existing materials, and has potential for rapid, high-volume manufacturing processes or packaging applications," says Dr. Michael Dickey. This could mean a huge step forward for companies because they can package there products faster and for cheaper prices. Dickey also states that "You can also pattern the lines on either side of the material, which causes the hinges to fold in different directions. This allows you to create more complex structures." This is also important because we can basically make any shape we wan't out of this making it even more useful for its cheap price. 




This article connects to the unit we are studying because they physically change the plastic and give it a new shape. This could be good for the society because it would help people who are working and also we would waster less electricity and companies would have better trade. I chose this article because it can be a evolution for shipment and packaging goods rapidly and maybe one day there will be electronic equipments that build themselves slowly because of this idea. I found this article when I was browsing through Science Daily web page and I bumped across this one. Science Daily is the worlds most reliable resource for science because it doesn't have opinions in it and always sites who they interviewed and etc. I learnt that we could make shapes by materials that absorb more heat on materials that absorb less heat and I can even do it at home! While reading this I felt curious because we still didn't figure out some simple things and I made connections about the content where I have seen material do that.

Recent Event 6

Title of Article: City Lights Could Reveal E.T. Civilization
Author: Science Daily Team
Source: Web-Harvard- Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "City lights could reveal E.T. civilization." ScienceDaily, 3 Nov. 2011. Web. 6 Nov. 2011

Date Article Written: 3 Nov. 2011


This article talks about an easier way to find Alien Civilizations, looking for city light. Avi Loeb and Edwin Turner think that any intelligent being would have city lights meaning if here is city lights somewhere, that must mean there are aliens there. both the knowledgeable scientist also measured that the strongest telescopes of our planet can detect city lights as far as away at the edge of the solar system!"It's very unlikely that there are alien cities on the edge of our solar system, but the principle of science is to find a method to check," Turner said. "Before Galileo, it was conventional wisdom that heavier objects fall faster than light objects, but he tested the belief and found they actually fall at the same rate." Turner here basically states that there is small chance for E.T. to be in our solar system, however the technique is easy and economic. 




I think this might be bad and good for the society because some people might think that aliens will invade and  the other people will think that we are not alone in the universe and maybe it would be a boost for the astronauts. I chose this article because it sounded very interesting and I like space so it made me curious.  I found it while browsing science daily news. It came from the worlds most reliable source, ScienceDaily, because it has a lot of articles and uses very advanced level words meaning it's  made by adults. I agree with the scientists idea because it doesn't require so high tech resources. I felt weird reading this because it sounds funny to me that we can't think of such simple things.