Current Event 6

Gain For Gorillas 

http://www.timeforkids.com/news/gain-gorillas/59721

November 14 2012

By: Cameron Keady

Summary: Mountain gorillas live in groups of about 30 with their leader. The total population of mountain gorillas is finally starting to rise with the help of humans. In 2000 the population of mountain gorillas was only 320! Their population became so low because of illegal hunting, habitat loss and disease. Since then their population is slowly rising with the help of many organizations.They live in only two countries in Central Africa. In the last two years the population of this specie has risen from 786 to 880.  Nearly half of all of the population of mountain gorillas live in national parks in order to get more protection and care. “Mountain gorillas are the only great ape experiencing a population increase,” said David Greer, WWF’s African Great Ape Program Manager. “This is largely due to intensive conservation efforts and successful community engagement.”

Thoughts: I think that this article talk about an event that is very good to our society because people have started taking action to help the population of mountain gorillas rise. I think that people are starting to understand how important animals really are to our planet, and how important it is to help them survive. From this article I learned facts about mountain gorillas and their life and how people are trying to help their population to rise. 

Current Event 5

A Never Before Seen Whale

http://www.timeforkids.com/news/never-seen-whale/59326

Author of Article: Veronique Greenwood

12 November 2012

Summary: In December 2010 scientists found two Gray's beaked whales who washed up at a place in New Zealand called Opape Beach. A few months later after the scientists examined the animals, they realized that they weren't the Gray's beaked whales, but that they were two spade-toothed beaked whales, the most mysterious whales in the world! This is because they were never actually seen by humans, but we know about them from bone fragments and fossils that have washed up in the last 140 years! The only evidence for their existence which we had before this discovery was a lower jaw and two skulls. A mammal scientist named Anton van Helden was told all this and Anton van Helden and his team started working right away: they found out that the female whale was 17 feet long while the young male whale was 11.5 feet long. They also examined the colors and bones of the whales and saw why they can be so easily confused with other beaked whales. The scientists were fascinated because before this no one could even try to imagine what these whales looked like from the fossils. This discovery made scientists more interesting into beaked whales and this is only a small step in their study because nobody saw this specie of whales alive!

Thoughts: I found this article really interesting because scientists have finally found out what this whale specie really looks like and they have a chance to study this animal carefully while before they had only two fossils. This is related to science because the article explained how it was found out which species it really was and how the scientists carefully examined the whales. What I found surprising about this is that scientists knew about this species of whales only from fossils without ever seeing it! This article also shows us how little we really know about our environment and it shows the bio diversity of the species on our planet!

Current Event 4

The Competition For Title Of 'World's Smallest Dog' Heats Up!

http://www.dogonews.com/2012/11/9/the-competition-for-title-of-worlds-smallest-dog-heats-up
November 9 2012
Article written by: Meera Dolasia

 Many owners of small dogs want their dog to win the title of "The World's Smallest Dog" for the  Guinness World Records but this is not easy. The first dog to apply for this title was a female Dashchund mix dog named Beyonce. She was born in March 2012 and is not expected to grow over 1.5 pounds but she couldn't win the title until she has fully grown or turned one years old. The next dog is a Puerto Rican Chihuahua named Milly. She was only  3 inches long when she was 3 months old! 

In July 2012 news came from Jacorin, Poland about a tiny dog named Meysi. She weighed only 1.58 pounds when she was born and her owner had to feed her with a syringe every half and hour, both day and night! The current smallest dog found is a 6 year old Chihuahua who is 4 inches tall and about 1.5 pounds!

I found this article very interesting because it explained how the tiny dogs and their owners can get into the Guinness World Records book and how owners are fighting for them to be the ones to get into it! Before reading this article, I didn't know that dogs could be so tiny and that their owners have to feed them so often with tiny objects.  

Current Event 3

Blue Iguana Slithers Back from Extinction

Date: October 22 2012

http://news.yahoo.com/blue-iguana-slithers-back-extinction-153604628.html

Summary:   

Only about a decade ago, the Grand Cayman blue iguana was almost extinct: there were only 10-25 of them left in the wild. But today, it is not anymore listed as a critically endangered species. The blue iguana weighs 11 kilograms and is 1.5 meters in length. Deaths related to traffic and stray dogs caused them to become almost extinct.  This iguana, which lives only on the Caribbean island called Grand Cayman now has 750 members. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has helped this species achieve this and now plans to achieve their long-term goal:  restoring at least 1,000 Grand Cayman blue iguanas to the wild. 

This article is connected to what we are learning in science class because we were learning about ecosystems and this current event relates to the ecosystem of the blue iguana. I found this article interesting because I am interested in endangered animals and how to save them from extinction. This article states a very good event because it is good that the blue iguana is not on the brink of extinction anymore and that the number of these creatures get larger and larger! While reading this article I felt very happy to hear that organizations are finally taking action about animals being very near extinction! 

Dirt Movie Reflection

Dirt Movie Reflection

Several people in the film indicate that working in dirt is calming or satisfying. In your experience, is this true? If so, why?

I agree that working in dirt is calming and satisfying because dirt is what the earth is made up of and what plants and trees grow from. Dirt is the real material from which our earth is made from, not concrete.

What is your reaction to hearing about the number of farmer suicides in rural India over the past decade? (The film reports there were 200,000.) If such a thing occurred in this country, what do you think would happen?

This fact made me very sad because their crops don’t grow well enough to get them enough money to live. If this occurred in this country, it would affect the populations in villages and countrysides a lot and the country’s economy would drop.


In the film, mycologist Paul Stamets characterizes the human species as a virus because of the harmful effects our activities have had on the land. Do you accept his analogy? Why or why not?
I accept this analogy because humans did the most damage to our planet. Rainforests now cover less than 2% of the Earth’s surface while they used to cover 14%.

How can humans “listen to nature” and bring their needs and activities into alignment with those of nature? Are there ways you can be more attentive to the natural world in your daily life? How?
We can spend more time in nature in order to understand it and to help nature we can recycle, treat animals kindly, throw our garbage into garbage/recycling bins, not around our city.

Keeping in mind the hummingbird story told in the film, do you think doing the best you can is enough to preserve the health of the planet, even if millions of people do their best? What responsibility do governments have to help maintain a healthy planet for future generations?

I think that if millions of people try their best we can preserve our planet and make it a better place for the future generations. Governments should make more recycling centers and recycling bins in their countries, make strict rules about throwing garbage into nature and make many animal shelters.

What feelings are you left with after seeing this film? Do you feel motivated or empowered to make changes, either personally or as part of a group effort, to keep Earth’s soil healthy? What part(s) of the film especially resonated with you? What did you learn from the movie? How do you feel about dirt(soil) after watching this film? Do you feel that Dirt is really important as the film states?
  
After seeing this film I feel very inspired but sad about what is happening around the world. I feel motivated to make changes in the world to keep the Earth’s soil Healthy. The part of the film with the hummingbird trying its best to stop the fire inspired me the most. From this movie I learned that even though a lot of people might think that dirt is dirty and disgusting, it is not true because dirt is a home to many living organisms and helps farmers grow crops. I feel very differently about dirt after watching this movie because it explained the purpose and importance of dirt and I feel that dirt is very important to humans and other living organisms.

Current Event 2

Venus the Two-Faced Cat a Mystery

August 31 2012

By: Katia Andreassi

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/08/120831-venus-two-faced-cat-genetics-animals-science/

Summary:

Venus is is the world's most famous cat. One half of her face is black with a green eye while the other is orange with a blue eye. Many scientists think that Venus is a chimera. According of myths a chimera is a monster that is made up of parts of different animals. A feline chimera is a feline that has cells that contain two types of DNA. Another interesting thing about Venus is her blue eye. Since cats usually have green or yellow eyes and only Siamese cats or white cats have blue eyes which is why nobody knows why Venus has a blue eye. This cat shows how changes in genes mutate a living organism. Also this two-faced cat shows still how much scientists have not yet studied and discovered. 

This article is connected to what we are learning in science class because we just finished the topic of classification and this article talked about a house cat and a house cat is a placental mammal and vertebrate. I    found this article interesting because I never heard of an animal having two types of DNA in a cell and having such a fascinating appearance. I think that Venus, the cat in the article, affects our society in a good way because scientists are studying it and trying to find out what caused her face to be separated into two halves. From this article I learned that usually there is only one type of DNA in a cell but sometimes there are exceptions when a cell has 2 types of DNA and that can cause mutation. 

Current Event 1 - A Marvelous Monkey

A Marvelous Monkey 

By Cameron Keady

September 17, 2012

 http://www.timeforkids.com/news/marvelous-monkey/47331

Summary:

On September 12 scientists have found a new specie of monkeys in Opala in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The new specie was named "Lesula" short for it's Latin name: Cercopithecus lomamiensis. It lives in rain forests throughout Central Africa. The monkey weighs about 5 kilograms and is  about 50 centimeters tall. It's fur is blond and has a white stripe on its nose. The lesula eats mostly fruits and plants so it is a herbivore. This monkey was compared to the Cercopithecus hamlyni (known as the owl-faced monkey) and they saw that the lesula and the owl-faced monkey were similar in size and both had a stripe on their nose. The researchers found out that these two monkeys are relatives but they are not from the same specie. This specie was already known and hunted by hunters in the rain forests and scientists say that while this discovery shows that there is many more species to be discovered it also shows us the importance of preserving our rain forests and the effects of illegal logging and hunting.

This article is connected to what we are learning in science class we are learning about classification of the animal kingdom and the Lesula monkey is a placental mammal and a vertebrate.  I think that this event affects our society in a good way because it is good when scientists discover new species of animals because they can protect them from extinction. I chose this article because it is connected to what we are studiying in class (animals) and because I am interested in animals and how scientists discover them. What I found interesting and surprising about this article is that thie only the second of discovered monkey species in 28 years.

Sloths

Here are some amazing facts about sloths: 

Even though sloths are still for most of the day they don't sleep as much as we think they do. They aren't still because they are lazy, or sleep all the time.They move slowly to defend themselves from predators. Their average speed is one foot per minute.

They also aren't closely related to any specie of animals. They evolved in South America when the continent wasn't connected to any others. They evolved from mammals about 75-80 millions of years ago, and their family tree shows a far away relation to armadillos and anteaters. Now they can be located in South and Central America.

A sloth spends most of it's life up in trees so it's food consists mostly of leaves. Because they don't get enough nutrients from leaves their digestive system can digest food up to a month long. 

Viruses: Living or Non-Living

I think that viruses are living because even though they are much, much smaller than bacteria are they still can go into to organisms and cause sicknesses and they can move and reproduce. But, to reproduce and live they depend on other oraganisms wether its an animal, plant or even bacteria. They get into a closed membrane of a cell in a living organism The debate of wether a virus is living or non-living has been going on for a long time in science an right now the answer is somewhere in the gray space in between living and non-living.

How muscle cells seal their membranes: Current event

How muscle cells seal their membranes

By:  Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres

Date Published: March 14 2012

http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2012/03/14/how_muscle_cells_seal_their_membranes.html

Every cell has a thin double layer of lipids (which is also called the plasma membrane) to protect and separate the insides of the from the cell outside the cell. If damage is done to the plasma membrane the cell might die. For example, when you walk down hill many small holes are made in the plasma membranes of your muscle cells. But to prevent death the muscle cells have a special way of sealing themselves closed.  Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Heidelberg University were the first to observe this happening in a live organism. Prof. Uwe Strähle and Dr. Urmas Roostalu were observing this happen in the muscle cells of a zebra fish larva.  The scientists made tiny holes in the zebra fish larva’s muscles with lasers and observed what would happen next under that microscope. The Dysferlin and Annexin A6 proteins quickly form together to repair the damaged membrane. Other Annexins accumulate the membrane. These studies say that the muscle cell has a multilayered repair patch and the inside membrane just peels off.  This study will contribute to finding new proteins and can open up new possibilities in biotechnology.

This article is connected to what we are learning about in science class because right now our topic is cells, bacteria, viruses, fungi and microscopes and this article talked about muscle cells. I found this current event on http://www.biologynews.net and it was the first one on the page. The title of article looked quite interesting to me so I decided to read more. I thought that this article was very interesting because this article explains about how muscle cells are unique from other cells and how scientists find out new thing everyday which might lead to new inventions. I felt very interested to read on while I was reading this article because it was written in an exciting way. I think that this article taught me many new things: that muscle cells are unique from other cells and how their membranes are repaired with proteins.