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.

Current Event 9: NASA Mars Rover Set for Launch this Weekend

NASA Mars Rover Set for Launch this Weekend

By: Andrew Fazekas

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/11/111125-nasa-mars-rover-launch-science-lab-curiosity-nation/

This Saturday, on November 25, 2011, at 10: 20 a.m the time is set for the NASA Mars Rover named Curiosity to launch to Mars on a nine month journey in order to find out the answer to many questions of scientists and find clues. Scientists want this rover to find clues about if there is life on Mars or if there ever was life. If this robot does not launch on its proper date it has until December 18 to launch again. After its 9 month journey until August 2012 it will enter the Red Planet’s atmosphere at the speed of 21,000 km per hour. After entering Mars’ atmosphere it will slow down to 1,600 km per hour and then it will detach from its backshell and when it is traveling only 2 miles per hour its sky carne will float away. After this the rover is planned to descend to the ground of Mars.  The goal of the place of the Rovers landing place is the Martian equator.  This rover will be the most powerful rover to ever explore the surface of Mars but it will need to charge to recover and get energy for the next day. Scientists believe that the Gale center; one of Mars’ Carters has been filled with water about 3 billion years ago so that would be a great place to start searching for life.

This article is connected to science because even today scientists are trying to find out how life came to Earth. One of the ideas is that life came to Earth is that it came from space so if this rover investigates if there is life on Mars it could bring scientists closer to an answer. I think that this article was very interesting for me because I really like learning about space and space exploration going on in the world. Also, reading this article I realized that today is the day when this NASA Curiosity Rover was launched so I felt very excited. I hope that scientists find out answers to all their questions during this exploration and I hope everything during the Rovers journey goes well.

Also, here is a video that of the rover’s journey:

 I hope you liked it! :)

The Science Table of the States of Matter

This is a chart that I made during science class to represent the 3 states of matter and what they can do or be. I observed that solid is very definite and ithas low Expansion and no compresibility. I think that this means that it has the least energy which means that its molecules move slower. Water has 2 definites and one indefinite and slight expansion and low compressibility which means that its energy is medium and its molecules move in medium speed. Gas has 2 indefinites and only 1 definite and high expansion and easy compresibility whcih means that it has a lot of energy and its molecules move really fast.