Class Respones 2 (Trimester 2)

What we learned most recently was the topic of Earthquakes. Earthquakes are the result of a sudden release of stored energy in the Earth's crust that create seismic energy. At the Earth's surface earthquakes show themselves or appear by shaking or displacing the ground and sometimes, depending on the scale of the earthquake, can create a tsunami which leads to loss of property and life. Earthquakes are caused by tectonic plates getting stuck and almost like rubbing together putting a strain on the ground. Earthquakes can occur naturally or because of human causes, like mine blasting or nuclear testing. The word earthquake is usually used to describe all events with seismic activity, whether natural or caused by humans. Since earthquakes could be caused by either a natural phenomenon or human activity so it might be hard to tell if we or the earth caused it, so the info we have learned about earthquakes always points to danger so under all circumstances we should be more conscious about what we do in the earth, be safe really.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/earthq1/how.html

Class Response 1 (Trimester 3)

The most recent topic that came to mind when reminded of a class response due on
May 11th were Newtons laws,his laws changed our concept of the universe.
Law 1 "Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it", this can also be called the law of Inertia.
Law 2 "The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.", this states how mass and velocity are directly related, an object will change velocity if pushed or pulled upon.
Law 3 "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." For example on a boat if you want to get off it u have to push backwards to go forwards.
Without these laws, the understanding of the universe wouldn't be so clear to us now, these laws help define our everyday motions and without it we would be pretty much clueless of the world of motion and physics.

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/newton3laws.html
http://selland.boisestate.edu/jbrennan/physics/notes/Force/newtons_laws.htm

Solar Sunspots expected in the next 5 years

Who- Sunspot Cycle in the near future
What- The climax of the next sunspot series is to be expected in 2011-2012, the 12 member panel which is incharge of forecasting the solar cycle is split and uncertain to how many suspots and when they are going to occur. 6 predict 140 sunspots in October 2011 while the other 6 expect 90 sunspots in August 2012. These solar storms are potentially hazardous to humans and our technology. These solar eruptions shoothigly charged matter at Earth. The average solar cycle occurs for about 11 years.
Where- In Space and near the sun.
When- A time period between October 2011-August 2012
Why- Solar Cycles always happen, this is one of those eventually it'll happen type of occurance
Opinion- That must suck for the airline industry, astronauts, GPS systems,and electrical companies, I just have to say stay indoors.

Human Error on the Global Surveyor

Who-Mars Global Surveyor
What-Human error caused a surge of events which caused the battery on the Surveyor to ultimatley fail and shut down.
Where-Mars' atmosphere
When-Last year(It was only just posted recently)
Why-The problems actually began in 2005 when routine tech. updates caused inconsistencies in the computers memory.Engineers also tried to fix the problem 6 months before it shut down by updating it, but installed the wrong hardware and disabled its solar panels.And several attemepts to try and locate the surveyor were unsuccessful and the surveyor was deemed lost and doomed.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/04/13/mars.surveyor.ap/index.html

This space probe was built and launched at a price tag of $154 million , and it took only a team of careless engineers to bring that money to a waste, I really believe this was a stupid ordeal and could have been avoided by more careful inspections, what a waste of money.

Astonaut Stuck in Space

Who- Astronaut Sunita Williams.
What- Due to the postponing of the flight of the shuttle Atlantis (As mentioned in another article posted on this blog)is stuck in her space shuttle due to the damage to her shuttle home, but now also must wait for about 7 more weeks for the replacement shuttle Endeavour to arrive. Even her replacement ship might have some trouble getting of the ground and might not be ready for its original June 28th launch. But in other news she is expected to break the U.S record for most days spent in space, the current record to be set on April 20th by her crew member Michael Lopez-Alegria of 214 days. The world record is 437 days set by Russian astronaut Valeri Polyakov.
When- March 28-Late Summer.
Where-The Space Shuttle orbiting earth.
Why-Damage to Atlantis’ fuel tank has temporarily disrupted the NASA’s flight schedule
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/03/08/stuck.in.space.ap/index.html
Opinion-I honestly feel bad for this astronaut, after all her ticket home was damaged and the renewed way out might not even be there on time. Personally I’d hate to be in space for 7 extra weeks when you’re locked up in a small space, I’d be homesick the next day too.

I AM DONE !!!! (AWESOME x2)

The title pretty much says it all, it's self-explanitory.

Class Response 2 ( The end of the Science blog...)

During the past week and the week before, the Omega science classes have been to the library constantly to research 1 of 8 topics assigned to us, but one that in my opinion has most appeal is the Genetically Modified fish which I would like to further collaborate on. These fish are under controversy, because of some of the new unpredicted risks. These fish are solely created for the market or pets but never to be released into the wild. For if they may be released these fish will spread on the “Trojan gene”. Some scientists say that if just one were released into the wild, it could eliminate an entire species of natural fish. These fish grow at exponential rate making them perfect for the market, and since these fish are easier to maintain and easier to grow the regular prices of all fish are expected to lower to keep up with consumer demand. These fish would also make for great novelties because of there special characteristics. In my opinion I am pro-choice for Genetically Modified fish and I believe this will open up many doors for upcoming generations in the research of genetics.

http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v5/n7/full/7400197.html
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?arid=1299107