Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Current Events- Miracle Fruits

Miracle Fruits

In 1968, on the west part of Africa, near Ghana, a very special fruit was discovered. It was called Synsepalum dulcificum or the “miracle” berry. It might sound childish but its effects are self explanatory. If a person would eat one, the taste buds on his tongue would act “weird”-everything sour would taste sweet. For a given period of time, lemons might taste like sugar and grapefruits like sweets. But here’s how it happens. The miracle berry ingredients are molecules of glycoprotein and a carbohydrate. This combination is also known as miraculin. A while after the fruits were discovered, people started realizing how useful they can be. They started using them in candy. The kids preferred the sweets that had berries in them in place of sugar. It would have been a great change, making junk food… healthy. Also, it is majorly used in diets because some of the food you have to eat and the drinks are sour and this fruit helps a lot. But now that the world is using those (mostly US) the fruits might run out. Scientist found a solution; they know how to form the molecules so now they are trying to put them in other foods. They already managed to combine the DNA of that berry with the DNA of a tomato and the tomato acts exactly the same.

This would be great for our world, people would be able to lose weight more, have “healthy” junk food and many others, but I am 100% sure by the time more people will find out, we will take them for granted and lose all of them. We will have to artificially create them or simply forget them. I found this very interesting, I never knew something like this existed and it seems very cool. I wonder if there are any side effects though. I think a child died. What if your taste buds won’t ever return to normal? I think these fruits should be tested more before selling them to the entire world.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Glogster

My glog:
http://anaancuta.glogster.com/strontium/

By working on this Glog I (obviously) learn more about strontium but also other elements. Everything we had to write about it connected to our lessons in a way that made us review them and even learn them better. 

20 Things You Didn't Know about Water

http://discovermagazine.com/2010/may/20-things-you-didn.t-know-about-water


I found all of those 20 facts about water fascinating but here are the 5 that i understood and that impressed me the most:
1. The International Space Center recycles 93% of the astronaut's perspiration and urine, changing it to potable water. This is amazing and in the future I think we could use this on Earth. Have that system in our houses or office, even schools, that would be great. It would save so much water on earth it might be one of the best inventions ever. 
2. Everybody should have hear of the myth drink 8 to 10 cups of water per day (or 2 liters) but it was never proven. It's just a simple assumption with no facts supporting it. And just imagine millions of people following it. It might be such a waste of water, and it might harm.
3. You can get intoxicated from too much water. Amateur marathon runners die because of that every year. This makes me wonder what is the exact amount we should drink. It's either to less or too much. What if 2 liters is actually too much? That can harm us? What if we are just wasting a lot of water?
4. Scientists at Oregon State University have identified vast reservoirs of water beneath the ocean floor. In fact, there may be more water under the oceans than in them. This means that if our oceans dry out (hope not)  we still have water under, even more. But if water would seem to be lacking, we could use the major amount from under. People won't or can't afford it might solve their problems. But I think we should only use this if we are in great danger or else we will take it for granted.
5. A hairy leg may get sunburned before the other because hairs, as small as they are, can carry water too. This information could prevent severe sunburns causing horrible diseases such as cancer. But I think only women could apply it. 


5 Facts:


1. Set in the desert of Dubai, the Tiger Woods Golf Course uses 4 million gallons of water every day to maintain its lush appearance. 
http://www.ecosalon.com/water/
2. A watermelon is  92% (almost all) made of water.
http://www.listfied.com/15-really-cool-facts-about-water-that-you-probably-didnt-know
3. Each day the sun evaporates a trillion tons of water.
http://www.lenntech.com/water-trivia-facts.htm
4. Flushing a toilet requires 2-7 gallons of water.
http://www.mamashealth.com/water/waterfacts.asp
5. Since 1950, water usage in the US has risen 127%.


By doing this we found out more about water, more facts that the movie Blue Gold told us and different connections to it. Some facts agreed other informed us better. But both showed us the same thing. We need water and we are loosing and taking it for granted. And they also agree that we MUST do something.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Current Events- Pollution at the Ends of the Earth

Summary:

Kuujjuaq is a small village in the Canadian Arctic, with fauna and blue skies, where no one would think there was pollution. Somehow, there is, a lot of it, that you can never get rid of. And worse, it's not the people that live there that created it. It's us, in the cities with giant factories and cars killing not only our but the innocent people's environment. Toxic chemicals travel until a cold place, for example the Arctic, but they never leave, and they remain in the human’s body forever. A doctor started studying these chemicals called persistent organic pollutants or POP. He found out that more than 10 million tons of POPs floated to the Arctic. Where they landed, that’s where they remained. If they landed on a small fish, then eaten by a bigger fish, and then a human would eat that big fish, than the human will have the POP in him. POP that would never get out. It didn't have major affects on humans yet but it seems that every child has 2 tiny rain drops of POP in them. And POPs are more concentrated, so 2 raid drops in the 5 year olds’ body is as many chemicals in the half a million kilograms of sea water.

Reflection:

First, I think this is horrible and completely unfair! The poor people living in Kuujjuaq don't deserve this, they did absolutely nothing. Still they live without anything to do about it. I doubt most of them even know its happening. They live carrying all the horrible chemicals we cause, in our cities. The people living in Kuujjuaq are completely innocent, and we must find a way to stop POP spread. Is it the five year old boy’s fault that he now has an equivalent of half a million kilograms of sea water chemicals by simply eating and drinking? The solution is simple: we created it, we solve it. I bet scientist could find a way to eliminate POP from bodies of humans and animals. I am 100% sure we can do something!
Whenever I imagine blue skies, no tall buildings, no cars, not factories I imagine NO pollution. But I guess I'm wrong. Now probably every inch of the Earth is polluted. I wonder how POP would affect us. Does this happen in Belgrade while its winter? How about other parts of the world? How will POP affect our life, what if it’s in bigger quantities?
I found this article is fascinating. It made me think of what we do and what we cause to innocent people.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Blue Gold

There are more than 30 rivers floating through my country, but the 7 more important ones are probably the Danube (Black Forest, Germany), Tisza (Rakhiv, Ukraine), Prut (Mount Hoverla, Ukraine), Mures (Carpathian Mountains, Romania), Siret (Northern Bukovina, Hungary), Arges (Mt. Fagaras, Romania) and Olt (Romania)
The Olt River- 10 Dams
Siret River- dams and artificial lakes
Mures- total of 14 dams and hydroelectric plants 
Prut- built one dam+ hydroelectric plant+ artificial lake together
Danube- one huge hydroelectric plant (broader to Serbia) and one dam
Arges- 1 hydroelectric plant


As you can see, Romania provides it's own water but I'm not sure about exporting it. 
Bucharest gets it's water from 2 other major rivers: Arges and Dambovita (like a River Sava of Bucharest) and the water is collected in 2 huge water purification centers. 

Monday, September 6, 2010

Evidence of Chemical Reaction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVK9Om4wzBM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrNA8-eipGE&feature=related

Response:
1. First, nothing seemed to happen. But then, the chemical reaction started: the water started turning red-orange, bubbly, and overflown the glass.
2. The lithium caught on fire while it was still on the water and started moving around.
3. You can tel it was a chemical reaction by the fact that when the cesium touched the surface of the water it exploded.
4. The second it touched the water, it formed a small fire that started moving around in circles on the water and popping.
5. First, it just bubbled a bit, then it caught on fire (small) and in the end it burst out in a huge flame that went off in less than one second leaving gas behind.
6.You can see the liquid nitrogen floating over the pool like a white wave, spreading more and more.
7. After a while it starts bubbling for a really long time until at one point you start wondering where is it all coming from
8. The gummy bear caught on fire after the substance was added
9. After you added everything, in the middle of the glass you could see the water moving.

Video:
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Bonus:
Chemical Reactions show how different elements react with eachother. The prove or argue hypothesizes that scientists made before. They tell wether the element is dangerous, deadly, explosive, or people can play around with them everyday. Wether we depend on them or not and how can we use them. How do they help us?

Thursday, September 2, 2010

What I've learnt today:

Today, in class, I've learnt all about the Lewis Dot and Bohr diagrams. I still don't understand the POINT of the Lewis dot, it's useless. You already see on the table how many electrons it has on the outer shell but you cant see how many they are in total. Everything makes sense except for my question: Whats the point of the Lewis Dot?

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

KWL

Chemistry= is the science of matter and the changes that occur

What you know?
I have already leaned almost everything about the periodic table and how atoms work.

What  do you want to learn?
I want to learn more about chemical reactions and physical or chemical changes. More about the periodic table and how can people combine them and form others. I wonder if you can separate pieces of an atom, add them to another and make something new. How where they discovered and if each atom has different matter in it or do they make it up. How come they make up different elements only with a difference of a few electrons, protons and neutrons? How come they are so important, all the others are made up of the same thing.