Blog 6: Salt

December 4, 2013

Salt is a mineral substance composed of sodium chloride (NaCl). It is an ionic compound.

Salt has been best known as a food preserver. In ancient years before refrigerators and other means of preservers, salt was all there was to keep food fresh. It was a mineral of great value.  Salt became one of the world’s main trading commodities. Everyone wanted salt because of its ability to keep foods fresh. In the Middle East, salt was used to ceremonially seal an agreement. In Africa, salt was used a currency.

Without salt, there would be no way to preserve food before the invention of refrigerators. It is also used in seasoning food. There are three main types of salt. They are; kosher salt, sea salt, and table salt.

 Kosher salt taste less salty than table salt and sea salt. This salt got its name from the Jewish practice of koshering their meats. Kosher has much larger granites than table salt. The larger structure holds in moisture.

Sea salt is directly harvested from evaporated sea water. There is hardly any processing if any at all. Sea salt is costly and is recommended to use on food after cooking so that the taste of the salt isn’t gone.

Table salt is much cheaper than Kosher and Sea salt. It is heavily processed. Contains additives to prevent clumping. Can be iodized.

Humans need salt to survive, but they do not need an excess amount. Salt is really interesting because in the old days it was used more than just an extra flavor in food. People now use salt all the time in cooking. I was also interested in salt because there is more than just table salt. I have heard of sea salt, but I never had heard of kosher salt.

Blog 5: Climate Change

November 26, 2013

            Recent studies show that global emissions of carbon dioxide is slowing down. Even though carbon dioxide is slowing down, coal burning still continues. The world still remains far from meeting international goals on climate change. It is unclear if the slowdown in emissions might represent the beginnings of a new permanent shift. The global carbon project shows that carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels and production of cement rose 2.1% in 2012. Growth in such emissions have been running above 3% a year since 2000.

            Aggressive climate policies in some countries have also had a factor in this slowdown. Emissions are falling in the United States and Europe. Some of the factors that are causing this are, an abundance of natural gas, which is displaces coal in the generation of power, and tougher mileage standards for new cars.

On a global scale, coal is still being overused and expanded. Coal is associated with one of the highest emissions of greenhouse gas. Some countries have set a goal of limiting global warming to 3.6⁰F of preindustrial level. This will require emissions to peak and begin to decline toward a low level by 2050. Negotiations are going on right now to create a new global climate treaty. These treaties however, aren’t going to go into effect for a couple of years. I think that the coal industry should find another source of emitting energy. A more sustainable source. If the coal industries find a new source, they will be creating new jobs for themselves, rather than just losing them.

ARTICLE HERE

"Slowdown in Carbon Emissions Worldwide, but Coal Burning Continues to Grow ." Science. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/science/slowdown-in-carbon-emissions-worldwide-but-coal-burning-continues-to-grow.html>.

 

 

Blog 4 Energy In the News

Maggie Fisher

 Blog 4

            Scientist in China just generated a window that can save and generate energy. The window is called a smart window and could lower costs of electric heating and cooling in home and buildings. The windows cause heat to escape in winter and absorbs rays in the summer. The struggle about creating the windows is creating the transparent look. The windows right now generally regulate the sun rays and do not capture as much energy as they could. Gaus team found that Vanadium oxide can be used to create transparency. “Vanadium oxide can be used as a transparent coating to regulate infrared radiation from the Sun. VO2 changes its properties based on temperature. Below a certain level it is insulating and lets through infrared light, while at another temperature it becomes reflective (Industry Week).”  This will cause the warming and cooling effect in buildings and homes.

            Overall I think this is a good energy discovery. It will save a lot of energy while also lowering the cost of energy bills. What happens if it is winter and there is a randomly warm day? In Kentucky that happens a lot. So will the windows respond that quickly? I also wonder how much money these are going to cost. Another question is if the VO2 is going to cause any harmful side effects. In this article I could not find any harmful emissions or side effects the energy windows might have. I am sure scientist are working on improving the quality of the window so that it is also as energy saving as it is at regulating temperatures.

 

Article Here

Reference:

"Scientists Unveil Energy-Generating Window." IndustryWeek Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Nov. 2013. <http://www.industryweek.com/research-amp-development/scientists-unveil-energy-generating-window>.

Science in the news blog 3

Maggie Fisher

October 17, 2013

Science Daily

Schizophrenia linked to abnormal brain waves: Neurological hyperactivity produces disordered thinking

“Schizophrenia patients usually suffer from a breakdown of organized thought, often accompanied by delusions or hallucinations. For the first time, MIT neuroscientists have observed the neural activity that appears to produce this disordered thinking.”

In some Schizophrenia patients mutations in the gene for calcineurin have been found. Scientists wanted to see if the gene Calcineurin really was linked to schizophrenia. To do the experiment, they created mice that lacked the Calcineurin gene.  After they created the mice, they had them run and then rest. The mice that lacked Calcineurin were fine while running but when they stopped the ripple effects were much stronger. These mice could not replay the course they just ran. The effects of the mice that lacked Calcineurin presented similar behavior of schizophrenia. Some of this behavior was impaired short term memory, attention deficits, and abnormal social behavior.

To me, this behavior does not correlate exactly to Schizophrenia. These behavior characteristics also resemble ADHD. We cannot tell if the mice are having hallucinations, which is a key characteristic in Schizophrenia, until we see what they see. After scientists can visually see what the mice see when they lack this gene, then they could prove that Calcineurin is linked to schizophrenia. These behavior patterns seen in the mice in this experiment are just few of the symptoms of schizophrenia and not enough to make this assumption.

Reference: Article Here
 

Scientific Method

 

            There are four steps to the scientific method. They are;

1.      Observation of phenomenon.

2.      Formulation of a hypothesis to explain the phenomenon.

3.      Use of the hypothesis to predict the existence of other phenomena.

4.      Performance of experimental tests of the predictions by several independent experimenters and properly performed experiments.

I interviewed two scientists and asked them if they use the scientific method. I asked Dr. Wendy Burns and Dr. Joseph Sinski.

      Dr. Burns said she does not use the scientific method as taught but a version of it. She gets her ideas by reading scientific research or talking with other scientists. After she gets an idea of what she wants to research, she looks at the scientific research and sees what other people have done. That prevents her from copying someone else’s research. She also used the scientific research to find out what type of experiments people are doing and how they interpret the results. Then she does experiments on her specific topics.

      Dr. Sinski does use the scientific method. He says it is like common sense for him. If he starts a new project, he looks for anything interesting he can find out about a system. Then he thinks about what is interesting in the thing or situation. Then he starts to take what he finds interesting about the thing or situation and tries to propose a reason the interesting thing or situation is so. Then he plans to test the interesting thing or situation. Depending on his results, he either does more experiments to show how he proved his guess about the interesting thing or subject.

      I was surprised to find that Dr. Burns doesn’t use the exact scientific method. If I do more research and interviews, I may find that more people are like her and do not use it. It is surprising to me because I was taught that this is how all scientists to their experiments.

Reference: "Introduction to the Scientific Method." Home Page of F. L. H. Wolfs. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2013. <http://teacher.nsrl.rochester.edu/phy_labs

Blog 1: "Welcome to the Age of Denial"

            While reading Welcome to the Age of Denial by Adam Frank found here, I asked myself how do you expect someone to like your article when you dis them. At the very beginning of his article he gave the readers a statistic on creationists. The statistic showed that the number had increased from 1982 to 2012. I wondered why he had choose this statistic as his opening paragraph for a science article. Obviously he is going to have some bias in this piece. Such as when he called the creationists silly.

            So I read on and I was not attached at all to the article. He was being a drama queen, acting like no one pays attention to science anymore.  When something important in science happens, people notice, he was saying that no one celebrates science anymore, when they do. Science just isn’t something average people talk about on a daily basis, and neither is Geometry, I don’t see the big deal he’s trying to make.

            Students going through school still have to take science classes. Some people like science and some others do not. Students are still learning about science and how it contributes to society. People do still pay attention to what is going on in the world, which often times, involves science. I do not think we should be worried about science not being important anymore because it is. It is just not as popular as it was when it was up and coming. I do not think anything needs to be done to protect science, because it is not going away.