Sunday, November 28, 2010

The flu gone?

1 Vaccine to kill them all
The flu

Words:
epidemic - A widespread disease going from person to person
immune system - System in human body to try and prevent decease

Story: Currently the flu virus is the highest killing disease in the world killing about a million every year. Every year in the winter people flock to hospitals to get their flu shot even though sometimes they can get sick anyway. The flu virus can kill someone in many different ways, mainly indirectly or directly. The flu directly kills you by spreading through your body killing numerous cells until you die. However it also weakens your immune system which leaves you vulnerable to other infections or disease. That is how it indirectly leads to your undoing. The problem with vaccines against the flu is that it changes every year to something else, where diseases such as small pox are the same and can be erratic-ed. The flu virus is one of the smartest in that it mutates every season to evolve so your immune system cannot stop it again. Every year scientist make an educated guess as to which one it will be, however it is hard to predict the right one. There have been ideas, recently, to attack parts of the flu that cannot change and therefore will not mutate and will make the disease ineffective. At the moment scientists are testing safety issues on a vaccine that could be the answer to stopping the flu and saving lives. In the end only time will tell if we will be able to stop the flu.

Discussion: I chose this article because I have always been interested in the flu virus. The fact that it can change shape every year and spreads so rapidly is quite intriguing. Although this virus kills many people every year I believe people can learn a lot from it and how to stop it. In the future I hope to see change in the way people treat the flu.

Questions:
When will the vaccine be ready?
How does the flu virus mutate?
Will the vaccine be safe?
Will the vaccine really work?

Image - http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://fiddyp.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/fluvirus.jpg&imgrefurl=http://fiddyp.co.uk/tag/flu/&usg=__EBpVeiDEnsnvlrooSOyz4IIUSW0=&h=300&w=300&sz=53&hl=en&start=0&sig2=AEJwpMlA7dSJCc1sp30H4Q&zoom=1&tbnid=_KoNzUhnYanZqM:&tbnh=142&tbnw=142&ei=tGT1TOvIN5SFswaSo4CzAw&prev=/images%3Fq%3DFlu%2Bvirus%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D673%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=319&vpy=359&dur=22&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=144&ty=206&oei=tGT1TOvIN5SFswaSo4CzAw&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:15,s:0

Friday, October 15, 2010


Eric Holt
Per. 5
CSB #2
The Asteroids


Celestial – Large Bodies of Rock, or Gas in Space
Debris – Floating particles in space separate from a large group

Summary: Between Jupiter and Mars there is a large asteroid field. A year ago 2 asteroids collided into each other created an explosion similar to a nuclear bomb. Although one was only 10 or 15 feet across, the other was a massive 400 feet wide. The most astonishing fact about this is that this is the first time humans have ever observed an asteroid impact right after it happens. Strangely, the explosion has created an X shaped cloud of dust and other materials. Researchers, however, are not sure exactly what caused this bizarre shape, and have been stumped as to how it has lasted for so long. At first, scientists believed that the dust would spread rapidly, but in fact it has spread very slowly. It is believed that 1 of the lines of the X shape is coming from what is left of the wrecked asteroids, while the other is coming from some other small debris. The dust from the cloud continues to blow back, creating a long tail, by solar winds. Apparently, if 2 small asteroids collide at least 5km/sec then the resulting explosion will be atomic. The large amounts of dust come from the shattered asteroids. All that is left of the asteroids is a small clump in the middle about 450 feet long. The asteroid dust is expected to drift off into space in a short period of time. This study is important to the scientists because they “need to know where the dust in the solar system comes from, and how much of it comes from colliding asteroids as opposed to ‘outgassing’ comets.” Scientists also believe this may be the cause of dust around stars, because they have never been able to see the celestial bodies collide. To the date, researchers are still tracking this very peculiar asteroid collision to learn as much as possible.

Discussion: I chose this article because I enjoy the science of astronomy. I have always been interested in large explosions millions of miles away. Astronomy leaves room for ideas, which I really enjoy. I believe that this information will become useful for scientist in the years to come because it will explain a lot about celestial bodies. It might explain the clouds of dust seen around many stars that scientists have not yet been able to explain, or it could explain a number of other things. This is why I have chosen this article on Astronomy.

Questions:
Why is the dust cloud still there?
How fast were they going when they crashed?
What would happen if an asteroid crashed into Earth?

Sources:
Article - http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/10/14/x-marks-the-spot-of-a-dramatic-asteroid-collision/
Image - http://img534.imageshack.us/i/hubbleasteroidcollision.jpg/

Thursday, September 16, 2010

CSB 1: African Elephants Survival


Definitions:


Ivory - The hard white substanse found in the tusks of elephants


Tonnes- metric tons








The Scoop:

The people of Senegal hope that there are still a large number of African elephants living inside their border. Alas, The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has seen only 1, but believes that there are 9 other animals living in Senegal. Senegal is located in North Western Africa on the coast. Although, the wildlife-trade monitoring network has recorded 169 kg of Ivory passing through the capitol of Senegal, Dakar. All this Ivory must of come from somewhere. The reason ivory is sold in large quantities here is that in the markets there are no rules or law enforcement, so people can just sell whatever they want. In Doha, Qatar 175 countries will send people to the meeting of CITES, The Convention of International Trade on Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. They will discuss the ivory situation in Africa and Asia and try to come up with a good solution. The only problem is that the African nations rely heavily on ivory trading, so it will be hard to convince them to give in. One of the sides is led by Zambia and Tanzania, who will ask CITES to sanction off a sale of 112 tonnes of stockpiled ivory. They believe that the elephant populations are high in countries were the money made from ivory is being put into elephant protection causes. All of the countries who do this (South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana) are home to around 1/2 of the elephant population in Africa. The other side is led by Kenya, who sees legalized ivory sales giving poachers permission to go hunt the elephants. Because when someone permits sales under CITES, it stimulates the demand, and makes people want to buy things illegally. The Kenya side believes to preserve the elephant population ivory trading must cease for 20 years. Studies have been taken throughout the past 21 years to find out what the cause is. TRAFFIC is responsible for this data and has made the ETIS, Elephant Trade Information System, loaded with over 15,000 records. Both side have good arguments, but the last legal trade was in 1999, and that year the illegal ivory trade was sharply decreased. Although, when there were no legal trades, the pooching rose sharply. ETIS suggests that all the markets in the cities be regulated so that the illegal trade will go down. In Western Africa countries have only recorded 21 elephants being killed, but 28 tonnes have been recorded in the trading market. ETIS has also pointed out the large number of ivory trucking to the Asian countries. In their home country, China claims to have tight control of the ivory trading in the markets. Alas, they do not have any control of their people in the African continent. Although the punishments for illegal ivory sales are severe in China, people still do it, because of the large amounts of money being brought in. The CITES meeting brings hope that the trade between Africa and Asia will stop as long as the countries involved agree to stop a large amount of their trade. For the future, hope is rising that the elephants will stop being killed. It is important to keep them alive, because no one knows what the effect will be on the ecosystem if elephants are not around. Believe me no one wants to find out either. This is why it is important to limit the trading of ivory in Africa and Asia.
Why:
I chose this article because I wish to know more about elepants and there safety. I have always been a fan of elephants, but not as much as sharks.
Questions:
What was the final decision?
What is the right thing to do?
Will the Elepants live?

http://www.africanelephants.com/images/African-Elephant-Face-400.jpg