How to talk

            In Australia many woman have weak voices and men can barely speak above a whisper. People are saying this is due to a speaking disorder; there is a something going on with genetics. According to scientist this disorder has something to do with chromosomes. The arrangement of some chromosomes are arranged so that theire voice  brakes when a person speaks.

            When this happens it is called tospeak. The gene does not have proteins and the RNA does not resemble the RNA function. RNA is an important function for the development of the larynx. The larynx is what abeles a person to talk. People with this disorder have small, short, and thick vocal chords that do not vibrate right. They also have many fused bones that could also be connected to this disorder. People that have this condition also can have fused finger joints and toe joints.

            Studies have shown that this appeared in primates in early age. As the brain became more advanced the vocal chords loosened in humans. The loosened vocal chords is why humans can talk. That is why this condition is rare.

Do you think this condition started in early times or is it something new we just discovered? 

What do you think life would be like if you couldn’t talk above a whisper?

No ice on Mt. Kilimanjaro!!

Do to the increasing temperatures the ice caps on Mount Kilimanjaro could be gone.  Lonnie Thompson, a glaciologist at Ohio State University’s Byrd Polar Research Center in Columbus and his fellow colleagues have been studying what has been happening to this mountain. From 1989 to the most recent survey in 2007, the ice-covered area dropped, on average, a huge 2.4 percent per year. People have been arguing if it is happening because of global warming or climate shift.  As fast as the ice is melting it could be completely gone by by 2022.

 Mt. Kilimanjaro

What do you think is causing the ice to melt?

How could we help slow down the ice form melting?

Eating Licorice While Pregnant Can Change Your Baby?!

A group of 8 year olds who had mothers who ate large amounts of licorice while pregnant, acted different then the other children who’s mothers had not eaten large amounts of licorice. They also had bad attention spans and appeared to have ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyper Disorder. There is a component in licorice called glycyrrhizin that may cause impairment on the placenta and allow stress to reach the baby. High levels of a hormone called glucocorticoids are thought to have been linked to bad behavior and fetal brain development. Scientists used the same questionaire for the mothers that consumed a lot of licorice that they use to monitor little childrens behaviors. The studied showed that they were corrupted by licorice. I believe that licorice can mess with your baby while you’re pregnant because it has lots of sugars. 64 children had high levels of glycyrrhizin, 46 had moderate levels, and 211 had low levels.

Do you think that licorice corrupts the brain during pregnancies or is it all in there heads?

Is this common enough to do a study and be able to say this is why?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091006093349.htm

The Gene For Speech

Originally Written by: Tina Hesman Saey

Originally Posted on: ScienceNews

In this article, scientists have found a gene that allows you to speak! This gene was dubbed the name tospeak. This gene was first found by inspecting an australian family whose voices where so inaudable. Scientists inspected these subjects only to find that there vocal cords were very very weak. The scientists then concluded that there was a gene that gave everyone the strength they needed in there vocal cords to be able to speak and be heard.

What do you think about this gene?

Do you think there are different genes for different parts of the body that scientists haven’t found?

Antimatter-Matters Mirror

Author: R. Micheal Barnett of Berkeley National Laboratory Published: January 24, 2002 Article

        Antimatter. Any Strek fan can tell you that every Federation ship runs on this “magic” fuel, but what is it really? In scientific terms it is an oppositely charged particle (opposite relative to matter). By opposite I mean an electron in matter which has a negative charge has an antimatter parrellel in the positron which has a positive charge and the proton (positive)  has the antiproton (negative). Now when antimatter and matter collide they annihilate each other and their energy is transformed. Anyone who has read Angels and Demons by Dan Brown has heard of the destructive power of antimatter. Luckily, we can not yet make enough antimatter to pose any real threat.  You may think ” Why are we made of matter and not antimatter?” The answer is unknown, but many tests have shown that during the big bang a difference of one matter over antimatter would have given us the current levels of matter and antimatter. When antimatter and matter annihilate each other the energy they realease is exponential. This aspect of antimatter is being researched as a “miracle” fuel source. It is 100% efficient, to compare nuclear power is only about 15% efficient, it produces no  harnful radiation, and one kilogram has the power to run the entire U.S. for half a year. However, that same kilogram can vaporize a 10 mile radius. I don’t mean ruined city, I mean perfect crater. As of now we don’t have a way to create enough antimatter for this to be effective. It would take the Hadron Super Collider one trillion years to create one kilogram of antimatter.

If we could find an efficient way to make large quantities of antimatter would you use it or would the possible annihilation make you think twice?

antimatter explosion in space

top 10 mysteries about the first Humans.

Humans are unique among life on this planet, and much remains a mystery as to how we evolved.

NUMBER 10 — Where do modern humans come from?

The most bitterly debated question in the discipline of human evolution is likely over where modern humans evolved. There is a couple of hypothesis about this, like the out-of-africa hypothesis maintains that modern humans evolved relatively recently in africa and then spreaded around the world, replacing exsisting populations of archaic humans. The multiregional hypothesis contends that modern humans evolved over a board area from archaic humans, with populations in different regions mating with their neighbors to share trits, resulting in the evolution of modern humans, currently the out-of-africa hypothesis is in the lead, but mulitregional hypothesis remains strong in their veiw.

NUMBER 9 — Who was the first hominid?

Scientists are ucovering more and more ancient hominids all the time.- meaning bipeds including humans, our direct ancestors and closest relative. They strive to find the earliest one, to help answer the most fundamental question in human evolution.

NUMBER 8 — Did we have sex with neanderthals?

Did we interbreed? Scientists have suggested that perhaps the neanderthals did not die out, but instead were absorbed into modern humanity.

NUMBER 7 — Why did modern humanity expand past AFrica about 50,000 years ago?

Roughly 50,000 years ago, modern humans expanded out of AFrica, rapidly across most of the world’s land to colonize all continents except Antarctica, reaching even the most remote Pacific Island. A number of scientist conjecture this migration was linked with a multation that tranformed our brains, leading to our modern, complex use of language and enabling more sophisticated tools, are and societes.

NUMBER 6 — What is the Hobbit?

Is it ‘Hobbit’- the nickname givin to diminutive skeletons found on the Indonesian isle of flores in 2003- in fact an extinct human species, are they a different species than us, but perhaps not an extinxt human species and instesd as seperate as chimpanzees are? solving this mystery could help shed light on the radical paths human evolution may have taken.

NUMBER 5 — Is human evolution accelerating?

recent evidence suggest that humaninty is not only still evolving, but that human evolution is actually accelerating, speeding up to 100 times historical levels after agricuture spead. a number of scientist challenge the strength of this evidence, saying that it remains difficult to ascertain weather or not certain genes really have recetly growm in prominence because the offersome adaptive benefits. Diet and Diseases may be some of the pressures that caused humans to change.

NUMBER 4 –  Why did our closest relatives go extinct?

Roughly 24,000 years ago, our species, homo sapinens, was not alone in the world, – our closest relatives, the neanderthals, were still alive. The so-called ‘hobbit’ might also have been a member of the senus homo, and it apparently survived until as recently as 12,000 years ago. Why did they die and we survive? some evidence exists for both scenarios, but no conclustion is agreed.

NUMBER 3 — What happened to our hair?

Humans are unique for looking maked compared to our ape cousins. One suggestion is that our ancestors shed hairiness to keep cool when venturing across the hot savannahs of Africa. ANother is that loosing our fur coast helped free us parasite infestation and the diseases they can spread. One unorthodox idea even suggest human nakedness developed after our ancestors breifly adapted for a streamlined life in the water, although most aquatic mammals of roughtly human size actually possess dense fur.

NUMBER 2 — Why do Humans walk on two legs?

Our ancestors evolved on upright posture well before our large brains or stone tools even appeared. The question is why stand and walk on two legs when our ape cousins get by on four limbs? walking on bipesds might actuallu use less energy than movement on all fours does, by freeing up our arms might also enabled our ancestors to carry more food. Standing upright might even have helped the control their tempature better by reducing the amount of skin directly exposed to the sun.

NUMBER 1 — Why did we grow large brains?

There is no question that our large brains have provided us an extraordinary advantage in the world. Still, the humans brain is an increibly expansive organ, taking up only 2 percent of the bodys mass yet using more than a fifth of the bodys energy, and until about 2 million years ago none of our ancestors make better tools. another is that larger brains helped us interact with eachother. perhaps radical changes in the enviornment also demanded that our ancesters deal with a shifting orld.

Questions-

Where do you belive modern humans came from?

Why do you think we expanded so rapidly?

Do you beileve in this logic?

picture !!!!

This looks like it was copied and pasted. I need a link to the journal article where you read and summarized this from before approval.

I pods catching on fire!

   Title:Are you playing with fire when you play your tunes?

   Publisher:Lynne Peeples

   Date:August 10,2009

I pods keep getting smaller but they still hold the same amount of music. How are they doing this? They are making their size’s smaller by improving the way the batteries rely on lithium ions. Which hold and realse energy. This may seem convenient but your i pod may catch on fire because of the little room on the battery which limits how much the battery can cool off. If the battery gets to hot it can overheat and possibley catch onto  flames.

     These batteries are extremly sensitive to temperature. The battery works well at a 50 degree celsius. But overheating is not the only way an  i pod could catch on fire just by simply charging the battery. No need to worry this process is very slow when the battery is in room temperature but the process gets faster as the temperature rises. They are trying to make a safer type of battery with lower power but you can reduce the risk by limiting their exposure to heat and let them cool off. Also by not over charging them it’s rare but it can also happen.

 Do you think its i pods are safe?

Are you afraid of your i pod bursting into flames?

Should they fix this probelm?

Should people be so worried about Global Warming?

Should people be so worried about global warming? There seems to be so many people worried these days about temperature increase in the polar ice caps causing the water to rise in the oceans, but is it happening fast enough to be a major problem? I think that Global Warming is happening but it is not happening fast enough to be a major problem. Sure there are some things we can do to reduce our “Carbon Footprint” but I don’t think that we should have to go out of our way and do something extreme to help. I think that if we all do small thing like recycle our paper instead of throwing it away than nobody will have to complain that the temperature is going to rise and cause massive damage. according to the union of concerned scientists “Global warming is primarily a problem of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  This carbon overload is caused mainly when we burn fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas or cut down and burn forests.”

Do you think that we aren’t doing enough to prevent global warming or are you one of the people that think that the world is fine?

to read the full article go to http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/science/CO2-and-global-warming-faq.html

A New Ocean!!!

Africa now has a huge crack in it… This will cause a new ocean to be formed. This large crack is about 20 feet wide in some spots. This rift has not yet been studied very good though. Using newly gathered information from 2005 researchers reconstructed the event to show the rift has torn open to a near 35 mile long gap. Dabbahu, a volcano at the north end of the gap, erupted and then the magma (lava) continued “unzipping” the large gap. Results show that highly active volcanic boundaries along the edges of ocean plates may soon break in large sections instead of smaller sections like scientist were hoping. The large plates between Africa and Arabia have been slowly spreading apart through rifts like this one at nearly the fast speed of less than 1 inch per year for the last 30 million years.

Do you think that Africa and Arabia will ever be connected?

What do you think about this?

The Secret History Of H1N1

Timeline: the secret history of swine flu
By Debora Mackenzie and Michael Marshall
Published 15:26 29 October 2009

 About 6 months ago, Swine Flu became a huge threat to global health. Many people automatically assumed that the H1N1 virus had come out of nowhere, when in fact, it has an highly unknown history that traces back to more then a century ago.
 In 1889 a new strand of H2 flu had arose in Russia and spread around the world, killing about 1 million people. The people born before 1889 and have been exposed to H1 virus has some immunity to it. Those born after 1889 have no immunity to the H1 virus, and also means it provides no immunity to the deadly “Spanish Flu” epidemic of 1918. The epidemic killed at least 50 Million people world wide.
 An H1N1 virus jumped from pigs to humans and killed a US army recruit in 1976, but the virus didn‘t trigger a pandemic because it hadn’t spread beyond the army base. In 1977, some suspect an H1N1 virus escaped in a laboratory accident. It appears in north-east China, and had started circulating in humans. By 1999 the H1N1 flu virus emerges in the US and is a dominate flu strain in US pigs. Pig farms tried to restrain the virus by vaccine. However, the flu had evolved too quickly, so the vaccines were no help. In 2007 and 2008 some scientists find that the risk of dying of flu is partly genetic.
 The first cases of a new swine flu were reported in California and Texas in late March of 2009. Subsequent genetic analysis suggests that it may have started circulating in humans in January. In late April, the US government advises against travel to Mexico due to the 900 cases of suspected swine flu outbreaks there. Although researchers find that banning travelers from Mexico will not stop the virus from spreading. In May, we find that countries are poorly prepared, and a sufficient amount of vaccines wont be ready in time for the second wave of the H1N1 virus. In June, more cases of the swine flu are detected when the UK and other countries decide to start testing people with the flu. In July of 2009, the usual seasonal flu is replaced by the H1N1 virus in the southern hemisphere where it is now winter. Finally, in October of 2009, 6 months after the swine flu started its attention demanding outbreak, US president Barack Obama declares the virus a national emergency. It turns out that your mother was right to warn you about catching the flu when it’s cold out. 

What do you think are some good ways to prevent Swine Flu?

What are some things that you think the US could have done differently to help prevent such an outbreak?

Did you think that the Swine Flu had such a record behind the recent outbreak?

How does global warming effect polar bears?

global warming effects polar bears in many and life threatening ways. scientistare estimating that there are only about 22,000 to 40,000 polar bears alive today. what causes this well the answer is global warming, but what causes global warming well that would be the unusually high levels of carbon dioxide;normal levels should be around 15 but right now they are at 300 and even higher than that; which is what is causing the earths core teampurature to rise and cause the ice to melt, wich just so happens to be the polar bears and many other animals habitat. so if we dont change ourways that we will melt polar bears and many other animals to extiction, and thats not fair, we have already taken many large and little steps to help out our enviroment we need to keep it up and instead of them going insticnt in 50 years they will have grown in population in the next 50 years and so will many other animal because we have started to take care of our planet earth.

what can you do to prevent global warming?

how can you help rescue our envirment?

how much do you recycle?

what do you and you family do to help out the enviroment?

Mom plus sickness equals smart kids

       Morning Sickness and Smart kids

Scientific American Mind

          Have you ever thought that by your mother throwing up you could actually become smarter. Tests have been done that show that those moms who have morning sickness tend to have kids that have a higher cognitive thinking level.  Mom’s that don’t throw up don’t have dumb children, the kids just don’t have as high of numbers for cognitive thinking, though there numbers are still normal.

      There has been some hypothesis of why that is. One hypothesis is that by throwing up our bodies don’t have as many calories which means that not as much insulin is needed in our bodies. Since there is no need for insulin, hormones boost. The more hormones we have developing the brain the better.

Do you think that this really plays a smart in smart kids? What do you think about the studies on the kids? Do you think that kids should be tested on for their intelligence levels of cognitive thinking?

Saving the Polar Bears?

                                                                                                                                              A lot of people say that the polar bears are doomed. But are they really? According to an article published by Stephanie Pfirman and Bruno Tremblay on October 30th, 2009, we still have a chance at saving them. Although the Arctic sea ice is supposed to be gone by the summer of 2040, half a million square kilometers of sea ice may still remain until at least 2100.

                  This ice will most likely be found on the Northern Coasts of the Canadian Arctic archipelago and Greenland. The oldest and thickest ice we have now is also found there. The hope is that this region will provide a sort of sanctuary for those animals that rely on sea ice all year round. The longer the sea ice survives, the longer the ice-dependant species will remain.

                   However, the survival of these specieses is totally up to us. The bottom line is that we need a plan. When the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean melts, the area will be more accessible to humans. This means that we will most likely make our mark on this region, with new developments, shipping, and of course, tourism. This will make the adaptaion for ecosystems even harder. We need a way to monitor and manage the remaining habitats, and their supplies of ice from other areas. Only when we have this done will this species finally be safe.

                      Do you have any ideas about how to do monitor this?

Fitness Levels Decline With Age, Especially After 45

      All people know that your going to get old, but did you know that your fitness level will also decline, but maintaining a healthy body mass index, not smoking and being physically active are associated with higher fitness levels throughout adult life. Andrew S. Jackson, P.E.D., of the University of Houston found that Statistical models showed that while fitness levels declined continuously over time, the decrease was not linear or steady(cardiorespiratory fitness declined more rapidly after age 45).

         The decline for men was greater than that for women and the U.S has more obese people every day and thats why we need to continue to stay healthy and excerise daily no matter how old or busy you are, because if you want to live longer you have to live healither too.

Do you think your parents or gaurdians are healthy and get enough excerise? Do you think you do?

What can we do to help make our lives healthier and more active?

Scientists examine the disease carrying capacity of rats

The article from the Science Daily titled ”21st Century Plague? Rat Fleas Spread Heart-damaging Bacteria“,discussed new scientific testing on disease carrying capacity of rats. In the research, the scientists found that the true culprit was the fleas on the rats. In the article, professor Chao-Chin Chang from the university of Taiwan discussed the discovery of new pathogens which can cause a variety of ailments from heart disease to infection of the spleen and nervous system.

One patient who had traveled to South America was found to have a pathogen in his spleen. This pathogen was new and was given the name Bartonella rochalimae. Many rats and fleas carry a large variety of disease causing organisms. The scientists investigating these new discoveries concerning the bacteria carried by rodents and fleas admit that their study group was limited, but they have found enough evidence to show that this needs to be investigated in more depth.

Do you think this needs to be investigated more?

How do you think this problem can be handled ?