Silent Spring - Rachel Carson

Silent Spring was a book written by Rachel Carson in 1960-something. It detailed how the use and over-use of pesticides, mainly DDT, can directly and indirectly cause the decimation of the environment. This book was so critically acclaimed that it is believed to be basis for the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Because of this, Rachel Carson has been referred to as, in some people's opinion, nothing less than the modern day Gaia. She has single-handedly notified the world about the real destruction that was occurring in nature and the real consequences that were forming from the destruction. Her efforts have banned the use of the formerly-thought-of-as-safe DDT and have attracted attention towards other potentially dangerous pesticides.

However, her book mainly illustrates the effect that pesticides have on environment and wildlife. She also discuss their effects on humans, but only on humans who live in countries who can fund this type of pest control. Those who live in poorer countries are subject to disease that is transmitted through pests. If these people want relief, they must use mosquito nets provided to them by non-profit organizations and other methods that don't involve the use of pesticides. It has been thought of as unfair for those who use the mosquito nets to not be offered the choice of controlling their environment like their western hemisphere counterparts and to use pesticides.

Nail Gun Safety

So apparently, there is concern about people in the US not knowing the safety precautions associated with the use of a nail gun upon purchase. Duke University conducted a study where researchers posed as consumers who were buying nail guns. They asked sales associates about how to use a nail gun as safely as possible to avoid injury. The majority of the employees either gave incorrect information to the researchers (75%) or didn't know anything about the nail gun at all (59%).

When I read this article, I was shocked to see the statistics surrounding the study. If this many people did not know any of the safety measures to take when handling nail guns, the number of nail gun-related hospital visits are going to increase. Also, if they didn't know any of the precautions to take when using a nail gun, what about other, more dangerous, home improvement tools? I think that in addition to knowing where certain items are in the store, the newly-hired employees should also be trained in the correct use of the tools to inform the consumers who are purchasing them.

The article can be viewed here:
http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/hsn/nailgunsoftensoldwithoutsafetyadvicestudy

What is Life?

Some characteristics of organisms that are considered "living" are:

the ability to reproduce/create viable subsequent generations
the ability to gain and use energy
the ability to undergo evolution in response to their surroundings

among other characteristics. With the case concerning viruses and proteins, it is debatable whether or not to call them alive or not. For sure, a living organisms has a set list of characteristics that labels it as being alive. However, with proteins and viruses, not all of the conditions may be met in order to label it as being one-hundred percent alive. For example, a certain type of virus might be composed of subunits that could be not defined as the traditional "cell". The similarities could or could not be convincing enough to consider them to be one in the same.

Three Diets for Three Blood Types

Hmm, okay, so apparently, there is a specialized diet out there that conducts how you eat based on your blood type (A, B, O, and AB). According to Wikipedia, the diet was developed by a physician named Peter D'Adamo who claims that the one of the most important aspects in effective weight loss is eating certain foods according to what blood type you have. In his book, he also discusses the evolutionary tree of blood types, how they have developed over the years, and what types of people were likely to have certain blood types.

SOP

Standard Operating Procedure: How to Train Your Dragon

JUST KIDDING! :D! How to create water marble nail art

Materials: cup, bottled water, nail polish (preferably more than one color), orange stick, scotch tape, determination

1. Fill the cup about 3/4 full with the bottled water. The water MUST be filtered, so no tap water.

2. Tear off 2 5cm pieces of tape. Tape one piece around your finger on the skin just below the bottom of your nail. Tape the second piece on top of your finger so that the skin on the sides of the nail are covered.

3. Open the nail polish and drop a single drop of nail polish into the water at a time. If using more than one color of nail polish, it may be preferable to alternate the drops. More techniques come with more practice.

4. Once the desired amount of drops are in the water (for the first time try between 2-4 drops, no more than 5), use the pencil-like end of the orange stick and drag the nail polish along the surface of the water. Different designs can be made with more practice.

5. Once the desired design is drawn, take the finger with the tape on it and dip it into the water nail bed first. Leave the finger in the water.

6. Use the orange stick to skim the surface of the water around your finger to pick up any excess nail polish from the water.

7. Remove your finger and shake off any excess water to reveal the design. Let dry. Once dry, remove tape.

Mitchondrial Eve

Sooooo, this is a diagram (from Wikipedia) illustrating the concept behind mitochondrial Eve. Basically, in each of our cells, there is more than just nuclear DNA floating around. There is also DNA present in the mitochondria of all cells. In nuclear DNA, the components originate 50% from both parents; however, with mitochondrial DNA, all of the DNA is traced back to the maternal donor. All mitochondrial DNA in everyone is linked back to their mothers. So with that idea, it can be deduced that if the m.DNA linage is traced back far enough, a single donor of the m.DNA can be found, who scientists have named mitochondrial Eve. All of our m.DNA comes from her, so because of her and many mutations that have occurred to the m.DNA among the years, we have become who we are today.

This article from the PBS network explores with more depth about the topic, including dates as to how long ago can the m.DNA linage be traced.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/neanderthals/mtdna.html

Five different person types that have all originated from mitochondrial Eve include (described by flavors of ice cream :D!):
Frozen Yogurt
Vanilla
Butterscotch
Coffee
Dark Chocolate

Sorry about that, but I really couldn't think of a way to word the types by what region of the world they originate from! Sorry! :)

Halophile

Sooo, a type of organism that can withstand and thrive in the harshest of environments is called an extremophile. Halophiles, in particular, are able to flourish in environments that have a very high concentration of salt. One example of a halophile is Chromohalobacter beijerinckii, which can be found in salted beans. The bacteria is rod-shaped and is approximately 0.4–0.6 μm by 1.8–2.5 μm. Google Images was being a butt and didn't want to give me a picture, so if requested I could draw a picture... or not... :)

Baby Sunflowa

Day 1 (2/14):
Planted one of the larger sunflower seeds. Accidentally over-watered. Took FOREVER to drain, but hopefully it didn't rot the seed out. Using desk lamp for constant sunlight. Roommate is starting to get annoyed by always having the light on. :))

-PICTURES COMING SOON!-

Day 2 (2/15):
Good news: Excess water is completely gone. Bad news: top soil is crusted over. More good news: didn't have to water today because of its retaining moisture. Received natural sunlight but desk lamp off today because roommate can't sleep with light on.

Day 3 (2/16):
OMG! It sprouted!!! I dun seent it! It's SO CUTE! It surfaced to the top of the soil somehow, but I buried back again (hopefully that was the right thing to do!). I guess the over watering didn't do as much damage as I thought! :)

OH GOD.
I forgot about updating this. I totally knew this was going to happen. But anyways.

Days 4-8 (2/17-2/21):
Yeah... um... so I already said that it sprouted a little and I buried it again because I accidentally dropped a lot of soil earlier. Then I think on Saturday (...?) it sprouted again! Yay! However, I'm a little concerned because if what I'm seeing is correct, then it looked like the developing leaves are either burnt (what?) or some sort of fungus got to it when I over-watered it at the beginning. Oops. Hopefully, it's not as bad as I think it is. :) OH! And... it's one-week-old today! :)))! I feel like I should name it... hmm...

Day 9 (2/22):
So, there actually wasn't that much growth today, which is weird because everyday I usually see a significant amount of growth. Weird. Maybe it grew a little taller? Oh well, as long as it's still alive. :)

Day 10-11 (2/23-2/24):
Well, this is odd.
I knew there was something going on with my plant and wasn't normal. My hunch was confirmed when people brought their plants into class yesterday. Most people's plants were long and starting to spiral. Something like this.

But mine is still short and refuses to grow any taller. But it's still starting to grow more petals.
-picture being uploaded sometime today-
I don't know what happened... but shoooooooooooooot, as long as it's not dead, I don't care! :)

OH SWEET BABY JESUS.
I did it again, didn't I. I forgot to update. But! It's not my fault! You see, there were finals and Spring Break and so I did take care of my plant but I just haven't been updated as frequently as I should! It's alive, I promise! :)

Day 12-30(?) (2/25-3/14):
Okay, so this is soooo weird! My plant, for one, is not getting any taller. It's still alive, however, the only growth that it's demonstrating is that every week or so it grows new leaves while the older pair simply shrivel up and die. I WISH I was able to show pictures because I have NO idea what is going on and I need help! :( When I took it home for Spring Break, my mom thought that it might have to do with the fact that it could be outgrowing its cup, so I've switched it to a bigger pot with fresh soil. Hopefully that does the trick! Honestly, I'm seriously starting to doubt if what I'm growing is even a sunflower at all. :(

Day 31-42 (3/15-3/25)
Yeah, so there really isn't much going on. AT ALL. I mean, it's still alive and all and the growth is noticeable every couple of days, but it is definitely not growing as I expected it to. So with that being said, these update are going to still continue, but they are not going to be as frequent as at the beginning.

Day 43-50 (3/26-4/2)
Same thing is happening with growth except that it seems like it's getting significantly slower. Maybe it's just because I kind of stopped paying attention to it as much but whatever. :D

Inductive and Deductive Reasoning

Inductive reasoning is a type of argument that takes simple facts and uses them to lead up to more complex truths. One example of this is in my calculus class where we learn why a certain theory is true by building it from basic facts we know about the problem.

Deductive reasoning occurs when a specific assumption can be created by deducing from a more broad theory.In mathematics, proofs are an example of deductive reasoning, where a theory is broken down until many true statements about it are discovered.

Standard Operating Procedure - Blogging

Procedure for how to post an entry on a Blogspot blog (assuming that an account has already been created). :)

STEP 1: Open an internet browser of your choosing bu double-clicking the appropriate icon on your desktop.

STEP 2: Type www.blogspot.com into the address bar at the top of the browser.

STEP 3: Log on to your account by inputting your e-mail address used to create the account and the corresponding password.

STEP 4: Click the blue "NEW POST" icon in the middle of the screen.

STEP 5: Type a title for the your new post.

STEP 6: Type in any message into the message box below it.

STEP 7: Click the orange "PUBLISH POST" button below the message box.

STEP 8: Celebrate! :D!

First 3 Weeks

Wow! Well, it looks like I'm probably not going to updating this as much as I expected... sorry! Too much school. :(

Anyways, for the past two weeks we've been talking about various methods of communication and how those methods can together enable people to be able to understand and to follow directions in order to complete tasks and such. I LOVE the way we are learning this concept! From learning how to create Jacob's Ladder (video coming soon, hopefully!) to playing games with paper footballs, this non-traditional method of teaching that differs from what I have heard about Scientific Inquiry will surely make this class one of my most memorable experiences here at Mercer! Can't wait for next week!!! :))

And I'll definitely try to make time to update this more often! Oh, the memories from blogging on Xanga many years ago... :)

Importance of Communicatiom

Communication is an important part of our ability to learn and know starting from birth. We depend on communication from our families to be able to learn how to talk, listen and understand. The ability to effectively communicate can lead to other skills such as walking, completing chores, and those that can lead to academic success. Without communication, it would be very difficult, if not nearly impossible, to understand and cooperate with other people to complete tasks.

 Normal handwriting

 Cursive (who uses this?!)

 Carefully crafted artwork of the highest caliber. :)

 Some picture I found on Google Images (not better than mine, however).

 Old-fashioned typewriter

The quick red fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Computa font.