Stay to The Left

Why do people in England drive on the left side of the road? Well, funny you should ask! The reason why people in England drive on the left is because most people are left handed and in centuries past, people were in the best position to protect themselves with their sword when passing someone. Around 1300 AD, Pope Benefice passed a Papal Edict formalizing this practice. Later on, when there was an increase in horse traffic, The General Highways Act of 1773 recommended that people keep left. It became law in part of the Highways Bill in 1835.


So now you know!

Just Thought You Should Know

The reason why people in the army solute is because knights lifted up their helmet visors so that their friends could identify them. This is actually just one theory. There are many different theories to the origin of the salute. This one is my favorite. Just thought you should know.

DNA Follow-up

Here's a little more detail of what makes up DNA. DNA is made up of repeating subunits called nucleotides. These nucleotides have three parts to them, a sugar molecule called dioxiribose, a phosphate group, and a nitrogen-containing base. The four nitrogen-containing bases are adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine (ACGT). Adenine pairs with thymine and guanine pairs with cytosine. They are bonded together with hydrogen bonds. If you think of DNA as a ladder, the base pairs would be the rungs. I could go further. Maybe I will in another post.

Now, I'll talk about DNA replication. First, DNA is separated into two strands. They are split apart by enzymes called helicases. The reason that the base pairs are bonded together by hydrogen bonds is for this very process. Hydrogen bonds are easy to break. Now, enzymes called DNA polymerases move down along the two strands of DNA. As they move along the chains, new chains are assembled using the nucleotides in the surrounding area. The bases must pair with the right bases. Take this imaginary strand: ACCGTATCG. The new strand that would be formed along that would be TGGCATAGC. Replication results in two new copies of the original DNA. Each copy has one old strand and one new strand.

So there you have it. A little insight into the world of DNA.

Deoxyribonucleic Acid

Hi guys!

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd post something new! Some of you might find this boring because you probably know about this topic already. SO, turn away if you must!

DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid is in every living thing. The DNA in our bodies has been passed down over a billion years. DNA is considered the “secret of life”. It contains genetic instructions that make us who we are. It is in almost every cell in your body. A gene is a specific part of a cell’s DNA. We have twice as many genes as fruit flies but we only have 30,000 genes, which is less than what was originally thought. You pass your genes on to your children.

There are some diseases that are caused by malfunctions or mutations in your genes. Even one base pair* can mess up everything. Tay-sachs disease is one of these. It basically kills your brain. It is very uncommon because even if one parent is a carrier the disease isn’t passed on. In one case, there were two brothers who were identical twins. After having children with their spouses, they found out that one family’s son had tay-sachs and the other family’s daughter had it too. As it turned out, all four of them were carriers.

And before I lose you I'll stop!

* Base pairs make up DNA. If you have ever seen a picture of DNA, you will have seen the ladder-like bars connecting the sides together. Those are base pairs. The letters that make base pairs are Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine, and Thymine.

Crown-of-Thorn Starfish

I studied these starfish briefly when I was studying coral reefs. These starfish eat coral. in the 1960s there was a population boom of these starfish and there has been a spike in population about every 15 years since. Scientists blame nutrient run-off from farms. A team of scientists studied the levels of chlorophyll in the water. Run-off leads to high levels of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll shows the amount of food (phytoplankton) the starfish have to eat. A doubling of this chlorophyl makes it so ten times the starfish larvae survive. Scientists found that the run-off alone is able to cause the population spikes of crown-of-thorn starfish.

Wooly Mammoth Carcass Was Found in Siberia

I found this article on this 42,000 year old baby mammmoth that was found frozen in Siberia. The mammoth was found in 2007, almost perfectly preserved in Sberian river muck with only her hair and toenals missing. Her internal organs, and the contents of her stomach are still in her tiny little body. Scientists have learned a lot about these ancient creatures through this baby mammoth they named Lyuba. They learned that mammoth babies eat their mother's excriments because it gives them bacteria they need for proper digestion. The Russians preserved Lyuba in ethanol and an antifungal agent called methylparaben. She can now be seen at the Field Museum in a traveling exhibit called "Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age".

See the full article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/08/AR2010030803850.html

See my story about the baby mammoth
http://artandwritings.blogspot.com/2010/12/wooly-mammoth.html

Telomerase Reverses Aging Process

By Ewen Callaway

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/aug/04/medical-experiments-on-mice

   "Premature aging can be reversed by reactivating an enzyme that protects the tips of chromosomes, a study in mice suggests."

   "Mice engineered to lack the enzyme, called telomerase, become prematurely decrepit. But they bounced back to health when the enzyme was replaced. The finding, published online November 28 in Nature, hints that some disorders characterized by early aging could be treated by boosting telomerase activity. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.)"

   "It also offers the possibility that normal human aging could be slowed by reawakening the enzyme in cells where it has stopped working, says Ronald DePinho, a cancer geneticist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, who led the new study. "This has implications for thinking about telomerase as a serious anti-aging intervention."

  "Other scientists, however, point out that mice lacking telomerase are a poor stand-in for the normal aging process. Moreover, ramping up telomerase in humans could potentially encourage the growth of tumors."

http://www.mcgill.ca/hostres/enu/

Why do wintergreen mint lifesavers spark in your mouth?

Have you ever eaten a wintergreen lifesaver in the dark when someone else was watching? If so, they saw a green spark while you were chewing it. this is why you see it:


http://www.candyfavorites.com/blog/tag/spark/

"Triboluminescence

Wintergreen mints of all types emit light when the candy is bitten into. The light may be very faint, but it can occasionally be spectacular. The effect, called triboluminescence, is due to the electrical charge that builds up within the crystalline structure of the sugar within the candy. The triboluminescence occurs when the electrical charge is violently released as the structure of the crystals is broken. Of course, it isn't just sugary candies that produce this light; when anything is torn or broken, the same thing can occur. When atoms are forced violently apart, they lose a larger portion of their electrons far more quickly than normal. As the electrons search for balance, they bounce around until they find somewhere to rest.

Wintergreen Oil

When the atoms are crushed, the electrons are forced out of their atomic orbits. These electrons collide with air molecules and the electrons transfer a portion of their energy in the collision. Because there is an excess of energy, a portion of that energy is emitted as visible light. With wintergreen mints, this visible light is bright blue, and while there isn't very much of it, it is extremely bright. The more pieces of candy that are crushed at one time, the greater the amount of atomic damage, and the more spectacular the light show. Wintergreen mints will emit a greater than normal amount of visible light because the wintergreen oil is fluorescent. The oil within the candy emits the light that is of a longer wavelength, and more easily seen by the human eye. The interesting thing about the wintergreen oil is that it absorbs the shorter wavelength light that is typically emitted and emits the longer wavelengths in its place. That's why the wintergreen candies will emit a much stronger "spark" than other candies."

Read more: Why Do Wintergreen Mints Spark in Your Mouth? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5164047_do-wintergreen-mints-spark-mouth.html#ixzz15gXk9ZV9



http://myweb.lmu.edu/jphillips/201_F02/week1/fri1.html

"What do you see" experiment results

None of the answers were the same! everyone who participated in the experiment saw different things for each photo. Do you see what they saw? Thanks to all the people who participated!

1. Cracked metal http://www.vrperformance.com/mt/2008/11/cracking_up_e46_subframe_issue.html

2. Ivy leaves www.gardeninggonewild.com

3. Bacteria art http://star.tau.ac.il/~eshel/index.html

4. Sunspot http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap051106.html

5. Bacteria http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2007/11/hold-antibiotics-infections-critical-healthy-life

RESULTS:

#1: cracked metal

Petrified wood
Part of a car, or a prosthetic leg
a picture of a sunken ship in water upside down
a turtles head


#2: ivy leaves

Ivy leaves
Ivy leaves
underwater planty stuff


#3: Bacteria art

ferns
plant roots
an old button with feathers coming off
something too small to see without a microscope


#4: sunspot

sea urchin
part of a flower, or a UFO
a bunch of seeds
the inside of a flower


#5: bacteria

worms
scary aliens
oil stuff in water
some sort of very small worm

The science behind brushing 2-3 times a day

Have you ever wondered why your parents tell you to brush every day, twice a day? I mean, apart from the obviou. I found some sights in which I took a few quotes from to help explain why doctors and parents tell you to brush 2-3 times a day.

"The study published Friday in the British Medical Journal found that individuals with poor oral hygiene have a 70 percent increased risk of heart disease compared with people who brush twice daily." http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/28/brush-your-teeth-save-your-heart/?hpt=Sbin

read research here

"7 Reasons to Brush Your Teeth Twice a Day

1.Fluoride

2.Bacteria

3.Saliva production

4.prevent tartar build up

5.protect gums

6.fresh breath

7.improved overal health
"When you brush before going to bed it’s a first line of defense against the formation of cavities while you sleep."

Read more: http://www.sanedentist.com/7-reasons-to-brush-your-teeth-twice-a-day.html#ixzz14kC6dt5t

"Failure to brush your teeth twice a day increases risk of heart disease"

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=failure-to-brush-your-teeth-twice-a-2010-05-27

What do you see?

I'm not looking for a certain answer, just tell me what you see in these photos.
Please don't look at the links until you have finished guessing.
post what you see in the comments section below! thx
example answer:
COMMENTS PAGE


1. a cracker
2. a clown
3. an apple
4. a soda bottle
5. someone doing CPR on an old guy
(but put what you really think, not jokes)

1.
link is here

2.
link is here

3.
link is here

4.
link is here

5.
link is here

The Butter Was Great!

the butter was truly amazing! It was way more than I expected it to be. It tasted like unsalted butter with a hint of cream. It melted right in your more so quickly that you wish it lasted longer!

YUM!

Experimenting With Vinegar

      Today I decided to experiment with vinegar. Of course I knew that if you put baking soda in vinegar it will fizzle and bubble but, I wanted to see what other things would bubble. So first I tried putting yeast into vinegar:

1 packet      2 spoonfuls
Yeast + vinegar = Clumpy, not enough vinegar, smells bad, chunky

<---Looks like it's watery but it's not!

1 spoon    2 spoons
Salt + vinegar = Tiny fizzling, not amazing

1 spoon                 2 spoons

baking soda + vinegar = fizzling, bubbling, cakes at bottom, vinegar on top

      Well, all in all, this experiment was not a great success, well, I guess it was because you can never have and unsuccessful experiment. Really it is just unexpected results which can be good thing!

    I guess I was just a little let down. It happens sometimes! Thanks for reading and come again when I do my next experiment (soon), it will be fun! I'm testing sodas and Mentos. (BOOM!) :P :)

Upcoming Experiments:

1. This weekend, I am going to get five kinds of sodas and two kinds of mentos and test the altitude of the soda's spurt height.

2. Not long after that, I will test what happens when your pour different things into vinegar.

3. And not long after that, I will grow mustard plants and see how long it takes.

post any suggestions in the comments! thx

Fill in the Blanks and Help me out!

If you do _________ to __________ something will happen      OR
How long will it take _________ to ___________

Cool sort of Experiment

http://runningfromcamera.blogspot.com/

making butter

right now i am trying to make butter with a creamer. I am shaking the creamer while i am typing this so it is hard to type. I dont think butter is made exactly this way, i think that there are more steps involved but this is the way I'm goin, quick and simple. well, not so quick.


The creamers are Hood Half & Half

I have creamers numbered 1,2,3. I just started 2,3 but i have been doing 1 for a while

I'll tell you how it goes when i finish.




6:38- about 55 minutes in, hand getting soar, creamers getting warmish. I believe there is a tiny bit less liquid...


6:46 pm- Just noticed cream congealing on edges.


7:02 pm- more cream, probably because of congealing chunks.


7:24 pm- my mom shook the creamers while i practiced piano for 20 minutes. There is a little less liquid and more congealing. The creamers are warmer probably because my mom was holding them and her hands are bigger and covered them more with her body heat.


I've been doing this now for 2 hrs approximately...


7:42 pm- more liquid, almost to the top. Probably because there are more chunks.


8:33 pm- I must give up for the night and hope that in the morning that I can still make butter. After shaking for a while in the morning I will open the creamers and see what I have. Right now there is little more progress that I see. There are small chunks in the creamers.

7:32 am- Yes! it sort of worked!

I took out all the butter from the creamers and put it into one creamer.
guess what?! it tastes like unsalted butter!

Purple Days (more updated)

March 4, 2009

So in class we're gonna start this stock Market game. The Purples last year liked it and it sounds real fun. The thing is, we have to learn about all these stock market terms and stuff. That's all fine and dandy but we have to read these papers about the guy that started the Hershey company. By the way, Milton Hershey went bankrupt 2 times with his businesses. On his 3 business he succeeded. After that he went on to making milk chocolate and was the 1st person in the US of A. He got his chocolate idea from the Europeans.

how Flubber's doing

For all you peoples out there who miss Flubber, (my dwarf hamster) he is doing fine. He is less scared of me now but i still can't pick him up. When there is  a large amount of rucous he doesn't flinch unless there is someone in the room with a big hammer whacking it against the wall with great force (and yes there was someone in my room with a hammer, smashing it against the wall.)

Do you know anyone that is very particular about their food? Well Flubber absolutely won't eat these little pellets that I think have nutrition in them. I have to put the pellets in a container so that I won't put them back in the dish. It annoys me greatly. Very greatly.

He's still as content as ever, so don't worry about him any longer.

Purple Days (update)

Feb. 13, 2009

So today was Friday the 13th. Everyone was talking about trikadecaphobia or something. trikadecaphobia is when your scared of the number 13. But i wasn't talking about the 13th, i was talking about Marley. Marley is a piece of papar with a rat on it. The rat is Marley. I made him yesterday and gave him to my teacher. the next day I found out that the cleaning ladies had taken him.

Well, you know, i kinda needed to blame it on somebody. Well I couldn't blame it on the cleaning lady, it was her job, you see? So I blamed it on Giramma. Yesterday Giramma had stolen Marley. So naturally i blamed it on him and his little cronies too. 

Well he didn't have any cronies so I picked a few out myself. The first person I picked was Zucco. I think I went overboard with that one. I just kept yelling, "I'm still mad about Marley!" My next victim was Ms. Caragher. I was kinda hyper by that time. and I kept yelling, "Vengeance will be mine, oh poor Marley, you evil dirty rotten scum, I will get you all, Giramma and his little cronies too! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!!!" I kinda sounded like the wicked witch of the west.

Some people thought I might have problems. But i just said I was hyper and they left me alone. I really could have used a bonk in the head. But no blows came. Caragher just turned the sound on her ipod all the way up. then when I was just sitting in the snow next to Caragher one of my classmates mom came up and gave us candy. It was for valentines day. We aren't aloud to celebrate valentine's day. Well then I calmed down and that was the end of that.