Monday, January 26, 2015
Your REM Stage
This week I read about something you might never think of happening. But it happens most of the time to you when you sleep. When you sleep, you have rapid eye movement (REM) and it happens for about 4 to 6 hours in your sleep. That is when you dream. But the interesting part about this is that when you are in that REM stage, your body paralyzes itself so that you can't act out what you are dreaming. So, if you were throwing a baseball, your body cannot act out throwing a baseball because your body is paralyzed. Also, when you wake up in the middle of the time you are paralyzed, it is usually hard to get up quickly because your body is paralyzed. It is also usually easiest to remember your dream when you wake up in the middle of your REM stage . Don't know why, but that's how it is. It seems like it could happen to anybody, and it does. (by Ben C)
Friday, January 23, 2015
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Microscope Mystery Project
In science we are doing a project in which we take pictures of things under the microscope and make clues for them for other people to guess. In my group we followed these steps. First we found objects to look at under the microscope. We started with fifteen objects and ended with five. Then we took pictures of them under the microscope. Depending on the microscope (we a used compound microscope and a stereomicroscope) the total magnification was 10x, 30x, 40x, 100x, or 400x . Then we picked the five best pictures. Then we made clues for the images and we made a collage for the images using the app on Pic Collage. They will be posted soon. See how many you can get. (by Cole)
Friday, January 16, 2015
The Disappearance of the Monarch
Over the past twenty years there has been a major population drop of the monarch
butterfly. The population lost about 90% of the species over the last 20 years. That is like losing everyone in the United States except Florida and Ohio. That's a lot. Scientists think that herbicides are wiping out the monarch caterpillars main food source: milkweed. If the caterpillar can't eat that is not good. Another reason is because of habitat loss. Some researchers think that we are in the middle of the 6th extinction and we have already lost half of the Earth’s species. This connects to our science class because we studied food webs and how the changes in the environment can cause a population to go down or up. Click here to see the super cool website where I got my information. You should check out the video too. It’s interesting! (by Abby)
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Black Spots on Bait Fish
As you all know ice fishing season is coming well at least I know it is. And what do people use for bait? Well... Bait fish of course! Be careful where you buy your baitfish though because some might be infected with Neascus or the black spot parasite. This parasite starts its life by infecting snails which are then eaten by small fish which are then eaten by birds and then the parasite gets discarded and it starts its life again. Most shallow water fish get infected like perch, sunfish, etc but it can also be found in bigger fish. If you’re ice fishing or just fishing at all and you catch a fish with Neascus you can still eat it but make sure it's well cooked or you will get very sick. Trust me. I've learned from personal experience you don't want to ruin a nice carpet with barf like I did. What do you do if you get minnows with Neascus? I suggest smash them with your boot becuase if you let them into the water they will infect other fish and ruin the pond. If you don't want to get the minnow stuck to your boot just let them freeze to death. Again if you catch a fish with Neascus do not through your unused cuts back into the lake doing that will infect other fish and you don't want that unless you like smashing poor little minnows under your boot. And to end this blog post here's a picture of the Neascus parasite. The bottom fish is infected top fish is not infected by the Neascus parasite . (by Lucian)
Friday, January 9, 2015
Dino Double Whammy Volcano
A lot of people think that an asteroid brought a quick end to the dinosaurs. That impact may have had help in the deadly outcome. A new study shows there was volcanic activity beginning in what is now India prior to the collision, and those eruptions may have spoiled the climate for dinos and other forms of life. A team of scientists are working on this and are continuing for as long as they need to conclude this theory. Volcanic activity began in what is now India prior to the collision. The Deccan Traps is a rock formation in western India. As large as Spain, it formed over a very long time. It was formed because of many violent eruptions. They stand nearly 2 miles high (3 kilometers). New studies show that the Deccan eruptions began 250,000 years before Chicxulub (CHEEK-shuh-loob) the dino-killing asteroid fell into the Earth’s atmosphere. That shows that the Chicxulub did not kill everything on its own. I like learning about this because I have always wondered myself how dinosaurs died, and this helped with the blank in my head. If you want to learn more, click here to go to the article I read. (by Theo)
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