Monster Sunspot to Unleash Powerful Solar Flares 

            Over the weekend, there was the discovery of a huge sunspot on the sun.  It measures more than 60,000 miles across. The scientists from NASA said in a tweet that this spot is a "monster sunspot". Sunspots are temporary dark patches on the top of the sun that are caused by magnetic forces from the sun. These spots sometimes erupt into solar flares. Then they send high energy radiation going into space. Over the course of a few days, this Monday showed scientists they found a new sunspot on the sun.

 ^ This shows the different sun spots that are on the sun, from the past few years.

At NASA, they figured out that the outbursts from 2005 through 2010, our sun began to get really serious last year, shooting off many powerful flares. Most scientists expect the outbursts to continue over the next year or and possibly more. The suns activity waxes and wanes, like the moon on an eleven year cycle, and scientists think the newest one known as Solar Cycle 24 will reach its highest point ever in 2013. 

You can find this article and picture at the following  links> http://news.discovery.com/space/sunspot-ar1476-120507.html

http://news.discovery.com/space/zooms/sunspot-ar1476-120507.html

"36-Hour Face Transplant 'Most Extensive' Ever"

     In 1997, a thirty seven year old man named Richard Lee Norris was shot straight in the face. The bullet affected the areas between the nose, mouth, lips, and most of his tongue. Norris wore a mask covering his face for the last fifteen years! After having several visits with many doctors, Norris finally got his face transplant that was taken on March 19^th 2012. For thirty six hours the surgery was in progress. On March 19^th, the surgery started at four a.m., and ended the next day between the hours of two and three p.m.     

          This was truly an unbelievable operation. I have never seen anyone work this hard for over one day, non-stop.  It is a blessing that someone, like the anonymous donor would give up his/her face structure for someone who desperately needs the help.  From the surgery, Norris received a new jaw, upper and lower, a new set of teeth, tongue, cheeks, and a practically a whole new appearance/facial structure. I can’t express my feelings toward how this man has drastically changed, for the good.

^ this is the amazing change of Richard Lee Norris’ face, from high school, 1997, to now as of March 22th 2012.

http://amazingnotes.com/2012/03/28/richard-norris-the-most-phenomenal-face-transplant/

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/27/36-hour-face-transplant-most-extensive-ever/?iref=storysearch

Labs When Using Physical and Chemical Changes

For the past two weeks our class has working on labs focusing on physical and chemical change. The labs we did were, pouring carbon dioxide on to a candle, burning a candle, burning a marshmallow and burning sugar. These are all examples of either physical or chemical change. The physical changes in these labs would be the form of the candle once burned, and breaking the marshmallow in half and burning it so the marshmallow would burn and become black. The chemical changes were putting the gas on the fire so it went out, and burning the sugar became a caramel than into a solid which got rid of all the sugar. All these labs are similar in ways, such as we either burned something, or make a physical change or feel/taste the object. Finally, these labs were both fun and informational to the topic we are learning in school, physical and chemical changes. 

 

http://cnx.org/content/m20443/latest/

http://www.chem4kids.com/files/matter_intro.html

Separating the Mixture

1. The first step that I did in this lab was take out the parts of metal.
2. I took out the large marble looking rock, out of the cup.
3. Then, I took out the two toothpicks.
4. I took out the rocks, separating the extra metal pieces from the rocks.
5. I took out the water and put it through the funnel on top of paper and put it in the graduated beaker.
6. After that, I put the beaker on the heat plate, and put it to a boil.
7. While emptying the rest of the cup out, I separated the rest of the objects into their own little group.
8. When the water was done boiling, it ending up as just plain salt.
9. In the end, there was seven objects in the cup for the heterogeneous mixture, metal, sand, rocks, one big marble type rock, water, salt, and the toothpicks.

Frog Disection

       The frog dissection on Tuesday and Wednesday was both informative and unlike anything I have ever seen before. This lab was actually easy due to the packet I received, it showed all the instructions and where and how to cut the frog. We learned about all the organs, what they did and how they worked. Although the frogs did smell horrendous, it was bearable. What we did in this lab was the following: we made a small incision, cut the first layer of skin, make another incision and cut the muscle, then finally look through all the organs. To me, this was a new experience and as stated before, unlike anything I've seen before. I've seen CSI, Law and Order, and NCIS, but only I've seen the 'fake' insides in the human body. I didn't realize what differences and similarities in the frog and human. Finally, I have learned so much from this lab.

As seen in class, I found the website that does virtual dissections. The link to the website is listed below.

http://www.roketoyun.com/frog-dissection.asp 
http://www.frog-life-cycle.com/1-diagram-frog-anatomy.html

The Digestive System Lab

      Both today and yesterdays lab was focused on the digestive system, in the stomach. What occurred in this lab was the digestion of cut/cubed eggs in a test tube either with nothing, pepsin, pepsin and hydrochloric acid, or just hydrochloric acid. What happened over  the coarse of the day was, the test tube with just eggs stayed the same color and size, the tube with the eggs and pepsin changed a little by, the eggs moving towards the bottom with the pepsin. The test tube with both pepsin and hydrochloric acid changed a lot. This was by the eggs and pepsin mixed together at the bottom and formed a clump which looked as if there was just sugar and water together. The last tube with hydrochloric acid changed somewhat, due to the acid; it changed by the eggs forming together and some parts of the egg would come off. What i learned/witnessed today and yesterday was, that the stomach has both a lot of muscles to help move food along and, the acid in the stomach is very powerful. This is because, in order for food to move into the small intestine and large intestine it needs the help. Also, the acid is very powerful because every three days the stomach lining 'rips' off and grows back because of the powerful acid almost burning complete holes in the stomach. Thus, leading me to conclude what I have learned throughout this lab. 

Todays Lab, October 11, 2011

      Today's lab was not a success. This is because, I believe the baggie, which contained both water and starch, was too thick for the liquid to seep into the baggie. Even though this lab was not a success, I've learned how this lab didn't work, if it did work, the starch would have turned purple. If all labs did not have trial and error, life would be a lot easier, but it is also good to have errors to see which chemicals go with other chemicals without them blowing up or creating a pandemic. Also, tomorrow I think we will redoing the lab, since the lab didn't work today. In the future I think we should test it to make sure everything works out the way we planned it. In conclusion, I do believe we should test the labs for a success.