Hurricanes

http://harkshurricane.webs.com/

A Pepper Burning Fat?!

Sounds weird doesn't it? A pepper burning fat? David Heber and his colleagues studied that the dihydrocapsiate(di-HI-droh-CAP-see-ate), which is a chemical cousin of capsaicin (the chemical which makes peppers hot) helps burn fat. In the month of April, in California, Los Angeles, Heber and team tested the chemical on thirty-three men and women. Their goal was to find an easier and a safer way for obese people to lose weight.

Heber divided the thirty-three men and women into three groups. The first group received placebos (pills that don't do anything and helps the experimenters to figure out if the chemical being tested really works). The second group were given a small dose of dihydrocapsiate while the third group were given a high dose of dihydrocapsiate. After a four week experiment, the scientists observed that the people who were given a high dose of dihydrocapsiate burned more weight while the people with placebos and a small dihydrocapsiate didn't lose much weight. Heber and his colleagues believe that people lose weight because the chemical attaches itself to the person's gut. The gut or the receptor, sends a message to the brain which causes the body to burn calories. This is similar to capsaicin, where the people sweat when they eat hot foods. The only difference between dihydrocapsiate and capsaicin is that capsaicin causes intense pain to the mouth and the gut.

In my opinion, I believe that David Heber is helping a significant, I mean SIGNIFICANT people in America who have weight problem. If this idea can spread nationwide then the percentage of obesity would decrease by a significant amount.

Website: http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/5928/title/FOR_KIDS_A_pepper_part_that_burns_fat

Electric Cars

Electric Cars is the hope to save energy and money. Tom Cage introduced electric cars in the middle of February, downtown of San Diego while a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Electric cars are care that run on electricity, thus the name electric cars. When the cars are not in use, they are plugged into a special meter which is connected to a grid (network of power cables and stations all over the USA which provides electricity to a particular place). Although, electric cars may sound good but it has minor negative points. One, it costs five hundred dollars to adapt a car to share battery power to the grid. Second, the car batteries aren't available causing the cars to come out late.

Inventors like Gage should continue to invent things like the electric car. Once this car is slow in demand and has decent price in people's budgets, this car will help decrease pollution (which will help global warming) and will save money since people won’t be spending so much money on gas (which will help the economy).

Website: http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/5702/title/FOR_KIDS_Charged_cars_that_would_charge

Global Warming (Math)

Global Warming impacts humans, animals and plants negatively and suprisingly is related to math. Since global warming changes the climate, it causes at least 150,000 deaths a year. In the future, it is predicted by WHO (The World Health Organization), that it will double by 2030 which is at least 300,000 deaths a year. For animals global warming is a threat. Sea level is rising and by 2100 the sea level will rise 3 feet each month which will reduce water quality and hazardous to aquatic life. It will also decrease the number of fish species. Plants are mainly affected by global warming. Droughts are also caused by global warming which dries up 90 percent of central U.S. wetlands. By this, plants die and wildlife depend upon plants for food and shelter causing them to die too. Overall, we should stop global warming for a safer future.

A Telescope in Space....

Have you ever wondered what an asteroid would look like upclose? Or a faint star would look like upclose? NASA, on December 14th 2009, launched a telescope (wide as a trashcan which takes pictures), in space. This was a project called "Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer" or "WISE" and was directed by Ned Wright. Also, this project cost about 320 million dollars.

The purpose of launching this telescope into space was to observe far-off galaxies and study the stars, planet, etc. on space.The WISE project is held by the gravity in a polar orbit and has been circling the Earth. The camera is pointed away from the Earth and will take upclose pictures of asteroids, faint stars, blazing galaxies and giant clouds of dust (where planets and stars are born) every 11 minutes. But why not send a regular camera to send pictures? Well, the WISE telescope takes pictures of features that give off infrared radiation. Infrared radiation are longer than waves of visible lights which regular digital cameras cannot take.

Overall, in my opinion, Scientists (like Ned Wright) should keep up the great work! Once we have pictures of the entire galaxy, we will have a better study of of how the space works and looks. Also, we can make more predictions on how the Earth is going to be affected by the looks and studies of space.

Source: http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/52553/title/FOR_KIDS_Small_but_WISE_

Pharmacist (bluekani96)

Pharmacist (bluekani96): "This podcast is about pharmacists and what they do."

Thermal Energy

We have been learning about physical and chemical changes but do you know what these matter of changes needs the most? Energy. An example of energy is thermal energy.

Thermal energy is the most common form of energy that is realeased or absorbed when matter change (endothermic and exothermic changes). Thermal energy also comes from the sun. The nuclear fusion in the sun increases the sun's thermal energy and when the thermal energy leaves the sun as a form of radiation it gives heat to the sun. This type of energy can also occur when we rub our hands together. Our mechanical energy increases the thermal energy content of the atoms in our hands and skin.

Thermal energy is an example of kinetic energy (energy of motion) because thermal energy is caused by the random movement of it's atoms and molecules. It is also caused by heat. There are three laws of thermal energy or thermodynamics. The first law states that thermal energy can be converted without loss. The second law states that any system moves towards its propable state of energy.The third law states that thermal energy deals with the state of a system of atoms ad molecules at an absolute zero temperature.

Thermal energy, I believe, is the most important energy. If there were no thermal energy then we wouldn't be have heat for example, heat from the sun. I feel that heat is important in the humankind because we need heat for growing crops and etc.

Sources:

www.school-for-champions.com/science/thermal_energy.htm

www.thermalenergy.org/