All About Inland Wetlands

    New Jersey has many great ecosystems and one of them, inland wetlands, is by far one of the most intriguing!  In order to discover what it is about inland wetlands that makes them extremely interesting, visit this website.

The Thief of Always Steals Ecology!

       As has been proven time and time again, science can be related to even the most obscure ideas.  Going along with this idea, books, specifically, The Thief of Always, can show us that the world always happens to come together at one juncture - science.

      The Thief of Always is an incredibly chilling tale, consisting of the monsters and demons that you only ever see in your worst nightmares.  A boy, named Harvey, engulfed in the mundane abyss of the GREAT gray beast February, is charmed by the welcoming, tantalizing excitement provided by the Holiday House, a chocolate covered knife.  However, Harvey becomes suspicious about the strange happenings that he observes around the House. The seasons change in a matter of hours and Christmas and Halloween occur every single day.  The environment is full of mystery and Harvey begins to suspect that something fishy is in play.  Speaking of fishy, Harvey encounters an ominous, extremely eerie lake that consists of a multitude of spooky looking fish and is the complete opposite of what the rest of the Holiday House strives to be.  When he realizes that the House and Hood, its master, have stolen years and years from many lives, he attempts to get them back and, in the process, is able to completely eradicate Hood and his despicable, unscrupulous minions.  

       After reading all that, you must be asking, how can this be related to science, let alone ecology?  Well, don't get so impatient and you'll see how!  Firstly, the Holiday House's tale proves that something unnatural that changes the way that the natural environment works results in terrible ramifications, and the catalyst usually brings about disastrous, almost unfixable changes to numerous lives.  As proof of this, Harvey, Wendell, Lulu (his friends), and hundreds of other beguiled children lost several years in their lives, and some even lost all of them due to the unnatural magic that was being used.  Similarly, in ecology, when one type of animal becomes extinct or lacking in great population because of an outside source, the whole food chain is unstable.  This carries on to make a change in the entire ecosystem.  The animals that were not meant to be taken away but have been, due to the unnatural source, would have been prey to other animals who now do not have as much food as they would have.  This would lead some to starve and die, which would further disrupt the ecosystem.  As you can clearly see, the Holiday House and its damaging ways can be related to the unsteady balance of the ecosystem.  

        Some other, smaller ways in which The Thief of Always can be shown to relate directly to ecology are stated subsequently.  When Harvey transformed into a horrifying, believable vampire with the assistance of Marr, a body sculpting minion, he was tempted to take a bite out of his friend, Wendell.  Thankfully, Harvey regained his self-control and left it at that, but if he had decided to act on his urge, Wendell would have been the prey and Harvey, the predator.  Additionally, the strange lake is home to wide-eyed fish who are all apart of a population.  A population is a group of a specific species in one area.  When the Holiday House was finally demolished, all the children went back to their time to gain all their lost moments.  Harvey, wanting to show his parents and see himself where the House had been,  discovers that the whole area is covered by lush grass and no former part of the House is seen at all.  Harvey also attempts to dig to see if he can find some proof that the House existed, however, he does not find any.  When the House was destroyed, the rubble that came from it was scattered all over the ground. Overtime, the wood that had held up the Holiday House could have decomposed and become part of the fertile soil that allows the world a new beginning.

        As I have tried my best to prove, the tale of Holiday House and Harvey Swick can clearly be related to several aspects of ecology.  All in all, The Thief of Always definitely includes a multitude of examples of ecology.  

~ Starflower794!

Predation: The Fate of A Chipmunk

                                                     THE CHIPMUNK


      I managed to capture this and my other photograph with the help of my handy dandy sneakiness!  No, not really.  The chipmunk was just too slow.  Although my effort at proving myself adroit at taking pictures of fast moving creatures failed, I can still tell you all about how this innocent little chipmunk will one day rot in pieces in some animals' stomach.  Or get bashed up by a car tire, but lets not think of that!

   
    Chipmunks, like numerous other creatures, are prey to bigger, "badder" animals such as badgers, bears, foxes, weasels, and owls.  And there are more predators out there, too.  Sounds like our "real" world, doesn't it?  Ha. Ha, ha.  Predators are animals who kill other animals for food.  Their main motive is to survive and not starve, to feel sated and healthy.  In this particular case, the chipmunk would end up being the prey.  The animal that is killed to serve as food is called the prey.  The interaction between the chipmunk (or other prey) and a predator would be called predation.
       You have just learned all about how predation works!  The predator kills the prey.  Ta da!    
  Next up is my anecdote about how the chipmunk lost his eye.  Just kidding!  I'll spare you the gory details...  


      These photos were miraculously taken by your very own Starflower794!  Feel free to send in some compliments.  Ha, ha, again! 

~Starflower794!

Some Abiotic and Biotic Factors . . . !

       This vibrant picture shows part of a large population of flowers.  Flowers are important biotic limiting factors.  Biotic is basically another word for living and limiting factors are things that limit the amount of something in the environment. Going back to the image, flowers provide tasty snacks for bees and various other insects and create oxygen, a vital component in our lives.  The many pretty flowers in the world do more than just sit there and smile!  They limit the amount of oxygen in the air and also limit the amount of food for other animals.  As you can surely see, flowers are an essential part of the ecosystem!

      This is another picture which, as you may have guessed, also features some limiting factors.  However, this time, they are both biotic and abiotic, or nonliving, limiting factors.  Firstly, there are trees.  Trees are living and so they are biotic limiting factors while another aspect of the photograph, the setting sun, is an abiotic limiting factor.  Trees control the amount of oxygen that is in the atmosphere and allow other living creatures to survive.  They also provide shelter and food for countless different animals.  The sun is also an important part of all of our lives.  It gives us the warmth and temperatures we need and allows vegetation to grow and this provides food.  

       In this way, trees, the sun, plants like flowers, and other types of natural things all play a part in limiting what we receive and control how we live.  The ecosystem depends on this delicate balance of give-and-take; we limit what other living things have and they do the same for us.   

     These pictures have been taken by Starflower794, the author of this site!!! 

     
~ Starflower794!

Science Project: CYCLONES!

      In order to learn all about cyclones, visit this website!


   ~ Starflower

Lit. Poems

Red
Sandpaper bread is stale brown,

The sky at noon - bright blue;

Red is the color 

of Hitler's point of view.

Green are words, forever growing,

Yellow is the hair of a loyal friend;

Red is a burning, glaring sky that

signifies an end.

Orange is a fire swallowing books,

The absence of a soul is clear white;

Red is the love from family and friends 

that warmly shines bright.

                         ~ Starflower794

Rudy and Books

Rudy

Fierce, loyal

Running, loving, caring

competitive, aggressive, engrossing, enjoyable

teaching, building, helping

knowledgeable, descriptive

Books


                           ~ Starflower794

The (Amazing) Adventure Aquarium!!!

      On Friday, May 14, 2010, our entire unit was able to go to the Adventure Aquarium for a whole lot of exploring!  We saw many different and intriguing sea creatures including sharks, piranhas, turtles, and pufferfish.  While there, we were able to observe some playful penguins, "swim" in the shark tunnel, and touch bamboo sharks!  The facts scattered around the walls also gave us more insight and knowledge about aquarium animals and their natural habitats.

      When we got to the Adventure Aquarium, my group started on the second floor.  Once there, we looked at a multitude of interesting animals.  Somewhere there, in the rainforest section, I learned that although rainforest's take up less than two percent of the world, approximately fifty percent of the world's animals survive there.  This amazed me and I thought about it as I looked at the other exhibits.  Later on, I researched rainforest's a little bit.  I learned that they are gradually disappearing (five to ten percent every decade) due to unsustainable agriculture, mining, ranching, and other practices.  This will obviously have disastrous effects on the animals that live there.  Another fact that I learned stated that 99% of animals were extinct!  This fact shocked me.  I had no idea!  That meant that only 1% of the animals that used to be on Earth are alive now! Only 1%!  I guess I didn't really think about the dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.  In addition to the rainforest section, we also had a chance to look at unique fish such as the ones who live at the very bottom of the deep ocean.  Outside, we saw penguins and two seals!  The penguins were joyfully waddling along their teeny tiny island and swimming in the water.  They had little cubby holes for themselves, too!  Moving along to the seal exhibit, our group saw one seal actively swimming around and the other lazily "tanning" on a large rock.  The second floor was definitely very captivating!

      The most hands-on and fun experience of the aquarium (for our group) was the Touch-A-Shark area.  We were allowed to touch sharks!  Not the huge and dangerous ones, of course!  The shallow pool was instead filled with White Spotted Bamboo Sharks.  An instructor told us to use two fingers to gently touch the back of the sharks.  She also told us that we shouldn't touch their head or tail as they might get annoyed, disturbed, or frightened.  Unfortunately, some of the younger kids ignored the warning and did so anyway!  One shark actually started swimming extremely quickly along the edge of the pool, moving up and down, near our hands.  It was very interesting to see what happened to the sharks when they were disturbed or frightened.  Anyway, I was eager to touch the sharks but somewhat nervous about it.  It took me about 20-some tries to finally be able to touch the back of the sharks!  Those 20-some tries consisted of me putting my hand in the water, waiting for a shark, moving my hand to touch it, chickening out 4 centimeters from the shark, quickly pulling my hand out of the water, and doing it all over again.  Also, a random guy started laughing at me.  Finally, though, when I was able to touch a shark, I was so excited and elated about it that I kept at it for at least ten more minutes!  Sadly, our group wasn't able to visit the Jules Verne Gallery, but we heard about it from others.
      All in all, this field trip to the Adventure Aquarium proved to be an extremely enlightening trip.  We were all able to learn about different sea creatures and observe them in their habitats.  Not to mention the interactive sites and the penguin exhibit!  I'd definitely love to go on another field trip like this any day.  
      
      I used this site to learn more about rainforest's.  My first picture can be found here.  My second picture is from here.  My third picture is from here.  


~Starflower794

The Collapsing Can!

      The collapsing can.  Doesn't sound so interesting at first...But, when I observed this experiment, I easily saw how interesting and COOL it was!
      In order to do the experiment, we needed an empty aluminum soft-drink can (coke in our class), a 2- or 3-quart saucepan, a hot plate (for us), and a pair of kitchen tongs.  With only these four items, we were able to observe Charle's and Boyle's laws!  Here's how it went:

      We began by filling a large bowl with cold water and putting 15 milliliters of water into the coke can.  We then proceeded to heat the coke can on the hot plate that was provided.  At first, the coke can filled with water exuded steam, which told us that it was extremely hot and that the water inside was evaporating and condensing.  The water became steam and some stuck to the sides of the coke can as water droplets near the top.  The water in the bowl was ice cold.  When the water in the coke can was hot enough, we took the tongs and inverted the coke can into the water in the bowl.  The reaction was amazing! The coke can immediately was crushed and collapsed!
      This process applied both Charle's Law and Boyle's Law.  Charle's law states that the volume of a gas increases as the temperature increases.  Boyle's Law states that the volume of a gas decreases when the pressure increases.  These two extremely important laws were shown when the temperature around the can decreased as it was plunged into the chilling water (a decreased temperature) and likewise, its volume decreased.  They were also shown by the air pressure increasing as the liquid inside the can found its way out into the open water in the bowl and causing the volume to decrease since the air pressure was strong enough to crush it after the water was gone.  
      As you can see, this experiment proved to be much more than we all might have thought it was.  It allowed us to learn all about the powers of air pressure and how it affects everything around it.  In addition, I know now more about the two laws stated above.  Overall, this lab was a great way to learn about air pressure!


My first picture was from here.  

~Starflower794!

Popping Popcorn Pop-isciously!-Heat Transfer!

      Well, the "heat transfer" up there makes it seem a little boring but popping popcorn certainly isn't!  There are a few different ways to pop popcorn, two of them being radiation and convection.  In class, we were able to observe and perform both types.  
      At first, we tried radiation.  In order to do this, we just put kernels in a microwave and pushed the "popcorn" button.  After a couple of seconds, we heard, "POP, POP, POP, POP, POP, POP!"  The popcorn was popping!  We could tell that this was a form of radiation. Radiation is the transfer of heat energy through empty space.  The kernels had been surrounded by empty space and the waves coming  from the microwave transfered heat and caused them to heat up from within.  Trapped moisture from inside the kernels quickly heat up to more than 100 degrees Celsius, boiling point, and turn into steam.  This steam causes the kernel to burst open to show the delicious fluff!  This is radiation!

      Next stop, convection!  To demonstrate convection, we put kernels into a popcorn popper.  Convection is the transfer of heat energy in a fluid (gas or liquid).  First, the popcorn popper shifted the popcorn all around it.  Next, it transfered heat so that the liquid inside of the kernels heated up, turned into a gas, steam, and burst into popcorn!  This is how we demonstrated convection.
      This lab taught us all about how popcorn is made and, more importantly, the differences and likenesses between radiation and convection.  Personally, this has been an extremely insightful lab that has allowed me to learn a lot about types of heat transfer.  These types of labs are always the best!


I used this website for more information.  My first picture came from here.  The second can be found here.


~Starflower794!

What is the Greenhouse Effect?

      In my opinion, greenhouse gases are crucial to earth's survival.  However, at the same time, "there really can be too much of a good thing."  According to the article I read, approximately thirty percent of sunlight is deflected by the outer atmosphere and refracted back out to space.  The remainder of this sunlight reaches the earth's surface and is reflected back up as infrared radiation, or slow-moving energy.  The heat caused by infrared radiation is absorbed by greenhouse gases such as water vapor and carbon dioxide, which slows its escape from our atmosphere.  Even though greenhouse gases make up about one percent of the atmosphere, they make a ginormous difference on our planet.  They regulate our climate by trapping heat in our atmosphere so that it is warm enough for us to live here.  Without the greenhouse effect, the average temperature of Earth would be about 30 degrees Celsius colder than what it is now.  Obviously, this is far too cold to sustain the ecosystem and our lives.  So, as you can see, greenhouse gases are extremely beneficial to Earth.  However, on the downside, humans have been releasing too much of these gases.  This has and will cause drastic changes to the planet.  With more greenhouse gases come an increased temperature, which in turn leads to different climates that might not necessarily be what we need at all.  All in all, although greenhouse gases can be trouble, they make it possible for life on Earth.


My article was from here.  The picture I used can be found here.


~Starflower794!

Temperature Game!

      In this game, I was able to learn a lot about temperature and what happens at certain temperatures.  The object of this game was to match all the different items or subjects (such as "body temperature" or "Saturn") to the correct temperature.  You could complete this game using Celsius, Fahrenheit, or Kelvin.  At first, I chose Celsius.  During this game, I learned that Antartica was approximately 20 degrees colder than Mars!  I was extremely surprised since I thought that it would be the opposite.  When I looked at the Fahrenheit section, I was amazed that Death Valley was 134 degrees!  It's no surprise it's called Death Valley.  I already knew that boiling point was 100 degrees Celsius and freezing point was zero but I didn't know that boiling point in Fahrenheit was 212 degrees.  The coldest was superfluid helium at -271 degrees Celsius or -455.76 degrees Fahrenheit.  That certainly is cold!  However, the most intriguing part of this game was learning about Kelvin.  We all know about Fahrenheit, which is used mostly only in America, and Celsius, used by almost everyone everyone else in the world, but for me, Kelvin is something new.  I had no idea it even existed before now!  The Kelvin scale is an "international standard for scientific measurement of temperature" and has zero set at absolute zero.  Absolute zero is the theoretical absolute coldest temperature there can be.  To get this, the molecules and atoms of the subject must not be moving at all.  It's not realistically possible to achieve this.  However, scientists have come very close using lasers.  As you can see, this game, although a game, gave me a handful of interesting, new information to learn about and was extremely enjoyable.  

The game I played can be found here.  The picture I used is here.

~ Starflower794!

Top Ten Ways to Destroy Earth!

      As you can imagine, as soon as I saw the title of this article, I could't resist the temptation to look at it...What I found out was amusing, fairly impossible - for now, at least - and fun to read.  The author of this article, Sam Hughes, states the name of the method of destruction, the probability of it happening, what you would need, and how you could do it.  So, lets begin with number ten...

NUMBER 10:    EXISTENCE FAILURE

Rating: 0/10

For this highly unlikely method, you would need absolutely nothing.  You would have to do absolutely nothing.  Just wait, and watch.  All that would happen would be that every single atom making up Earth (which is a lot!) would suddenly cease to exist.  Quick and easy, but it most probably won't happen.

NUMBER 9:    GOBBLED UP BY STRANGELETS

Rating: 1/10

In order to accomplish this, you need a stable strangelet.  Strangelets are particles that hold equal amounts of up, down, and strange quarks.  First of all, you would need to take control of (hijack!) the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.  Then, all you have to do is create and maintain a strangelet.  Soon, a the strangelet will absorb the Earth into a "mass of strange quarks".  Finally, at the end, the Earth would look like a glob of strange matter.

NUMBER 8:    SUCKED INTO A MICROSCOPIC BLACK HOLE

Rating: 2/10

You would need a microscopic black hole to place on the surface of the Earth.  The black hole would eventually consume the Earth. 

NUMBER 7:    BLOWN UP BY MATTER/ANTIMATTER REACTION

Rating: 5/10

2,500,000,000,000 tons of antimatter would be needed in order to do this.  Antimatter is the most explosive substance possible and would have to be made into a bomb that could blast Earth to pieces.  Unfortunately, this method involves quite a lot of calculations, so would be hard to do for some... Anyway, this method could be the cause of the Earth's destruction if someone actually makes the antimatter.  It would lead to a second asteroid belt around the sun.

NUMBER 6:    DESTROYED BY VACUUM ENERGY DETONATION

Rating: 5/10

All you need is a light bulb for this!  You just have to figure out how to extract the vacuum energy and how to harness it in some kind of power plant.  The result would be a huge amount of energy that would easily destroy Earth and most probably the sun, too.  At the end, the Earth would have been reduced to a swiftly expanding cloud of particles of different sizes.

NUMBER 5:    SUCKED INTO A GIANT BLACK HOLE

Rating: 6/10

To accomplish this, you obviously need a giant black hole.  After locating it, you need to get it and the Earth together somehow.  Once you do all this, you let the black hole do the work for you and suck the Earth in.

NUMBER 4:    METICULOUSLY AND SYSTEMATICALLY DECONSTRUCTED

Rating: 6/10

For this method, you would need a powerful mass driver, preferably more than one.  You use them to simply dig up parts of the Earth and hurl them out to space!  What would remain of the Earth would be tiny pieces, scattered across the solar system.  

NUMBER 3:    PULVERIZED BY IMPACT WITH BLUNT INSTRUMENT

Rating: 7/10

A big heavy rock, something like Mars would be needed for this method.  All you do is accelerate the speed of your rock to an extremely high speed and smash it into Earth, obliterating our planet.  This would create a bunch of roughly moon sized chunks of rock, floating around in space.

NUMBER 2:    EATEN BY VON NEUMANN MACHINES

Rating: 8/10

A von Neumann machine is any device that is able to create an exact copy of itself given only the necessary raw materials.  Use this machine and release it into the Earth's crust.  Soon, there will be millions of them and Earth will be completely covered with the machines.

NUMBER 1:    HURLED INTO THE SUN

Rating: 9/10

In order to achieve this, you will need some kind of earthmoving equipment.  Using this, you have to somehow propel Earth into the Sun, thus causing Earth to eventually sink into the Sun.

        After reading this, I know that the destruction of Earth is fairly impossible until someone comes up with this kind of technology - and actually wanted to destroy Earth.  This was an extremely interesting and fun article to read.  I learned more about different kinds of substances, such as antimatter, and scientific objects, such as the von Neumann machines.  Although this article was meant to be humorous, I still learned a great deal of information from it.  I think this also proves that the "end of the universe" that is supposed to be 2012, most probably won't happen since there aren't a large amount of things that would be able to end the world, such as the ones in this article, that are easily obtained.  And besides, who'd want to end the world???  Even though there are multiple, numerous ways to pulverize Earth, all of them wouldn't happen unless someone wanted this planet's life to end.  Everything could be used as a weapon or in this case, a way to destroy planet Earth.  However, if we use the things we've been able to create and find out about safely and correctly, we won't have anything to worry about.  Basically, I think that these top ten ways to destroy Earth are all highly unlikely to happen, so we don't have to stress about them - for now.

The article I used was from here.  The first picture is from here.  The second picture is from here.  The third picture is from here.  The fourth picture is from here.

~Starflower794!

Math Blog: Global Warming

      Proven over and over again all the time, math can be found anywhere and everywhere.  Global warming, for example, is a threatening predicament that has many statistics to prove that it must be slowed down.  Already, global warming is responsible for approximately 150000 extra deaths a year.  This figure is expected to double by 2030, according to the World Health Organization.  This astonishing fact is horrifying since it proves that global warming has started to affect humans even more rapidly than ever before.  Additionally, it tells us that we must stop releasing so much pollution into the air and stop using so much energy so that we can prevent global warming from continuing rapidly into a path of certain disaster.


      As another example of how the climate change is effecting us is that an unusually harsh heat wave in Europe in the summer of 2003 led to 20000 deaths.  According to Grolier, these types of brutal summers may seem normal in fifty years.  If summers like the one in Europe happen more often, how many more deaths will there be?  How many more will suffer?  There is no answer to these two questions right now, but, looking at all the frightening statistics, everyone can tell that it is more than many more.  However, if we can work to overwrite our mistakes, global warming can be slowed down.


      Taking a step back from global warming, I can definitely say that statistics help people understand the reality of all situations.  Numerous and various things can be shown to relate to mathematics.  As stated in the beginning, math can be found anywhere and everywhere.  


 ~Starflower 794!

A Green City: Masdar

      Far, far away, in the land of a desert named Abu Dhabi, a green city, powered 100% by solar energy, is being constructed.  The aim of this ambitious project is to go, simply put, completely green.  This city, Masdar, scheduled to be completed in 2016, is being built on a humongous cement platform that's made of 60% recycled waste.  As you can already see, the city is obviously striving to be as energy efficient and environmentally aware as possible.  Although it costs approximately 22 billion dollars to construct, the project is well worth it. Here's why...

      First of all, all cars are banned in the city. In lieu of using them, everyone uses the PRT system, or a personal rapid transit system.  The PRT system basically consists of about 3,000 electric cars that operate on recyclable batteries instead of gasoline, which is better for the environment.  Solar thermal farms use the sun's heat to supply Masdar with a quarter of its needed energy.  More carbon-free power comes from photovoltaic plants that utilize sunlight by turning it directly into electricity.  In addition, biofuels are grown in urban farms that are all irrigated from the city's wastewater.  The average temperature of Masdar is expected to be around 20 degrees cooler than the surrounding desert.  The world's first 100% solar powered office building, being built in the green city, will produce at least 3% more energy than it uses.  The building is eight stories tall and three blocks long.  A layer of glass on the outside of the building reflects the sun's heat but allows natural light.  Further, the way it's built protects inhabitants from too much sun.  Amazingly, the office is built entirely of 85% recycled steel!  All around Masdar, lush, beautiful gardens provide more than a pretty picture.  They keep the environment cool and absorb carbon dioxide to release more oxygen.  Most importantly, the city will use 60% less water, 75% less electricity, and 98% less landfill space than a city of a similar size.  


      When I found the article, A Green City Blooms in the Desert, I was immediately intrigued by it and quickly flipped to the page it started on.  After I was done reading, I was amazed at how environmentally conscious the people of Abu Dhabi were.  In my opinion, their city will make a big effect on the world.  It will probably become the role model of what future green cities should be like.  Masdar will save A LOT of energy and will definitely make a difference.  It will create more jobs by just being there since a city needs people to run it and offices need people to work in it.  Plus, the city will be an incredibly healthy environment to live in because of its non-smog-y atmosphere, organization, and order.  I now want to visit Masdar one day and see for myself how energy efficient the city is.  Global warming may be able to be slowed by this small but huge step toward a cleaner world.  However, America contributes the most to global warming so if we can change our ways and build or fix cities so that they use more alternative fuels and solar power like Masdar, we could slow the process of global warming  down considerably.  Hopefully, soon, many more cities just like this one will be constructed so that we can correct our mistakes and let the environment breathe. 


My article was from the Fortune magazine, Volume 158, Number 11, page 133.  The first picture was from here, my second picture from here, and my third picture from here.  An internet link to the article I read can be found here.


~Starflower794!