Category Archives: Science 10

Astronomy Wonder Project – Science 10

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I wonder…

Do you ever wonder how the sun will die, or maybe what will happen to the solar system once the sun has run it’s course? Where would humanity go, would we even still be alive by then? I wonder all the time, will this be our inevitable ending? To get a better understanding, I researched the question ‘Can we predict when the sun will die and what will happen to the solar system when it does?‘. As of today, scientists aren’t one hundred percent sure what life will be like after the sun’s death but they seem to have some pretty good hypotheses.

Can we predict when the sun will die? 

Today Scientists presume that the sun will run out of energy and eventually turn into a ‘red giant’ in anywhere from five to eight billion years. A red giant is a term used by astronomers to describe the process in which a star, so in this case the sun, starts to grow dramatically to the point where it engulfs other planets in the solar system from it’s enormous size. The reason this can happen is because a star is powered by hydrogen that turns into helium in a process that converts mass into energy. So once all the hydrogen has changed to helium, the sun won’t be able to generate energy and will eventually start to collapse under it’s own weight. Consequently, once the fuel supply is gone, the sun will have no choice but to commence the red giant process which will evenutally turn into a white dwarf when all the outer material dissipates and leaves behind a planetary nebula. Which will then be the end of the solar system’s heat source.

What will happen to the solar system when the sun dies? 

As for the solar system, the outcome is still quite unknown but researchers can make some highly educated guesses. Once the sun converts into the red giant, as shown in the picture below, it will inevitably consume the planets closest to it, as in Venus and Mercury. It’s still debated whether or not the sun will spare Earth in it’s swelling mayhem as it’s not easy to tell but either way, Earth will be finished. Either it will be consumed or it will melt into a scorching lifeless rock. Despite all that, Earth will no longer be a safe habitat for any living thing as all the oceans will be dried up and the temperatures will be intolerable. As for Mars, the planet won’t be consumed but it will still be greatly affected as it’ll be too close to the red giant. The outer planets though, will have big changes in temperature and therefore might have a higher possibility in being able to hold life.

What about us? 

Most scientists are positive that humanity will be long gone by the time the sun dies and if not, the red giant will definitely be the end of us. The process of the sun turning into the red giant takes a long time and in that time the temperatures will rise so much that the oceans will have dried up and the ice caps will have melted leaving humanity in a lot of trouble. No one knows how the world will end but, the sun dying is a great possibility. Aside from that though, if life does make it long enough to see the end of the sun, it’ll be possible to find habital places in the outer planets of the solar system. The ones with colder temperatures right now would have drastic changes during the red giant which would then make them ideal places to live for a couple million years until the sun turns into a white dwarf. Either way, that gives the possibilty of humans being able to survive for longer on other planets which is unimaginable right now. All stars must die eventually and the sun is no different but who knows, there might be hope for humanity yet.

Bibliography

Sutter, Paul. “Will Our Solar System Survive the Death of Our Sun?” Space.com, Space, 28 Oct. 2020, https://www.space.com/solar-system-fate-when-sun-dies.

Emspak, Jesse. “What Will Happen to Earth When the Sun Dies?” LiveScience, Purch, 13 Apr. 2016, https://www.livescience.com/32879-what-happens-to-earth-when-sun-dies.html.

Betz, Eric. “Here’s What Happens to the Solar System When the Sun Dies.” Discover Magazine, Discover Magazine, 17 Apr. 2020, https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/heres-what-happens-to-the-solar-system-when-the-sun-dies.

Wendel, JoAnna. “When Will the Sun Die?” Space.com, Space, 7 Jan. 2022, https://www.space.com/14732-sun-burns-star-death.html.

Biotechnology group project – Cloning

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Cloning is the process of creating organisms and DNA that are genetically the exact same. It can be made in a lab or can sort of happen naturally with identical twins, although twins do differ a bit from real cloning. Clones will have the exact same DNA as the parent whereas, twins won’t have DNA that’s identical to their parents, but rather to each other. Cloning was introduced to most of the public in 1997 when a sheep named Dolly was cloned by a Scottish institution, although cloning technology had been around for quite a bit longer. Since then, there has been quite a bit of debate as to whether cloning is a good or a bad thing for the future and whether it should be practiced. In this research project we will be discussing the greatest advancements with regards to cloning, how cloning is best used and how cloning is changing the world as we advance towards the future.

Whether its cloning animals, or even potentially cloning other humans the possibilities are almost endless.

Cloning itself isn’t completely artificial as many specimens are able to make clones of themselves like bacteria, and some species of frogs, jellyfish, and insects. Even humans are somewhat capable of producing clones of themselves (Twins). Artificial cloning can be linked back to the late 19th century with German scientist Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch when he was able to divide cells that belonged to a sea urchin. Through many years of advancement the first amphibian was cloned in 1958 by John Gurdon and Thomas King. Later down the line in 1996 the first mammal named Dolly the sheep was successfully cloned in the UK. It wasn’t until recently around the turn of the 21st century that progress was made to cloning humans. In 2007, scientists were able to clone embryo cells (fetus) from a rhesus monkey, later in 2018 a primate, which is the closest animal to humans, was successfully cloned in China. With human cloning becoming more of a possibility, scientists have planned to use this ability to clone organs and forever change the medical field. But with the ability of cloning humans becoming a reality, the subject has been heavily debated on.

Since the cells can be taken from one person and replicated this means we can remove most of their cells fighting against them and help their treatment along and have progressively lower active cancer cases. Along with the lower cases of cancer we could also be helping Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart failure and many more life-threatening conditions and diseases helping specific people and at the same time be helping humans in general move along with surgery, studies, exploration, and overall quality of life. While solving various mental/physical problems that come along with certain diseases or medications we could help injury treatment with athletes and people who base their life off dangerous or physically straining activities. Surrogacy is important for thousands of families that need it for many varied reasons but with cloning we could progressively make the children of said families more like the soon to be parents if that is something important to them. Some families who want their own traits and same gits in their children finally have a very safe and tested out option to make their kid exactly like them just without the whole pregnancy.

Cloning technology will eventually have a big advancement in the future depending on how it is used. There are many debates as to whether it’s a good or bad thing and whether or not it can be used in a helpful way. Some say that cloning can be helpful because it can potentially create completely healthy animals and humans and therefore lessen the need for antibiotics and unnecessary chemicals. It can be used to treat genetic disorders and create stronger bone marrow, skin cells and organisms. It can also be used to create more of animals that are in the process of going instinct which would be a very big advancement towards nature and society. Of course there are people who argue that this would be a very dangerous experiment. Many say that cloning would do the exact opposite of creating healthier beings. They believe that the cloning process could create more varieties of defects in the organs, weaker immune systems and premature aging. Especially after the Jurassic Park movies, most would agree that this would not be a fun experience for society. They also say that cloning could make animals more likely to go instinct as there would be so many similarities amongst animals and the risks of inbreeding. Although there is many debate about whether or not we should continue with cloning, many scientists have started planning for these experiments and even though nothing like that is currently happening, we never know about the future. As of today, most scientists stick to cloning animals and have actually received quite a bit of success and because of that, will probably want to continue. We just need to hope that they know what they are doing.

We as humans have made numerous amounts of scientific advancements whether that be in the medical field, or understanding our world works and functions. Cloning is just one example of technology that just a few decades ago we thought were in the realms of science fiction. With the ability to clone organs or preventing animals from going extinct slowly becoming a reality, it’s important that we are responsible with this power.

Katrina, Josh and Savannah

Sources:

“The Great Cloning Debate; Biology and Politics.” The Economist , Economist Intelligence Unit N.A. Incorporated, 11 May 2002, https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T003&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=98&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=3&docId=GALE%7CA87433073&docType=Article&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZXAS-MOD1&prodId=GPS&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CA87433073&searchId=R4&userGroupName=43sbo&inPS=true.

Gale In Context Online Collection. “Cloning .” Gale In Context Online Collection, Gale, a Cengage Company, 2019, https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&u=43sbo&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CATTERJ754384295&inPS=true&linkSource=interlink&sid=bookmark-GPS.

Wells, D.N. Animal Cloning: Problems and Prospects. Reproductive Technologies Group, AgResearch Ruakura, 2005, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.495.1254&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

Begley , Sharon. “Spring Cloning .” Newsweek, Newsweek LLC, 30 June 1997, https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T003&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=4201&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=1&docId=GALE%7CA19524051&docType=Article&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZXAS-MOD1&prodId=GPS&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CA19524051&searchId=R3&userGroupName=43sbo&inPS=true.

Barros, T. (2009). Hello, Dolly! photograph. Retrieved April 7, 2022, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/12793495@N05/3233344867/.

Cheek cell lab – Science 10

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Cheek cell DNA

Cheek cells (stained)

Cheek cells (membrane disruption)

I believe that the first photo of the DNA would be useful in the process of getting DNA because you very clearly see the strands of DNA. Although you’d have to be careful with it, it’s still probably the easiest option to get DNA as it’s already seperated in the liquid. Of the three photos, the first is the easiest option in trying to retrieve that DNA, therefore I believe the first is the most useful.

I think out of the labs, the second one was probably the most interesting to me. I’ve never used a microscope before so it was really cool to be able to see everything up close. To be fair though, all the labs were very cool, I just thought the second was the the best one to observe.

Paper airplanes – Science 10

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For my paper airplane assignment I started off with the question: What size airplane will fly the furthest? I was curious about that because throughout all the times i’ve made paper airplanes I don’t believe i’ve ever questioned how the size of the plane affects the performance. So after doing some research I came up with this hypothesis, if we throw a bigger airplane then it will fly the furthest because it weighs more.

To test my hypothesis I created 3 different sized airplanes: a regular sticky note(14×9.5 cm), an 8×11 and a 11×17. Then I proceeded to throw each one 5 times from the same starting point to see which one on average had the furthest distance.

After my trials I concluded that the smallest paper airplane (sticky note) had an average of 3.48 meters, the medium airplane (8×11) had an average of 4.64 meters and the biggest airplane (11×17) an average of 6.06 meters. So therefore my hypothesis was accepted because the biggest plane which weighs more did end up flying the furthest.

Overall I feel that I learned a lot throughout the process and all of it was super helpful. I learned how to make a propre hypothesis and how to document my date and results in an way that is easy to understand such as the table and graph. I also learned quite a few fun facts about paper airplanes which I probably would’ve never known if it weren’t for this assignment. I think next time I might do a few more trial runs so that I could get a more accurate average and maybe some different airplane designs simply to see if that changes anything.

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