This week in science we watched a long video about dirt. In the video we learned how important dirt is and how it can affect others. One of the things I found very interesting is how dirt is used for so many things.For example, dirt is used in building, growing and more. My favorite part of the video was the prison.They grew plants with dirt.Working with dirt was helping them find a new hobby which I think is great for them. This was definitely not my favorite video we have watched in science class but it was still a bit interesting to see how important dirt is to our world, the environment, and my life.
This week I read an article about an inflating volcano in the southwest of Bolivia which is South America. I bet you are wondering, what this does mean and how is the volcano inflating. In my article, they compare the volcano to blowing up a balloon because when you blow up a balloon it will inflate. Scientists believe that this volcano, called the Uturuncu is inflating because the magma is building up inside on the volcano at a much, much faster rate than it usually does.It has been growing at one cubic meter per second which is ten times quicker than other volcanoes the same size.Scientists noticed this uncommon growth from satellite pictures.They are trying to find out why this is happening to Uturancu and not others.They need this information to predict when Uturancu might erupt once again.The scientists are research to find out more about this inflating volcano by looking for changes in the nearby topography in Bolivia.
When I first saw this article, I thought other things I had read about volcanoes before.This was is interesting to me because I never thought a dormant volcano could wake up again.I think it’s great that scientists discovered this inflating volcano and are trying to learn more about it.Maybe dormant volcanoes are only in a coma and wake up very slowing over thousands and thousands of years.In conclusion, I hope scientists find out more about Uturuncu the inflating volcano so they can prepare for
In the past week in New Zealand there has been an awful oil spill. It is causing very big problems for New Zealand’s North Island and the environment. What happened is that a cargo ship got caught in the coral reef. The reef damaged the ship causing oil to leak into the ocean. The cargo ship is too heavy to move. Even if they could move the ship, the weight of the ship would crush and ruin the reef. The problem keeps getting worse and worse since the weather in New Zealand has been dreadful. There have been storms and the sea has been very choppy. This weather is bad because it is making the cargo spill aka the oil and the high winds are pushing the ship deeper into the coral reef.
This is an environmental crisis because by where the oil is leaking there is a beach shore that is reserved for sea life, whales, rare sea birds, dolphins, penguins and seals. Some of these animals are dying such as several sea birds and small blue penguins. The oil spill is endangering these innocent and sweet animals. On the island, people claim to have found what looked like black jelly fish but it was really big clumps of black oil that is thick as tar.
When I saw this article, I thought of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and how we just got it cleaned up. It is just one problem after another with oil. We need to star being more careful with our environment and develop other sources of energy besides oil.
Today is a big day for American physicists Saul Perlmutter (Head of the Supernova Cosmology Project, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California), Adam Riess (Head of the High-z Supernova Search Team at Australian National University), and Brian Schmidt (Johns Hopkins University and Space Telescope Science Institute) who will all share the 2011 Noble Prize for Physics. They won for their scientific study of far away supernovae which they had been observing in separate studies for a long period of time.They each discovered that the rate at which the universe is growing has been increasing faster than anyone had ever known.They were able to conclude this finding by using new modern day technologies such as extremely powerful telescopes, more advanced computer software, and digital imaging tools. The Noble prize is a very high honor.This is a great achievement for the three scientists.They have been working long and hard for this moment and it has finally come.All their hard work has paid off.Making a scientific discovery is not as easy as it sounds.I mean it took over twenty years to find all the data to support their hypothesis and prove it correct. According to their finding, if the universe continues expanding at a faster rate it will eventually end up as ice. I think this is really cool because I’d rather freeze in time than burn up.At least that way, there is some chance that process can be reversed one day.
