Thursday, September 12, 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
science current event 3 highlighted article
Scientists Engineer Extreme Microorganisms To Make Fuel From Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
Posted 03.27.2013 at 2:06 pm
A University of Georgia team tinkered with the genes of Pyrococcus furiosus, and the new breed is hungry for the smoggy stuff.
A University of Georgia team tinkered with the genes of Pyrococcus furiosus, and the new breed is hungry for the smoggy stuff.
To find a way of fending off global warming, scientists sometimes look to nature. Plants, after all, use photosynthesis to snap up carbon dioxide, the biggest source of our climate change woes. So we get inventions like artificial leaves and ambitious projects like a plan to give fish photosynthesizing power. One of the more interesting plans: genetically alter microorganisms so they can chow down on some CO2, too.
University of Georgia researchers recently used the mighty Pyrococcus furiosus, which usually eats carbohydrates and lives in super-heated waters or volcanic marine mud (ideally, for it, at about 100 degrees Celsius). By toying with the genome-sequenced microorganism's genetic material, they were able to make it comfortable in much cooler waters, and to eat carbon dioxide. After that, using hydrogen gas to form a chemical reaction in the microorganism, the researchers got the microorganism to produce 3-hydroxypropionic acid, a common chemical used in household products. That's been done before, but the researchers are looking into turning the process into one that could eventually produce fuel.
If it is able to produce fuel, that wouldn't make it the first bacteria-like organism to do so. Others have been able to make that happen in a lab. But for anyone working on it, the next move after proving it works is scaling up. Then, ideally, we'll start getting water bottles that can power our homes.
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-03/scientists-are-engineering-volcanic-microorganisms-chew-co2-spit-back-fuel
Monday, August 26, 2013
SCIENCE CURRENT EVENT 2
Crabs And Lobsters Probably Do Feel Pain
, According To New Experiments The jury's still out, but if there's a ghost of crustaceans past, it's definitely coming back to haunt us.
By Shaunacy FerroPosted 08.07.2013 at 5:00 pm34 Comments Crabby Red Lobster Whether or not crustaceans like crabs and lobsters can feel pain remains a hot-button issue. After all, humans regularly do things like boil them alive, a process that leaves some people feeling a bit unsettled as their dinner rattles around in the pot in what sure sounds like death throes.
According to Robert Elwood, a professor of animal behavior at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the evidence strongly suggests crustaceans do actually experience pain, contrary to some previous work. Elwood has been conducting a plethora of experiments probing whether or not crustaceans can actually feel pain, or whether they simply respond to a stimulus like an electric shock reflexively, and announced the finding at the Behavior 2013 conference in Newcastle, UK today.
Elwood and his colleagues have experimented to see whether crabs can learn from electric shocks. In one experiment, crabs were more likely to relocate when they received electric shocks inside their shelter than when they did not receive any shocks. In another, hermit crabs shocked while inside a type of shell they tend to prefer were quicker to move into new shells when presented with the opportunity. Yet as Zen Faulkes, a University of Texas-Pan American invertebrate neuroethologist, pointed out in a blog earlier this year, it's hard to determine if electric shocks are painful for crustaceans in the same way they are for us.
Crabs have been known to rip off their own injured limbs, for example, which would be almost unthinkably painful for a human. Electric shocks also provide a completely different kind of stimulus than being immersed in boiling water, so there's a possibility the results might not translate to that seemingly cruel action. It does seem to call into question the Crustastun, a supposedly trauma-free, compassionate method of knocking off crustaceans within a few seconds--via electrocution, which in light of Elwood's research doesn't seem so trauma-free after all. Zen, for his part, suggests using ice as an anesthetic for your soon-to-be-delicious meal. Elwood conceded that “assessing pain is difficult, even within humans,” according to Nature, but told conference attendees there is “clear, long-term motivational change [in these experiments] that is entirely consistent with the idea of pain.” From his research, he concludes that crustaceans should be protected from the kind of "extreme procedures" they are currently subjected to -- things we wouldn't do to mice, such as lobsters having their legs removed while still alive or crabs being kept tightly bound for days before being sold.
SUMMARY
The purpose of this experiment was to see if crab and lobster would be able to feel pain.The hypothesis was that they would be able to experience pain. So the scientist used electrical shock waves to conduct this experiment .The results of this was that they were able to feel the electrical shock wave. The conclusion is that the hypothesis was correct. While this was being conducted the scientist also noticed that the crab and lobster would try to get into their shell to protect the from the shock.
QUESTIONS
why were only crab and lobster used to conduct this experiment?
how long did it take to d this project?
what type of crab and lobster were used in this experiment?
, According To New Experiments The jury's still out, but if there's a ghost of crustaceans past, it's definitely coming back to haunt us.
By Shaunacy FerroPosted 08.07.2013 at 5:00 pm34 Comments Crabby Red Lobster Whether or not crustaceans like crabs and lobsters can feel pain remains a hot-button issue. After all, humans regularly do things like boil them alive, a process that leaves some people feeling a bit unsettled as their dinner rattles around in the pot in what sure sounds like death throes.
According to Robert Elwood, a professor of animal behavior at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the evidence strongly suggests crustaceans do actually experience pain, contrary to some previous work. Elwood has been conducting a plethora of experiments probing whether or not crustaceans can actually feel pain, or whether they simply respond to a stimulus like an electric shock reflexively, and announced the finding at the Behavior 2013 conference in Newcastle, UK today.
Elwood and his colleagues have experimented to see whether crabs can learn from electric shocks. In one experiment, crabs were more likely to relocate when they received electric shocks inside their shelter than when they did not receive any shocks. In another, hermit crabs shocked while inside a type of shell they tend to prefer were quicker to move into new shells when presented with the opportunity. Yet as Zen Faulkes, a University of Texas-Pan American invertebrate neuroethologist, pointed out in a blog earlier this year, it's hard to determine if electric shocks are painful for crustaceans in the same way they are for us.
Crabs have been known to rip off their own injured limbs, for example, which would be almost unthinkably painful for a human. Electric shocks also provide a completely different kind of stimulus than being immersed in boiling water, so there's a possibility the results might not translate to that seemingly cruel action. It does seem to call into question the Crustastun, a supposedly trauma-free, compassionate method of knocking off crustaceans within a few seconds--via electrocution, which in light of Elwood's research doesn't seem so trauma-free after all. Zen, for his part, suggests using ice as an anesthetic for your soon-to-be-delicious meal. Elwood conceded that “assessing pain is difficult, even within humans,” according to Nature, but told conference attendees there is “clear, long-term motivational change [in these experiments] that is entirely consistent with the idea of pain.” From his research, he concludes that crustaceans should be protected from the kind of "extreme procedures" they are currently subjected to -- things we wouldn't do to mice, such as lobsters having their legs removed while still alive or crabs being kept tightly bound for days before being sold.
SUMMARY
The purpose of this experiment was to see if crab and lobster would be able to feel pain.The hypothesis was that they would be able to experience pain. So the scientist used electrical shock waves to conduct this experiment .The results of this was that they were able to feel the electrical shock wave. The conclusion is that the hypothesis was correct. While this was being conducted the scientist also noticed that the crab and lobster would try to get into their shell to protect the from the shock.
QUESTIONS
why were only crab and lobster used to conduct this experiment?
how long did it take to d this project?
what type of crab and lobster were used in this experiment?
Friday, August 16, 2013
Science Research Current Event
A Robot That Navigates By Touch
This robot was designed to test how the brain works. Shrewbot is a small robot that runs on batteries, but has no eyes like most robots.Shrewbot has plastic whiskers that allow him sense/feel objects with his touch signals.he also has " a magnetic sensor detects the displacement and sends it to Shrewbot’s computer processor. Shrewbot uses these touch signals to create a picture of its environment and distinguish shapes and textures."
Tony J. Prescott, neuroscientist and director of the Sheffield Centre for Robotics at the University of Sheffield in the U.K. Prescott co-designed Shrewbot with the Bristol Robotics Laboratory.
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-07/blind-robot-navigates-touch-blueprint
What made the creators of Shrewbot come up with idea of a blind robot?
How long did it take to build a blind robot?
How will this help people in their everyday life?
This robot was designed to test how the brain works. Shrewbot is a small robot that runs on batteries, but has no eyes like most robots.Shrewbot has plastic whiskers that allow him sense/feel objects with his touch signals.he also has " a magnetic sensor detects the displacement and sends it to Shrewbot’s computer processor. Shrewbot uses these touch signals to create a picture of its environment and distinguish shapes and textures."
Tony J. Prescott, neuroscientist and director of the Sheffield Centre for Robotics at the University of Sheffield in the U.K. Prescott co-designed Shrewbot with the Bristol Robotics Laboratory.
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-07/blind-robot-navigates-touch-blueprint
What made the creators of Shrewbot come up with idea of a blind robot?
How long did it take to build a blind robot?
How will this help people in their everyday life?
Friday, August 9, 2013
Fighting Fire with Sound is the name of the video that my class and I just finished watching. it was about college students using zero gravity devices to see if it would extinguish a fire. by using speakers they put music on n the container and the fire was in the middle. the purpose was to be able to extinguish the fire by using sound waves.their hypothesis was that the sound waves would be able to extinguish the flame.the results were that the sound was not able to put out the fire.the conclusion of this experiment was the the hypothesis was incorrect.
Here's the link:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/1012-fighting_fire_with_sound.htm
Here's the link:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/1012-fighting_fire_with_sound.htm
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)