THE CHRISTMAS TRUTH

I hate to break it to all the little people in the world, there is a truth we have to face. If santa's sleigh really weighs 365,000 tons, and he travels at 150 miles per second, the friction is so great that him and his reindeer would burst into flames. Also, jesus was really born in june (says science,) so christmas should be in june.

ECOLOGY: THE TEST

In science class, the past unit we have been working on is ecology. Our teacher taught us everything from food webs, to predator and prey, to symbiosis. We learned about energy flow through an ecosystem and created energy pyramids. With everything that was taught to us, I pondered the thought of what more can I learn? I discovered that when energy flows through an ecosystem, each organism loses 90% of it's energy to heat. Therefore it gives only 10% of it's energy to the organism which consumes or decomposes it. Look at the figure below:

Notice how the sun is losing 90% of it's energy to heat, and is only giving 10% to the producer. This is why the lower in the food pyrimid, the more energy it recieves. Not only did I learn more about the energy flow, but I saw a big food web. In this food web, I was able to notify the who got the least energy.

The Decayed Material has the most energy, whilst the Kookaburra and Manned Geese have the least amount. I infer that since humans are at the top of the food web, they are the organisms with the least energy. On a food pyrimid, there are many different levels. They start with the first trophic level, which includes, autotrophs. There are two kinds of autotrophs in this level. They are photoautotrophs(which includes plants), and also chemoautotrophs, which is bacteria. Then there is the second trophic level. These include herbivores and decomposers. Also know as primary consumers. The third trophic level includes the primary carnivores and secondary consumers. These are the organisms who eat the herbivores. The fourth trophic level includes the secondary carnivores, and the tertiary consumers. These are the organisms who eat other carnivores.

sources:

http://www.usoe.k12.ut.us/curr/Science/sciber00/8th/energy/sciber/ecosys.htm

http://arnica.csustan.edu/boty1050/Ecology/ecosystems.htm

Fungi and Squash: The Parasitic Relationship

As you may infer from my title, this blog post is about Fungi and Squash. You also may see that this is a parasitic relationship. I had to do a report on a symbiotic relationship in science class. I had to take a photograph of a parasitic, commensal, or mutualistic relationship in our area. I also had to write a paragraph about the symbiotic relationship of my choice and how it is important to the ecosystem. I was so interested in this subject that I decided to do some extra research on my own! For instance, I had no idea that that my decorative winter vegetable could be giving back to the earth it came from. That's because the fungi decomposes the squash, which makes the squash give minerals and vitamins back to the earth, making other squash and trees and plants grow to be big some day.

You may wonder why the fungi grows on random surfaces. Well, when, lets say a leaf, contains too much nitrogen, the fungi will grow until it decomposes the leaf. But before we get into the main swing of things, did you realize that there are many processes to decomposition. First, when rain water comes, it will leach the leaf, which will make it easier to decompose. The same thing happens to the squash. Since the area I live in is very wet, it was easier for the fungi to be created. After the leaching, the fungi grows, decomposing the squash. I also discovered that the more oxygen uptake, the longer it takes to decompose. Personally, I always thought that my squash just decided to rot away on it's own, now I know the truth! Who knew decomposition could be such a complex topic?

IPod verses Radio: The Showdown of a Generation

Green Science:

Today in society, most adults, teens, tweens, and even some children own some kind of MP3 player. And what's more, some even own MP4 players! What ever happened to the good old classic radio? As technology improves, and the music industry grows, wouldn't you think the radio would be useless? I think not!
For a start, lets just say that we liked the radio a lot more in 1998. We listened to the radio for 3 less hours in 2007. That's almost 100 songs on an IPod! But Paragon Media Strategies surveyed today's generation and reported something...interesting. While you may think that radio listening has decreased, in 2006, it increased. But then in 2007...it decreased. They took these surveys online, so we can only assume that they were teens with nothing better to do!
With the technology coming out on the market today, we are in awe with it, and want to get rid of the old. We shouldn't waste our money and buy every new product, but it's nice to have a portable machine, no bigger than a hand, that can hold of 10,000 files. Radios are bronze, CDs are silver, and of course, our IPods...are gold. (Now how am I going to get my mom to buy me the new IPod Nano Chromatic?)

Source: NY Times

Link: <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/technology/27drill.html?_r=2&ref=technology&oref=slogin&oref=slogin>

I have'nt been getting very many comments

For the most part, I am greatly troubled by the fact you people who are reading my blog are not commenting! So please comment and I will comment on yours. However I will only comment if I know you, so if I don't know you, I won't comment on yours! Isn't it funny how things work these days?

FWD: Messages

We all text eachother "lol" and "g2g", but we also may get forward messages too. So I'm kind of taking a survey. Please comment yes or no on whether you believe in these messages or not. I'm doing this because i get very freaked out when these messages are sent to me. So please comment. Thanks!

Apples

In my house, we like apples. So it was only obvious that we took the leftover apples from the local elementary school's walk a thon. So what we did with these apples was make desserts. We made apple pie, apple brais, applesauce, apple muffins, apple pancakes, and apple crisp. I must say that they were all delicious! So now I'm filled with an apple smelling house. Right now, I'm probably enjoying a delicious apple dessert. If you like apples, comment "Yes". If not, comment"No" and your favorite fruit!