Lasers

The link of an article about laser: http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2010/10/a-very-good-blast-from-the-past/

From this article, I learnt that lasers are powerful beams of pure coloured lights and we have used it for many years. The laser can save life or it can destroy life, it can be used for war or for knowledge. Throughout the years, man have harnessed the power of laser and now it is a major part of our life Without lasers, this blog post will not even be here. Certainly, laser has helped us a lot but how are we sure that we will not abuse it in the future.

One of the lasers uses is in nuclear power. Nuclear power is highly destructive and causes mass destruction, it is used in WW2 and the effects are still seen today. In the future, with more efficient lasers, more nuclear bomb may be created and some humans may give in to power and abuse the use of nuclear power. Scientist also predicted that lasers in the future will be 10 to 100 times as powerful as lasers today. Some people will certainly see this as a chance to use it in war and the damage it cause will be unprecedented. Now, we must learn how to respect the power of laser and not abuse it, we must learn what kind of destruction they will cause if they are abused and hopefully, our future will not be destroyed by lasers.

However, lasers are also a very beneficial tool if it is used for good. Now lasers are used to study the universe and measure huge distance in the universe. With the future improvement of lasers, we can go greater distance and continue to discover our solar system. It can also help us with more complex surgeries as the lasers improve, thus saving more life. If we respect the power of the laser, we will know how the harness its energy for better uses and soon, laser in the future will be a indispensable part of our life.

Term 3 Reflection

Term 3 has past and the I have learnt yet another topic on Science. This term was about physics and we are focusing on light. Before the start of the term, I thought that physics will be more difficult as unlike Chemistry and Biology, it involves extensive use of maths. However, I now know that this term's lessons was quite easy and the maths that we use are only basics. The lessons was easy to understand and the practicals are quite interesting too.

This term's lessons are also much more different than the last two term's lessons. This term we are required to do self-study and do all the worksheets on our own. We had to do the worksheets given by our teacher by ourselves and search for the information required. I feel that this was actually better for me rather than letting the teacher teach me as I can learn the topic more effectively if I did it myself. My teacher also helped us in our work during our lessons by clarifying any doubts about the topics and going through the worksheets so we know what is our mistakes.

The practicals that we did showed me how mirrors reflect and refract like. I also got to see some interesting phenomenons, such as total internal reflection and white light refracted into a rainbow. This practicals let me realise that mirrors and lens can easily manipulate light and man have been using this as an advantage since the olden days. For example, Archimedes had mirrors to reflect light to a single spot on an enemy ship and cause it to catch fire.

In conclusion, I feel that this term is quite fruitful and I got a good grasp of the topics that we learnt in this term. The lessons and the practicals helped me to learn this topic and understand it well.

Dark side of the Universe

Link of article:http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2011/04/the-dark-side-of-the-universe/

From this article, I found that the composition of the universe is quite similar to the composition of Earth's atmosphere. The universe is made up of 72% of dark energy, 27% of dark matter and the remaining is ordinary matter, just like earth's atmosphere comprising of 75% nitrogen and 25% oxygen and the remaining is made up of other gases. The amount of dark matter and energy is also similar to ordinary matter as they also have gravity.

This shows how little we know about the universe as we study things that we see most of the time. The universe is so unimaginably vast that we probably will not learn everything in it even if everyone is Albert Einstein. This dark energy and matter can also lead to many think for us to ponder on. Since dark energy and matter exist everywhere, could it be possible that we are also made up of dark matter and if the earth is also made up of dark matter. There is even a possibility that one day we will be able to harness the dark matter and energy and eventually travel long periods in space.

The discovery of dark energy and matter can also lead to many discoveries and let us understand more about our limitless universe. For example, with this discovery, scientist can guess how our universe will end. They are guessing that due to the universe ever expanding, all the gravity of the dark matter and energy will eventually cause the universe to collapse on itself and this theory is called the Big Crunch, much like a star's death.

So little by little, we will get to know more about our universe, although we will not be able to know everything about the universe before it disappears, at least we get to solve some of the fascinating mysteries that the universe holds. The universe, to me, is the final frontier.

Bladderworts

Bladderworts are carnivorous plants that feeds on small water fleas. It is the fastest bug eating plant in the world. Scientist recently have recorded the plants in action using high-speed cameras. Showing us how bladderworts really trap their pray.

Normally, people will think that plants are non-mobile living things that just photosynthesize every day. Wrong. The plants are far from that and the bladderwort is an living example. While animals have to hunt down their pray and trap them, it will take them at least a few minutes and sometimes it is unsuccessful. However, the bladderwort is different. It can trap a victim in less than one millisecond which is one thousandth of a second. That is faster than any animals on the planet. Even the cheetah, running at 112 km per hour has to chase 500m before it has to stop. The plants have certainly beat the animals in speed. If you think plants are boring, think again.

From this, we can see that Mother Nature have balanced the plants and animals equally. If the plants lack mobility, they are given better reflex and speed. The plants are not as boring as them see and they can be more amazing than animals sometimes.

Plastics made from plants

Scientist have discovered how to make plastics out of plants and this can potentially be a way to save the environment. Scientist are able use the stalks and husk from corns to make plastics. Since plastics is make from oil and petrol, this new way will help to save huge amounts of fossil fuels and conserve the remaining reserves for our future generation.

Since the stalks and husks are more organic, the plastic will be more bio-degradable and easier to destroy. This will also reduce a lot of pollution as more of our daily things are made out of plastics. Another good thing about plant-made plastics is that plants are renewable and will never run out as they can reproduce. Thus, plants is another solution for our depleting resources. Also, this will encourage more people to go into conservation efforts when they learn about the benefits of plants.

As we progress further, we will find many other new ways to protect and save our earth and this is a good start. We may have taken many things for granted in the past and now we, humans, are fixing our mistakes. As technology advance, I am sure more discoveries that is beneficial to our planet will be made and hopefully it will be enough to save our home for the future generations.

Life beneath the iceberg

Among all the habitats inn the world, this is the weirdest habitat I know. An iceberg has 70% of its total volume under water so it is no surprise that icebergs provides homes for many organisms. In this article, Scientist recently found that iceberg deposits iron in the water. Since it is rich in minerals it encourages microscopic plants to grow which will attract herbivores and then attract carnivore, thus creating an ecosystem. The plants will take some carbon from the sea which will in turn remove some carbon in the atmosphere.

This articles show me that nature can crate the toughest of organisms. The plants and animals living in the iceberg have to deal will extremely cold temperatures and prevent them self from freezing. When it comes to surviving in the wild, the animals are definitely better than us humans. There are able to find such a hostile environment and yet thrive. The iceberg is going to melt someday so the habitat is only temporary but nonetheless, the organism still can benefit from the iceberg during the decades as they reproduce and adapt.

Sadly, global warming is melting the icebergs and destroying the habitats of the organisms that live in it. Since the organisms in the iceberg is helping to slow down global warming by taking in carbon, if they die the rate that the icebergs are melting will increase. So in short, global warming will cause more global warming. So as humans, we should do our best to stop global warming and preserve this unique habitat and creature before they are extinct

Macritchie Reservoir Trip

The Macritchie trip was a very educational trip and different from other trips to Macritchie which is mainly for recreation. On this trip, I learned more about the biodiversity of Macritchie and some of the wildlife like the monkeys. I also learnt about analysing the environment and how organism manage to adapt and survive in this environment. I also found out about some of the ways that water are collected and used. I also noticed some of the consequences when human get too close to the animals. The monkeys in the park are actually trespassing people's homes near the park and the monkeys have no fear of humans. On the whole, the trip was quite fruitful as I get to have a deeper understanding about living things and their environment.