Our assignment was to design a laboratory experiment for high school students. First, we seemed decided on doing an experiment called Race Day. This experiment was basically a way to explain physics, what is acceleration and a way to demonstrate it. However, after brainstorming for a while, we thought that the experiment Race Day wouldn’t attract the interest of the students that much and decided to search for another one.

After searching on Youtube and Google we found a pretty interesting and different one. One called NXT Machine Gun (not exactly an experiment). It is basically as the name says it, a machine gun. Our group found really cool that experiment and we had no doubt we wanted to do it. For a week we tried unsuccessfully to find the program that we would use for the machine gun until Eric (GREAT JOB) found it.

This Friday we tried to build the machine gun, thing I thought would be easier. After an hour an a half looking for parts and assembling them. We got this:

Unfortunately, didn’t have time to program it but I’m really looking forward to it. I think it I’ll an interesting and fun experiment for high school students.

Here’s a picture of the group doing their job :

Last week, we went on a trip to the M.I.T. nuclear reactor. It was an exciting trip for me because first, it was the first time I was going to M.I.T and second because it was a NUCLEAR REACTOR!!!

When we arrived there we were supposed to show an ID that showed we were 18. I completely forgot to bring mine. Without the ID the visit to the reactor was prohibited. I’m glad to say that after a few calls I got a picture of my passport. After I showed my ID I was given a device that would help us not to get a large amount of radiation.

Before going to the reactor we had an interesting presentation about it. The speaker gave us some facts. The reactor was constructed in 1958 and upgraded in 1975. It operates 24/7 at up to 6MW (which is very small) thermal power. It has two loop modern cooling system. Uses heave water D₂O for neutron reflection. Because the reactor is not big, there’s no melting down risk. It is a 1-½ feet diameter and is 2 feet tall. The reactor is very small but produces a lot of energy. It doesn’t produce greenhouse gases and uses Uranium 235 as fuel.

Here are some pictures of the reactor:

From outside:

From Inside:

Control Room:

After the talk, we went to the actual reactor. First, we went to a futuristic door system (which was very cool). Once inside, we could see where the patients were treated. The room where the reactor was was like I imagined, with a lot of machines and computers.  We were able to see the reactor from above. At the end of the tour we saw the computer room. It was very amazing, had a lot of different buttons and of course the controller.

After the tour, we had to go through two procedures to check we hadn’t a dangerous amount of radiation.

Although the tour was really interesting, it wasn’t what I expected. When I say this is not that I didn’t like the tour, is just that I expected a completely different thing. It was a great experience; I would never have imagined that I would ever see a nuclear reactor.

Below I’ll leave some links to the reactor page in case you want to know more about it.

http://web.mit.edu/nrl/www/

http://web.mit.edu/nrl/www/reactor/reactor.htm

http://web.mit.edu/nrl/www/tours.htm

A while ago, our group went on a trip to the library. We started our “tour” with the library lady showing us where all the printers were and how could we use them. After that we went to a computer’s room located on the second floor. Then the lady showed us where could we find sources for investigations in the library web site. There were a lot of sources in many topics such as science, health, sports.

Our homework was to find a topic and investigate it with one of those sources. I found an article about the life of Steve Jobs and how he changed the technologic world. Some of my classmates talked about the universe and Alzheimer.

Although I didn’t learn a lot of things on the tour it was interesting and a different way to learn about the library.

On today’s lab we worked again with the NXT robot. This time we used a flashlight that was connected directly to the robot. Inside of the flashlight there was a single battery. The whole idea of the experiment was to measure the voltage that it was created when we shook the flashlight. Demonstrating the Faraday’s law, which predicts how an electric circuit induces a magnetic field that can produce electromotive force.

Here’s a picture of the flashlight connected to the NXT.

We first shook it 130 times, after that we shook it 90, 60, and 40 times. We got the results and compared them in a chart.

Here’s the chart.

Although the lab was very short, it was fun, interesting and educative. It is always good to practice experiments like these and not only read the theory.

Last Friday we used again the NXT robots but with one different detail, solar panels. The experiment consisted in lighting the solar panel (which was connected to the NXT) from different distances. For lightning the robots we had flashlights. We were able to prove that the distance from the flashlight to the solar panel is inversely proportional to the voltage it produces, ergo, the closer the flashlight was to the panel the bigger the produced voltage was.

We tried with three different distances. 2 cm, 12 cm, 22 cm and 32 cm. Obtaining of course different results of voltage for each one. Here’s the graphic with the results.

After we tried all those distances, we added a new element to the solar panel, a color paper. Each of us grabbed three different color papers. Mines were orange, green and purple. Basically, the experiment consisted in putting the color paper in front of the solar panel and then lighting up with the flashlight. We tried all three papers from the same distance. We were trying to see if the voltage the NXT received would be different with the color papers, and if that was the case, we wanted to know if the color made any difference.

Here’s a graphic with the results.

As you can see, the paper does influence on the voltage. The color of the paper also influences on it depending on the light reflecting capacities of each color.

I think the solar panels topic is really interesting and necessary because as years will pass we’ll use this energy source due to all the advantages it has.

–       Free energy

–       Doesn’t emit greenhouse gases

–       It doesn’t destroy the ecosystem

On the other hand, it also has some disadvantages such as poor efficiency. It takes a lot solar energy to light up for example a house. However, this problem might be fixed in a close future, maybe increasing the efficiency of the panels with different materials and improving the way of saving the energy produced by the solar panels.

Pandora’s Promise starts with environmentally involved people talking about whether they are pro- nuclear or not. The film focuses in what are the pros and cons of the use of nuclear energy to light up cities all around the world.

As the movie begins, they showed us how people started to think about the using of nuclear power further than for weapons. It shows how  the perception of people all around the world was ,regarding this topic, which in its majority was negative. Most people when were asked about the nuclear activity had a negative response because the first thing they thought about it was bombs, weapons and lethal contamination. Even though nuclear power is known for been used for weapons it is not its only purpose. As the film goes on, we could see other purpose of it such as electricity. The positive side on creating electricity from nuclear power is that it uses fewer raw products for more energy. Comparing it with oil, if you release all the energy, one pound of uranium has it would be equal to 500 barrels of oil. Also, as they explained, the waste that nuclear plants leaves is less than the waste of both oil and coal.

All along Pandora’s Promise, we saw how people who were against the nuclear power actually start to change their minds. They talk about how some propaganda against nuclear power was made by oil companies to keep in business.

Chernobyl and Fukushima are the biggest and most famous nuclear disasters ever. People against nuclear power focus on these catastrophes to talk others into changing their minds about it but as the movie keeps going, they show us what the nuclear level of some cities around the world are. The unit for this measure is Microsieverts per hour. Here are some of the cities

Los Angeles: 0.09 Microsieverts per hour.

New York: 0.13 Microsieverts per hour.

Rio de Janeiro: 0.25 Microsieverts per hour.

New Hampshire: 0.30 Microsieverts per hour.

Over Pacific Ocean: 2.20 Microsieverts per hour.

Guarapari(Brazil): 30.84 Microsieverts per hour.

Chernobyl: 0.92 Microsieverts per hour.

What experts found out was that the nuclear level increases with altitude and that there’s no correlation with the background radioactivity. As a matter of fact, by the spring of 1986 people started to move in Chernobyl again, and they still live there. That people haven’t suffered from cancer or any other illness radioactive related. Also, many organizations confirm that there were less than 60 deaths caused by that radioactive disaster. This statement contradicts people who said that there were thousands of deaths. When those people were asked about this they had no response about it, they claim that it is all a big lie.

Moreover, a great example is France. A country that is almost completely green uses nuclear energy as electricity in a big part of the nation.

In the movie, we also were able to see that some of the nuclear waste can be and is being used to create fuel.

The final conclusion is that nuclear power can be the future for creating energy ,as electricity, without contaminating the environment.

Here are some pictures of Chernobyl:

Chernobyl’s nuclear plant:

Images from:

http://sites.lafayette.edu/egrs352-sp14-nuclear/files/2014/05/nuclearpowerpic.jpg

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01876/19861001-aerial_1876307i.jpg

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Components/Slideshows/_production/ss-110421-chernobyl/ss-110425-chernobyl-004.jpg

This week Tom Wales visited us. He had a big box that seemed to have something pretty interesting inside of it. It was a Tesla coil. Before Tom explained to us what that was, he talked about wireless systems and Bluetooth. He actually gave us a pretty interesting tip. When you are using a remote control and don’t know if it is working or not, you just have to take a picture of the front of it and if you see the signal, then it is working. This is because remote controls work with infrared, something that cannot be seen by the human eye, but it can be seen through a phone’s camera.

Getting back to the Tesla coil, it is an electrical resonant transformer circuit. As he explained to us, the dream of Nikola Tesla was to have a system that didn’t need wires.  The Tesla oil is actually really surprising because it was invented around 1891 and it can give electricity to a light bulb without touching it.

Here’s a picture of Tom showing us how the Tesla coil works.

In the picture, we can see Tom holding two light bulbs; those light bulbs wouldn’t work if they weren’t close to the coil.

Another interesting thing that Tom showed us was a light bulb that when it was close to the coil would light up but with two colors. One half of the light bulb would light on blue color, and the other one half would light up red.

After Tom’s showed that to us, I was a bit curious about how Tesla coils work, so I looked it up. It works with electromagnetic induction, where its magnetic fields create electric potential, which allows current to flows in light bulbs near it.

Here’s a picture of how it works.

Although Tom’s visit was short, I found really interesting (as a future electrical engineer and student) all the things he taught us. I’m looking forward to his next visit and can’t imagine what would he show us if he comes again.

If you would like to know more about Tesla coils, here is a link for it:

http://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2014/01/29/how_tesla_coils_work_108474.html

In September of this year, President Obama gave a speech about the global warming. In his words, he said that all the nations had to act united to avoid future possible problems. Obama also said that the United States was already making changes in their system to decrease the emission of GHG (Green House Gases) and invited all other countries to join them.

However, the plan that Obama states isn’t actually new. In the year 2000 during George W. Bush’s campaign for the presidency, he talked about regulating mercury, sulfur, particles and coal.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a new rule for all the states in America, regarding this matter. The main goal of these new rule is to lower the emissions of CO₂. With this objective the industries that run mainly with coal and mining coal will be affected.  As the EPA said, the rule requires that every state have to reach a limit of CO₂ reduction. This reduction varies in all the country due to the different current situations of each state.

The plan of this rule is to be flexible because for the states where coal isn’t that important will be easier to comply than states that depend on it. This will make the rule more possible to follow.

As an example of the rule, the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) agreed to shut down three units of their dirtiest coal plant. With this plan the OPPD expects to reduce the carbon emission up to 49% over the next 20 years.

This new rule might come in a late but good moment. There’s no doubt that the world is not doing enough actions to combat the global warming. To this day, the numbers show that if we keep this pace there are possibly chances for the world to change dramatically.

Here’s an image from http://www.whitehouse.gov/ that shows the temperatures changes over the past 22 years.

We can clearly see the changes and this might be our last chance to change the path so we should do everything we can.  As Obama quoted “ We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it “.

Here are some links if you’d like to know more about this topic:

–       http://www.whitehouse.gov/climate-change

–       https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/06/18/2014-13726/carbon-pollution-emission-guidelines-for-existing-stationary-sources-electric-utility-generating#h-8

–       http://ecowatch.com/2014/07/29/obama-clean-power-plant-rule/2/

In 2009, President Obama announced an increase in mileage requirements. That increase in mileage was, in fact, the largest since the consumption of gasoline by cars started being regulated, in the year 1970. The government fuel rules were requiring the American carmakers to increase, from the current 27 MPG , to 54,5 MPG (miles per gallon) by 2025.

This was an extremely difficult goal. The automobile industry had not only to develop their car technology faster but also to keep their vehicles in an acceptable price for the consumers.

Surprisingly, the industry is not only doing well on the required reductions, but they are actually progressing really fast and going ahead of schedule. “Nearly one-third of U.S vehicles on sale today already meet the required standard for 2016” says Michael Olechiw, the director of the Light-Duty Vehicle Center.

Some of the actual improvements in the cars are these:

–       Continuously variable transmissions.

–       Automatic transmissions with more gears (up to 9).

–       Direct injections.

This increase in mileage requirements also made the auto companies get better building small cars, some of which are gas-electric hybrids. However, the prices of electric motors and high-voltage battery packs will have to come down to be more accessible for customers.

Another great development has been the Fuel Cell Vehicles. FCVs (Fuel Cell Vehicles) use a fuel cell, which converts the chemical energy into electricity, to power the electric motor. Currently there is just one manufacturer, which is in California, that deploys these types of cars. However, it is expected that in 2015 another manufacturers will join.

Here’s an image of how this vehicles work.

Benefits of better gas mileage

With better gas mileage vehicles, we’re burning less fuel (Gasoline, diesel), which reduce the release of greenhouse gases such as CO2. This way, we’re helping the environment with the global warming.

Here is a graphic of the advantages of using vehicles with more MPG from the site http://www.fueleconomy.gov/.

As a matter of fact, the auto industry is doing such a great job that during the 2014 St. Louis Auto Show the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Gina McCarthy, praised them.

Nevertheless, there are many upcoming challenges that the industry will have to face. For example, the cost of vehicles, many customers may not afford the use of these types of cars. That’s the reason the industry should keep trying to low the general prices of these types of vehicles.

In case you are interested on knowing more about gas mileage and fuel economy, I suggest the forward readings:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/30/business/energy-environment/obama-reveals-details-of-gas-mileage-rules.html?_r=0

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/pdfs/guides/feg2014.pdf

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1093686_auto-industry-doing-fine-in-meeting-gas-mileage-goals-it-turns-out

The main topic of the article, as my title says, are the genetically modified organisms and what are the possible consequences of consuming them. The GMO’s are not only animals, are also different types of food. Some people claim that when they modified some fruits such as papayas, they’re acting against some viruses that could kill the fruit seeds. On the other hand, some people claim that when people modify the way fruits are they’re not doing the right things. This group of people think that when people consume the genetically modified organisms they are not eating real food and that that food can be harmful for your healths. The base of the argument of this group are all the genetically modified animals that are used as a scientific experiment.

In the article is written an anecdote of a 8 year old who says ” “My mom ate organic food exclusively and did yoga all the time, and she died of a brain aneurysm,”. What this basically tells you is that even when you eat the healthiest food possible there are chances of dying.

In my opinion scientist should do more research about this topic. People have to be more open-minded, it is possible that some GMO’s are bad for your health but it is also possible that there could be some GMO’s that actually helps different health issues ( such as cardiac problems ). Yet I’m not an expert on this topic so this is just an speculation of how could this genetically modified food help us.