What are Vaccines and how are they effective? Vaccines primarily consist of weakened germs of the same type of disease, which are then injected into the body in the hope that it will stimulate the organism to produce protein antibodies to protect it against disease. Vaccines are important to help keep children healthy and more importantly alive. They were created to help the population protect themselves from deadly diseases. They have become very effective over the years in eliminating serious diseases like whooping cough and the measles. There is now a growing pressure to make vaccinations mandatory for children. In the past there wasn’t really a need to make them mandatory in the past because people believed they were beneficial and harmless. Many people have a fear that some immunizations cause problems such as autism and other possible defects in development of young children. Although the link between vaccines and autism was never proven many people got nervous and stopped getting important vaccinations for their children. Almost one third of deaths among children under 5 are preventable by vaccine. Now more then ever before we have the technology to save lives but we need to take advantage of the vaccines available to us. If people stop getting their children vaccinated they risk starting an outbreak of easily preventable diseases.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24442000
http://www.unicef.org/immunization/
http://vaccinationcrisis.com/

IMG_3552.mp4

Tom came in and talked to us about different inventions and tools and how they have progressed over time. He started with Robert Sterling who designed the Sterling engine which was supposed to replace the steam engine but failed because it couldn’t be made big enough and if the water gets too low the heat causes the steam to flash boil resulting in explosions. The steam engine risked the same thing if the water got to low. I don’t remember the name of it but he also showed us how they powered the fans in submarines and even some cars by using two different metals (bismuth and copper) and putting one in cold water and the other in warm water creating an electric current. The Medicino Motor is solar powered and was designed as a stating point and meant to be altered. Thomas Paige designed the rocking armature motor. Overall it was a really interesting class to sit through we talked about how electric currents are created and activate different gases. It was nice because I hadn’t stopped to think about how electric currents are create.

In this experiment we were measuring the voltage output of a solar cell and the light intensity output of a light sensor of the NXT. We performed several experiments to try to gain an understanding of the relationship between light intensity and the voltage output of the solar cell, as well as the relationship between the wavelength of light and the voltage output of the solar cell. We discovered that the more light intensity the larger the voltage output except for one of our runs that dropped a little. I believe that just happened because of an irregularity or possible was altered by an outside light force. In order to test this we changed the light intensity by varying the distance between the solar cell and the light source. Then we graphed the voltage vs distance as you can see above. We also ran the same test from the same distance but applied different filters to see how they affected the voltage output then we made a bar chart that showed voltage as a function of filter color. The graph reflects that the orange and purple filters changed the output voltage greatly compared to the blue filter and no filter at all. Overall this experiment helped me better understand how solar power works on a small scale and why it can be suck a useful renewable energy choice.

Does life exist beyond Earth? Mars had conditions suitable for life in its past. Future exploration could uncover evidence of life because, Mars is a rich destination for scientific discovery and robotic and human exploration as we expand our presence into the solar system. Its formation and evolution are comparable to Earth, helping us learn more about our own planet’s history and future. While robotic explorers have studied Mars for more than 40 years, NASA’s path for the human exploration of Mars begins in low-Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station. Astronauts on the orbiting laboratory are helping us prove many of the technologies and communications systems needed for human missions to include Mars. The space station also advances our understanding of how the body changes in space and how to protect astronaut health. Keep in mind that when it comes to human missions to Mars, NASA’s preparation has already lasted for 70 years straight.

So why aren’t we already planning to go to Mars? The delay is at least in part technical. A trip to the red planet is like visiting an even more inhospitable Antarctica, and its unbreathable atmosphere is less than two percent of what you’d find at Everest’s summit. Not to mention the fact that you have to fly at least a year, round-trip, to get there in the first place. That’s why the space agency has been helping promote the film “The Martian,” as a way to publicize its own plans to send astronauts to the Red Planet in 2030. They need to get the general public excited about space travel to create a hype around their plans. Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science division, said on Oct. 1, “The evolution of a Martian starts with our science — starts with our ground-truth that we get from our rovers — and it builds up to human exploration,” at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, during an event focusing on “The Martian” and the space agency’s Red Planet plans. This trip to Mars has become a useless dream for many Americans due to the duration of it. 70 years is a long time for the public to stay focused and support a trip to Mars especially when many supports are beginning to lose hope. What do you think about a trip to Mars? Would you be willing to go?

http://www.space.com/30733-the-martian-nasa-real-mars-mission-plans.html#sthash.FsB867ix.dpuf
http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-journey-to-mars
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/151111-mars-mission-fail-history-astronaut-science/

In this experiment we were testing Faraday’s Law, which states that changing magnetic fluxes through coiled wires generate electricity. We tested Faraday’s law by shaking our generator as we increased the number of shakes, the voltage also increased. We followed this procedure of shaking the tube at a particular rate, counting the number of shakes in the data collecting interval (30 seconds), then we calculated it in Excel the sum of the squares of the voltages (SSV’s) (the voltage is logged after each second. We repeat 1-3 three more times at three for three different rates of shakes. Then we plotted the SSQV’s as a function of # of shakes and fit the result to a linear curve. Our outcome showed the greater the change in magnetic flux, the greater the currents and voltages. Our first number of shakes was zero which not surprisingly gave us little to no voltage since the magnets weren’t traveling through the coils. The only reason for any voltage would be random from the air. Next we did 14 shakes, 35, and then 68 shakes. Each time we increased the number of shakes, the voltage increased as we expected. The experiment overall went well and still proved the point of Faraday’s Law.

The film Pandora’s Promise explores the history and future of nuclear power and why mankind’s most feared and controversial technological discovery is now passionately embraced by many of those who once led the charge against it. The pro-nuclear power film Pandora’s Promise, which propagated three common myths about nuclear power: it suggested the environmental movement’s “scare tactics” are what has inhibited nuclear power, claimed nuclear power is cheaper than renewables and downplayed complications from nuclear waste. This led to a generally one-sided story, which has led to criticism from many reviewers. Lets start with the enormous cost of building nuclear power plants being a key inhibiting factor for the energy source. Despite receiving immensely greater subsidies than renewable energy from the beginning of its development, nuclear energy is still not competitive with fossil fuels in America, and new wind energy is estimated to be less expensive than new nuclear generation. Pandora’s Promise also focused on opposition to nuclear power from some in the environmental movement. In the film, author Mark Lynas even compared anti-nuclear activists to global warming deniers. However, this narrative paints a misleading picture: the lack of nuclear expansion in the U.S. comes down to a simple case of economics. Although nuclear power has potential to become a major power source, it comes with baggage. The U.S. has accumulated more than 70,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel, and continues to accumulate 2,200 tons per year, yet CNN’s documentary made light of this waste—Lynas claimed that nuclear waste is “not an environmental issue.” Despite its pro-nuke slant, environmentalists are the film’s intended audience. After all, as the film points out, most pro-business Republicans are already in love with the idea of more nuclear power plants, and need no convincing. But left-leaning supporters of green energy aren’t just the film’s target demo. They’re also its main subjects. Gwyneth Cravens, Mark Lynas, Michael Shellenberger and other respected environmental activists, authors and experts appear throughout the film, explaining why they have recently started to reconsider their former staunch opposition to nuclear power. Contrary to the received wisdom of the environmentalist movement, they argue that nuclear power might actually be safer, cleaner and greener than many other energy sources. Overall it was a great film to get people talking about nuclear power and to bring it back into the mainstream media. Ultimately it’s up to you and what you believe is the right thing to do but this film definitely gets you thinking and possibly even researching.