Increase of Child Medicating

Medicating young children has been an increasing trend from 1996 to 2005. In 1995 there was 5.84% medication use for children of 6 years and older, and in 2005 it had rose to 10.12%.  Some parents who have children with life-altering disorders feel that giving their young child pills improves their quality of life extremely.  Some parents do object, thinking it's not healthy to give their child so many drugs.  Mr. and Mrs. Gorski believe it is the right thing to do, as their son Gavin has Asberger's syndrome and schizoaffective disorder, similar to schizophrenia.  Gavin had had a hard life, and putting him on the meds was the only choice his parents had to help him.  The pills he was put on was the answer his parents were looking for, it seemed.  The medication subdued the hallucinations and voices in his head, and overall improved his quality of life, as well as the life of his parents.  He may have to take nine pills every morning and nine more in the evening, but the improvements do show in daily life. The Gorski's swear that these drugs aren't harming their son, because the medications are being taken for the right reasons and not overused.  In my opinion, they are right, and these drugs could improve many a young life.

To go to the website:http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/05/23/kids.overmedicated/index.html

Pregnant with Cancer

   This article discusses the effects of cancer during pregnancy.  It can sometimes be dangerous, but really can be treated without harming the fetus.  The cancer is still challenging, but the possibilities of treatment and the well-being of the baby have increased very much.  This has resulted with less aborted babies, since the treatment effectively helps them without harming the baby.  

   Though it seems obvious that you shouldn't have chemotherapy during the pregnancy, it is shown that most types of chemo are relatively safe for the fetus.  As long as doctors take in account that the patient is pregnant, and avoid most medicines that are known to cause birth defects and ones that are too new to risk, treatment can be relatively normal and effective, with little delay and risk to the mother or child.  In contrast to these new developments, the knowledge and options of treatment about thirty years ago were very minimal, and we can all see just how much information we have gained throughout the years, and how much scientific facts have become more useful for saving lives, and also helping some be created.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/05/16/pregnant.with.cancer/index.html

Soaring Straws Lab Report

     In this lab, using the rubber band to launch the rocket, was the Elastic Potential Energy.  But, it also contributed to the Gravitational Potential Energy of the rocket, because the more you pulled the rubber band, the more GPE you had.  Because the rubberband launches the rocket, the rubberband controls the GPE of the ricket, and how high it will go.  Our experiment proved this, for when we increased the Amount of stertch, the GPE increased overall.  Despite the error in the experiment, there was a clear trand that suggested that the GPE would've continued rising if we had gone on.
     During the experiment, there was aforementioned errors in a few of the trials.  Due to some minor detail during the trials, instead of the height increasing, it was lower than the previous set of trials.  Because of that, it caused the overall GPE to be lower than the previous GPE.  This was an error on our part, and it is clear it wasn't supposed to turn out this way.  In the lab, the way to calculate the GPE should be gone over more in depth, but besides that, there is really no need for improvement.

Bomb-Sniffing Mice

Mice, by nature, run away from scents they do not like.  Some mice have now been trained to run from bomb substances.  Security has mice in a cage, where people walk through in airports and other such places, and the guards see if the mice run away from a certain person coming through the gates.  Eram Lumbroso of Israel, founded an organization where they test the mice in labs.  He says to avoid false positives, the acute senses of the mice combined with the training of the lab mice guarantee that that will not happen often.  They had tested the mice in a popular mall in Israel, and out of thousands of people that day, there was only one false alarm.  All this data is collected and put onto a computer.  These computer databases are necessary to see how the mice react, and they cannot be tested without the technology.  All together though, this new type of security could immensely improve monitoring of bombs and explosives in all targeted places around the world.

Link to the video:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2011/02/21/nr.big.i.bomb.sniffing.mice.cnn

Toothpick Fish Lab Analysis

     In all four generations, the largest part of the population was colored green.  Since it was dominant over all other colors, and yellow fish were killed, green fish were even more dominant.  There were little orange fish, but they didn't completely dissapear, because there were still two yellow alleles in the genes in the end.  During the disaster during the fouth generation, since most of the population was green and eaten, almost all the fish were killed.  There was a total of one red fush and one orange fish that survived, almost completely wiping out the fish.
     If this project were to be changed, the end, during the disaster, could wipe out the non-dominant colored fish.  It could kill the orange or red fish, giving a more mimimal impact to the population.  This would give a whole different end result to the lab, eliminating red and yellow alleles instead of green.  Keeping the green alleles would theoretically give all the fish the green alleles that allow them to survive, making a larger population.

The Future of Building

The "Ark", created by Russian architect Alexander Remizov, may be the future building construction.  The purposes of this structure are for Earthquake counter-defense, growing plants not harmed by pollution, and some models may be used on water.  Living conditions in the future could be completely changed with this Ark,saving many lives and growing better food.  The power for the building would be provided by a wind power generator, along with solar panels on the outside.  If the Ark was used on the water, additional energy could be coming from thermal water sources.  

"Inside the building, the dome form promotes accumulation of warm air in the top part of a building," Remizov said. "This heat will be transformed to other kinds of energy and collects also in thermal accumulators."  With these abilities, the Ark could be used as hotels or homes for 50 to 10,000 people.  The cost of construction would amount to that of a "green" building, making the cost relatively cheap.  Many could be made in different forms for different purposes, and in short time of construction, this structure looks like it has a bright future. 

This picture shows a symbiotic relationship between moss and the tree.  This is a symbiotic relationship due to the fact that the moss flourishes on the tree, and the tree is relatively unaffected, and possibly does profit.  Some bugs may take up residence on the moss, differeent bugs than the tree is used to, but won't be harmed by them.  This was taken in my backyard, on a three-trunked tree also inhabited with some poison ivy.