Monday, March 30, 2015

Pygmy Tarsier: An Animal Thought to be Extinct Since the 20th Century

The pygmy tarsier is a tiny animal (approximately 2 ounces) that, since the 1920s, was thought to be extinct. The image to the right shows one of the gremlin-looking creatures eating what looks like a grasshopper. The woman who found the first one since the last century said she just had to see for herself whether the pygmy tarsier was in Indonesia (which is where it was found) or not. You can read more about it in this article.






Photo Credit

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

This guys name is Daren Rahlves.  By skiing down this slope he starts an avalanche.  This video is shot in Alaska .  Because he has an airbag, it saves his life.  An avalanche is a mass of snow, ice and rocks falling rapidly down a mountainside.  As it gets near the bottom, its gains speed and power. This moving snow can go more than 80 mph. Avalanches kill more than 150 people in a year so the airbag really did save this guys life.


Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Paper Towel VS. Hand Dryer

Paper towel is better to use and it is quicker. Use only 1 paper towel to save the trees. Shake your hands 12 times then fold paper towel in half and use.

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Particle That Allows Humans to Live Without Breathing

In a medical emergency, getting a person oxygen can be a matter of life or death. But thanks to an invention by a team of doctors at Boston Children Hospital, the medical community may have an easy fix for such circumstance: a particle that allows human beings to live without breathing. This microparticle, the hospital says, is made of a pocket of oxygen surrounded by a single layer of lipids and is injected into the bloodstream through a liquid substance.
In an article published in an issue of Science Translation Medicine, Dr. John Kheir of Boston Children Hospital's department of Cardiology explained that in a real world situation, where an animal's airway was completely blocked, the particle could keep it alive for at most 15 minutes.
Kheir told Fox News that his want to make the drug came from a patient treated at the hospital in 2006.
He was taking care of girl in the ICU who had terrible pnuemonia. She didn't have a breathing tube at the time when suddenly she had pulmonary hemorrhage-where lung tissue gets damaged actually dissolves into the pulmonary arteries. Her lungs became filled with blood and she went into cardiac arrest. Because it took almost 25 minutes to remove all the blood from her lungs, her brain was deprived of oxygen and was terribly damaged.
Kheir also told Fox News that the drug has the ability to save lives in emergency scenarios, such as drowning.
The hope is to have the drug kept on carts all around hospitals and outside hospitals on ambulances. When a patient is severely ill, the person attending them could easily save their life with this drug. The most common reason for cardiac arrest is breathing problems, after all. There's a real potential to improve the mortality and morbidity rates in hospital.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Star-Nosed Mole


This ugly animal known as the Star-nosed mole has
been recognized as the fastest eater on earth. As nasty
as this creature is it has some features that are quite 
impressive. Its sensor system is very highly calibrated
and can sense an object in its path within 8 milliseconds!
The whole function of detecting a chunk of food and
consuming it can take up to about only 120 milliseconds!

Friday, March 20, 2015

Jerdon Babbler




The Jerdon babbler is a bird that they thought was extinct. Jerdon babbler has brown colors and a long brownish red tail. The babbler eats grasshoppers ants and beetles are the food of Jerdon’s babbler but it also feeds on small seeds.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Can you erase bad memories?

In this video they talk about the possibilities of earsing bad memories by using drugs that prevent the protiens that cause you to remember things to stop working. Scientists have tested this with lab rats. The drug is still in its early stages but they are woring on it so that humans can use it to forget traumatic events that happened to them.
My dad is from New Zealand. New Zealand is located in the Southern hemisphere of the earth. On Wednesday many people who live in Christchurch, New Zealand got to see the Southern lights or aurora australis. Some call it a solar storm. This is similar to the northern lights where the sky is lit up with different colors. 

What causes the colors in the sky is due to fast moving electrons striking atoms in the earths upper atmosphere... which is mainly Nitrogen and Oxygen. These electrons come from the sun which the earths magnetic field protects us from. Sometimes these electrons make it down towards the earths Northern and Southern poles and through its atmosphere and that's when the electrons collide with Nitrogen and Oxygen. This puts the atoms in an excited state.  While they get back to their regular state they should be in, excess energy is released in the form of visible protons.



Sea Cow !

This creature is called a Dunong or Manatees, they live in the pacific ocean near beaches. They eat food of the sea floor such as algae, plankton, and other sea plants. Manatees are lazy mammals that search the ocean floor for food.
photo credit This video is a short video talking about manatees.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Panda Ants


The Panda "Ant" found in the forests of chile,
is basically a wingless wasp. The species is
nearly extinct due to it only laying 2000 eggs
per year and its bright colors making it prone
to predators. If the ant survives long enough
it can live up to an average of 2 years. The 
ant is approximately 2-3 millimeters in height.
The panda ant is very small but can be very
dangerous. It is recommended to stay away
from these ants at all costs. 

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

A Beautiful, Beautiful World

This song, called "A Beautiful, Beautiful World" talks about how the world is 25,000 miles around and how its geography is diverse. It also talks about how earth orbits the sun and the moon orbits earth. If the earth was any closer or farther to/than the sun, we would not be able to live on it because it would either be too hot or too cold to live on. The earth is 92,960,000 miles from the sun, which is also 149,600,000 kilometers. The hottest it has every been on earth is 136° Fahrenheit, and the coldest it's ever been is -128.6° Fahrenheit.




What if We Stopped Drinking Water?


what if you stopped drinking water? Our brain would fail from no water. 

Monday, March 16, 2015

Why Do We Blush?

I've always wondered why people blush... Is it because our cheeks want everyone to know we're embarrassed?... No. This video explains that we blush because the blood vessels in our cheeks respond to adrenaline, which makes our cheeks red.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Can you drink too much water?

This video talks about if you can drink too much water. Appearantly water has less electrolytes in it compared to our cell. Normally this isn't a probelm but if you drink a ton of water at once it can cause your brain to expand, which it doesn't have room to, leading in headaces, comas, and even death. The chances of this happening is quite rare though.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Why do we yawn?

All animals with a spine yawn.  Why do we yawn?  And is it contagious?  Research has shown that we yawn because our brain is hot and yawning helps cools the brain.  If the brain gets too warm then it doesn't operate as well and you can get exhausted and sleep deprived.  So, by yawning which increases the heart rate, the blood flow to brain, and the use of muscles in your face, this all helps cool the brain.  But why does yawning seem contagious?  Research has also shown there are links to empathy, yawning around people socially close to you, and the use of mirror neurons. Watch video. It's very interesting.


Desert Rain Frog



This is a Desert Rain Frog that lives in Namibia a country in south Africa. This frog is a plump species with bulging eyes, a short snout, short limbs, and webbed toes. They are nocturnal spending much of the day underground in a burrow. They eat moths, beetle,and insect larva. When they hatch from their eggs the are instantly a frog skipping the tadpole stage because they live at deserts. On the top it will be a video of one vocalizing and on the bottom will be a funny music parody.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

The Moon

The moon orbits the earth in about 27.322 days. The moon is 3,474.8 kilometers in diameter, which is equal to 2,159.14062 miles. This song explains that the moon reflects the sunlight, and that is why it is bright at nighttime. Have you ever wondered why the moon is out during the day? It's because the moon sometimes reflects the sun's light so well that it is still seen. In order for the moon to be visible during the daytime, it has to be above the horizon.

Chicken or Egg?

The video is about what came first the chicken or egg. The video is about figuring out which one really did come first. This is cool because some people wondered which one really did come first and the one that did was... You will have to watch the video to find out.

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Photosynthesis!

This is a song about PHOTOSYNTHESIS! The fifth-grader did it last year for grandparents day. If you listen to it you will never forget what photosynthesis is!

Saturday, March 7, 2015

One Giant LEAF For Mankind?

It always seems like mankind is getting closer to inhabiting outer space, but mainly one thing has been holding us back: the problem that is oxygen. Plants can't grow in zero gravity without carbon dioxide and anyway, keeping an indefinite oxygen supply isn't feasible. Enter the 'Silk Leaf": a man made "plant" that can actually manufacture endless oxygen using light and water.

Julian Melchiorri wanted a way to produce oxygen in the harsh environment of interstellar travel, so he did it. What he created is an artificial leaf that has chloroplasts from plants actually suspended inside. Melchiorri used a silk fiber to hold the chloroplasts in place so that it can still act like a plant but with a kind of super-structure to make it extra resistant to the conditions of space.

He extracted chloroplasts from plant cells and placed them inside a silk protein. The outcome was the first photosynthetic material that lives and breathes as a plant does. He also wanted to build off of nature's own system to take advantage of proven methods. Also, the leaves won't just be useful for investigating the Galaxy. Here on earth, they can be used as biological air filters or oxygen producers.

Leeches

                                                                          Photo Credit

Leeches are a type of worm that live in ponds
and lakes in areas with high vegetation, and 
some can live in the ocean. The leech is most
often thought of as disgusting, vile, or dangerous.
To a certain extent this is true for most leeches
but a certain endangered species of leech called
Hirudo Medicinalis is a leech that can be used for
extracting venom from snake bites and other 
poisonous creatures. This leech has saved the
lives of many people who live in areas containing
venomous creatures. The Leech can extract poison
by using one of its mouths, (Which are located on
both ends of the leech) and grips itself onto the skin of
its user with its razor sharp teeth and will suck the blood
and poison out of the bitten area.

Friday, March 6, 2015

How to kill fire ant EXTREME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLYPezoCioI
Note from Mrs. Orellana - Do not try what is shown in the video.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Wombats

Photo Credit

Wombats marsupials who are only native to Australia. Some interesting facts about them are:

  • They normally grow up to  about 1 meter long
  • They weigh 32-80 pounds
  • Their babies stay in their pouches for around 5 months
  • When they are 7 months old they can take care of themselves
  • They are nocturnal
  • They live in burrows they dig in the ground
  • They are the seond largest maarsupial in Australia
  • In the wild they live 5 yeas but in captivity they can live up to 30 years

Cute Bear Playing Harmonica!?!? ( cute warning )

This is the Sloth Bear its a omnivore that lives in India. If you can somehow recognize it then that means you saw the movie The Jungle Book or actually saw it in real life! This bear usually eats honeycombs, beetles, grubs, ants, and other insects. These bears are often tamed in India for pets imagin this bear eating dinner with you! In these videos there will be one cute cub playing the harmonica, one eating termites in the ground, and playing at the zoo. photo credit


Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Robo Bird

In Germany, Dr. Heinrich made what he calls a Robobird or smart bird. There is a lot of technology inside this man made bird.  Real birds wings are very complicated.  There are several joints in a birds wings that allow the wings to bend and flex.




Tuesday, March 3, 2015

RAINBOWS



Rainbows appear when water droplets break sunlight into the seven colors of the light spectrum.
The sun is always behind you when you look at a rainbow, and the rain is always in front of you. 
Most people believe that rainbows are only seven colors- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Actually, this isn't true. There are continual colors of the rainbow, some of which even our eyes can't see.
What makes a double rainbow? Well, think about a normal rainbow. That's made by sunlight reflecting the colors of the light spectrum. Double rainbows are just like that, only the colors are reflected twice instead of once.
Rainbows occur more in summer than in winter (for most places) because in order to have a rainbow, there must be rain and sunshine, but in the winter, the water droplets are too cold and freeze, and the clouds usually block the sunshine.
Rainbows are so rarely seen at noon because rainbows are always opposite the sun, and so at noon, the rainbow would be below the viewer.
Did you know that, if the moon's light is bright enough, it can create a rainbow as well as the sun? Well, it can. This is called a lunar rainbow. It is made by the same process as a normal rainbow, only with the moon.

Photo Credit

Ferrets

photo credit

Ferrets are mammals they live about 8 years. They sleep 14 to 18 hours. They are about 51 cm. Ferrets are not  rodents. The name ferret come from Latin furonem which means thief. They can have 1 to 15 babies in on litter.

Monday, March 2, 2015

Blue Ringed Octopus



I didn't think anyone would be able to imagine an octopus with its full grown size about the same as a golf ball, so I found a picture. This is about the size of a full grown blue ringed octopus. They're small, right!? It's kind of cute, too. But they are one of the most deadly animals alive. One blue ringed octopus could kill twenty-six grown men in just a few minutes. They live in tide pools and coral reefs in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, from Japan to Australia. They live about two years and eat squid, hermit crabs, shrimp, and lobster, all alive. 

Sunday, March 1, 2015

The New Periodic Table Song!!!

This is a video of all the elements in the periodic table to the tune of Offenbach's can can.

New way to fight cancer!!!

This video shows how a new way to fight cancer is emerging. Scientists are using viruses that used to kill us to cure cancer. Viruses are basically a machine that's only job is to inject its genetic material into its host cell. This is what scientists are using, they put new genetic material into the virus, than they inject the virus into the patient and it produces more viruses that attack the cancer cells.
WARNING: has video of surgery.