"Researchers Can Identify You by Your Brain Waves with 100 Percent Accuracy." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 Apr. 2016. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160418120608.htm

A team of researchers at Binghamton University have just used computer systems to identify the "brainprints" of volunteers with one hundred percent accuracy. Images were displayed to the participants to determine their responses. Each of them was unique, and this was reflected in their brain activity. They have surpassed a their previous study similar to this where attempts to identify the people have only reached 97 percent. "When you take hundreds of these images, where every person is going to feel differently about each individual one, then you can be really accurate in identifying which person it was who looked at them just by their brain activity," said Laszlo. Words would also produce distinctive activity in each brain. For example, although there is a common understanding of the words “conundrum” or “Anne Hathaway,” an individual’s perception will vary. This astonishing new mechanism has instigated controversy as to whether or not it will be used as a crucial security tool either in the near or far future.

The study revealed more about the true inner workings of the most complex composition of matter in existence in such a way that it gave insight into how the brain receives specific stimuli and at which parts of the brain they are processed in. Although we have identified lobes of the brain with a common function, this study investigates just how might those common functions differ between different individuals and to exactly what degree. Another significance to this study is the possibility of its use for security in the future. "It's a big deal going from 97 to 100 percent because we imagine the applications for this technology being for high-security situations, like ensuring the person going into the Pentagon or the nuclear launch bay is the right person," said Laszlo. "You don't want to be 97 percent accurate for that, you want to be 100 percent accurate." It seems futuristic and a bit frightening for airports to be scanning your brains, but its reliable mechanisms (such as always avoiding identification theft as it is a brain) could serve to protect a nation rather than an individual’s privacy.

The article could have elaborated on exactly which substances were used to detect activity in response to each stimuli and more about which modifications helped the study jump from ninety-seven percent to one hundred percent. It did include the most important effects of the study and how it will impact society in the future. I liked the different points of views from each of the researchers--the quotes related to the audience to make the piece more compelling.

Devastating Wheat Fungus Appears in Asia for First Time

In Bangladesh there has been a spread of a fungal disease that has already caused the loss of more than 15,000 hectares of crops. This fungal disease was already in South America but it recently spread to Bangladesh. The author, Ewen Callaway, reveals “The fungus is better known as a pathogen of rice. But unlike in rice, where M. oryzae attacks the leaves, the fungus strikes the heads of wheat, which are difficult for fungicides to reach.” Therefore indicating how devastating this fungus can be. It is unfortunate because researchers have discovered that this disease has been thriving in areas that are hot and humid, like in South America and Bangladesh. It is also unfortunate because “wheat is the second most cultivated grain in Bangladesh.”

I chose to read this article because it connects to a topic we recently discussed in class; resistance. Ewen Callaway states “efforts are also under way to find wheat genes that confer resistance to the disease.” Also, it relates to food science which is what I will be majoring in when I got to college.  Although this may not have relevance to us in Bronxville it does affect those in Bangladesh who use wheat. It is also important to keep an eye on this fungus because it could spread and then harm more and more areas.  

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this article. The article does a great job of explaining the effects this fungus has had. The article was really informative, but as I was reading I became curious as to what kinds of efforts people around the world could make to help stop this fungus. One criticism I have is as I was reading I noticed that the article was a little all over the place and at some parts it was hard to follow.  

Citations:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/devastating-wheat-fungus-appears-in-asia-for-first-time/

Callaway, Ewen, and Nature Magazine. "Devastating Wheat Fungus Appears in Asia for First

Time." Scientific American. N.p., 27 Apr. 2016. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.

Drilling Is Making Oklahoma as Quake Prone as California

Along with the many other environmental problems humans cause such as deforestation and global warming comes a brand new danger: human induced earthquakes. These new phenomenons are becoming more and more prominent in Oklahoma and Nebraska and are less severe but also felt in Texas, Colorado, New Mexico and Arkansas. The cause is believed to be the result of oil and gas production; more specifically, the earthquakes are created by the method of toxic wastewater disposal. Oil and gas production companies have been pumping the toxic wastewater back thousands of feet below the ground where the water adds to the seismic pressure on the pre-existing faults causing more slips and tremors. Evidence of an increase in seismic activity can clearly be seen in Oklahoma where, in recorded history, Oklahoma has only had 3 earthquakes above magnitude 3, “But last year, Oklahoma recorded 907 quakes at magnitude 3 and above.” Now, experts believe that there is up to a 12% chance that an earthquake of magnitude 6 or higher may strike along the Oklahoma - Nebraska border which is powerful enough to be life-threatening. The pace appears to have slowed “after the state’s oil and gas regulator, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, effectively imposed steep reductions in underground waste disposal in February and March.” However, earthquake scientists continue to say that “the risk of a larger quake does not necessarily drop in lock step with a decline in smaller ones. The forces that have been loosed underground, they say, can take years to sort themselves out.”

This subject is just another example of the negative effect that unchecked human activity can have on the environment. Finding the source of the human caused earthquakes is potentially lifesaving for, if the unregulated pumping of toxic wastewater were to continue, the magnitude and frequency of these earthquakes may have continued to increase. However, a solution has not yet been reached. The toxic wastewater is being pumped back into the earth, more evenly but, the pressure is building up and problem still remains that we have no better place to put this waste. The issue of human caused earthquakes is another environmental epidemic which must be dealt with in the same fashion as global warming: through global cooperation and regulation.

Michael Wine’s article was incredibly well written, weaving in plenty of statistics from various sources. There are really no complaints that I have with this article. The writing was very elegant, all the information needed on the topic was there, and the author even included graphs and diagrams to explain where the danger lie and who was affected. There was so much information presented that I couldn’t fit all of it into my summary in great detail so I would suggest to any reader who found my review interesting to go back and read the article for themselves.

Citation:

Wines, Michael. "Drilling Is Making Oklahoma as Quake Prone as California."The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Mar. 2016. Web. 28 Mar. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/29/us/earthquake-risk-in-oklahoma-and-kansas-comparable-to-california.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront>.

SpaceX Says It Plans to Send a Probe to Mars

SpaceX Says It Plans to Send a Probe to Mars

Having men on mars is closer than one thinks. The company SpaceX has been working to send people to Mars. The company, based in California, has been testing rockets and sending them across the globe. One of them just landed on a platform in the ocean! By 2018 they hope to send a rocket to Mars. Their long term goal is to colonize Mars by the mid 2020s. NASA has said they are going to try and get men there by 2030. Mars and Earth only are aligned around every 23 months, so they have short launching time. SpaceX is definitely the closest to sending people to Mars. Because of this NASA has offered technological support in exchange for Martian entry, descent and landing data from SpaceX. It is hard to land on the thick atmosphere of Mars so NASA wants as much information as possible. Luckily for SpaceX they do not have a shortage of money so this mission will not stop because of money which has happened with NASA.

This mission and goal is a huge step for space travel for men. Sending men to Mars would be amazing for the world and would help with future space travel. Having men colonize on another planet is world changing. This could potentially be a place where humans live. This is a step for the future and shows how much technology has advanced. Many people hear about NASA and its important to know about these other companies who are leading the world into the future.

I think that this article gave me a very clear understanding of what was going on. The article could have improved on giving more information on the rocket. I would have liked to know what SpaceX is doing differently from NASA. Other than that it was a well written article and it had a lot of quotes and images which I enjoyed.

Chang, Kenneth. "SpaceX Says It Plans to Send a Probe to Mars." The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 Apr. 2016. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.

Peacocks Twerk to Shake Their Tail Feathers

A new study done by animal behavior scientists has proved deeper insight into how peacocks attract females to mate. It has been known for awhile that the males fan out their brightly colored tails to get females to mate with them, but this study shows how exact this process really is. Male peacocks make an elaborate display of shaking their feathers and rattling their tail that can go on for hours. Birds that “rattle” literally shake their short tail feathers to make their fan rattle, producing a vibration that registers at the frequency of 25.6 hertz. This frequency varies from bird to bird but stays relatively consistent in the same species. During the shaking of tails, the eyespots on the fan stay still thanks to tiny hooks that lock the eyespot barbs together, Physicist Suzanne Kane of Haverford College in Pennsylvania explains. “It acts like a single mass at the top of the feather.” Previously, studies have shown that males with better eyespots on their tail are more successful at mating, but this new discovery of rattling may mean that muscle power plays a role as well.

This new discovery is important because it gives us information about the mating rituals of different animals. Many people assume that the males don’t do much to persuade a female, but this study clearly disproves that claim. There is actually definitive science to back up what many dismiss as a trivial action to be a fact-based strategy employed by males.

I found this article on sciencenews.com. The website was pretty legitimate, and they had many interesting articles from which to choose. I chose this one because the title really jumped out to me and there was a video attached as well, which made it easy to understand.

"Peacocks Twerk to Shake Their Tail Feathers." Science News. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2016. <https://www.sciencenews.org/article/peacocks-twerk-shake-their-tail-feathers>.

Sarmientosaurus Was a 10-Ton Dinosaur With a Plum-Sized Brain

Chang, Kenneth. "Sarmientosaurus Was a 10-Ton Dinosaur With a Plum-Sized Brain." The New York Times. The New York Times, 26 Apr. 2016. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.

The article that I read, Sarmientosaurus Was a 10-Ton Dinosaur With a Plum-Sized Brain, discusses the recent find of a fossil in Argentina that has been declared a new species of dinosaurs. For the most part, the article speaks about the dinosaur’s physical makeup and compares it to other types of dinosaurs. Some of these features include very large eye sockets, suggesting better than average sight and an inner ear structure that is supposedly tuned to low frequency sounds. Right now, paleontologists are just trying to analyze and figure out what the Sarmientosaurus was like and what it looked like. There aren’t too many tests occurring other than hypotheses of what the function of certain structures are. I could really feel that the paleontologists were really excited when they talked about their new find. Dr. Matthew Lamanna, a curator at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History said, “By combining data from these different discoveries, we’re gradually building up a picture as to what the biology of these animals was like. In other words, what makes the largest land animals of all time tick?”

This article is very important to the scientific world because of its understanding or goal to understand the world before humans were apart of it. With technology becoming more advanced, and the opportunities to find and discover arising, the knowledge and ingenuity of science is changing and expanding in many different directions very quickly. This find will allow scientists to observe and compare more species of dinosaurs that arose in early Earth and apply the information to evolution. By knowing and understanding this, we could be closer to grasping more concepts of evolution, as there is still quite a lot we don’t understand. This could also be used to study the brains and bone structure of animals and humans.

In my opinion, I feel that this article was written very well. The author gave a great summary of the  Sarmientosaurus’ physical build up and specifics of the brain that were key to introducing the new find of this dinosaur. There was no time in which I was confused content-wise, nor was it repetitive or wordy. For this reason, I believe that the author was very clear and concise in his research and writing. Also, because there were some quotes that were included from experts on the subject the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, it allowed me to be comfortable and trust the information that was presented in the article. Overall, the author seemed to know a lot about what he was talking about, definitely a sign of a good writer.

SUNY Purchase Summer Programs for HS Students

SpaceX Makes Historic Rocket Landing

For the first time ever SpaceX successfully landed a rocket sent into space on a drone ship. SpaceX is a company founded by Elon Musk (the creator of tesla) and is a private space exploration group. They launched the rocket sending a dragon capsule to the international space station (ISS) and had it land on a drone ship. SpaceX had attempted this many times before but the rocket continued to go through the ship or tip it over. This is important because as we continue to explore space there are many advantages to having the ability to land on water. SpaceX claims that for most of the space missions that go outside earth’s orbit it is essential for them to land on water. Being able to land on water also makes it possible for the rockets to be reused which can saves millions and millions of dollars. My favorite quote from Elon Musk about this success is “We will be successful when this becomes boring”.

I thought the article was really well written and explained simply why the event was so successful. Before this rockets were not able to land and there was no hope of them being reusable. The article also incorporated information about SpaceX because I had heard of it before but wasn't sure exactly what is was. The author also incorporated quotes from people such as obama congratulating SpaceX on their success.

This article is relevant because space exploration is so important in our world. We have come very far in the types of technology we have for exploring our universe. Reading this I’m happy to know we have more than just NASA, which has had problems with funding, trying to explore space. I just think everyone could benefit by learning more about SpaceX and the kinds of incredible work they are doing.

Imam, Jareen. "SpaceX Makes Historic Rocket Landing." CNN. Cable News Network, 19 Apr. 2016. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.

Do Honeybees Feel?

Do Honeybees Feel?

Gorman, James. "Do Honeybees Feel? Scientists Are Entertaining the Idea."The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Apr. 2016. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.

Recently, neuroscientists and philosophers alike have begun to ponder consciousness and where it ends, ultimately coming to the question ‘where does consciousness end?’. Christof Koch, the president and chief scientific officer of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, and Giulio Tononi, a neuroscientist and psychiatrist at the University of Wisconsin, have radically proposed that consciousness is nearly ubiquitous in different degrees, and can be present even in nonliving arrangements of matter, to varying degrees -- however, most scientists take a less radical perspective. For example, Andrew B. Barron (a cognitive scientist) and Colin Klein (a philosopher) at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia believe that even insects have the capacity for insects. Dr. Barron and Dr. Klein derive their hypothesis on the conclusion that “[consciousness] is an inherent property of physical systems in which information moves around in a certain way — and that could include some kinds of artificial intelligence and even naturally occurring nonliving matter.” More specifically, the two scientists have found that structural similarities between the midbrains of humans and insects supports their hypothesis. In humans, the midbrain “can, on its own, give a person lacking more advanced parts of the brain simple awareness.” In insects, the midbrain holds a similar function; it absorbs information from stimuli, memory, and the body in order to respond appropriately. Consequently, these two scientists believe in a spectrum of awareness. “At the most basic level, consciousness is awareness,” explain Dr. Barron and Dr. Klein. On the other end of the spectrum would be the sensation of pain, which only more advanced species such as crabs and octopi can feel.

This article caught my eye because it is extremely relevant to our work in class. The article uses the nervous system and its responses to stimuli to help define consciousness at a very basic level. However, this article is also relevant with respect to society as a whole. This article serves to further stress the importance of animal right protection, as we saw in Food, Inc., by establishing the existence of their consciousness. With this discovery, animals serve as far more than just another food source, and we should do our best to respect their conscious existence.

I enjoyed reading this article primarily due to how interesting I found the topic. I also found that it was well written and thoroughly researched, as expected from a reputable source like the New York Times. The one area I felt that the article was lacking was in its explanations: both the explanation of the spectrum of consciousness and the explanation of consciousness in the human brain were underdeveloped. Nevertheless, I would recommend reading this article because the findings are truly fascinating.

"The World Is Full of Dogs Without Collars"

Three-quarters of the billion dogs on the planet are not pets. A new book argues that they are more than strays and may tell us much about the nature of dogs. But there are about a billion dogs on Earth, according to some estimates. The other 750 million don’t have flea collars. And they certainly don’t have humans who take them for walks and pick up their feces. They are called village dogs, street dogs and free-breeding dogs, among other things, and they haunt the garbage dumps and neighborhoods of most of the world.argued against the widely held view that one day a hunter-gatherer grabbed a wolf pup from a den and started a breeding program. Many scientists argue dogs domesticated themselves. Some wild canines started hanging around humans for their leftovers and gradually evolved into scavengers dependent on humans. Not everyone in canine science shares that view today, but many researchers think it is the most plausible route to domestication. They have remarkably varied connections to human beings. Some live completely on their own at dumps. Some are neighborhood dogs, recognized and perhaps given handouts by people who live in a certain area. Others may feed and breed on their own, but spend nights at the homes of people. Sometimes they are adopted by people. But really, Dr. Coppinger says, it is the dogs who adopt humans. The number of dogs that can survive in a city or a neighborhood or at a dump is determined by the available garbage. The Coppingers calculated that in the tropics it takes about 100 people to produce enough garbage to support seven free-living dogs. The Coppingers suggest a simple answer. One way or another village dogs depend on garbage. If society wants fewer dogs in the street, there’s a surefire solution.

This article got my attention after watching the killing coyotes documentary in class. The idea of having so many stray dogs living in inhabited areas has never really hit me as being a growing problem. Dogs have always been known as “man’s best friend” and have been huge parts of many people’s lives. They have grown so close to us that many consider them to be part of the family and yet we do not know as much as we could about their origins and why we grew so close to them to begin with. Studying these stray dogs in modern day society and their behavioral patterns will allow us to understand more about them.

I thought the article was very thorough. It covers many different aspects of why dogs are the way they are in society while also addressing the concern of their domestication with a wide variety of professional input. I thought the article could have used more information on the types of studies they could perform and what specific behavioral traits they could acquire from them. Overall I thought it was a very interesting piece to read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/19/science/the-world-is-full-of-dogswithout-collars.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

Gorman, James. "The World Is Full of Dogs Without Collars." The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Apr. 2016. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.

Chip, Implanted in Brain, Helps Paralyzed Man Regain Control of Hand

For my current event I read the article “Chip, Implanted in Brain, Helps Paralyzed Man Regain Control of Hand” by Benedict Carey. The article follows the story of Ian Burkhart who five years ago broke his neck diving into the ocean, and permanently lost feeling in his hands and legs. He was able to regain control in his right hand using technology that transmits his thought to his hand bypassing his injured spine. It is the first account of limb reanimation in a quadriplegic. Two years ago a chip was placed in his brain, and doctors have been helping him focus his thoughts to move his hand. This chip can not cure paralysis. Mr. Burkhart is only able to use his hand when connected to a computer in the lab. This instance of limb reanimation is significant because the patient’s hand was no longer directly connected to the brain. To put in the chip in they made a small incision just above the left ear, the chip is the size of an eraser head with 96 microelectrodes. The computer used to decode his thoughts was constantly being recalibrated, since Mr. Burkhart was learning how to move.

The study done in this article could have profound effects on rehabilitating people with partial paralysis. Though the process takes a lot of time, and patients must be in a lab to perform tasks this technology could be a stepping stone for the future. It is interesting that the thoughts used to move the patient’s hand are able to get there even though they bypass the spine.

This article did a good job of telling the story of Ian Burkhart, and his specific rehabilitation. It did not talk much about the significance of the experiment on others, or how this technology could develop. It would have been nice if the author compared this method of reanimation with others currently in practice. The author made the science behind the chip easy to understand by not including too much detail, and explaining it in simple terms.

Carey, Benedict. "Chip, Implanted in Brain, Helps Paralyzed Man Regain Control of Hand." The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 Apr. 2016. Web. 19 Apr. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/14/health/paralysis-limb-reanimation-brain-chip.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&_r=0>.

The Water in Your Glass Might Be Older Than the Sun

St. Fleur, Nicholas. "The Water in Your Glass Might Be Older Than the Sun."The New York Times. The New York Times, 15 Apr. 2016. Web. 17 Apr. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/science/the-water-in-your-glass-might-be-older-than-the-sun.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0>.

In this article, the author explained how water on Earth may be even older than the Earth or the sun. Water as we know it is made up of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom, however, some samples of water known as “heavy water,” contain “hydrogen’s chunky twin, deuterium.” Deuterium is a hydrogen atom, but with a neutron in the nucleus, thus making it heavier. Deuterium has been found on other planets and moons, leading scientists to believe that it formed in an interstellar cloud: the accumulation of gas, plasma, and dust.  Scientists attribute water’s appearance on Earth to the ice specks floating in a cosmic cloud in space before the illumination of our sun or the creation of Earth. It is believed that these ancient ice molecules survived the heat and rays from the sun, to form the water here on earth, other planets and moons. Thus, water you are drinking could be over 4.6 billion years old.

This article is very interesting, because water is commonly thought to have come to earth later;  that the planet formed and then water. The ice could have collided with Earth, or been brought by asteroids or comets. I think that this shows how there is still a lot to learn about what makes up our planet and where it came from. Since the water on our planet came from space, there is a likelihood that there are many planets that have water that we are unaware of.

I thought that this article was written in a entertaining way. The author connected it well to our lives and how this discovery changes the way we think about the water that we drink, knowing that beyond coming from the faucet, it could have been floating in space as ice 4.6 billion years ago. I thought however, that there could have been quotes from scientists on this study, or other studies like it. I also felt that there could have been more information on how scientists came to this conclusion, what other tests they performed and those results. Overall, I thought that it was a very interesting article, which altered my perception of water, and leads me to question the formation of other aspects of Earth and their origins.

Health Officials Split Over Advice on Pregnancy in Zika Areas

As the Zika virus infiltrates the United States, federal health officials are divided over the political and ethical predicament of whether they should advise American women to delay pregnancy in areas where the virus is circulating.  Infectious disease experts are arguing that avoiding conception is the only way to prevent the births of deformed babies, according to outside researchers who work for various advisory panels.  However, women’s health specialists state that the government should not be allowed to tell women what to do with their bodies; federal health officials have never advised all the women in a region of the country to stop having children.  Furthermore, most babies conceived in Latin America during the Zika epidemic have been born healthy.  Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, described the internal debate as “a very long conversation...we do not have a recommendation to not become pregnant.”  On Wednesday, the CDC confirmed what many experts already believed: that Zika virus, which is usually mild in adults, can cause severe brain damage in infants.  As a result of the gathering evidence, health officials in countries affected by the Zika epidemic, including El Salvador and Colombia, have urged women to avoid pregnancy.  Dr. Marcos Espinal, the director of the Zika response of the Pan American Health Organization, an arm of the World Health Organization, stated in an interview that advising women to avoid conception during an epidemic’s relatively brief peak months, as Colombia did, is “sound advice.”

The Zika Virus is an epidemic that causes microcephaly in infants.  With such a dangerous disease that causes serious severe brain damage, it is interesting to see the role of the government; do they have the right to advise women on whether to conceive or not?

This article clearly described the political and ethical predicament of whether the government should advise American women to delay pregnancy in areas where the virus is circulating.  It had great quotations from experts in their field.  The article could have been strengthened with statistical analysis such as how many infants have had severe brain damage and where in Latin America.

Mcneil, Donald G. "Health Officials Split Over Advice on Pregnancy in Zika Areas." The New York Times. The New York Times, 14 Apr. 2016. Web. 16 Apr. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/health/zika-virus-pregnancy-delay-birth-defects-cdc.html?action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0>.

SpaceX Sticks a Rocket Landing at Sea in Historic First

Ford Neild March 12th, 2016

Current Event AP Biology

SpaceX Sticks a Rocket Landing at Sea in Historic First

On April 8th, 2016, Spacex made a truly space age leap forward in the process of commercializing space travel: Elon Musk and his company landed a autonomous rocket, Falcon 9, on an unmanned sea craft, “Of Course I Still Love You.” This was the company's fifth attempt at landing a ship on the sea platform. Other attempts failed because, although the spaceship made it to the sea platform, it was unable to stick the landing successfully. This was also the first attempt of one of Musk’s ship to carry the dragon, a cargo payload to be delivered to the International Space Station (ISS). The dragon, which reached the ISS two days after launch, carried tools and equipment as well as a compressed biosphere that could expand as needed by astronauts on the ISS. This expandable habitat, called BEAM, will be the first of its kind to be occupied by humans in space. Another important factor of the dragon, is it ability to reenter the atmosphere without burning up. This means that we are able to have two way transport with the ISS, where we can send up supplies and they can return scientific samples for further research. Moving forward from this point, SpaceX plans to send up many more flights like this one at a faster pace. Hans Koenigsmann, VP for flight reliability at SpaceX, said "It is true we have to pick up the pace, and we will pick up the pace," he said, adding that the next scheduled launch for the company will come near the end of April, with another set for the beginning of May.

"So the time between the missions will get shorter and shorter...And we hope we're going to be able to launch basically every other week by the end of the year."

This article's implications on future space travel are unbelievable. On a broader scope, musk and his team are passionately working to commercialize space travel and have already done so. Musks price for delivering space equipment is only 60 million, one third that of his nearest competitor. Musk estimates that these prices could reach as low as 500,000 dollars as every part of his spacecraft, besides the 200,000 dollar fuel, is completely reusable. Looking forward we can expect to see not only scientific advancements in space travel, but also commercial ones. Vacations are already being discussed by Musk and his team and with the rapid recent progressions, these dreams may not be dreams for long.

I felt this article was very well written, as it explained a very complex and scientific topic in a digestible manner. This makes it more appealing to non scientist who simply are interested in the coming of the space age. Although concise and made readable to a non scientist, there were some aspects of this article that I felt could have been improved upon. As previously mentioned, the author attempted to remove much of the scientific knowledge behind this topic to make it easy to read. However, this cost the article as it lacked any science at all and merely summarized the launch without providing details that could help give credibility to the author's work. To improve on this, I would recommend not removing scientific language from articles, but rather simplify it. In doing so, the author both teaches the reader a little bit about science and also makes the process fun and easy.

Cofield, Calla. "SpaceX Sticks a Rocket Landing at Sea in Historic First."Space.com. N.p., 8 Apr. 2016. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

http://www.space.com/32517-spacex-sticks-rocket-landing-sea-dragon-launch.html

A Big Australian Crayfish, Pretty and Endangered

The large Murray crayfish, usually about a foot in length, has been observed to have had a 91 percent drop in its numbers in parts of a stream called the Goobarragandra habitats over about six years. This crayfish is a pretty beautiful creature, wielding bright white claws and a shell with blues, greens and hints of red, depending on the light. This crayfish lives in Australian rivers like the Murray and in small mountain streams, and this is where researchers from Australian National University in Canberra investigated how it fared in different habitats in the streams. The crayfish is extremely vulnerable to changes in habitat, and it was found that there was a 91 percent drop in its numbers in parts of a stream called the Goobarragandra habitats over about six years, observed by Mae M. Noble and Christopher J. Fulton. The stream itself had taken a beating, with  scouring of its bed during floods and loss of trees and shrubs on the banks from land clearing. Also, it accumulated sediment, and many of the small spaces between boulders where the crayfish live had been filled in. However, these crayfish did much better in a similar stream in a national park where land clearing had not occurred and habitat loss was less. These crustaceans, though, are not extremely well suited to live very long, considering it takes eight or 10 years for them to reach reproductive age, yet they still manage to live up to around thirty years of age.

Although these crayfish may not be extremely popular, they are still very important crustaceans, and another extinct species is not a joke. These Murray Crayfish are also endangered because of overfishing, which is another great issue in the world today. There is much controversy over the hunting of animals that are vulnerable to endangeredness and extinction, and this issue with the Murray Crayfish fits right into that. It was said in the article, though, by Dr. Fulton, that the good news was that “there were still places in the damaged stream where the crayfish survived in good numbers and where the banks could be replanted and the kind of rocky habitat the crustaceans like could be rebuilt.” The scientists reported their findings in the online version of Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. Ultimately, an extinct species is an extinct species, and really shouldn’t benefit the world with its ceasing to exist, so the endangeredness of these Murray Crayfish is a pretty important issue.

I felt this article had many strengths. I thought that the writer, James Gorman, did a great job giving background information about these crayfish and the important characteristics it had that made it unique. Although the article had some strengths, there were also many weaknesses that could be addressed. For example, this article, although very interesting, was very short. I thought it was a very interesting topic so I chose this article, but I found myself having to do a lot of background research on these Murray Crayfish because of the simple lack of more information by the author. Gorman gave good general information about the Murray Crayfish, but I felt this article lacked more detailed information about the crayfish. This article could be improved by Gorman if he decided to include more detailed information about the crayfish, like maybe a more detailed description of their habitats and their lifestyles.

Gorman, James. "A Big Australian Crayfish, Pretty and Endangered." The New York Times. The New York Times, 10 Apr. 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/11/science/a-big-australian-crayfish-pretty-and-endangered.html?action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=sectionfront>.

Sierra Nevada Snow Won’t End California’s Thirst

It has been very clear over the past few decades that water is scarce on the west coast.  This year, however was what many hoped to be the end of a long drought because it is an El nino year.  However, recently Dr. Roger C. Bales and other members of the Sierra Critical Zone Observatory have noticed that not nearly enough snow has fallen for that to be true.  Although they have seen a dramatic increase in precipitation levels, much more of it was rain and not snow as they had hoped.  This causes a much quicker release of water which is not as beneficial as the slow release from melting snow because the ground is not able to use all of the water efficiently in such large amounts.  Much of the specific facts for total snow pack and rainfall have not been compiled yet but it is obvious, there has been a dramatic change from the old norm.  They have found that this change is so dramatic that water is flowing off the mountains two weeks earlier than it used to.  This is also due to trees.  Trees use a lot of water not only to grow and photosynthesize but also just by catching snow and rain on their leaves and absorbing the heat from the sun causing a large portion of the snow and rain to evaporate rather than run into the water supply.  Furthermore, the warmer conditions are causing faster tree growth and a shorter period of “shut down” for the trees because it is warm enough for them to operate for longer.  This only adds to the amount of snow that the trees are using up and takes more from the water supply.  This is not only affecting people but also many trees are being affected in late summer due to lack of water.  Furthermore, the author notes that we are part of the reason the trees are taking so much of the water.  By keeping a constant policy of quick suppression of small forest fires which are beneficial in nature and would clear many trees, we are preventing a lot of snow pack by keeping a high tree density.  If we allowed these natural fires to occur, the snow-pack would dramatically be increased.  

This topic is relevant because this water problem has become very important in California.  Now, many regulations have been put on water use forcing big users like golf courses and hotels either out of business or to find new landscaping methods.  Furthermore, many people are not able to water their lawns or even have drinking water at the prices they used to.  California recently built a desalination plant that would add to the water supply but at a very high cost compared to collecting runoff.  The fact that even in an El Nino year, we are not able to use all of the water because it was not in the right form does not bode well for the future and signifies that something drastic needs to be done now.  

Overall this article was very well written and thoughtful with only a few minor flaws.  I felt like this article was a little ahead of its time, the author should have waited until the rest of the facts were compiled to write this article because it would have dramatically added to the credibility of the story.  On the other hand, the author did a very good job at describing the whole situation and quoting scientists and some other facts to really make it clear what the problem is and how important and pressing this issue is.  To improve this article, I would suggest the author add a little more info about past snowpack and how it has changed over the years and compare that to what we have seen this year to give the reader some context.  

Fountain, Henry. "Sierra Nevada Snow Won’t End California’s Thirst." The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 Apr. 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/12/science/california-snow-drought-sierra-nevada-water.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0>.

Climate Models Underestimate Global Warming by Exaggerating Cloud Brightening

I recently read an article called “Climate models underestimate global warming by exaggerating cloud brightening.” The article spoke of how our current climate models were likely inaccurate, for they didn’t account for the changing color of our clouds. To elaborate on this, our current models for climate change show clouds to be brighter than they actually will be. As stated by the article, “As the atmosphere warms, clouds become increasingly composed of liquid rather than ice, making them brighter. Because liquid clouds reflect more sunlight back to space than ice clouds, this "cloud phase feedback" acts as a brake on global warming in climate models.” When researchers went back and corrected the incorrect brightness of the models’ clouds, they found that “the climate sensitivity increased from 4 degrees C in the default model to 5-5.3 degrees C in versions that were modified to bring liquid and ice amounts into closer agreement with observations.” This common mistake in our current models on climate change has proven to have quite a drastic effect on the predicted change in global temperature of an entire degree Celsius. Overall, this group of researches found that the incorrect information on the “stabilizing cloud feedback” led, consequently, to the acquisition of incorrect information on the change in temperature in the world, and we are in even more trouble than we previously thought.

This article is extremely relevant to our society today. Global warming is an issue we try to prevent every day. In my opinion, nothing is scarier than the idea of Earth itself becoming uninhabitable. As we near this doomsday, we begin to consider how we might stop it from happening. This article shows us that this point of destruction is coming at us at a faster rate than we previously thought. Not only is this very relevant to our lives, but it also gives us somewhat of a call to action. Our planet is decaying, and we need to do something to stop that. Some efforts have been made to stop this process, like reducing, reusing, and recycling, but that is not enough. We need to use more alternative sources of energy, like solar and wind power. Above all, no matter what we do, we need to do it now, because we don’t have much time to wait.

This article had its ups and downs. One reason I liked it was that it provided a stunning new piece of information about the increasing temperature of our planet. Also, it informed me more about the topic of “stabilizing cloud feedback.” This was something I had never heard of before, and I am now able to have a better grasp of how cloud color relates to temperature, and thus the state of matter of H2O. Though there were many positive sides to this article, there were also some things I didn’t like. For instance, at times, I found the article extremely confusing, and much of it sounded like environmental jargon: “Using a state-of-the-art climate model, the researchers modified parameters to bring the relative amounts of liquid and ice in clouds into agreement with clouds observed in nature. Correcting the bias led to a weaker cloud phase feedback and greater warming in response to carbon dioxide.” Statements like these confused me greatly, and made me less willing to go on with my reading. If i could give one suggestion to the author of this article, it would be to eliminate this type of speak and give a layman’s version of these confusing details. On the whole, however, I loved the article and found it very informative.

Citation:

"Climate Models Underestimate Global Warming by Exaggerating Cloud Brightening." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

Hyperlink:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160407221445.htm