NASA's new and "ice" mission to the Arctic.

NASA has a mission planned for the Arctic; they have a mission to go to the Arctic ocean and embark on their first oceanographic research voyage down the frigid waters. NASA called this mission the Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment mission, or ICESCAPE for short. Quoted by Paula Bontempi, an ocean biology and biogeochemistry program manager at NASA, "NASA researchers are preparing for the voyage and which will leave later this month." During this grueling mission, scientists will seek to unlock clues about the changing Arctic climate and the shifting ice conditions that affect the ocean ecosystems. NASA also plans to perform this voyage, which will take five weeks, on June 15th, departing from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, on the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy. Arctic sea ice is at its lowest point in thousands of years, as has been observed in satellite images. The ocean has warmed significantly over the past 16 years, particularly in the Arctic, causing great and widespread melting of sea ice. This, without a doubt, will affect the Arctic ecosystems. The ice melting and global warming, it only sounds like so many people heard it before but in different ways. I believe that if the ICESCAPE mission is a success, NASA scientists and other scientists, can study and predict the water level of the Arctic Circle and try to prevent any cause of overflow from the Arctic's melting ice caps, that will eventually flood over land.

Chessmasterbrawlfan's Project.

www.chessmasterbrawlfan.webs.com
This is my freeweb. This project was produced by Me, Myself, and I.
[(caution) I might have forgotten the links for cited work...I might have also forgotten where I found the resources...]

The collapsing can (all by itself)

During the collapsing can lab, I had to heat a can on top of the heater. when I heated the can the water in it started to boil. When the can was filled with water vapor, I cooled it suddenly by inverting it in water,.Cooling the can caused the water vapor in the can to condense. The extremely low air pressure inside the can made it possible for the pressure of the air outside the can to crush it. I can crush n open aluminum can with my hand. When I squeeze on the can, the pressure outside becomes greater than the pressure inside the can. If i squeeze hard enough the can collapses. Usually, the air pressure inside an open is the same as the air pressure outside. however, the air was driven out of the can and replaced by water vapor. When n the water vapor condensed the can was empty. I was expecting the water in the pan to fill up the can before te air outside crushes it. If the can was not suddenly inverted into cold water, air would quickly fill it up and the can wouldn't collapse so easily.

Frog Dissections...and some lessons.

The frog. An amphibian of strange ways and different species that have different methods of life. I believe it was a bullfrog that was on the dissection tray in front of my group and me. It was dead and ripe for the dissection tools to work at. So our group took the scissors and, with the "OK" from the teacher, we started to open up the frog. One of my group members was grossed out because the frog was being opened up, but still we continued the dissection. The frog's muscle was wide and it was also covering the organs. so one of our group members cautiously used the scissors to cut open the frog further. We immediately found out that the frog was female because of the black egg mass that was covering the oviducts. The parts of the egg mass seems to rip apart with a little tug, but regardless, the frog's insides were...different. The liver was half visible because the frog wasn't all the way opened up from the top. the large and small intestines were plainly visible and the fat bodies were slightly hidden but still was seen. The heart was covered because it was at the top of the frog and it wasn't opened wide enough to be seen. The small intestine needed to be measured and it measured 30 centimeters, because I accidentally ripped it while trying to stretch it out but one part measured 17 centimeters and the other part measured 13 centimeters and we just added the measurements. The practical for the frog was somewhat challenging but the dissection was a great help to taking and acing the practical, because the insides of the frog need to be known for greater discoveries that we might be able to find in the near future.

The Evolution of the Highly Toxic Cnidarian has been Revealed.

Courtship behavior of the box jellyfish Copula sivickisi. The male (top) and female (bottom) engage in a complex mating ritual unique among cnidarians.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090402124316.htm

With over thousands of stinging cells that can emit deadly venom from tentacles that can reach 10 feet in length, the 50+ species of box jellyfish have long been of interest to scientists and, very much to the public. Yet, little has been known about the evolution of this early branch in the animal tree of life. On the 18 of November the paper published a devistating fact. NOAA researchers Cheryl Lewis Ames, Bastian Bentlage and Allen Collins of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center's National Systematics Laboratory and colleagues from the University of Kansas, Pacific Biosciences Research Center in Hawaii and the University of Queensland in Australia have revealed the evolutionary relationships common with the various species of box jellyfish. Collins, a specialist in Cnidaria (pronounced nidaria), the phylum of animals that includes box jellyfish had said, "By determining the relationships among the different box jellyfish, some of which are capable of killing a healthy human being, this study can help in the future development of antivenoms and treatments for their venomous stings. Researchers will now be able to make more informed choices about organisms for future venom studies, and make predictions on which species are likely to be of public health concern, in addition to the known culprits."
Now that is some news that I think should be a good read. If these medusa are as dangerous as they say, then it should probably be kept away from civilization, except for scientist who want to research it. This species of box jellyfish seem way too poisonous for common people to come across.