Why Our Galaxy's Black Hole Didn't Eat That Mystery Object

http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/why-our-galaxys-black-hole-didnt-eat-that-mystery-object-141104.htm

This article was about the expected collision between our galaxy’s black hole, called Sagittarius A, and a cosmic cloud of gas called G2 that never happened. At first, astronomers were disappointed to realize that the impending explosion, which would occur if the collision had happened, was not going to take place. Later, though, they realized that there was a special reason that this cloud was able to pass by the black hole without being pulled into it. This is that the cloud was actually a star surrounded by gas and dust, and that said star was part of a binary system. Being bloated from a merger, or close encounter with a black hole, the cloud did not move in clumps, but rather streams, of material and therefore was able to negate the radiation of the black hole, or play "chicken," and remain relatively intact. The cloud is still in orbit now.

This finding is quite important to astronomy and humanity in general. Andrea Ghez, an astronomer, states, “It’s possible that many of the stars we’ve been watching and not understanding may be the end product of mergers that are calm now… We are starting to understand the physics of black holes in a way that has never been possible before.” Because they were able to figure this out, the possibilities of bloated stars being the products of mergers, which are what happens when binary systems pass too close to a black hole. Understanding this concept, scientists will be able to research aspects of stars that they have never been able to think about before because they had not understood this foundational concept. This finding will greatly increase our understanding of the world, and universe, around us, and will probably lead to even more significant discoveries in the future.

I thought that this article was well-written, but I found a few problems with it. While the author did a good job of explaining the big ideas in the piece, she did not provide explanation for many of the little things that readers might not know about. For instance, I found her explanation of a merger hard to understand. Another thing that I think the author of this article could have improved on would be providing background knowledge of the objects she mentioned. She could have described black holes in more detail or talked about other incidents of gas clouds to give us a greater understanding of the star passing the black hole. Although this article would be a bit hard for a beginner to understand, the author did a wonderful job of explaining this event and the significance behind it.

Doctors Mystified by Paralysis in Dozens of Children

The article that I read, Doctors Mystified by Paralysis in Dozens of Children, talks about mysterious cases of paralysis that are believed to be linked to a respiratory virus that has sickened thousands of young children in the last couple of months. The doctors call this sickness enterovirus 68, and though they suggest that it is the reason for the paralysis of dozens of children, a legitimate conclusion has not yet been made. The author also mentioned how this rare and random outbreak of enterovirus 68 is causing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to compile a group of data linked to the disease, so that it may be prevented. (The article noted in the fifth paragraph, that the mother of a four year old boy with the disease told how her son, who used to climb the jungle gyms started having trouble climbing onto the couch.) Not to worry though, Mark A. Pallansch, the director of the division of viral disease at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, “...it looks like whatever the chances are of getting this syndrome are less than one in a million.”

This article hits pretty close to the heart because anyone under the age of 21 is able to get it. I imagined what would happen if I got the disease and had to stop thinking about it because it made me very sad. If I was paralyzed, it would mean that I wouldn’t be able to play the sports I love, do fun activities with my friends, or even walk or write on my own (depending on where I would be paralyzed). Though it is rare, if doctors find out what is causing this disease, it could allow the public to be informed and precautious towards it.This article seemed to serve the purpose of informing me, and I’m sure others, about a disease that I wasn’t even aware existed.

In my opinion, I felt that this article was written very very well. The author gave a fantastic summary with lots of details in pretty much every sentence. No important information was missing and I had no questions about any part of the writing. There wasn’t a time when I was reading in which I didn’t understand what the disease was and its effect on children. I felt that the author was also very informative because he gave a few quotes for experts. This backed up all of the explanations that he gave and made me feel that this information is reliable. I also noticed that the author seemed to know a lot about what he was talking about and knew how to correctly portray the information in an understandable way to the reader.

Louis, Catherine Saint. "Doctors Mystified by Paralysis in Dozens of Children." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.

Can the World Really set Aside Half of the Planet for Wildlife?

 : http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/can-world-really-set-aside-half-planet-wildlife-180952379/?no-ist

Can the World Really Set Aside Half of the Planet for Wildlife?

Smithsonian,. 'Can The World Really Set Aside Half Of The Planet For Wildlife?'. N. p., 2014. Web. 5 Nov. 2014.

My current event is on an idea of evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson, to save Earth from the mass extinction that we are currently facing. To understand this, I will explain exactly what this extinction means: as of now, more than 75% of all life on the planet is threatened with extinction, from krill to coral to lions to eagles to elephants. Every hour, at least one species of animal or plant goes extinct. The only time such loss of biodiversity has ever happened at this scale is the Paleozoic-Mesozoic Extinction, also known as the Great Dying. During this extinction, almost 97% of all life died out. The 3% left over would eventually become all of the life currently alive today, including millions of extinct life forms. But now, species are dying on a scale that may actually eclipse the Great Dying, and one species is to blame: us. We happily destroy everything that we touch, all in the name of “progress”. However, Dr. Wilson has a plan to stop this devastation: setting aside a total of 50% of the planet for wildlife, with humans using the other 50%. Progress has already started on this plan in Florida, with logged pine forests being replanted and wildlife already moving in. In theory, large “wilderness corridors” will wrap around the planet, allowing for animals to have a safe haven to live.

I really liked this article because it showed so much potential for the project idea: half of the planet set aside for nature! However, I believe that humanity can do better: with the population density of New York, all the over 7 billion people on Earth could fit into an area the size of Texas. If we can achieve something like that, than maybe we could learn just how small we are compared with the rest of nature’s splendor, and give us all a much-needed lesson in humility.

posted for B. Sperber

Steps to Avoid Accidents

Steps to Avoid Accidents 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/04/science/steps-to-avoid-an-accident.html?ref=science

            The article that I read is about how Katie Hafner gives her advice on how to avoid accidents. Many people across the world continue to hurt themselves that could lead to serious injuries. Being careful will not prevent you from falling. Experts who have studied falls wish that people would take care of themselves as much as they do against heart disease or viral infections. Judy A Stevens, an epidemiologist at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention stressed about the important of exercise. She said, “ If you’re in better physical conditions, you’re less likely to be injured.” Doing regular exercises classes can help reduce the risk of an accident resulting in an injury. For example, simple exercises like standing on one foot or working with Bosu balls. In conclusion, experts would like to spread the idea of exercising, which could help reduce the risks of injuries. 

            This article is a good example of well written work. I believe that this article doesn’t need any improvements. It provides the perfect amount of information to help you understand the topic. After reading this article, I had a very good understanding of what the writer was trying to say.

            One thing that I found interesting about this article is that how simple the topic is. Before I read this article I thought to myself that this was a useless article and that I already know what the article is going to say. But once I started reading, I was really surprised about how a topic like this has so much information that I didn’t know about. Overall, I found this topic very interesting to read about.

Rush to Find Faster Diagnostic Test for Ebola

            http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/business/ebola-researchers-rush-to-find-a-fast-diagnostic-test.html

            In this article, Andrew Pollack talks about how scientists are attempting to find a diagnostic test to find out if someone has Ebola. Instead of having to take a large sample of blood from a patient, they are attempting to just require a finger prick of blood.  These quick tests would be useful in Africa and also in airports. They are not sure how long it will take to develop a test.

            This is significant to my personal life because they people that are coming from Africa to America, could be infected with Ebola. If they could find a quick way to check if you are infected then there would be much less risk with traveling from Africa. If more and more patients of Ebola enter the US, and they are not diagnosed quickly, then it could spread rapidly. It only takes one person to catch it from an unknown person for it to spread.

            To critique this article, I don’t think there is much to say. The author if this article gave a good summary in the beginning. Then talked about statistics and what this could do for the world. It was a very interesting and well written article. The only thing I could say, was that there were a few confusing sentences and words for readers of my age.

U.N. Employee Under Treatment for Ebola in France

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/03/world/europe/un-employee-under-treatment-for-ebola-in-france.html?ref=health

The article I read is about a U.N. employee in France who is undergoing treatment for Ebola.  The article states that this is the first and only case of Ebola in France as far as we know. This shows that the deadly virus is spreading to new places constantly. The patient was transferred to a high-end military hospital in France and is in isolation “under high security.” The article also includes worrying facts concerning the growing topic of Ebola such as that around 5,000 people have fallen victim to this deadly disease. Although most of those people were in West African countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinae, this is still a very scary statistic, especially because of the worldwide spread of the disease.

This article has great significance to not only me, but also, the entire world. Ebola is a worldwide concern right now and has potential to be a very devastating disease. The fact that it is spreading to new places constantly is very worrying to me and to most people that have talked about it. The fact alone that Ebola has killed about 5,000 people already is quite frightening. Just the fact that the governments of countries in which people are diagnosed with Ebola (besides Africa) quarantine the infected show that there is a strong concern for the safety of people. This is especially scary to us here in New York because of the newly infected doctor in our state. Although he is in quarantine, it is still scary to think about.

This article was not a very good one. The author made it very short and did not provide the information that the reader wanted to hear about. This article only included one statistic and I feel that the author could have implemented some more statistics like the one used in this article. Finally, to me, this article seemed a little disoriented. At first it is talking about the patient it is focusing on however, later on in the article it talks about some other patient which is not a significant part of the article. 

Posted for T. Baxter

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Crashes in New Setback for Commercial Spaceflight

William Bogatyrenko                                                                                     November 1, 2014

Core Chemistry                                                                                              Current Events 5

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/01/science/virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo-crashes-during-test-flight.html?ref=science&_r=0

            The article I read was called Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Crashes in New Setback for Commercial Spaceflight, by Kenneth Chang and John Schwartz.  It was about how the rocket plane SpaceShipTwo, financed by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and designed and built by the company Scaled Composites, crashed on Friday during a test flight in the Mojave Desert.  Virgin Galactic is one of the leaders in the space tourism business, and SpaceShipTwo was one of the test planes for commercial flights into the edge of space.  Richard Branson was hoping to begin tourist flights next spring, and people, such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Justin Bieber, have already reserved spots on the plane, which cost between $200,000 and $250,000 per seat.  On the test flight, SpaceShipTwo was carried to 50,000 feet by WhiteKnightTwo, a larger plane, and then dropped.  SpaceShipTwo was using a new plastic-based fuel, as opposed to the earlier rubber-based fuel used by Virgin Galactic.  All of the non-fueled test flights had been a success, but this was only the fourth time the spacecraft was powered and its motor was ignited.  Even though these accidents are scary, they are not deterring ticket holders.

            This article is significant to humanity because it shows how technologically advanced humanity is.  There will be commercial space flights very soon, and hopefully the ticket prices will be a lot cheaper than $200,000 in a few years.  Once we start commercial flights into space, we could go farther into space than just the edge, where you don’t have an orbit.  Maybe in the future, there will be commercial flights to the moon.  This would allow for more research on foreign planets as well.  For example, NASA could send humans to mars and research materials there.  This could lead to a new chapter in space discovery.  We could develop new technologies that allow astronauts to go farther into space than ever before, maybe leading them to discover a new planet that is able to be inhabited by humans.

            The authors could have done a lot more things to make this article better.  For example, they could have given examples of the problems this crash created.  The authors also could have given examples or predictions of the setbacks this crash will create for Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites, as well as what competitors Virgin Galactic has, how close they are to a commercial flight, and how this crash will help or hurt them.  For example, the crash might help Virgin Galactic’s competitors if their test flights have not yet crashed—they could say that their space flights are safer, causing Virgin Galactic to lose customers and their competitors to gain customers.  The crash might hurt other commercial space flight companies because people might think that all space flights are dangerous, causing all of the companies to lose business.