Current events 1

"Garbage collectors in space!"
By: Stephen Ornes
Published on September 21st, 2011
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2011/09/wanted-garbage-collectors-in-space/

As we all know, space junk is everywhere. Garbage in space is circulating our planet, and scientists say that it is time to clean up space, if we intend on keeping our satellites and astronauts safe. This garbage contains different kinds of things, including broken satellites, pieces of rockets, as well as gloves and cameras that astronauts have accidently dropped. This problem keeps on getting worse, and every year the amount of space garbage is increasing. Big space companies, like NASA, are starting to worry that the garbage, which includes even the tiniest bits of trash, could cause serious damage to the spacecraft.
In  studies that have recently taken place, scientists from the University of Southampton, England, have come to the conclusion that if every year the ten biggest pieces of space junk were removed, the rate at which space junk is growing could be dramatically decreased. The biggest piece of space junk is the size of a fridge. However, not all space junk is in space. Sometimes, a piece of a rocket flies straight down to our planet, and doesn't get burnt up by the atmosphere, so it continues to orbit very close to the Earth. This type of junk is called orbital debris. This type of garbagr can cause serious damage to the satellites that cost millions of dollars to make and put into orbit. In 2009, a Russian and American satellite crashed into each other, sending 2,000 pieces of space junk into our planet's orbit. NASA and other companies have been trying ever since to remove all the big pieces left from the collison, so that they do not damage the other satellites, but without any luck.
Another problem is that friction is the only thing that is keeping the space junk from entering our atmosphere (the Earth's orbit) is friction. Friction increases the chance that space junk will burn up before it comes to our atmosphere. However, with more emissions of greenhouse gasses and carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, the thermosphere, which is a layer in the upper atmosphere, becomes less dense. With the lack of density, the friction also drops, which increases the chance of space junk hitting something.
 However, it is very difficult to remove space junk, and it is said that the space "clean-up" will probably not take place in the next few years, mainly because we still do not have the required technology to perform the clean-up of orbital debris and space garbage. But, if scientists and NASA specialists do not start cleaning up space, soon the chances of a deadly, dangerous collision are going to get very high.

Periodic table(s) of metals and nonmetals, and all the groups

Scientific Summer Vacation!

This year, I have spent a great deal of my summer at the sea, so I decided to tell you about going diving, as well as swimming, sun-bathing, and other simple but very scientific activities. Firstly, I would like to talk about sun-bathing. The only thing most people know about sun-bathing is that when we stay on the sun for a while (with sun cream on) we could get a tan, or the color of our skin could get darker. However, there is much more science to it then that. The sun rays that we are actually sun-bathing under are actually called UV rays. UV rays are rays that are emitted from the sun, and that are part of the energy that comes from the sun. UV rays can be very helpful, because they contain vitamin D, which is very good for our imune system, as well as for strengthening our bones and teeth. However, if you are too exposed to the sun, you can get really bad sunburn!  When you are over-exposed to UV rays, your skin cells get very damaged. Blood rushes to the part of your body that is burnt, in an attemp to cool it down, and the skin starts peeling away. UV rays can also cause skin cancer, as well as eye damage (cataracts), if you are exposed to them for too long.





Next, I would like to talk about diving, and the things I saw. I didn't go professional scuba diving, but I still saw some pretty interesting creatures and things by diving in the more shallow parts of the sea with my friends :) When I went diving, I saw a quite a few empty plastic bottles around, and for this blog post, I decided to research exactly how much harm does plastic in oceans cause to our planet. Plastic is made out of polyethylene, which is a material that can be quite harmful. Plastic usually takes a very long time to degrade, or cannot degrade at all. This can be quite harmful for the animals in the water, as they can mistake the plastic for food, and poison themselves. After some time, however, plastic can degrade, and then polyethylene could then cause even more harm.

Moving away from the negative things, I would like to talk about one creature I saw, among all the other fish. One creature I saw a lot of was the seas urchin, so I would like to talk about what this creature it, how it lives, etc. :) Sea urchins inhabit all oceans, and they are classified as echinoidea. Even though it might sound strange, sea urchins actually have five pairs of modified tube feet, that surround the mouth. Sea urchins have endoskeletons, which form when the sea urchin is still in the larval stage. The most well-known part of the sea urchin are it's spines. The spines can create a big wound, but are not that dangerous, because they are not toxic. Sea urchins do not have eyes, but they do sense light, touch and chemicals. Sea urchins are omnivores, meaning that they eat both plants and animals. They eat algae, sea cucumbers, as well as mussels and brittle stars. Sea urchins usually have a VERY long life expectancy.