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on The Great Swamp of NJ

Black Holes

This video may do a better job at explaining black holes than I do. I watched the entire video with my brother and it is actually quite interesting even though it seems long.

Earlier today, when I was having an analytical conversation with my father, I started pondering the topic of black holes. There was a recent article on Yahoo titled "Baby photos from the ultimate edge — a black hole." According to this article, a nearby star exploded into a supernova in 1979, and scientists now believe that a black hole is developing due to the fact that debris and gassy remnants left behind from the exploded star, are being sucked out of sight. This article also says that in the past 30 years, this black hole has devoured about as much as the Earth's mass! This really took me by surprise. According to the entire universe and space, this is probably a very small ratio. However, in my eyes this would be a little baby eating an entire Thanksgiving meal by himself. This black hole is said to be 50 million light years away from the earth and is five times the size of our sun. The star that gave birth to this black hole was about 20 times larger than our sun! This greedy black hole is gorging up as much as it can, and leaving scientists to believe that discovery is most probably a black hole.

This article intrigued and i wanted to learn some more research on black hole. To start with, what are black wholes? This was the first question I had to ask myself.

Information on black holes is very confined however there are several theories on what black holes are. We believe that black holes are created when a red super giant star collapses. Black holes are colossal areas of compiled mass with an unyielding gravitational force which prevent anything around it from passing. Unfortunately, there is not much proven information on black holes and it is a conundrum that is taking the best of my curiosity.

I was very provoked by how vague the information available on black holes was. I will add to this post as I continue exploring the obscurity behind black holes.

Websites I used

http://www.space.com/blackholes/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101115/ap_on_sc/us_sci_baby_black_hole_3

Baby owl regurgitating an Owl Pellet

I found this video on youtube and you can clearly see the owl pellet. Sorry about all the extra noises that are heard in the background, but the quality of the video is awsome!

The Sun: Pros & Cons

(This blog post is based on the article
Catch 22: "People Who Aviod the Sun Lack Vitamin D" by Christopher Wanjek.
http://www.livescience.com/health/sun-exposure-vitamin-d-deficiency-101018.htmlcience.com/health/sun-exposure-vitamin-d-deficiency-101018.html)

In a recent study, doctors advised patients, who were inclined to developing skin cancer, to stay out of the sun and put sun-screen on whenever they were exposed to the sun. As a result, this group had drastically lower levels of vitamin D than another controlled group in the study. This shows that avoiding and being overprotective from the sun, results in lower levels of vitamin D. This could result in illnesses like bone fractures, heart disease, and other forms of cancers. On the other hand, unsafe exposure to the sun can also cause skin cancer.
Now this can be a perplexing situation. If you have fair skin, then you should avoid too much exposure to the sun. However, if you are going to turn away from the sun, then you have to make sure you are recieving a healthy amount of vitamin D in your diet or through supplementation. This can become a convoluted situation because there are not many foods which provide vitamin D. According to livescience.com, "no one is can determine the precise dividing line between healthy and dangerous sun exposure."

Foods that provide a source of vitamin D

Hidden Ecology in the Holiday House

Some may wonder how a book like "The Thief of Always," connects to ecology. As we all know, every little thing in this world is somehow connected to science, and if we carefully look for clues in the text, we may find simple imstances that connect to ecology.

In "The Thief of Always," Harvey is a young boy who is bored of his life. February seems to be a lifeless and insipid month with a never ending mass of dark, dismal skies. Harvey is desperate to go to a place of excitement where the sun is always shining and everyday is exhilarating. This all changes when Rictus, a minion from the Holiday House, comes to Harvey's rescue. Harvey is taken to the Holiday House, a rapturous house filled with surprises, mysteries, and illusions. This unprecentented house has all four seasons in a period of which we infer is twenty-four hours.

The seasons that take place at the holiday house all connect to ecology as well as all the foods that the boys are devouring delightfuly.

In the morning, when Harvey wakes up, buds are sprouting on the trees and the aroma of sweet flowers tickle Harvey's sences. By high noon, the sun is high in the sky and the heat is overwhelming. By supper, the withered leaves have fallen and you can feel the scrunch underneath your feet. As Harvey prepares for his bed, he is pleasantly welcomed by winter. A soft blanket of snow covers the Holiday House as Harvey drifts into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Obviously, we all know that this isn't known to be possible in real life. However, the changes in seasons and Harvey's interactions with his enviornment does relate to ecology.

Ecology is "the branch of biology dealing with the relations and interactions between organisms and their enviornment, including other organisms"(http://www.dictionary.com/). In this book, we see how Harvey reacts, adapts, and changes according to his enviornment. The seasons cause him to change his clothing and eat different types of food. For instance, at night, when it's winter, Harvey and Wendell bundle up in warm clothes and eat hot foods. Where as during lunch, Mrs. Griffin, the cook, probably fed them something refreshing which kept them cool from the hot summer sun. This is how humans adapt to their enviornment. When Harvey and Wendell eat meat and vegetables, they are also part of the global foodweb. In addition, all the characters, such as Rictus and Jive, have roles and jobs that they are obliged to do for Mr. Hood. This is like the Nich of an organism in the eco-system. Lastly, the aberrent fish in the mysterious lake is a population of kids. Population is also another term which connects to ecology. Population is the number of organisms in an area. In this case, it is the population of fish in the lake.

Who knew that our lit. book could connect to ecology in so many ways!!! :)

Symbiotic Relation

Symbiosis a a close relation between to organisms which is beneficial to atleast one of the organisms. The three different types of symbiotic relations are mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism. Mutualism is a relation in which both species benefit. Commensalism is when only one of the species benefits however, the other organism is neither harmed nor helped. Lastly, parasitism is when an organism lives in or on an other sprganism and the other organism is harmed.
The picture on the right is some poison ivy I found on a tree, in my backyard. (Remember, "Raggy rope, Don't be a dope!"). Poison ivy is an example of a mutualistic relationship. For example, poison ivy is a defense mechanism for a plant or tree because it drives away predators. In turn, the poison ivy feeds on the tree and recieves nutrients.

Biotic Limiting Factor

The picture above is a biotic limiting factor found in my community. I will comment to the name of this plant once I find out. This plant is a living factor because during the summer, there are flowers which are pollinated by bees and other insects. The leaves are also eaten by other animals such as deer. In addition, the plant is home to populations of insects, bugs, and worms in the soil. Plants also needs several abiotic factors to survive. For instanse it needs, oxygen, water, sunlight, a proper temperature, and soil. These are the only five natural abiotic factors that exsist in this entire world.