Bubonic Plague and HIV???

Did your ancestors survive the Bubonic Plague during the Middle Ages? If so, some scientists suggest that you may have a genetic resistance to HIV infection.

Why? Scientists think perhaps a genetic mutation may have prevented the plague from killing part of the population of Europe during the Middle Ages. Mutations on the CCR5 (delta 32) gene prevented the plague bacterium from binding to the white blood cells in people with the mutation.

Scientists are testing their hypothesis that descendents of those survivors may prove resistant to infection from HIV.

Proving this theory requires historical and genealogical research as well as scientific research.

Ask Mrs. Nowell (8th grade Math) if you want to learn more. She may have a plague-survivor ancestor!

Particle Mania!

The Large Hadron Collider is back up and running.

Already particles are slamming into each other at the greatest speeds ever achieved. Scientists are hoping to find answers to fundamental physics questions about the nature of the matter that makes up the universe and how the universe began.

Sci-fi buffs have had fun speculating that the collider might cause a black hole that would swallow our solar system (it didn't!) or that it is being sabotaged from the future. (Well, a bird did drop a small piece of a baguette into the collider...)

Anyway, stay tuned for updates!

Go where you wanna go; do what you wanna do...

In the 21st century your parents and teachers tell you that you can be anything you want when you grow up. Well, anything you're willing to put the work into anyway... This was not so in the middle ages.

Medieval children could only look forward to doing the same job as their parents. The majority of people were peasants or serfs, people who were bound to the land. They couldn't move to a new farm or become a blacksmith.

Do your parents do the same job as their parents did? Would like to do the job your parents do? Ask them what they like about their job and whether they think you would be good at a job like that.

Consider whether you'd like to do that job someday. Then be thankful that you have a choice!

So you think the H1N1 flu is bad...

Imagine a time before vaccinations. Imagine a time when physicians didn't know what caused illness. Imagine a time before the FDA tested medicine to make sure it was safe and effective.

In the last half of the 14th century, the plague devastated Western Europe. There was no treatment available except for a primitive form of quarantine which was not very effective. By the beginning of the 15th century, the population is estimated to have been reduced by 30% to 60%.

Look at the people on either side of you in the classroom. If you lived during the middle ages, chances are that one or both of them would succumb to the plague.

Science fiction... or fact?

Do science fiction stories ever come true? The answer may be yes.

In 1979, Arthur C. Clarke wrote a story involving a space elevator. He envisioned a structure tall enough to lift payloads into space without the use of rockets. Obviously an impossible idea, right?

Maybe not. Three teams of engineers will spend this week in the Mojave Desert competing for the $2 million prize NASA is offering for anyone who can build an elevator able to ascend one kilometer up a tether while hauling a heavy payload.

Will they succeed? Maybe. There are problems to work out, but scientists think it will be a reality during our lifetimes.

What impossible dreams do you have? Let me know. I'd love to see if scientists like you all can make them come true!

The fun theory

If things that you needed to do were fun, would you be more inclined to get them done? That's the idea behind the fun theory.

People take the stairs more often if stairs look like piano keys and play a tune as you step on them. People recycle bottles more often if the recycle bin lights up and gives them points.

Can you think of tasks that you could make more fun? There is a contest at http://thefuntheory.com. The winner gets E2,500 -- that's euros, not dollars. Look at the exchange rate and enter to win!

NASA App

NASA has provided a new app which allows iPhone, iPod Touch users to track its missions. It also provides access to NASA's image database and Twitter feeds.

NASA says the app is part of effort to make their news and events more accessible to the public.

So sign up and see what NASA is tweeting about!

Off for Ares, maybe...

NASA plans to try again today to launch Ares I-X. The weather might be a problem, though. It's raining and lightning now, but if it clears before noon the launch will happen.

The unmanned Ares I-X is a part of the Constellation Program, which is developing new spaceships to replace the space shuttles.

This spaceship is an important part of NASA's mission to send astronauts to the moon and Mars.

Anybody ready to get on board and go?

Managing Martians...

I had breakfast on Saturday with Donna Shirley. You may not know her name, but you have seen her work. She was the manager of the Mars Exploration Program and the leader of the team that built the Sojourner rover.

She wrote a book Managing Martians: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman's Lifelong Quest to get to Mars. I plan to order it and read it. You can borrow it if you want to after I finish!

She hopes that girls will be inspired to go into fields requiring math and science. She said that math was her worst subject in school, but that since she knew she needed it for engineering she worked until she learned it. Let me know if you are interested in learning more about girls' opportunities in engineering or other sciences.

See more at her website: http://www.managingcreativity.com/

New knees and hearts for sale?

A British scientific project has developed a way to build medical spare parts for people that will stop the body's aging at 50, even as they continue to rack up birthdays. This would give your grandparents the ability to be as active and fit as your parents. This program uses the body's own ability to regenerate around donated cartilage, heart valves, blood vessels and other tissues.

If this program is successful, what changes will it make to cities of the future. What will we need more of? Less of? Do you think it is a good thing for us to work towards? Let me know what you think.

Thirty-two new planets!

Well, they're not actually in our solar system, so don't get too excited. Called exoplanets (planets outside the solar system), the 32 new ones announced yesterday join the 400 total that scientists have discovered in their search for life throughout the universe. Do you think that life will be discovered on Mars or one of these other planets? Let me know what you think!

Goodbye to the polar bears?

What's happening at the North Pole? Recent research suggests that the Arctic Ocean will be "largely ice free" during summer within the next ten years and will have no ice cover at all within the next 20 years. Polar bears won't be able to exist without the ice cover.

Wildlife endangerment aside, what other effects will the melting have? Do you think that it will effect our cities of the future?

Power to the future!

Nanotechnology is helping scientists make reality out of some pretty crazy ideas. Who would have thought you could power your cell phone by walking to school or harvest the energy provided by a hamster running in his cage? Other ideas are things like spray on batteries and powering a computer with the movements of your fingers typing. Scientists think some of these ideas may be ready within three years, so don't toss out your recyclable batteries yet!

Mad scientist, dreamer, visionary, OH, MY!

Pliny Fisk III has been called a "mad scientist," a "dreamer" and a "visionary," according to reporters at CNN. He describes his architectural work as "crazy."

See if you agree with that assessment.

Fisk is trying to develop environmentally-sustainable building materials and to change the way our communities are built. Because of this, he is now considered to be an important voice of the future.

Fisk's latest invention is an environmentally friendly cement he calls "megacrete." It will be made of magnesium oxide and phosphate from brine, which is a by-product of petroleum and water treatment facilities. In other words, he's making buildings out of waste products.

Check out the CNN article on Mr. Fisk and let me know what you think in a comment.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/10/13/going.green.pliny.fisk/index.html

Does your future hold a 3-D television?

Sony and Panasonic say they plan to release home 3-D television systems in 2010. Yes, the 2010 that starts in a couple of months. Mitsubishi and JVC have reported that they are planning 3-D televisions. According to the reports, the new televisions won't cost much more than the high-end sets available now.

A Panasonic executive vice president, Robert Perry compared the switch from 2-D to 3-D television to the early 1960's switch from black and white television to color, and the switch from standard-definition to HD televisions.

ESPN is testing 3-D television for sports by recording some events using cameras with two sets of lenses. They say it would make it look like the football players were jumping out of the screen.

Do you think your family would like to have one of these new TVs? Would you watch television more? Should you watch television more??? Leave some comments on what you think about this invention that is set to arrive in the very near future!

It's a success!

NASA said the LCROSS moon strike was a success, kicking up enough dust for scientists to determine the water of the moon. It will be a while before they have the final analysis of the data. When the results are out, let us know in a comment!

Look up at the moon tomorrow!

NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, is set to crash into the lunar surface Friday morning, October 9, 2009 at 6:30 am central time. The crash will be visable through a mid-sized backyard telescope if you have one (and if you miss school to stay home and observe!)

NASA hopes to be able to study the 6 mile plume of debris kicked up by the crash to learn more about the water content, hydrogen compounds and clays. After about four minutes, a second part of the satellite will crash on the lunar surface and throw up a second debris plume.

Mystery challenge!

The Mars Polar Lander was launched on January 3, 1999 by NASA. It went silent when it was about to land on Mars. What happened to it? Why did it happen?

Another mystery: What is ALH84001 and what did scientists first think it was?

Comment below and let us know. The first one to post will win a prize!

Supersized Rings

Check out the latest in supersized rings around Saturn. Scientists used to think there were just seven bands of rings (D, C, B, A, F, G, and E -- I think you all could have come up with more creative names for those bands of rings!) Do you know why they're not in alphabetical order? The first one to comment with the answer will get a prize!

NASA announced today that their Spritzer Space Telescope has discovered a massive ring outside the bands they knew about. They think that about a billion Earths would be required to fill that space! If we could see the ring it would be about as wide as two of our Moons, one on either side of Saturn!

NASA has provided an artist's drawing of the ring. Check it out and get more information at:

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/oct/HQ_09-231_Spitzer.html

So, you've decided to go to Mars...

Hunter found a wonderful way for us to actually go to Mars! Well, maybe that's a bit misleading. At least our names can actually go.

Go to the NASA website below and fill in your information. Your name will be included with others on a microchip on the Mars Science Laboratory rover heading to Mars in 2011!

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/participate/sendyourname/

Why should we want to go to Mars?

I found a Thinkquest site that may help you think why we might want to go to Mars. Write a comment and let me know why you might want to go...

http://library.thinkquest.org/C004044/why.htm

We Robots!

Seventh Grade Enrichment students have had robots on the brain. Well, not literally, of course, though robot assisted surgery makes that a possiblity! Scientists are even working on nanobots that can be swallowed. Inside the patients, these tiny machines will self-assemble and perform surgery by remote control!

We've researched robots and learned Asimov's three laws of robotics. I'm trying to talk everyone into reading Ray Bradbury's short story "The Electric Grandmother." I want a robot like that!

Using the Legos Mindstorms robot assembly parts and the school computers, 7th graders are building robots and programming them to knock cans out of a 36" circle. Some robots have rotating claws while others have crab-like pincers or bulldozer type front ends. The robots move at different speeds, different directions and even do little dances. Competition ends tomorrow.

One of the fun aspects of learning about robots has been the short stories that have been written. Our students are so amazingly creative. I'll ask our authors to post some stories in the comments.

Whew! We're all back, safe and sound.

Sixth grade Enrichment has been stranded on islands in groups of four for the last few weeks. They showed amazing resiliance and imagination in their ability to survive using only the contents of their backpacks and the assets the islands offered. But now it is good to be home...

But not for long! Our next trip is to Mars and that should really be an interesting trip. I wonder what the living conditions would be like on Mars. Will I be able to breathe? What is the climate like? Is there any gravity? Why would I even want to go there?

One of my favorite authors is Ray Bradbury. He wrote a book of short stories called The Martian Chronicles. When he wrote those stories, many things that we know now about Mars were yet to be discovered. Read some of the stories if you get a chance and revel in the delight of violet water and Earthset. You might also want to check out Orson Wells' radio broadcast adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds. It is an exciting story about an invasion of aliens from Mars. Originally broadcast on Hallowe'en in 1938, it caused widespread panic around the country.

If you learn anything interesting about Mars, leave it in a comment so that everyone else can read it. I look forward to hearing from you!