Tenth Blog

As Al Gore once referenced: "Junkies find veins in their toes when the ones in their arms and legs collapse, developing tar sands and coal shale is the equivalent." I thought this quote was a good metaphor for how oil companies continue to exploit the earths oil. Humans seem dedicated to sucking up all of Earths oil and burning it into the atmosphere as fast as possible. The Earth is not what is vulnerable here, what is however is Earths atmosphere. A layer of paint on a basketball is about the same thickness as the atmosphere is on the Earth. That is how thin our atmosphere is and without an atmosphere so much of the life on Earth would not be able to exist.

There is a unanimous agreement among the scientific community that our polar caps are shrinking at a rate never seen before and that our global temperature is rising. Scientists are saying if these trends don't change soon irreversible damage could be done. We have the capability to make great changes toward providing a more sustainable source of energy. Solar panels have been popping up more in areas that catch a lot of sunlight. There are no real disadvantages to becoming more solar energy dependent. Whenever you have an oil spill it is a catastrophe, but when there is a solar energy spill all you have is a sunny day.

 Ninth Blog

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm Germany. He was the man who developed the E=mc^2 formula. Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared, what does that mean? I imagine that I am standing on a rock that is moving at the speed of light through space, while standing on the speeding rock I shine a flashlight out in front of me. The light particles coming out of my flashlight would be multiplied by the speed of light, which I am already moving at. So what would that have to do with the rest of Einsteins formula? I have no clue, I am simply trying to understand some of what Einstein might have been thinking.

Einstein was very famous and is widely acclaimed of being a genius physicist. What i like about Einstein are his quotes such as "the true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination" and "look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better". Ive found Einsteins wisdom to be very interesting and i feel that he could see the world in a different way than most others. His contributions will continue to inspire and provoke thought in many people for years to come.

Eighth Blog

 The Sun sits at the center of our solar system it is the single most important provider of life of on Earth. Without the Suns warmth and energy there would have never been life on Earth. Imagine if the Sun went away, all trees and plants would quickly die off and the more resilient life would only linger for a short time. It would take some time for the volcanic lava in the center of the Earth to cool off  and for the oceans to freeze but over time Earth would become a giant ice ball.

Although nearly all life we can see would simply cease to exist without the Sun, there are some forms of life that could survive. Microorganisms like chemoautotrophs that exist at the bottoms of our seas, and spores which have the ability to survive space travel could exist under the most extreme conditions. However it is unlikely that anything could thrive on a dry and barren planet without heat and water.

The Sun is about 4.5 billion years old which is roughly half of its lifespan and as time goes on the Sun will increase in temperature and brightness. The elements that the Sun is composed of are about 70% hydrogen 28% helium and a small 2% metals. 99.8% of the mass in our solar system is contained by the Sun and the rest by Jupiter.

Life on Earth as we know it is completely dependent upon the sun. Trees and plants rely on the Suns energy to give them nutrients. Humans need the organic life on Earth to provide oxygen and an atmosphere. Earth is in a delicate balance with the Sun and has been for a long time. Who knows if humanity will hang around long enough to see what the sun will become.

Seventh Blog
John Lennon was a member of a band called the Beatles which was one of the most popular musical groups ever. In my opinion John was the most talented of the four Beatles. He was responsible for writing most of the songs played by the Beatles.

Although the wave of the Beatles came and went before i was even born, their work will always be a huge part of our culture. While growing up I have listened to many of the Beatles songs and i have come to greatly appreciate them. Every now and again when i hear a Beatles song it will take me back to an earlier time in my life.

 When the Beatles were becoming famous they began to influence the world with their music. Some of the songs John Lennon wrote include "Imagine" and "In my life" which i feel show just how amazing of a mind John had. Although John was very much a peace activist, he could easily let his temper get the best of him. This could be seen in the song "How do you sleep" where John is tearing into Paul McCartney.

After the Beatles broke up John continued to create songs on his own such as "Jealous guy", "Mind games" and many others which i have also come to like very much. When i look at what John has created I think that he was of a higher caliber than most other people. It is so sad that someone of such influence and talent had to die by gunfire and yet this does not surprise me.

Sixth Blog

The person i will be writing about is Isaac Newton. Newton was a mathematician and physicist who lived in England from January 4, 1643 to March 31 1727. From what i know about Newton he was a very talented person who's accomplishments have been influencing scientists to this day. Some of Newtons most revered works focused on the laws of gravity, optics, and calculus. Newton put forth ideas that although were controversial served a huge role in the scientific revolution of the 1700's. Newton is well known for his law of gravitation

which is clearly complex and fascinating. Another thing Newton is know for is discovering that white light is composed of the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. Newton also served in the development of calculus which people today are still trying to learn.

Newton had a very philosophical outlook on the universe which could be seen in his works. He was a big part of shaping the foundation of physics and arguably one of the greatest physicists to have ever lived, along with Albert Einstein.

After researching some of Newtons works i am motivated to know more about him and to understand more of what his works were saying. Newton's insights clearly have helped our understanding of the laws of the universe.

Fifth Blog

Recently NASA has announced evidence of water has been discovered on Mars. This discovery has made a great impact on the scientific community. If water were to be obtained from Mars it would revolutionize the way scientists view the possibility of life once existing on Mars and just maybe existing once again. However if water was found, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty would prohibit any attempt at getting close to the water due to the possibility of contamination.

A discovery that suggests life favorable water once existed on Mars is an outcrop of Iron-magnesium carbonates which are made when water comes into contact with magma. Another suggestive discovery are the many patterns on Mars's surface that are strongly believed to have been created by the flow of water. Finding water in liquid formation could be very difficult because of the temperature (average of -63°C) and pressure (0.6% that of Earths) on Mars. However there are still circumstances that could grant the possibility of liquid water existing under those conditions.



The possibility of Mars one day harboring life is very fascinating and it seems where there is water there is life. I am inclined to believe nothing is impossible and i will look forward to future discoveries with great excitement.

 Fourth Blog

Lately i have been interested in the Large Hadron Collider. The LHC is the worlds largest particle accelerator. Its intention is to help answer questions about basic principles of physics. The machine lies nearly 574 feet underground and resides inside of a tunnel 17 miles in circumference. What the Large Hadron Collider does is it accelerates particles up to nearly the speed of light and then slams the particles into each other in order to simulate conditions that would have been present during the big bang.

Three smaller rings that are attached to the LHC are used to increase the speed of the particles before releasing them into the largest ring. While in these smaller rings the particles will become heavier and more closely bunched together. In under 90 microseconds a proton will have made full trip around the large ring which is about 11,000 rotations per second.
One of the most remarkable discoveries made with the help of the Large Hadron Collider is the Higgs boson particle. This particle was one of the final missing steps in the standard model of particle physics. This particle has been nicknamed the "god particle" because without it the universe would be lifeless. Clearly the Large Hadron Collider and all of the study surrounding it is extremely complicated.