How are metals used in our bodies?

How are metals used in our bodies?

Metals are used across the world in many different ways, they are used in the making of structures, computers and body replacements like titanium joints. Titanium joints were introduced around the 1950s and are still a common thing today. Titanium has almost perfect properties for body part replacement, for example, it is immune to corrosion, non-magnetic (meaning it isn't attracted to other metals), lighter than steel, a high boiling and melting point (meaning on a hot day it's not just gonna boil or melt inside you). 

However, titanium is also used in other things to do with the body other than joints. Titanium teeth (dental implants) is a two-stage process used to replace missing teeth. First, a titanium implant is put into each of the empty where a tooth used to be. If a tooth was recently removed you will not be able to get an implant there for 6-8 weeks as the dentists will want to watch out for any inflammation or infection. 8 weeks after this your gum is opened and the dentists will place an abutment then the gum is re-closed. 1-2 weeks afterwards the gums should have healed and teeth look-alikes are placed inside your mouth to make it look like you have normal teeth. 

We in a way also have natural "metals" in our body's. One of these is of course calcium. However like every other "metal" in our body, it is not in a solid-state, in fact, it is just an ion with a plus +2 charge. Some natural metals inside our body are quite crucial for our survival. Cobalt ions are crucial in making red blood cells while iron can transport oxygen and other chemicals in our body. Calcium helps with bone strength, nerve function and blood clotting. There are two types of important metals in our body's, major minerals and trace minerals. Major minerals are needed in large quantities inside our body whereas trace minerals aren't found in as large quantities. Major minerals include calcium, chloride, magnesium and potassium to name a few. Trace minerals include chromium, copper, fluoride, iodine and iron to name a few. Both types are equally important in our health the only difference is the quantity you find.

Earths Magnetic Field

Earths Magnetic Field

The earth's magnetic field is an invisible layered shield around earth's atmosphere it protects us and the atmosphere from dangerous particles coming from space. However, it does not stop things such as gamma rays. Without it we would not be alive, but how does it "stop" these particles?

Let's start with looking at how it reacts to solar winds. The solar wind is created when the temperature of the outer layer of a star reaches 1.1 million degrees this temperature causes the particles to move at extremely fast speeds. Because of this incredibly increased movement, the suns gravity can not contain all of them so a lot of them break off and begin travelling in random directions creating a "wind". These groups of particles are called plasma. The plasma radiate extremely deadly amounts of radiation. When these particles hit the earth they would pretty much end life as we know it. There could be a few survivors and a possible rebuild but most of all life on earth would be destroyed. However, our magnetic field stops these particles from hitting us.

The solar wind mainly consists of two groups of particles, Alpha particles and Beta particles. Alpha particles are made when the nucleus of an unstable radioactive atom let's 2 protons and neutrons go. These two protons and neutrons then form the alpha particle. This process can also change the element of the unstable atom, for example, Plutonium which has 94 protons will become Uranium with 92 protons. Alpha particles are very weak in fact they can't even penetrate paper! Beta particles are made from beta decay. There are two types of beta decay one being beta minus decay and the other being beta plus decay. Beta minus decay is when a neutron in the nucleus of an unstable atom turns into an electron, proton and Antineutrino. The electron and Antineutrino fly away creating a beta particle while the nucleus gains a proton and changes elements based on that. Eg: Carbon with 6 protons can turn into nitrogen with 7 protons. Beta-decay plus is mostly the same except the atoms end with one less proton also changing its element. Once these particles in the solar wind hit a magnetic field they are each attracted to different parts of the field. There are positive parts of the field and negative parts of the field, Alpha particles are attracted to the negative parts of the field whereas beta particle are attracted to the positive part of the fields.

Every now and then (more common when the sun has reached a solar maximum in its 11-year cycle) the sun will shoot a larger burst of plasma, this is known as a CME or Coronal Mass Ejection. When a normal solar wind and a CME combine it can cause massive damage to the planet. In fact, it pushes our magnetic field on the backside causing our field to sometimes push together in parts. Charged particles would then stream towards the magnetic poles creating an Aurora Borealis in the upper regions.

Many planets do not have a magnetic field like we do, therefore solar winds and CME's ravage their planet leaving them mostly barren. It is believed this is because of the core of each floating rock. It is believed that in the middle of the earth is a solid core made mostly of iron. This iron is as hot as the surface of the sun but the pressure of gravity down there keeps it from melting. The deeper you go into the earth the bigger the pressure, this is a big reason why we haven't explored all the ocean or gone too deep into the ground. Surrounding this is the outer core which is made of iron and other metals but the pressure is too low to keep it solid therefore the metals there are liquid. Despite the iron being liquid it still conducts the flow of electrons that make up electrical current very well. This flow then creates a magnetic field around the earth.

Making Sherbet

Making Sherbet

Aim: To make Sherbet with dry ingredients.

Equipment required: A small bag to contain the Sherbet, a tablespoon, a teaspoon, raro, icing sugar, baking soda, citric acid and tartaric acid.



Method: 

1.  Gather all your ingredients.
2. Get your plastic bag and then pour in a tablespoon of raro and icing sugar.
3. Pour a teaspoon of baking soda, citric acid and tartaric acid.
4. Seal the bag and begin to shake it for a minute or two until it looks like it is properly mixed.
5. Taste it then repeat (if you wish). To not eat too much of it in a day otherwise you will get Diarrhea. If it tastes a bit to bitter add more acid and if it tastes to sour add some more baking soda.

The science behind what happens

You will notice that once water makes contact with the mixture it begins to foam. This is a chemical reaction where the saliva from your mouth, in this case, causes the citric acid crystals to dissolve. Meanwhile, the citric acid is also reacting with the bicarbonate of soda (baking soda). This is because when an acid reacts with water the protons dissociate and spread out in the water these protons are H+ (Hydrogen) ions. Once this is done the acid will decompose because of it's losing of protons. The base (bicarbonate of soda) will then begin to take in these H+ ions. This reaction produces carbon dioxide which makes a fizzy feeling on your tongue. This reaction can be written as NaHCO3 (aq) + C6H8O7 -------> 3CO2 + 3H2O + C6H5O7Na3. 

What you just read was a chemical formula using each chemicals symbol instead of its name. Writing it this way instead of saying Water + Citric acid ----> (whatever the products would be) is shorter yet more detailed than what was shown just before. These are written to show what reactants are reacting together to make the products. The (aq) next to NaHCO (bicarbonate of soda) means that the substance will dissolve in water during the experiment. This symbol is only present in a formula if the solution is Aqueous. This means that the solvent (the substance dissolving the other chemicals) is water instead of another liquid.

Fission vs Fusion. What is the difference?

Fission vs Fusion. What is the difference?

Nuclear fission and fusion are two different types of extremely powerful ways to produce energy using atoms. They both use different ways to create this energy and are in fact are almost if not 100% different from each other. In this blog post, I will talk about the differences between these two energy producers.

Fusion

Fusions meaning is two things coming together and combining, this is exactly what nuclear fusion is, two Isotopes combining (an Isotope is an atom that has a normal amount of protons but a different amount of neutrons.) Generally, the Isotopes are small, imbalanced, at an unstable temperature and in an extreme condition/being pressured. Fun fact about nuclear fusion is that it powers our sun. Our sun requires energy and gases to stay alive and burning and this energy comes from nuclear fusion. Many of the explosions on the sun are from the nuclear fusion reaction.

In the sun atoms of Tritium and Deuterium (they are both isotopes of Hydrogens, Hydrogen 3 being Tritium and Deuterium being Hydrogen 2.) When these two Hydrogen Isotopes combine they form a Helium nucleus. This process creates an extreme amount of energy (the amount of energy produced depends on the isotopes used but generally fusion produces more energy than fission.) The two Isotopes will form a more stable element (in this case Helium.) However, the stable element will not be able to contain all of the energy from the previous two isotopes combined. Because of this quite a lot of the energy in the previous two isotopes will be left behind then that leftover energy will be used for civilization. While the sun uses almost only Hydrogen to create Helium these are not the only elements used in nuclear Fusion.

The problem with Fusion currently is that scientists haven't found a way to control the energy that has been let use from the reaction. Because of this, they are yet to create a fusion reactor that can reach the full potential of fusion energy. The benefits of Fusion reaction are quite great, it produces little radiation compared to fission and generally much more energy.

Fission

The word Fission means "a splitting or breaking up into parts". Like it sounds it is the exact opposite of fusion. Fusion is two isotopes combining whereas Fission is when a big atom breaks apart.  An atom about to do fission is also quite unstable with it having an unormal amount of neutrons and a normal amount of protons.

The Atom when under this extreme pressure and conditions will break apart after being hit by a stray neutron. This reaction generates the energy used in a fission reactor. However, this reaction causes other chain reactions by sending out a Neutron which then smashes into other atoms making this reaction happen once again. In a Fission reactor, they use special rods to separate all of the Atoms and stopping a massive amount of Atoms all doing a fission reaction at once. If this happened all the energy released as well as nuclear waste would explode causing the generator to have a meltdown. That is a basic overview of what causes a generator to explode.

As well as energy and a Neutron nuclear fission will release two wasteful nuclear atoms. These atoms are generally useless and just take up space and damage people due to radiation. However, sometimes the waste produced has a bit of use. For example, long-lasting nuclear atoms generally emit a lot less radiation, these types of nuclear atoms can be used in reinforcing bullets and armour. The reason why this is safe and possible is that nuclear atoms have a half-life. This means that by the time the atom reaches halfway into its life it will off lost 50% of its energy due to Atom decay. For example, carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730. The good thing about long halve lives is that the longer their half-life is the less radiation they give out every second making long-lasting atomic atoms safer to be around than small life ones. However, of course, an extended period of time around these will cause reactions.

Nuclear Power 

All of this ties into the average citizen through nuclear power. Nuclear power is made through the energy produced by these reactions in a generator (or nuclear atoms decaying). Once that process is done the nuclear power is then distributed to the everyday citizens to power stuff such as your lights, chargers, devices connected by a cable and many other different things. Currently, nuclear fission is the most used way to create nuclear energy due to the fact that nuclear fusion is yet to be perfected.

Conclusion

As you can see these two different methods of energy production are indeed very different. Fusion definitely seems like the preferred way to create energy (once we finally accomplish using it in a generator safely). The reason for that is that Fission generally creates less energy and more nuclear waste due to it splitting into two nuclear atoms with generally no use.

Looking at bones and muscles as well as a bit about blood cells while using a cows leg

Looking at bones and muscles as well as a bit about blood cells

My class has just recently started the Medical Science part of the Scipad and with this is multiple experiments/investigations on dead animals or other things. The first one we had the luxury of doing was a cow leg. With this cow leg, our aim was to witness how muscles push. The thing with muscles is they will only ever push never pull which is why you have multiple muscles of the opposite sides in your body. Such as your arm and legs. For example when you put your arm in an L shape your tricep relaxes but your bicep contracts to push it out, the opposite happens when you bring your arm back down.

A bit about muscles

In the cow leg, you can see a bunch of flesh around the knee and the rest stripped this is because this was sent to butcher first, however, the main stuff we are looking at is there since people don't generally eat them. We used the top bone to control the muscles so for example when we pulled down the bone the bottom muscle near the knee would contract while the top one relaxes, you can see this in the small movement of the knee. There is also a white circle on it that would come in and go out depending on the movement of the leg, this is the knee cap. You can see this on the top right of the fleshy bit of the knee. On the opposite side of the knee cap, you can also find a small socket bit where some of the bone would come into when pulling the leg down.

Muscle Cramp

A muscle cramp is a common thing that affects people. It is caused by many different things. For example, overuse of the muscle, pregnancy because of losing of minerals in the body, exposure to cold temperature, diseases that affect muscles, positioning your legs in awkward ways, sitting for too long, standing still for too long, dehydration and certain medicines/drugs. As you can see muscle cramps can generally happen with underuse/overuse as well as a lack of water and minerals. When the muscle doesn't have what it depends on or not used in the right amount it will cramp.


A muscle cramp is when the muscle painfully contracts by itself, this causes pain in the body at the location and generally lasts several seconds to a few minutes. It only happens to muscles we can control so mostly legs and arms. Scientists have labelled cramps into different forms such as the true cramp. A true cramp is when a muscle of generally a group of muscles is triggered to cramp by the nerve system. These are the most common cramp triggered by stuff like massive injury, rest and dehydration and body fluid changes as well as low mineral count in your body. Tenaty is another type of cramp where all nerve systems are activated. This type of cramp will generally cause your muscles around the mouth to tingle and go numb, it can cause spasm in your hands and wrists. This is triggered by low blood calcium, low magnesium, muscle stimulation and hyperactivity. They sometimes can be extremely similar to true cramps because they have some of the same causes.

How do bones/joints work

How do bones work? Well, basically bones can't move so it needs some type of thing to give the force required to move it. If we didn't have muscles we would be lifeless, muscles open our mouths, our body depends on these muscles to survive. Muscles are connected to the bones through what's called a tendon. A tendon is a flexible stretchy piece of flesh in your body, it is needed to be this way since if it wasn't the tendon would just break when the muscle contracted. The tendon is required so that most muscles are kept in place and in some cases around your body they connect special muscles such as your eye to the rest of your body allowing you to use this body part. Now going back to just bones, to form stuff like your leg and arm two bones will connect and create a joint. Without joints, our skeletons would fall apart and without multiple bones, for stuff like the leg, we wouldn't have the flexibility we have.


If we had one bone in our leg we would not be able to move half of it while keeping the other halve the same. We can do this with our legs and arms because of our elbows/knees which are joints. Bones can't really move against each other as well which would cause them to break and wear away so the joints also provide a solution to that! First of all, ligaments connect the two bones, to stop the bones wearing away the ends of the bones have cartilage which reduces friction between the bones and acts as a shock absorbent. It is kept slippery and lubricated so it doesn't wear away as well by the synovial fluid which is produced by a synovial membrane. This is the structure of a joint and allows the movement and flexibility we have.

Osteoporosis

Ever wondered why old people have so brittle bones and commonly can break a bone just by falling? This is because the cartilage wears away possibly because of a lack of fluid or other reasons, because of this the bone then wear away with no cartilage to s/top them and eventually the bones get extremely weak causing this to happen. This problem can also occur in younger people because of the same reasons old people just have it more commonly because of living so long. Below is a video of us cutting through the bone.

Bone Growth

When you are born you have tiny bones, you don't have the type of bones you would have as an adult. Overtime bones will fuse together as well as growing. As you age cartilage grows bigger and that cartilage then forms into a bone with calcium, later on, this process is called ossification. During this process, hundreds of calcium layers and phosphate salts gather on the cartilage. After a while, this will cause the cartilage cells to die. Once this is done blood cells will grow into tiny pockets in this area, these blood cells will help by containing a unique cell called osteoblasts. Osteoblasts help carry additional calcium and produce a substance called collagen fibres. This fibre provides strength and cushioning, it is found all around our body with a lot in the skin and around tendons/joints.



These osteoblasts also produce cortical bones that will surround the cartilage. This bone is found throughout the body around organs it supports the whole body and is responsible for storing and releasing certain chemical elements. After a while, a cell called osteoclasts will end up in a developing bone. This cell will use an acid called Hydrolytic enzymes and other acids to dissolve a small bone part to make room for more bone marrow. This is repeated until most of the cartilage in your body has dissolved and all your bones have grown which generally happens around the age of 20. A topic relating to this is what happens when your bone breaks?


Well, how does a bone break anyway? A bone generally breaks when to much force is applied to it such as a heavy object falling onto your arm. This applies a lot of pressure onto your arm and if it is heavy enough and fell far enough your bone will most likely break. When a bone breaks it will attempt to heal itself for this to happen it must be positioned in a certain way, this is why you are given casts. The body will create blood clots around the broken bone and shortly after the bone will start to create small threads. These threads will eventually combine through the same method that a bone grows.

A bit about blood cells and bone marrow

Inside the bone you can find the bone marrow, there are two types of bone marrow. There are however two types of bone marrow and two stem cells. The Hemopoietic stem cell produces blood cells whereas the Stromal stem cell produces fat cartilage and bone. The two types of bone marrow are yellow while the other is red.


You start your life with only red bone marrow however you will gain yellow bone marrow based on fat. Although as you get older you WILL start to gain more yellow bone marrow. Red marrow focuses completely on blood cell production so in the case of massive blood lose the body will convert yellow marrow into red marrow to aid in stopping death. The red bone marrow will produce white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets. White blood cells are responsible for defending you from infection in your blood, they are produced in a higher concentration when someone is fighting off a disease/infection and are there killed off after defeating an infection. However white blood cells are at an extremely low quantity in our blood only being 1% of the cells located in our blood, however, of course, this % will slightly increase when an infection is located in you.


Platelets are tiny fragments in your blood that will create clots to help with bleeding however if they somehow clot in your blood and that clot travels to your heart you will have a heart attack, and if it goes to your brain you will have a stroke. These are both extremely dangerous conditions that can easily kill you. Platelets are less than 1% of the produced blood cells. Red blood cells contain chemicals that transport oxygen through your blood they make up 45% of the cells in your blood and are required so much because our blood needs to transport oxygen to give to our muscles and organs. Without this oxygen collected from the lung and then transported with the help of these red blood cells, we would end up dead as our muscles and organs require oxygen like our lungs do and there is no way to bring it around without the blood cells. Plasma is also part of the blood cell group it carries nutrients through the blood so it contributes majorly to the digestive system however bone marrow does not produce this.

Ethics of cloning and some of my personal views on it

Ethics Of Cloning

Cloning is when you create an exact copy of an organism using some of the DNA of the cloned organism. However, there are many conflicts with Religious, Cultural and Philosophical beliefs. In this blog post, I will show you many of the conflicts with these ethics as well as give my own personal belief on cloning.

My Personal Beliefs

I believe making the clone a non-sentient organism that is more like an unfeeling robot rather than a real naturally created organism is fine. Making cloned sheep or other animals to feed Humanity is generally ok to me as long as they are unfeeling and basically like robots with natural body parts. Making clones for wars is alright as well in my opinion as long as they don't develop sentience and a personality. Creating a life form that feels and is like a Human and sending it into a bloody war to die is just like enlisting a young 18 year old to fight in a war that they will most likely die in. If they were unfeeling and robot-like, then yes I am fine with that, they have no life and have no feelings of what they are doing. Cloning could also be used in this way to help with lack of Humans in a certain area of job and Cloning could even save humanity if somehow one-day humanity is at the point of extinction. Another thing is that cloned food products are less likely to be disease-ridden and infect Humans that digest it, unlike naturally made animals. Clones, in my opinion, are fine and good but I do draw the line in many cases if they become sentient.

Religious Ethics

Catholics: Catholics have a sort of situational view on cloning. Based on their religious beliefs of the beginning of a person's life they believe that cloning a Human just to exploit it is a massive sin to god. For example, creating a Human clone and sending it to its death is a sin. However many of them do believe that it could be good in Jesus's eyes and help cure the sick and heal the blinded as well as many other issues Humans may face involving infection and disease.

Jewish: Ever since the first clone Jew's have debated on what their stance on Cloning is. This is because nothing about cloning is really mentioned in their religion so many different views have arisen and there is no definitive stance on cloning in their religion

Islam: Islam has no definitive stance from their beliefs so just like with Judaism they have many different opinions. However, quite a few Muslim scholars have realized the benefits if used in the "right" way (right as in their views of the right way). A massive contribution to this as that they believe the soul does not exist until a later stage of conception.

Christian: Most Christians are against the main type of cloning but are a bit more light-hearted towards cloning targeted towards our health. A major part of this is because they are worried about Humans playing god. In their eyes creating our own lives might be messing with gods views and they fear of overstepping the boundaries of the natural order.

For most religions, it comes down to where they consider life to start and if they believe a God plays a part in creating a new life. Every religion's stance on cloning is mostly based on past texts in their version of the bible or other historical sayings/texts for religious followers. This creates an issue for quite a few religions like Judaism where they can't really find a good or bad perspective on cloning based on their religious texts.

Philosophical

Philosophical ethics: Cloning ethics is a major debate among philosophers and just controversial in general. Many science groups, governments and especially religion is against reproductional cloning as of now. A science group even put forward that we should cease any reproductional cloning until evidence of it being completely safe is discovered otherwise until then they believe we should not use reproduction cloning. Some believe that reproductive cloning is contrary to Human Dignity. Some also speculate on how problems could arise with clones such as a female donor would be more like a twin instead of a mother of their clone "child".

How cloning works

Cloning is a more recent science first done in 1997 but how is it done? Well, first of all, you need a skin cell and a female donor. A skin cell contains 46 chromosomes of the person you are trying to clone. This is needed because chromosomes are like a genetic code that is always different from other chromosomes in other peoples bodies. This is why we look different, we have different chromosomes. You also need a non fertilized egg cell which would have 23 chromosomes. Then you would remove the nucleus from the egg since that contains the chromosomes and you can't really have two nuclei in the same egg. Next, this is repeated with the other person's skin cell however there nucleus is then put into the female egg since that is the reproduction cell used by humans and most mammals. Now the egg has the "data" it needs to create the person you are trying to clone and after around 9 months poof you have a lil baby clone. The reason why the birthing of clones is also a problem to some religions is that they believe the soul enters at a certain age, Christians, for example, believe it comes at the start of conception.

What would happen if we started cloning random things and what are the precautions we should take?

So what would happen if you did? Well, first of all, there are precautions you must take. Why? Well because there is a risk of cloning something that had a disease or the meat inside a cloned animal has the potential to suffer unique infections. There could be hidden infections that affect this created meat and many other possibilities. This is a major problem for many people with their view on cloning, how do we stop a worldwide issue happening? Scientists have already examined some cloned meat and believe it is safe for consumption but what about what we don't know? This is the question that bothers so many people. So what can we do to stop that? Scientists could test the meat in certain environments and around certain infections to figure out if it does get unusual effects that normal meat would not. If not brilliant we mostly fixed that issue.

However, if it does scientists will need to contain it and then test how to remove it and stop it from infecting the food in the first place. This is a process used to help fix that situation that could be used over and over again. However, now let's move onto what would happen if it becomes a majorly used thing. Religious groups such as Christians will voice their concern and most likely have a new tradition of trying to eat only properly made food, they would most likely not accept cloned people into their religion viewing them as having no soul and unethical. Meanwhile, dozens of donors would be cloned to create a new army once this is done millions of people will be jobless as cloned people would replace them in the army creating poverty.


The food market will have a strange situation where they have an unlimited supply of meat and other food products, this could very possibly damage the food economy if not properly managed. Many Humans will naturally turn against cloned people and turn against them viewing them as inhuman. However benefits will arise, countries will have the people they need for jobs and even better they don't have to pay for them, medical science will greatly raise and third world countries will have the manpower and supply to progress much faster. However, if control is not kept on cloning massive problems will occur. All the jobs could be filled with clones leaving basically everyone poor since they have no job causing the job owners to get poor since they can't charge people much money since these people are... guess what? Poor this, in turn, makes the government poor since they can't tax the citizens since they get no money causing worldwide poverty issues.


A massive event of "Racism"/whatever you all it for clones would occur. We are bad enough to people just because they have a different colour imagine what would happen if they were created from a factory. Smart and controlled use of cloning MUST be used otherwise chaos can and will erupt and the work leading up to cloning would be useless as public pressure and overuse of cloning would of greatly damages our society.

Digestive system

The Human Digestive System

First stage: The Oesophagus

The Digestive system is the process of our body taking in food, absorbing the nutrients and then sending the remains out of our body. This system is crucial in our body, starting right at our mouth and ending at our anus. When you eat food it is rolled into a ball by your tongue and then moistened by your salivary glands. Once this process is done the ball of food is sent down the Oesophagus. The Oesophagus uses muscles to push the food down and stop the food from coming back up while the muscles below the food widen the tube for the food to go through. The Oesophagus also aids in breaking down the nutrients a bit, mostly Carbohydrates with Gastric juices and Enzymes. This is the first process of the digestive system done.

Second Stage: The Stomach

The next part of the digestive system involves the Stomach where the food is transported to through the Oesophagus. The Stomach has a special type of acid inside it, this acid is generally called "Stomach acid" however its scientific name is "Hydrochloric acid (HCI)". To prevent the acid from burning through your Stomach Mucus is added as a protective layer. The Stomach acts like a giant elastic bag allowing it to expand when a large amount of food comes down the Esophagus allowing for big amounts to be quickly digested. The Stomach helps break down some nutrients as well as digesting the food. The main nutrients affected by this is Protein. Once the Stomach has digested the food it reaches the intestines as a creamy paste called Chyme.

Third Stage: The Intestines

The 2 intestines are the small Intestines and the large Intestines. Really their names should be swapped around as the small intestines cover most of the area with the large Intestines only covering the outer area. The small intestines begin to absorb the nutrients into the bloodstream where they are then distributed across the body. The food is then given to the large Intestines where the remaining nutrient-free waste is drained out until it had no water left. The waste is then transported to the Rectum where it is stored until it is ready to be shoved forcibly out of the Anus. The small Intestines are covered in things called villi. Vili ensures fast nutrient absorption into the bloodstream.

Fourth Stage: The Liver

The Liver is where the nutrients are first transported to. Here they are either converted into energy, sent to muscles or stored for later use (creating fat in the body). A liquid is produced called bile which goes to the bile duct and is then realised to stop any acids from the Stomach escaping into the digestive system and basically burning you inside out. The Liver also helps break down lipids (fats and oils).

The Animal Kingdom Vertebrates

The Animal Kingdom

We have started our new topic in Science it is called Ecology. We just finished a topic, waves, and energy but we had no blog posts for it. For our first thing we are doing Animal Kingdoms so here it is.

Vertebrates:

Vertebrates are Animals with backbones. Humans are vertebrates because we contain backbones.

Fish:

Features: Fish live in water and are able to survive in this condition by breathing through gills. They are generally covered in slimy skin and produce eggs for their offspring. They are cold blooded and generally have bony spines. A few examples of these are Blobfish, Snapper, Salmon and even a Shark.

Amphibian

Amphibian generally have moist skin and lay eggs in water for their babies to hatch from. Normally they begin as fish like things but after a while, they generally grow legs and can swim as well as walk on land. Normally the adult's breath through lungs instead of gills like the younger ones does like fish they are cold blooded. Frogs are a perfect example of Amphibian. Turtles are another good example of these.

 Reptiles

Reptiles have dry scaly skin and lay eggs. They breathe with lungs and are cold blooded. Fun fact the Tuatara which is a reptile is believed to have survived the Dinosaur extinction. They are completely land-based and don't really use the water at all besides to hydrate themselves. Examples of these are Tuatara and Chameleons. 

Bird

Birds are covered in fur and lay eggs with hard shells. They also have wings but some of them cannot use them to fly. They breathe through lungs like most non-water animals and are warm-blooded. Birds do not have to have the ability to fly to be considered birds this is the case for Kiwis, Emus and many other animals. Seagulls are an example of flying birds.

Mammals
Mammals are warm-blooded creatures that are covered in humus/hair or fur. When really young they feed of milk usually provided by their mum and breathe through lungs. Humans, which is what we are if you didn't know because of your not the brightest people. Humans are a perfect example of Mammals. Here is a perfect example of a mammal. Be careful because he may bite you.
<it's really scary

Mystical creatures

<Mystial Mammal

Particle Theory of Matter - Conduction

Particle Theory of Matter - Conduction

Aim:

To observe conduction along a metal rod

Equipment:

A metal rod

Retort stand

Clamp

Bunsen Burner

Petroleum Jelly

5-10 Drawing pins

A stopwatch.

Method

1. Set up and light a Bunsen burner

2. Smear a small amount of petroleum jelly on to the head of each drawing pin

3. Attach the drawing pins at even intervals along the length of the metal rod.

4. Clamp one end of the metal rod to a retort stand.

5. Position the retort stand so the unclamped end of the metal rod is in the Bunsen flame and start the stopwatch

6. Record the time it takes for each pin to drop in the table below.

Results:

Pin 1 48 secs

P 2 -  1:46

P 3 - 2:48

P4 - 5:15

P 5 - (We used a bit too much Petroleum Jelly so we had to push it off. :l 21 29

Observation:

After we lit the bunsen burner the first pin fell in 48 seconds which was pretty quick the next one was almost a minute later. 1 minute later the next pin fell and then the next one after about 2 minutes. However, we used to much Jelly on the 5th one so it never fell off even after 21 minutes.

Explanation:

The heat from the Bunsen burner would have traveled through the metal as that is what happens to certain metals. Because of this, the metal getting hot and that made the jelly melt causing the pin to fall. It, however, takes time for the heat to get to the end which is why the back pins take the longest.

Observing Convection 2

Observing Convection ||

Aim: To observe convection in a gas.

Equipment: Scissors, paper spiral pattern, string, source of heat (boiling water, radiator, etc)

Method:
1. Cut out the spiral pattern below, carefully following the dashed line.
2. Tie a length of cotton through the hole on the top of the spiral.
3. Hold the spiral 30-40 cm above a heat source such as a radiator
4. Observe.

Observations:
After a few seconds it began to spin around as long as you kept it still moving it to much would cause it to stop spinning.

Explanation:
The air above the Bunsen burner will heat up and spread out causing the air to get less dense and rises causing the spiral to turn.

Behaviour of Matter - Contraction The imploding can

The Imploding Can 

Aim: To observe contraction in gases.

Equipment: Aluminium Can, Scissor Tongs, Bunsen Burner, Heatproof Mat, Tripod, Gauze Mat & and open Container of Water.

Method: 

1. Set up the bunsen burner underneath a tripod and gauze mat.

2. Pour Approximately 50-60mL of water into your can.

3. Heat the can of water until you see steam is escaping from the top.

Carefully grip the can with scissor tongs. Ensure you have a firm hold of the can before lifting it off

the gauze mat.

4. Quickly, but carefully, invert the can as you plunge it into a container of water.

Observations: 

We didn't put it into the water fat enough causing it not to work but what was supposed to happen if we did it right was that the cans sides would cave in on itself.

Explanation:
When particles are heated they begin to move faster eventually the Bunsen burner made the gas inside the can go a lot faster. Causing it to steam then when we put the top into the cold water the water cooled the can making the gas go closer together causing the can to implode.

The Behaviour of Matter - Diffusion

The Behavior of Matter - Diffusion

Aim: To observe diffusion in a liquid.

Equipment: Petri dish, Water, Tweezers, A crystal of potassium permanganate.

Method: 

1. Half fill your petri dish on your workbench and allow the water to become settled. 

2.Place the Petri dish on your workbench and allow the water to become settled.

3. Using the tweezers, place a single crystal of potassium permanganate in the center of the petri dish.

4. Observe 4 minutes

5. Repeat the experiment using hot water.  

Results:

We had 4 minutes to see if the potassium spread faster and wider in cold water or hot water it turned out that the cold water caused to to go slower.

Discussion:

When a particle is cooled it will go slower rather that if it was heated up this is why the warm water potassium spread faster than the cold water one. 

Investigating State Changes - Matter

Investigating State Changes - Matter

Aim: To observe water as it changes state from solid to liquid and then to a gas.

Equipment: A 250 mL beaker, thermometer, Bunsen burner, heatproof mat, tripod and gauze mat, stopwatch, retort stand and clamp, ice cubes.

Method:

1. Collect enough ice so that your beaker is half full and place the thermometer into it while you set up the rest of the equipment

2. Set up retort stand and clamp alongside the tripod and gauze mat.

3. Place the beaker of ice on the gauze mat and gently clamp the thermometer so that it is held upright and the scale is easy to see. The bottom of your thermometer should be low enough to still be covered by water when the ice melts. but not touching the bottom of the beaker.

4. Record the initial temperature of the ice in the data table below

5. Light the Bunsen burner and start timing with the stopwatch

6. Measure and record the temperature every mite

7. Continue measuring and recording the temperature until the water has been boiling for 2-3 minutes.

Results:

Discussion:

The water began boiling at 80 and the ice completely melted 3-5 minutes. We stopped at 8 minutes when we got up to 100 c. Most of the ice melted fast but then didn't completely melt for about a minute. This was an interesting experiment, the heat would have made the particles in the solid ice move turning it into a liquid. If you didn't know that's how a solid turns into liquid-solid particles don't move but when a particle is heated it moves faster. 

Particle Theory of Matter - Convection

Particle Theory of Matter - Convection

Aim: To observe convection in a liquid

Equipment: 200 mL beaker water, tweezers, a crystal of potassium permanganate, a drinking straw, Bunsen burner heat mat, tripod and gauze mat.

Method:
1. Set up a Bunsen burner on a heatproof mat. Put the gauze mat on the tripod but leave it just to one side of the Bunsen burner.

2. Fill a 200 mL beaker with 150mL cold water.

3. Place the beaker on top of the tripod and gauze and allow it to settle for a few minutes.

4. Carefully insert a drinking straw down one side of the beaker, ensuring the straw is touching the bottom of the beaker. Be careful as you do not want to disturb the water too much.

5. Using tweezers, drop a crystal of potassium permanganate down the inside of the straw. Wait for the crystal to settle on the bottom of the beaker.

6. very gently, so to not disturb the water, remove the straw.

7. Light the Bunsen and slide it under the tripod so that you are only heating the outside of the beaker where the crystal is. Observe.

Observations:
After the straw was removed the potassium began to rise to the top once it rose to the top it began to spread all over the liquid. Because of this, the once clear liquid began converting to this purple colour. In not much time the whole liquid was purple.

Explanation:
As particles begin to heat up they began to move faster according to my teacher "we basically set their bums on fire so they start to run away." The opposite happens if they get colder which is how ice is made since a solid only vibrates. With this in mind, the reason why the purple began to spread was because the liquid heated up causing the potassium particles to begin moving out like a liquid does.







Potato - Sam 2018

Concentration - Science Experiment

Aim: To make a dilution series to investigate concentration

Equipment: A potassium permanganate crystal, six large test tubes, tweezers, a plastic transfer pipette, a test tube rack, 10

,l measuring cylinder.

Method:
1. Place the six test tubes in a test tube rack. Label the rack with numbers 1-6.
2. Using the measuring cylinder, fill test tube 1 with 10 ML of water. Fill the remaining test tubes with 5 ML of water.
3. Using your tweezers, add a single crystal of potassium permanganate to test tube 1.
4. gently shake the test tube until the Crystal has dissolved
5.Using the transfer pipette. carefully remove exact,y 4 ML from test tube 1 and pour it into test tube 2
6. Rinse the transfer pipette thoroughly to ensure that no purple solution remains.
7. gently shake test tube 2 and repeat the transfer process, transferring exactly 5 ml of solution from test tube 2 to test tube 3
8. Rinse the pipette again and repeat the transfer process for test tubes 4, 5 and 6

I unfortunately couldn't get a picture of our personnel results. The test tubes filled at the back were mostly purple the shade getting lighter every time we transfer a bit. It looked pretty cool. Here is a imagine from a website that looks like our result.

Links to the images I used: Bottom one, Top one.