Cannable Air

Air pollution is a very big problem that has been plague millions of countries such as China, India, U.S, Mongolia and many more. Air pollution is caused by many different factors. Car exhausts are a prime factor. Mongolia is severely polluted because of its coal burning power plants. Electricity also creates an enormous amount. And the worst of the worst, factories. Plastic bottle factories are the probably the most dangerous.

Annually, around 1.3 million deaths worldwide are due to Air Pollution. Maybe even more. That is a enormous amount of deaths because of us. Our faults and needs are causing people to die. Its time to take a act.

This is exactly what Chen Guangbiao, a chinese philanthropist and business man did. He created cannable air. What happens is that the air is taken from high altitude mountains and canned. The cans are designed to automatically close shut the compressed air. Scientifically what happens is that "each can contains a chip so that during the packaging process when the negative oxygen ions reach a certain concentration level and the can is full, it seals automatically." This is just one act of his that has inspired people to act up. He has done many pulic stunts. He is known for his extremes. He recently smashed battery powered scooters with a sledge hammer. The cans are for 'drinking' but really the point behind them is to acknowledge people about a major problem. 

We should all take act like he is. Or you never know we will be 'drinking' canned air daily.

Magnetic Boy!

Ivan Stoiljkovic was born a special a child. Walking by 8 months, Rollerblading by 15 months and able to drive a motorcycle by 2 years and now he and his grandparents have discovered that he is magnetic. He is what you a could call a super hero with outrageous powers. Ivan and his grandparents were joking around with him when they discovered that his torso is magnetic. Coins, pans his keys and anything metal stick to him. Whats even more amazing that the heavier the object is the better it sticks. You would think that the heavier it is the more likely it is to fall.

Another thing supporting this superhero idea is that he is healer hands. His family have noticed that his wounds have all healed faster than they have ever seen and they leave no scars. Also when he touches anyones wound it sends the pain to a soothing pause. Sounds crazy but they do have evidence. He has seen it happen, he alleviated his grandfathers stomach pains and took away the pain in the neighbors hurt leg from a tractor accident.

Heres a video of Magnetic boy in the act!

Valence Electrons of MG

Magnesium and oxygen

Magnesium, Nitrogen  and Sodium

Master The Force Week 3

Mind control is the new wonder of the 21 century. We have discovered electricity, matter, and of course technology. But now scientists are pushing for Brain Control. Imagine being able to look at someone and throw them in the air. AWESOME! But nothing is better then making something explode with a glance.

Two very cool people, Brad and Chris of the "Kentucky-based hackerspace LVL1"(sounds hardcore) have modified a mind control toy to explode things. They have their business based on star wars and mastering the force. The toy started out as a pretty boring and simple but new game. What happened was that the player puts on a wireless head set and a clear plastic tower that has a ping pong ball and a fan type of thing attached to the bottom of the tube. When the player put on the head set he/she had to focus on lifting the ping pong ball. When the person did this the wireless head set and the wireless magigy attached to the fan would get a reading from the brain and make the ping pong ball rise and drop. So brad and Chris took the toy and changed it to a awesome toy. Instead of using a fan they used a air compressor and stuck the tube in a watermelon. They kept the headset and the other magigy so that when the person focuses on blowing up the watermelon the air compressor inserts air and makes the watermelon blow up. Kick butt was of using the force!
They called it the "Mind over Melon".

It is not a sold toy it was just a tested toy used by the two in their home town, Louisiana. 

One interesting fact before we wrap this up. The original game technology was based on technology used by heart specialists. Don't take this the wrong way, they didn't have mind control to make the heart keep pumping even though that sounds possible. Its just the type of technology they used.

2 new elements added to periodic table

On May 31 of 2012 2 new elements approved  by the "International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)" (http://earthsky.org/human-world/two-new-elements) are a new addition to the periodic table of elements making the periodic table have a total of 118 elements.  The two elements, flerovium and livermorium were discovered during a research get together lead by scientists working at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab situated in the U.S. Others from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia.

Most probably you do not know anything about these two element so I'm going to give you some second hand info.

Flerovium is element 114 and simple enough has the symbol of FL. The atomic mass of 289. The superheavy element was named after the founder of the Joint Institute, Georgiy N. Flerov. Scientists studied both of the elements in labs and conduction experiment. The scientists were able to bombard other elements like plutonium and add protons to them to see what amount of protons would make Flerovium or Livermorium.

Livermorium is element 116 and an atomic weight of 293. Its symbol is LV. The element was named in tribute of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, USA.

Helium, a Element

Helium is one of my favorite gases because I am all about having fun and what can be more fun than helium? Helium is that awesome gas that is most know for giving you a voice like these furry little guys.

                                           

The way to give your self a squeaky voice is to suck helium in. One...lets say theory that some people have is that, sucking in Helium is bad for you. They say it is bad for your lungs and kills brain cells. But actually sucking in Helium is harm less. Here is a fun fact, which will be followed by a couple more, helium is used in therapeutic ways. Such as healing asthma and helping infants that do not tolerate face masks breathe through nasal canals filled with helium-oxygen.

When I was younger about 8-11 I would read picture books. Who doesn't love picture books? You can fly through them and still read a great story. Well, one of the books that I read numerous times was called "The Red Balloon". In this book a boy gets a helium balloon and it becomes his best friend. But the part relating to this post is that in the end he flies away with lots of helium balloons. Or even in that movie called"Up". The house is lifted by helium balloon. Now these are just cartoons, it would actually take millions of balloons to pick up a house. It takes 6000 helium balloons to lift a 75 pound baby. Which is about 34.02 kilos and I am about 48 kilos. A couple more hundreds of balloons to lift me.

Helium is also used to detect leaks in large vacuums(not the ones at home). When a leak is detected a alarm sounds or it can be easily noticeable on a visual display. 

Africa is a beautiful place. It has lots of animals and wildlife a real treat to anybody who gets the chance to experience it. Each year millions of animals travel from Tanzania's Serengeti Plains to Kenya's Masai  Mara National Reserve. People pay lots of money to see this spectacle happen. The best way is to see it from above. In a hot air balloon. And what lets you have this once in a life time journey, HELIUM!! And hot air rising, but some use helium. Or blimps are also used to watch the Great Migration which are all helium.

In conclusion Helium is an AWESOME gas that is so much fun and takes part in my favorite thing of all. Explosions. You can make a dry ice and helium explosion. Just go on to youtube and learn more about it there. Have fun with it and hope you learned something.

Tsunami Warning Systems

Tsunamis are feared natural disasters. Tsunamis devastate people of towns killing millions leaving kids without parents and people without homes potentially crushing them like a block. People have throughout history want to know, how they can have future notice when a Tsunami is heading their way to get out of its raging waves way. They want to be warned. Scientists are wondering the same thing and are trying to answer the cries of help from people all over the world.

A Tsunami is a gigantic wall of water flattening everything in its path. Tsunamis are most frequently caused by a deep-sea earthquake but can also be caused by volcanic eruptions, landslides and meteorites. But what my main focus is deep-sea earthquakes, also known as a slip of tectonic plates. If the earthquake happens under the ocean/sea floor there is often a tsunami but if it happens in a land locked country almost never a tsunami. The most heavily impacted area are areas surrounding the Pacific plate also known as the "Ring of Fire." 

(As shown in this picture)

 The "Ring of Fire" is an area known for earthquakes, which is located in the Pacific plate resulting in the worst of the worst Tsunamis. What happens is that the earthquake occurs lifting up the sea floor making a wave that over time speeds up and increases in size by a lot-making a Tsunami.

The most recent Tsunami taking place in the Ring of Fire was in 2011 in Japan with a massive earthquake of 9.0 magnitudes. The after math bombed Japan with one massive tsunami and several other aftershocks. Sadly there were no warnings except for a siren. You would think that that would do it but the siren only sounded when the tsunami arrived so people weren't forewarned. 

NOAA is a corporation that is trying to prevent incidents like this from happening. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has created a warning system that forewarns countries when a disastrous Tsunami is heading their way. The system is called the DART system, Deep ocean assessment and reporting of Tsunami. How it works is that a ship drops off a surface buoy and a bottom pressure recorder. Also a satellite is launched into the atmosphere. When the bottom pressure buoy gets motion and large waves that send the information to the surface buoy which send it to the satellite informing all warning centers. 

This link is a simulation which shows you how it works. http://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/Mov/DART_04.swf

NOAA corporation made the warning system and planted them in area where earthquakes were apparent. NOAA not only made the systems but they also made signs to get away from the Tsunami and direction to higher ground. 

Since the invention of this warning systems now scientists and people are asking, Is this changing the number of fatalities? Since the DART program is so new and had recently been imported to countries and now is just beginning it use scientist are unsure. They can't tell yet with such the little time that it has been put to use. But if you just use your common sense you could just guess and say that “Yes this does change the number of deaths because now people have more time to get to higher ground and saved their loved ones." This is a reasonable answer but there is also the possibility that the warning center gets the warning that there will be a Tsunami (from the satellite). But how do we make sure that the center gets the news out fast enough to people. They could broadcast it to live T.V and for those watching the news will get the information and the news will be passed by word of mouth. For those on the beach lifeguard would evacuate the area. This is a very easy possibility. But we cannot be sure, we will just have to wait and see what the future brings us.