Check out this Awesome Wetlands Website

www.fsnomega.webs.com

Mutualism: A close relationship between bacteria and human

Mutualism is without a doubt the most peaceful form of symbiosis in the ecosystem. There are many different forms of mutualism in today's world. For instance, humans provide cardon dioxide to plants while the plants give us oxygen. However, there is another major relationship I would like to talk about, bacteria and humans.

When you first hear of bacteria, you think of words like germs, sick, and the common "icky". On the other hand, you may not have heard the bacteria is vital to our everyday existence. They help us digest our food, give us vitamin K and fight off bad bacteria which causes disease. In return, we give them a place to live and do basic activities like eat and reproduce. Other activities bacteria helps us do is decompose garbage and turn milk into cheese and yogurt.

Many types of bacteria can harm you causing like they can cause disease. However, in most cases they can benefit from them and they benefit from us by living inside of us. In my opinion, bacteria is a very crucial aspect in our society. Without it, we won't be able to live. In addition, if they didn't have us, they wouldn't be able to live to. Therefore, the relationship between humans and bacteria are mutualistic.

Biotic Limiting Factors

This is an image of a large tree near the recreation center in my community. This tree is a limiting factor because it causes all the patches of grass underneath it to die. In addition, it takes up all of the roots from other plants like smaller trees and flowers. Third, it provides shelter for small animals like rabbits and possums from bigger animals like hawks. This has an effect in our world today because trees decompose oxygen. For example, the rain forest in South America provides nearly 35% of the Earth's oxygen. These several reasons are why this tree and many other trees in my township are vital to our everyday lives.

Blizzards Project

For anyone who wants to see Gotmilk's and Tigers97's weather project on blizzards, please visit:
www.blizzardland.webs.com

Lit. Poems

"War and Peace"
War
Destructive, costly
Killing, bombing, dying
Ruthless, miserable, happiness, joy
Loving, calming, soothing
Serene, cheerful
Peace

"The Only Survivor"
Liesel
Brave, kind, and smart
Who loves her family
Who feels worried about Max's safety
Who needs the safety of your home
Who shares the gift of words with Max
Who fears the power of Adolf Hitler
Who'd like to see Max be free
Who dreams of peace in Germany
Who ends up happy and with a loving family

Sleep Insomnia, what is it?

Sleep. We all need this. We feel good in the morning when we get enough of it. However, we feel grumpy all day without enough of it. So, what causes someone to have sleep insomnia and what happens if you don’t get enough z’s? Patricia Morrisroe, a journalist with her own sleep insomnia, went from Las Vegas, Nevada to the Arctic Circle and chronicled her story in her new novel, Wide Awake. She talked to TIME magazine and told the organization about the journey she had.
Patricia Morrisroe said that people with chronic sleep insomnia are usually people who had a harsh history, like an ugly divorce or a bad childhood. However, as she stated, “The person who broke the record for longest time awake in 1964(approx. 11 days) seemed to be doing just fine.”
Sleep has also evolved over the years. James McKenna, a doctor who specializes in infant sleep at Notre Dame, claims that people probably slept in trees in the dawn of human society. Today, we have everything from race car styled beds for the little ones to luxury made types, like Temperpedic.
In addition to the way we sleep, scientists have discovered more on how we sleep over the past one hundred years. Sleep study started to grow some interest when one of the richest men in America, JP Morgan, wife died when she went to sleep one day and eight weeks later was pronounced dead. The oil tycoon donated a tremendous amount of money to research this rare sleep disorder.In the 1950’s, Rapid Eye Movement was discovered. REM is the movement of eyes during the night, and is surprisingly the normal way to sleep. For the next thirty years, the science of sleep was a somewhat respected field, but in 1981, the topic skyrocketed. The CPAP was invented, which still used today to help treat sleep apnea. This invention really put sleep medicine on the map.
In addition, Patricia Morrisroe stated that people who complain of sleep troubles never really have any. For example, Morrisroe went to sleep lab in Las Vegas and met a women who complained of sleep trouble. In the women’s sleep test, it was revealed that she had seven hours of sleep. On the contrary, after the test, she complained that she “didn’t sleep a wink.” This is because people think that the time they spend awake at night is more than the time they spend sleeping, which is usually not the case. Someone with real sleep insomnia would usually wake up every 90 minutes after he or she goes back to sleep.
Finally, Morrisroe said that increased industrialization has caused sleep problems. The many hours we spend on the television, radio, and the computer cause us to lose concentration at night and therefore cause troubles at night.
In my opinion, sleep insomnia is a major problem in today’s society. It is overlooked and not talked about that much. When a child complains about sleep insomnia, most parents would just say that it’s not a big deal but when sometimes it is. However, it usually is really no big deal. I used to think that I had sleeping problems, but after reading this article, I think that I don’t really have any major problems. I used to think that I spent more time awake than asleep, when probably I sleep around seven to nine hours a night and spent little time awake. I hope that many people read this article and truly see if they have a sleep disorder or not.

For more information on this article, go to:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1989451,00.html

The ano

The dissection of a frog is something we dread since we first hear about our parent’s frightening dissection stories. On the contrary, it is one of the most interesting scientific processes you evr have to go through. You have the weird guys that cut the toes for fun and then you have the girls who scream every time you cut another organ. For me, it was a normal feeling.

First, my partner cut the male frog from it pelvis, going all the way up to the throat. Then, my partner cut straps on the tray so we could see. Immediately, my group saw a huge plate of muscle as its first piece of internal layers. As my partner joked, “This frog must have worked out.”

Then, I tore the muscle and broke its arm and thighbone for a better view on its organs. At once, liquid came spewing out all over the tray, and when the process was finally over, our tray was like a lake after a monsoon.

We finally saw all of the organs, and I had to admit, it was pretty gross. Fat bodies, intestines and the liver covered the inside of the frog. On the other hand, some parts were really exciting. When we were about to cut the stomach, I was hoping to find scorpions and fish. Hysterically, we just found water.

What was really amazing was what was under the liver. Remover these three loaves and you find the heart, the lungs, the gall bladder and many more.

Something I didn’t understand was does the female have more intestines than the male? Whenever somebody would cut out a female frog, they would always have more intestine, or was that part of the reproductive system.

All in all, this dissection gave me a great opportunity to discover properly how a vertebrate functions.

The Anatomy of a

Doomsday coming closer, by a minute

The doomsday theory, which proclaims the world will end on December 21, 2012, has always been a frightening thought for everyone. Nonetheless, with the new year just occurring, we are less than three years away from our so called "doomsday". However, what you may not know is that the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences[BAS] in Chicago, Ill has the world's most trusted "doomsday clock", if this can even be on the level of reliable. Recently, the doomsday clock has gone from five minutes before December 21, 2012 to six minutes before that date.
You must think it takes a genius to decide what time the apocalypse will start, but basically, you don't. The time is affected by major events worldwide. The worst an event is, the closer time is to midnight. The better an event is, the farther it becomes to midnight, and if you were wondering, my resources have claimed that the recent earthquake in Haiti was not a factor in this recent decision.
In 1945, when of the most controversial events took place, the bombing in Japan on August 6, 1945 and also August 9, 1945. Some say it was an act of patriotism that the USA represented. On the other hand, others have claimed this is just a sign of just what this world is turning into, a world that will come to an end by the combat of nuclear weapons. One group of these people were the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences, who created a doomsday clock for when the end of the world would occur. This clock was revealed to the public in 1947, just when the Cold War was underway. The closest the clock ever got to midnight was two minutes to midnight when the USA and Soviet Union tested thermonuclear devices within a span of nine months. The largest jump it took was thirty-seven years later in 1991, when the clock went from ten minutes to midnight to seventeen minutes to midnight due to the end of the Soviet Union.

This is a picture of the doomsday clock, and as you can see, it has been turned from five minutes to six minutes.

Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist on the BAS, said"Moving it back by a minute means it can go in any direction." The last change was a two minute increase from seven minutes to midnight to five minutes to midnight.
The Board has also said a few ideas on how to increase the minutes. First, treaties must be formed against enemy countries to avoid the use of nuclear weapons. Also, climate change must be enforced.
In my opinion, I do not think that we should live by this clock. We live by how we want to live it, not a doomsday clock. However, I do believe piece and climate change must be enforced to make our world a better place.