Science Current Events State/Local

Summary-

Recently, Tuesday, February 24th, a man was killed in a wood chipper accident in Edison. At a wood recycling company early Tuesday afternoon the man fell into a wood chipper, while the full details of the happening are unknown, what they do know is that the death occurred at 327 Meadow Road, and was reported to police at about 12:05 p.m., Lt. Joseph Shannon said. The wood chipper was fed by a conveyor belt and it is thought that the man somehow got onto the conveyor belt.

Work cited-
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20090224/NEWS/90224023/1001/RSS09

My Roller Coaster Website

Free Fallin'

Science Current events

Summary-

Scientist at NASA, using the US space agency's Fermi telescope, detected a massive gamma-ray explosion in space. This explosion contained energy ranging from 3,000 to 5 billion times the amount of energy in visible light! Most visible light contains about two to three electron volts, but these explosions had into the million and billions of electron volts. This enormous blast was determined to have occurred about 12.2 billion light-years away. To put it into perspective, the sun is only eight light-minutes away, and Pluto is twelve light-hours. A star has a lifetime, and when it dies, it explodes after its lifetime is up, which is called a supernova. This explosion was equivalent to 9,000 supernovae! Gamma-ray burst happen when stars run out of nuclear fuel and collapse. These can be either long bursts, which last more than two seconds and happen in large stars, or short bursts, which last less than two seconds and happen in small stars. In short gamma-ray bursts, stars simply explode and form supernovae. In long bursts, the core collapses and creates a black hole into which other stars fall. Studying gamma-ray bursts allows scientists to "sample an individual star at a distance where we can't even see a galaxy clearly” says the astrophysicists at NASA.

Work Cited-
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090219/sc_afp/sciencespaceastronomy

Class Response 2009 T-2

For three days in class, we worked on constructing a roller coaster that had three hills, another roller coaster aspect, built with paper rolls and tape, and a marble had to go through the coaster. This lesson was both fun and educational. It taught us about force, Newton’s three laws, friction, and acceleration. There were also many more aspects not mentioned. During the construction, we faced multiple problems. We couldn’t get enough acceleration for the marble to reach its maximum speed and go through the roller coaster safely. Also, we faced many problems with tape. A couple of times, the marble got stuck on the tape and would not move so we had to take apart the paper tubes and start all over.

Work Cited-
http://www.digitalradiance.com/rollercoaster.htm
http://www.howstuffworks.com/roller-coaster.htm

SS Blog international

Summary-

Russia, a neutral country at most times, wants to help the US in Afghanistan. They made this decision after the ex-Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan tried to evict a US air base, which would help them end the war quicker. The closing of this base interrupts with Obama’s plan to send 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. “Russia and other (alliance members) are ready for full-fledged comprehensive cooperation with the United States and other coalition members in fighting terrorism in the region. This fight must be comprehensive and include both military and political components. Only in the case will this have a chance to succeed," Medvedev said. No one knows if “full fledged” meant that his soldiers were ready, or if they were the best out there. The President said that Obama was making the right decision in testing the Afghans stability. Russia wants to help the Americans because they believe that the Americans are right, and not the Afghans. The Americans put the base, called Manas, after 9/11 to keep an eye on the Uzbekistani people. They expelled the troops in ’05 after a dispute over human rights. While the fight for Manas is continuing, thousands of troops are trying to get a new base for 15,000 troops and 500 tons of cargo. The agreement with the people is that they have to pay $17.4 million to them every year until 2011.

Work Cited-
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090204/ap_on_re_as/as_kyrgyzstan_us_base