3 Foot Shrimp Discovered

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/05/110526-giant-sea-fossils-science-nature-briggs-anomalocaridids/

In south eastern Morocco, the remains of a meter long preh

istoric predator

have been found. The fossil shows theat the animal was the precursor of todays shrimp and cuddlefish. This animal had

spiny limbs projecting from its head, and its mouth opened like the lens in a photographic camera (right)

The previous remains of such animals were all about .6 meters long. Derek Briggs, manager of Yale Museum of Natural History, says that it could feed a whole army and it was no doubt very tasty. Also scientists are surprised because it seems that these animals were 30 million years younger then they had thought, coming from around 470 million years ago.

Moroccan sediments cloud preserved these soft bodies which are rarely found. It is thought that these creatures ruled the ocean in pre-dinosaur times, and that it was later extinct to be replaced by fishes.

This article is extremely interesting because it reiterates just the amount of volatile information that we have about all these animals. 30 million years is much much more then we exist and just that one discovery means a whole new ocean and whole new idea about its inhabitants, for 30 million years.

I was really fascinated by this article. The part about the change of 30 million years really impacted me, as the human race has proof of existing just under 200,000 years ago, while tehse animals ruled the earth for so long, and yet it seems we have been here so long we should have met them. Really interesting article.

Time Travel Impossible?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/04/110427-time-travel-not-possible-physics-big-bang-space-science/

Scientists from th University of Maryland, using a device that simulated the birth of the universe by bending light in unusual ways, have arrived tat the conclusion that time traveling is probably impossible.

This new big bang simulator is tiny and is made of fragments of gold metal and plastics that form a meta-material, which can manipulate light. According to the article, scientists have been using these meta-materials in the past years to recreate science-fiction artefact's, like invisibility cloaks, and lenses which allow scientists to see things smaller then the waves of light. Igor Smolyaninov and Yu-Ju Hung from Maryland University say their model is what the universe looked like some 13,7 billion years ago, when the big bang presumably occurred.

The model and its material allows light to move in such a unique way that it represents the movement of light through time, and thus what occurred after and during Big Bang. To simulate the Big Bang the scientists passed a green laser though the meta material which made the gold atoms release plasmons, quantum particles created by waves of free electrons.

These plasmons moved out from that single point, like the Big Bang theory states. But the farther out they went the sloppier the movement was, and the more unpredictable the movement became. This is consistent with the second law of thermodynamics that states that any system becomes more disorderly with time. Scientists call this disorder entropy, so with the passing of time, entropy increases.

For time travel to be possible these plasmons would need to follow the same path always, and complete it in a circle so that moving back could be possible, but once the plasmons strayed off path, like they did in the experiment, then they could not move back. Thus the scientists arrived at the conclusion that time travel is impossible.

I find this article to be extremely interesting because I had sometimes thought about time travel and found the theory so improbable that it could only occur in science fiction. But this article puts it in a completely different light. To me it does not prove that time travel is impossible but just brings the concept closer to us, and makes it something more visible and probable, and this article takes something from a science-fiction book, and turns it into something real. I find this really amazing.

This has to do with chemistry because these scientists took gold and plastic and made material that light is passed though it, scatters it to the will of the scientists. who manipulates it. This is a fascinating concept, and it is amazing to see it in action, proving and disproving concepts and theories.

Reading on, I also found the article about the invisibility cloak, based on the same concept which is interesting, heres the link if you want to read about it:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/01/110128-invisibility-cloak-magic-crystal-mit-barbastathis-science/

Radiation in Japan Seas: Risk of Animal Death, Mutation?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110331-japan-radiation-health-mutations-nuclear-animals-ocean-science-world/

Experts claim that if the radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant continue entering the ocean then marine life could be threatened. All life on earth is affected by this type of radiation and especially one of this type which can allegedly mutate DNA. Most animals can heal from these mutations but when this human radiation is exposed to animals it becomes much harder.

Measurements along the coast of Japan have revealed that the water has high amounts of cesium and iodine. The amounts for harmful chemicals have fluctuated, but according to Japanese officials thee numbers spiked on Wednesday 30th of March, where the amount of iodine was 3,355 times the legal limit for seawater. Cesium was found to be 20 times the normal amount.

Radiation can kill an animal, mutate it, or pass the radiation higher in the food chain and then affect humans. Authorities are mainly preoccupied. about the genetically mutations and the interference in reproduction that these elevated radiation numbers could cause. The radiation mainly affects the eggs, and larvae which are very delicate. This could affect many future generations of fish, and marine life.

This article is very important and very interesting because the current problems in Japan are terrible, and are some of the worst natural disasters to ever occur, this could lead us to the conclusion that these things could happen to any of us, and reading these things will aware us and allow us some insight on the troubles these people are facing

This article directly complements our studies in class as this is a type of energy, and we and mutating, and also are causing problems to others in the food chain mainly because of our search for alternate and in general, energy sources.

Biggest Bear Ever Found

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/02/110203-biggest-bear-largest-giant-short-faced-animals-science/

The remains of a massive bear weighting more than 1.5 tons were discovered in South America. Standing at 3.4 meters this giant bear is the largest ever known to exist. AS far as meat eaters, "Nothing even comes close" says paleontologist Blaine Schubert.

Scientists claim that this massive mammal roamed its territory somewhere between 500,000 and 2 million years ago. The skeleton was actually discovered in the Buenos Aires Province., Argentina, in 1935, but was only recently reanalized.

Currently the largest bear in modern times was a polar bear, just short of 1 ton. And the previous record holder, for largest bear, were the remains of a extinct giant short-faced bear, weighting almost 1.2 tons. Scientists claim that this bears massive size allowed it to prove a match to sabertooth tigers, giant sloths, and mammoths.

I find this article interesting because it shows us the power the animal kingdom has over us. With such a massive size, a bear like this could easily overpower a human. It shows what abundance of life this earth had, and no longer has, and how little could come to be with how we are treating it. Also a discovery like this one, once again reiterates our fragility as a species, and how vulnerable we are, and how circumstantial our survival is.

Bat Uses Pitcher Plant as Toilet

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/110202-bats-feces-carnivorous-plants-toilets-animals-science/

A simbiosis has been deiscovered in between a Hardwicke's woolly bat and a subspecies of the Nepenthes rafflesiana pitcher plant. In Borneo the little mammal gains protection in the plant while the carnivorous plant receives nutrients from the bats droppings.

Scientist frist discovered a bat sleeping in a pitcher plant, and then decided to track their habits. And soon all the plats that harbored bats were found to contain more nitrogen than others, and they were healthier. This specific type of pitcher plant contains enough digestive fluid to let the bat not fall in but stay put.

It is supposed that this relation has evolved independently, and it is the only known relation between bats and these plants. It is the only species on both sides that does this.

I found this article interesting because it reflects the volatility of our biological knowledge. One day every knowledge about the specific animal is changed. Also so many of these animals have such complex lives, that we are only beginning to discover. It is fascinating.