Math Blog: Child Soldiers

Over the past decade, a number of two million children have died because they were involved in the armed forces. I truly found this astounding and very suprising. If the rate keeps going up, the world might end up loosing up to five million children per decade. All this is because children are being used as soldiers. The use of child soldiers should be stopped immediatly in order for the number of deaths to go down. This connects to math because it has to do with the NUMBER of children dieing. If the number goes down, then more children will grow and the population will keep increasing. Finally, I would like to say that the two million children were innocent and thats why they were used for that purpose.

Couch Potatoes May Have Shorter Lives

On January 11, 2010, researchers concluded that people that sit and watch tv for 4 hours and more may have shorter lives. If one tends to sit all day and not exercise, then they will have a shorter time on Earth due to the fact that they are not burning calories and losing body fats. If people took less time watching tv and a bit more time jogging or at the gym, then death rates due to laziness may go much lower. This increase in deaths does not just come from watching tv. This includes sittting in front of the computer as well. Therefore, people and kids should be careful now a days. The time spent on the computer and watching tv should be limited if we want to avoid dieing early. I myself will get off the computer once I finish this blog! We should all take action starting today because we don't know what can happen if we watch 5 more hours of television. It is said that we should only watch tv and sit on the computer for 2 hours at most. Starting now...we should follow that rule in order to prepare the way for healthier life styles!

http://www.livescience.com/health/couch-potatoes-TV-watching-shorter-lives.html

Forensic Chemists Podcast

Forensic Chemist Podcast

Enjoy!

Fighting the Flu: Do Hand Sanitizers Work?

In a recent article, I read that hand sanitizers help kill bacteria and demolish any harmful viruses. When the sanitizer is on the hands for 15 seconds, most bacteria goes away instantly. Although hand sanitizer kills bacteria, everyone should still wash their hands due to the fact that there is dirt on their hands. Dirt can not be demolished by hand sanitizer but by hand washing. With the seasonal flu along with the Swine Flu, everyone should be careful and always sanitizing or washing their hands. Many schools, hospitals and work places are always carrying sanitizer so whenever you get the chance, just sanitize your hands! I myself think that this article was very useful and informational. I learned that no matter how much sanitizer I use, I will always need to wash my hands because there will always be harmful dirt on the hands. I also enjoyed the fact that a sanitizer has to have 60% or more alcohol in order to work and defeat bacteria. Overall, this article helped me realize so much about bacteria!

CSI: NY Connected to Science!

Yesterday, while I was watching my favorite show, CSI: NY, I connected the episode to science. In order for the detectives to find the killer, they had to use DNA samples and track down the killer. I thought this was interesting because I never looked at shows from a science perspective. I always just watched the show. I also realized that in order to look at evidence more closely, scientists in the show used many microscopes and other devices. I also realized that science is present everywhere and science is the reason murderers are found and not on the loose. From now on, I will watch out for science, everywhere I go!

Goop Lab

On October 22, we performed a lab that required us to create goop and play with it to learn more about its change in phases. At first, the goop was flowing like a liquid because it was contained. After we started stirring it, it turned into a solid and started to harden. However, if someone was to decide whether this was a liquid or a solid, they would have to say that the goop is an amorphous solid. The goop is in the middle of liquids and solids, therefore, it acts like both. When the goop is on our hands, it melts and drips down as if it was a liquid. However, when we started to roll it into balls, the goop started to harden and become more like a solid. So, we have concluded that the goop which is cornstarch with water, is and amorphous solid. This activity was very helpful and helped me learn about amorphous solids and how they act as solids and liquid at the same time. Also, the lab was both fun and informational at the same time. The rule was, "You had to get your hands messy!" My lab group and I really enjoyed playing around with the goop. As I said before, this lab was also very helpful and informational. If it wasn't for this lab, I would have never understood what and amorphous solid really is and how it acted.