Tropicana: Trying To Make a Greener Orange Juice

Who: PepsiCo(owns Tropicana)

Where,When,What,Why: An average half-gallon carton of Tropicana Orange juice surprisingly contains 3.75 pounds of carbon dioxide. People who worked at PepsiCo at first thought that the carbon dioxide was coming from transporting or packing the orange juice, but they were wrong. The carbon dioxide was actually coming from the fertilizer used to grow the orange trees. A lot of natural gas is used to make nitrogen fertilizer and a lot of fertilizer was used to grow orange trees. The solution they came up with was to make a greener fertilizer. With the help of two agricultural companies, Yara International and Outlook Resources, they produced two low-carbon fertilizers. One of them is a calcium based fertilizer that would almost completely eliminate overall greenhouse gas impacts. The second one is using organic and renewable feedstock like biofuels. Tropicana is testing these at SMR farms to see id it reduces the carbon dioxide. This may seem like not a big deal but this my be huge. In this article it says that this could have a major impact on US farming and the corporation of PepsiCo. This small change in changing fertilizer could result in a set closer to living in an Eco friendly weird.

I got my info from: http://www.time .com/health/article/0,8599,197139,00.html

Deciphering the Chatter of Monkeys and Chimps

Who: Klaus Zuberbuhler, Robert Seyfarth, Dorothy Cheney, Marc Hauser

Where: Tai forests of Ivory Coast

When: January 12, 2010

What and Why: Scientist believe that Diana monkeys in the Tai forests of the Ivory Coast have their own type of language. It was discovered before that monkeys have their own language, however, they can now decode it. Dr. Zuberbuhler reported that these monkeys can vary individual calls by adding suffixes. For example, "krak" means they see a leopard, their predator, coming but by adding "-oo" to the end of it to make "krak-oo" that means they have not seen the predator but heard others say the have. Some other "words" are "boom boom" which means I'm here, come to me, "boom boom krak-oo krack-oo" means a tree is falling and "pyow-hack" means let's get out of here in a hurry.

My Opinion: I think this is amazing. I never thought that monkeys actually had meaning to what they were saying, I thought they just called out random things. The way theses monkeys formulated their own kind of language makes me wonder if other animals have done the same.

I got my information from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/science/12monkey.html

Beautician

My Podcast is about what a beautician exactly does for a living and what colleges you can attend to become a professional beautician.

Beautician (shopper13)

Class Response: Sugar Lab

A couple of weeks ago, we did a lab dealing with a sugar cube. When I observed the sugar cube the observations I made were that it was: a cube, white, sweet, hard, rough and 10 cm by 10 cm by 10 cm. Next, I crushed it with the mortar and pestle and looked at it under the microscope. The little grains of sugar looked like little, tiny sugar cubes. After that, I put the crushed sugar into a glass of water. After the sugar is poured into the glass of water it is still viable. The sugar the starts to disappear or dissolve in the water. You can tell the sugar was still there though because the water had the sweet taste like the sugar. After we had to draw a diagram of what we did. This was a good lab because it helped me become better at making good observations and making good detailed diagrams.

3-D Television Expected in Homes in 2010

Who: Robert Perry, an executive vice president at Panasonic

Where: A resent technology expo in Atlanta, Georgia

When: October 24, 2009

What and Why: Imagine sitting at home watching TV and having the people actually popping out of the screen. Robert Perry says it's possible and is almost accessible to you . This new way of watching TV is very complicated though. In order to see whatever you're watching in 3-D, you would need to wear special 3-D glasses like the ones you get when you go to the movies to see a 3-D movie. These glasses are very high tech. Shutters on the glasses swap the view vision from right eye to left eye as an image on the screen moves back and forth. When constantly they tested these glasses at the expo many people said that this was annoying with the lenses moving. Perry says this will me a great new way to play video games and watch sporting events. These TV's are expected to come out within 5 to 10 years.

My Opinion: I think it would be cool to watch TV in 3-D. I also think it would be a waste of money to get one. If you think about it, in order to watch regular TV in 3-D, you would have to by a whole new TV, DVD player and the glasses. In this article it doesn't tell you what the price of these new TV's would be. I think they will be expensive, which will not appeal to many buyers.

I got my info from: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/24/3D.home.television/index.html

Putting Cattle on a Diet to Curb Climate Change

Who: Professor Jamie Newbold of Animal and Microbial Sciences Division

Where: Aberystwyth University, Wales, England

When: September 14, 2009

What and Why: Professor Newbold did a study and discovered livestock or cattle could be a portion of the climate problem in the environment. Newbold said, when livestock digests food, they produce methane gas(a by-product). The livestock can produce anywhere from 250 to 500 liters a day. The reason why this is harmful to the environment is because methane gas warms the earth quicker which is one of the problems we already have. How can you help? Everyone can do simple things like eat less or stop eating meat, trade in your SUV's for more environmental friendly cars and turn down your home heating. All of those things will help the environment because if we reduce other methane gases, the cattle gasses will not be as much as an impact on the earth.

My Opinion: I never knew cattle had such an impact on the earth. The things the article states everyone can do to help, I think are reasonable. If we stop or eat less meat that will make people healthier because they will have to eat more vegetables. Also, if we turn down the heating we could just be a little colder, but you can just put a sweatshirt on to solve that problem. Finally, I think giving up your SUV will be the hardest. However, just like the rest it will turn out to be better for you because if you get a smaller car, it will save you money because will not be as expensive as a big car.

I got my info from:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/09/11/cow.methane.power/index.html

October Sky Blog

The movie October Sky is flied with examples of science, math and character education traits. One example of science are the rockets. This whole movie was about rocket science. The four kids use the scientific method to find the best way to build a good rocket. Along with the science of the rockets, there was also math involved. The kids had to figure out formulas and solve different equations to make sure their rocket worked properly. All of the character traits are shown, however, one that stood out the most was respect. At first, Homer’s dad did not like that Homer was building the rockets because he thought Homer should be working in the coal mine with him. But when Homer wins the national science fair, his dad not only starts to respect the rocket, he respects Homer too. As you can see, in October Sky science, math and character education traits were demonstrated.