BacillaFilla - A Bacteria That Glues Concrete Walls

This article I found on Dogo news and it was posted by Meera Dolasia two days ago. This article is about a bacteria which a group of students in UK's New Castle University  created for gluing concrete together  or filling in holes in concrete. This bacteria was  created by genetic engineering   using an ordinary bacteria from soil. The name of this bacteria is BacillaFilla and it fills up the concrete cracks in the following way:

1. bacterias enter the hole and they cluster together
2. a hardening fiber is produced by this bacteria  and
3. a special kind of glue is created and it sticks everything together

This bacteria is still not on sale and that's a pity, because natural disasters are happening often and they destroy the concrete structures. For the time being, this ruined buildings must be completely thorn down or repaired with a new concrete whose production contaminates the environment. Imagine how easy would be just to put some bacteria in cracks and holes and wait for this wonder creatures to do all the repair work!

My mixture

In science class we had an assignment to create a mixture and to identify it. I made a mixture called Apfel Spritzer. This is a mixture of  apple juice and fizzy water. My mixture was homogeneous mixture and it was a solution. At the end I even got to share it with my classmates and they enjoyed it, they even wanted more but the teacher didn't allow. This assignment  was fun and I enjoyed tasting all these delicious mixtures. 

Notes on mixture videos

Mixtures are two ingredients  mixed together. In the videos that I watched, I learned  that homogeneous mixture is a mixture in which it seems that there is only one material even though it's a mixture of two or more components. There are 3 types of homogeneous mixtures, there are  Suspension, Colloid and Solution. Suspension is a mixture in which particles do not dissolve and different layers are visible. Colloid Mixture is a mixture in which particles move all the time. Solutions are mixtures which are made when one component (solvent) melts or dissolves the other components (solute).   I also learned that another type of mixture is heterogeneous and it's a mixture where you can see separate materials. 

glogster reflection

During October, we had to create a glog about glaciers/desalination. While I was doing it, everything went fine. I was  on time except,  I got sick while the presentation day . When I  came back to school, I realized we had to put our glog on blog which I had no idea how to do. So, that also took some time because we didn't have time-management for me and my teacher to help me put my glog on the blog.  I presented yesterday. While I created my blog I learned that we` should stop global warming in order to help  important glaciers to stay oh Earth.

Reflection on water molecuels

During the last lesson we did an experiment in which we put food color into a cup of hot, room temperature and cold water. The color in the hot water dissolved the fastest and in the cold water it was slowest Temperature means how hot something is. Molecules can be moving in different directions and different speed. Hot water moves the fastest and move around very quickly. Room temperature molecules are moving with medium speed but they are connected. Cold water molecules are moving slow and they are connected very tightly.

To sum it up, molecules in water have two hydrogen and one oxygen.

Glogster

Hot Lava on a Hot Planet, http://sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20101110/Note1.asp

      This week, I read a news article posted in Science News for Kids on November 10th. It is about the new evidence that some of the volcanoes on the planet Venus might still be active. There are more than 1000 volcanoes on the surface of Venus, but most of them are very old and not active any more. However, recent information, got from the microwave radar recordings, show that some parts of surface on the northern part of Venus are hotter than the rest of the surface. Scientists from the University of California, Santa Cruz think that these hotter parts are actually lava which comes from active volcanoes and which has not cooled yet. Actually, this does not mean that the volcano eruption is happening right now, but that it happened during the last 100 years. And for the volcanoes, it is short period and they can still be called "active".

       It is very difficult to study Venus from Earth because it is surrounded by thick clouds. Telescopes on Earth can’t see through these clouds. Only information can be collected by some spaceship which flies around Venus and which goes behind these clouds. This is why we can not be sure if this theory about active volcanoes is 100% right.

WISH TO IMPROVE YOUR MATH SKILLS? ZAP YOUR BRAIN!

I read an article posted on DogoNews on 8/11/2010

This article is about a special way how to improve your math skills and I was very interested in it because math is not my "strongest link".

Scientists from the Oxford University and University Collage London made experiments with three groups of students in order to discover if there is a possibility to get better in math without working hard.  Two groups were solving math problems every day for 20 minutes and during that period scientists were putting very light electric current through their brains. The only difference was in the direction of the electricity. First group got electric current from the right to the left side of their brains, direction of the second group went the opposite side. If the electricity went from right to left, that group gave better results every day, but if the electricity went the opposite way, the group got worse results every day and at the end, they were at the level of  a six-year boy.

I find this article promising, and I hope everyone on the world with problems with math will be better.

WARNING : DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME.

Reflection on Mixture Lab Experiment

We did a experiment on Thursday which I found very interesting. What happened? Well, we were experimenting can we make liquid alive using corn starch and water. In our group, it didn't happen.  Our group went nicely except there was a lot of mess on the desks and on the floor.

The Green Comet Visits Earth

There is an  article published in National geographic daily news, published on 19/October/2010, about the Green comet. Link to this site is :http://kidsblogs.nationalgeographic.com/kidsnews/2010/10/the-green-comet-visits-Earth.
This green comet called Hartley 2 was visible from Earth to the naked eye on October 20th. This comet is the size of a mountain and it appears to be green because it is composed of a mixture of ice and dust. Comet Hartley 2 orbits the sun every 6.5 years, but it is almost never visible from Earth because Jupiter is between  the comet and the Earth. This is why it is such a big thing now that the comet was seen.

This article is very interesting for me because I never knew a green comet exists.

Flamingos have makeup

Article posted on 30/10/2010.
http://www.dogonews.com/2010/10/31/omg-flamingoes-wear-makeup-too 


This article is about scientists in Spain that discovered a miracle about flamingos. Flamingos are also  having makeup. The scientists were impressed with this because they (neither did I) thought that animals didn't know what to do  to look attractive. Scientists observed flamingos for 3 years and saw that they are becoming more pink and "beautiful" when they groom their feathers. This is because in this way they apply on the feathers a special glands oil called carotenoids. This oil has pink color.
The female flamingos who are the pinkest find the husbands first and first get kids.




I find this article very amusing and intresting. 


Hope you learned something new.