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                         EARLY BIRDS HAVE A BETTER DIET

There are two kinds of people, early birds (wake up early and go to bed early), and there are night owls (wake up late, go to bed late). We’ve seen before that early birds get better sleep, but they might also have a better diet. Mirkka Moukonen from Finland recently had volunteers say if they were an early bird or a night owl, then what kind of food they ate often. Mirkka saw that night owls had worse eating habits, especially late at night. On weekends, off days or when their bored, they make even worse food choices. They seem to crave candy, junk food, and soda. The early birds on the other hand eat things with more protein and healthy ingredients, and they can control their cravings.

I am DEFINITELY 100% a night owl, I HATE mornings, and I’m energized at night. I didn’t really realize that I had poor eating habits until I read about this. I compared my self to my brother who is a night owl. He always wakes up early, but will fall asleep on his homework if it’s past 9:30. My brother loves salad and protein filled food, while finding food with protein that I like is a HUGE issue for me. After dinner I always have to have a popsicle while my brother rarely does. On the way home from school I am always eating chips, and if there is every candy around, I can’t resist. My brother and I used to be the opposite, diet wise, and I wonder if that links to anything in the results of the research. The weekends are the worst. I go to sleep past midnight, wake up past noon, and I normally have to drink juice or soda and eat something while doing homework. My Dad (a night owl) and my Mom (early bird) are the same. My Mom eats healthy protein filled food, while my Dad’s different. I chose to read up on this mostly because I was curious if other night owls were suffering, but also because the scientist involved in this research is from Finland, and I speak Finnish and LOVE Finland. 

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/early-birds-eat-better

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               WE ARE TRAINING OUR DOGS TO BE DUMB

We probably all think that our domestic dogs are smart because we've trained them. We've trained them to do tricks, be good, be obedient, and patient. But Monique Udell (a scientist studying animal behavior) proved that wolves can be smarter than dogs. Dell prepared a tupperware with a treat inside and a pull toy sticking out for a group of 10 wolves and 20 dogs. It looked like this:

The animals had to try to get the treat out by pulling the tug toy up and pulling off the top. Eight out of ten wolves succeeded, while only ONE out of TWENTY dogs succeeded. The researchers think this is because dogs rely on humans giving them permission and assistance for everything. When your dog steals food or a towel and tears it up, you will probably scold them. So dogs feel like it would be bad for them to rip apart the tupperware. Of course we can't let our pets get away with tearing up our personal belongings, because they would do it all the time. Proof supporting this way of looking at it (needing approval from humans) is that the dogs spent 95% of their time looking at the human observing them and only 5% of the time trying to get the lid off. The Wolves spent 90% of their time concentrating on the puzzle and 10% looking at people.

I chose this article to read about because of the cute picture of a dog. When I read the statistics (8 out of 10 vs. 1 out of 20) I was astounded. I assumed dogs were smart, especially because we trained them. I was curious about how the researchers determined this. I decided I am going to do this with my dog, and see what she does. I am especially interested because we feed my dog in a frisbee so that whenever she is hungry she will pick it up by the rim and bring it to us. But if the frisbee gets flipped over, she cannot pick it up because the rim isn't sticking up. She always goes crazy and mad and throws a tantrum if she can't figure out how to pick it up, because normally she is very good at solving practical problems. 

Article and second pic from https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/wolves-beat-dogs-problem-solving-test

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FAST FOOD IS DANGEROUS

We all know that fast food isn’t the healthiest choice diet-wise. But what most people probably don’t know, is that it has a chance of giving you cancer and other diseases. Here’s how: the paper and cardboard that the food is wrapped in is oil-proof and non-stick. What makes the material oil-proof are these chemicals called PFCs. PFCs make things water-proof and pans non-sticky etc. Well, PFCs are in wrappers for your burgers, and cardboard containers for fries, so that oil and grease won’t seep all over your hands. But what sometimes happens is you will touch the wrapper, or the food will touch the wrapper and the PFCs will get on the food. Then you will eat the infected food, and it will get inside you, and into your blood. This could possibly lead to cancer, and might defect the development of a baby. So the question is, is this really worth the risk?

I was originally drawn to this article because of the delicious picture of a burger. Then when I read the passage, I found out that the scientist investigating this was named Laurel, which is my name also! So I kept reading it because of those two reasons. When I finished the article, I thought it was very interesting, and I decided to do my blog about it.

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/did-your-burger-come-side-non-degrading-pollutants

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                                              GLOWING CATS

             We have seen that cats have a virus called FIV, that is just like HIV for cats. This stands for feline immunodeficiency virus. It spreads when a cat bites another cat and after sometimes it turns into a disease. About one out of one hundred  cats have this virus. Scientists Eric Poeschla and his colleagues noticed that certain types of monkeys had the instructions in their cells to fight off this disease. Poeschla copied the instructions from the monkeys and inserted them into unborn kittens. They wouldn't be able to tell if it was working (because only 1 out of 100 cats get the virus) so they inserted a gene along with the instructions, that would make the kitten’s fur glow. Later the mother cat gave birth to three kittens. When the lights were turned off, the kittens were glowing! This means that the new genes were working.

      I was originally interested in this because I thought that learning about glowing cats would be cool. I ended up learning a lot more about diseases and viruses, which was also cool. Eric Poeschla and other scientists are still waiting tomato sure this method worked. They will have to reproduce MANY more cats to see if they will be immune to the  FIV virus. Millions of humans have died from HIV, and scientists are hoping that we will be closer finding a cure to it by applying the knowledge from FIV. Even though the point of this was not to make cats’ fur glow, this is a pretty cool thing. It could also help us understand genetic modification, and how designer babies can help cure viruses and other things. 

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/glow-kitties

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                                Gelatin may be good for you 

Scientists have been testing gelatin to see if it may help you you. They found that it has a lot of collagen in it, which is essential to us. Athletes especially need collagen for their ligaments, so Keith Baar decided to experiment on it. He got eight guys to jump rope at different times for three days. Before their workout they were giving snacks. Each time, the snack may or may not have had gelatin in it. Their tissues were stronger when they HAD eaten gelatin, than they were when that HADN’T eaten gelatin before exercising. 

This especially applies for females, which I am, so this was helpful to me. A lot of people think that jell-o and gelatin is bad for you, but SOMETIMES it is helpful. This is also very important of professional athletes to learn about and pay attention to. 

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/jiggly-gelatin-good-workout-snack-athletes

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                             New planets discovered!

Scientists have discovered seven new planets. They are all about the same size as earth. One of them is very similar to earth. This planet is called Kepler-186f. Kepler-186f is named after the first telescope that spotted the planet. The planet is not too close or to far away from it’s sun, it has water, vegetation, and a good climate. This is what is called a ‘Goldilocks’ world. Scientists are trying to see if Kepler is already inhabited, but if it’s not it might the perfect solution if earth gets overpopulated. The only issue is that Kepler is so far away that it would take 30 million years to get there and back from earth. Scientists are hoping they will be able to invent some kind of hydra monorail that would travel at the speed of light, making the trip a lot faster.

I have always wondered what might happen if earth got overcrowded. It’s nice to think we have a back up planet just in case (if we find a way to get humans there) Scientists are also hopeful for some of the other six planets. We’ll see if any of the other planets are similar to Kepler-186f. We are also gradually discovering more planets, I'm exited to find out what new neighbors we have.

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/‘goldilocks’-world

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                       ONE TWIN BROTHER GOES TO SPACE

Nasa recently sent Mark Kelly into space, while his identical twin broth Scott stayed on earth. Mark stayed up in space for about a year. The twins have the same exact DNA, so when Mark came back to earth NASA compared the two brothers’ DNA. They were looking for something called the “space gene”. They knew that being weightless in zero gravity for over half a year can be unhealthy. NASA just released the first information from this experiment. They found over 200,000 RNA molecules that were different than Scott’s after Mark had been in space. The scientists noticed that Mark’s telomeres got longer while he was weightless, but they were back to normal when he got back to earth. They also found that the astronaut’s gut bacteria was different than his brother’s. The researchers from NASA are still trying to find the “space gene”, and they will later release more data. 

This new information helps astronauts be aware of their safety while they’re in space. One thing they can do is eat healthily and get a lot of sleep before they go. Because sometimes that can be the cause of these DNA changes.

I based this on an article at http://www.iflscience.com/space/nasa-sent-one-identical-twin-brother-to-space-for-a-year-and-studied-how-it-changed-him-here-are-the-first-results/

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                 Fungus ‘Pichia’ may increase asthma risk   

Scientists have assumed that infants have a better chance of getting asthma from bacteria, so Brett Finlay and his colleagues did some research on it. They sampled microbes in the gut of 100 infants and found out that the bacteria was not the main cause of asthma later on. The biggest factor was a common fungus called pichia. They also discovered something vey interesting along the way. They saw that another common thing that led to asthma and allergies was drinking clean water. Apparently a little dirt is good; so now we have to try to find a balance between drinking enough clean water (to prevent cholera), and drinking a little dirty water (to prevent asthma).

I have breathing problems periodically, so I learned a lot reading about this.  I think it’s very important for mothers to know this, even if we don't exactly know how to prevent it yet, we’re getting closer. Now that we know what causes asthma we just have to find a way to prevent it from happening. More than 50 out of 100 kids right now have asthma, but soon we will hopefully be able to lower that number.

Article I based this on is from: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/common-fungus-may-raise-asthma-risk?tgt=nr

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                                    CANNIBAL HAMSTERS

Some european lab rats were observed eating their own babies right after they gave to them. The people in the lab had just started feeding the hamsters a corn based diet, when they noticed that all of the mother hamsters just abandoned their pups until they came back to eat them alive. It’s common for a mother to eat a pup if the pup is already dead, but Mathilde Tissier, the biologist student that was observing the hamsters, thought it was very strange for these animals to eat their pups when nothing is wrong with them. Tissier and some other scientists started investigating. They started giving the hamsters different food to see if this changed things. They added niacin to their food and noticed that this made the females stop acting crazy. Corn doesn't have enough niacin so that is what made that hamsters act unusual. 

I used to have a hamster and he loved corn, so I fed it to him often. But now I feel bad, but I'm also glad to know that I shouldn't feed them corn in the future. We've always thought that it was natural for wild hamsters to show canniabal aggression, but we just figured out that most wild hamsters eat corn, and that’s why they act like that. This cannibalism throughout the wild has caused the hamster specie to almost become endangered, but now we can make wild hamsters eat things that contain more niacin. That will help the population rise back up.

Article I based this on is from https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/wild-things/diet-corn-turns-wild-hamsters-cannibals

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                PLAYING VIDEO GAMES CAN IMPROVE YOUR READING SKILLS    

Many humans suffer from dyslexia. That means they have trouble focusing switching from what they see to what they hear. So some researchers in England  and Spain brought together a group of volunteers; some had dyslexia and some didn't. The group had been asked to press a button when a certain signal appeared. The sign could either be something you could hear or something you could see. The scientists noticed that the dyslexic people took a lot longer to press the button than the others did. After a while though, they caught on and it became easier. This shows that playing video games is a good way for dyslexic people to get better at reading. 

I have two friends that suffer from dyslexia, but they also play video games often. Over time their reading skills have improved. I thought that was just because they were getting older, but I didn't realize until now, that the video games may have helped them also.

The article i read is at https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/video-games-can-help-some-people-read

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              NEW ALIEN-LOOKING SPECIE DISCOVERED

Scientists recently found a new specie in amber. At first they thought it was just an ant, but then they looked closer. It’s triangular shaped head is similar to that of a snake, the glans contain venom. The little organism is only 0.2 inches and has big bulgy eyes that resemble an alien. It was contained in the amber for 100 million year. It has no wings, so it would crawl close to the ground. It’s head is positioned in a certain way on the vertex, which makes it able to turn their head in 180 degrees. They debated over what specie this organism was, but they finally decided that it was a completely undiscovered specie. They named it  Aethiocarenus burmanicus. 

I have seen a LOT of articles about discovering new species. It kinda makes me wonder if we really know as much as we think we do. We already know about millions of species and we’re constantly finding new ones. This discovery adds yet another name to the chart. How many more will we discover? This creature is said to have lived while dinosaurs were alive. For all we know it could be an alien that fell from outer space. I think it is always interesting when new organisms are discovered, because it gives me a sense of mystery. With every new one, we learn a little bit more about the past. It makes me wonder what organisms we will find next. Maybe they will severely change our knowledge of the entire past. What if we had it wrong all along? It is interesting to think about. 

Post based off of http://www.cbsnews.com/news/alien-looking-insect-found-trapped-in-amber/?ftag=CNM-00-10aac3a

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                                FROZEN FISH CAUGHT IN ICE

A picture was taken at a lake in South Dakota of some fish caught in a catastrophe. The fish appeared to be stuck in a wall of frozen ice. Everyone’s first thought was that it was so cold, that when some fish jumped up, they got frozen in mid air. But what really happened was far more complicated. A VERY thick layer of ice covered over the lake, causing the sunlight to be blocked from the plants inside the lake. Because of this, they could not perform photosynthesis. The fish died from the lack of oxygen. Then, from the cold, the ice expanded shooting the already dead fish upward. So all and all, it was a pretty bad day for the fish.

When I first saw this picture I thought the fish froze in mid air. When I read the article it was a little hard to understand, but once I understood it, it was really interesting. I never would have thought something like that could happen.

The article I read is at  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/science/frozen-fish-wall-south-dakota-lake.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-2&action=click&contentCollection=Science&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article&_r=0

The link to the photo I used is attached above.

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                                       3 tips for cold weather

Try to stay safe in cold weather. It can be dangerous sometimes. Here are some steps to follow to stay safe. 

1. If your going out for a hike, make sure to check the map and know exactly where you're going. Tell a family member or friend where you will be incase you get stuck in a storm, and always carry a phone with you. 

2. When its really cold you may not want to drink cold water, but believe it or not, that is the most important thing to do. The air is cold so it makes your throat dry, so drinking water will help it.

3. Make sure you have enough warm jackets and layers on. Sometimes it may be more comfortable and stylish to just wear a sweatshirt, but proper clothing is very important. Do not wear cotton. When cotton gets wet, air pockets fill up with water so it stops insulating you, and takes a REALLY long time to dry.

I LOVE cold weather! I always want to play in the snow and the cold, but I never knew it could be this dangerous. These tips are helpful for me because now I can play in the cold for longer while still staying safe!

Article I based this on is at 

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/seven-tips-staying-safe-frigid-weather

Image used from 

https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrB8p4sIHlYghoAl2E2nIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTBsZ29xY3ZzBHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEc2xrA2J1dHRvbg--;_ylc=X1MDMTM1MTE5NTcwMgRfcgMyBGFjdG4DY2xrBGJjawMxdGliZmQ1YzFjbTFqJTI2YiUzRDMlMjZzJTNEZDMEY3NyY3B2aWQDRXZQUmdUWTVMakVleVc5cFdCWllNd0guTWpBMExnQUFBQUE3Tm1wMQRmcgN5aHMtaXJ5LWZ1bGx5aG9zdGVkXzAxMQRmcjIDc2EtZ3AEZ3ByaWQDVm1MTFJtM1ZTa082MjJuN3ZQRFcwQQRtdGVzdGlkA251bGwEbl9zdWdnAzQEb3JpZ2luA2ltYWdlcy5zZWFyY2gueWFob28uY29tBHBvcwMwBHBxc3RyAwRwcXN0cmwDBHFzdHJsAzIwBHF1ZXJ5A2ZhbWlsaWVzIGluIHRoZSBzbm93BHRfc3RtcAMxNDg0MzMzMjgzBHZ0ZXN0aWQDbnVsbA--?gprid=VmLLRm3VSkO622n7vPDW0A&pvid=EvPRgTY5LjEeyW9pWBZYMwH.MjA0LgAAAAA7Nmp1&p=families+in+the+snow&fr=yhs-iry-fullyhosted_011&fr2=sb-top-images.search.yahoo.com&ei=UTF-8&n=60&x=wrt&type=safExt33.1&hsimp=yhs-fullyhosted_011&hspart=iry&y=Search#id=4&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2F736x%2F3c%2F95%2Ff8%2F3c95f8a4fbdef4de7bccd62c82b62a6c.jpg&action=click

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                        Feathered dinosaur fossil discovered 

The Archaeopteryx (AR-kee-OP-tur-iks), is a fowl dinosaur. Scientists have discovered fossils and feathers of this species ten times before, but this most recent discovery has changed everything. The fossil that was found recently, shows the imprint of the feathers around the skeleton. 

You can see that the feathers covered not only the wing bones and the head, but the WHOLE body including the feet and the beak. This arrangement of plumage is far different than any other jurassic bird since. Not only does this make us question what we know about the Archaeopteryx, but it also confuses us about ALL other dinosaurs. We had assumed that MOST dinos, like the Tyrannosaurus rex, had a tough layer of skin rather than feathers, but we might have been mistaken.

I’m always interested in articles about dinosaurs. It just thrills me to think about these monstrous creatures that were on earth before us. I think one of the main traits about dinosaurs is their tough skin, but if they all were soft and feathery, that would definitely change how we think of them.

Article read at 

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/dino-bird-super-feathered

First pic from

http://dinopedia.wikia.com/wiki/File:Archaeopteryx.png

Second pic found at 

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/dino-bird-super-feathered

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                                              DOGS CAN TELL TIME

Christine and Jonny own a dog named Jazz. They have noticed that Jazz can always tell when Jhonny is about to come home. They think he smelled his scent fading. So they did an experiment. Christine distributed Johnnys scent around the room by laying out T-Shirts. When Johnny came home it completely caught Jazz by surprise. So we think dogs can smell time. 

I love dogs so i was exited to learn about them. Also I feel like my dog may be aware of time.

Video i watched was at http://www.wimp.com/an-experiment-is-performed-to-test-whether-or-not-dogs-sense-of-smell-enables-them-to-tell-time/

Photo was found at http://www.worldwildlife.org/magazine/issues/winter-2014/articles/detection-dogs-and-wildlife-crime

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                                   MICE CAN FEEL EACH OTHERS PAIN

When a loved one is hurting, it hurts us. But do we actually feel any REAL PAIN? Well, Mice do. It has recently been observed that Mice can SMELL pain. This has been apparent with dogs and cats and other animals for a while, but scientists think that Mice actually hurt when other mice are hurting. Scientists are now trying to find out which other animals have this same effect.

I was first attracted to an article about this same topic because there was a cute picture of Mice, but I ended up learning a lot about Mice and other animals as well. I have always loved animals, and wanted to learn more about them. And now I have. 

The article I based this on is https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/pain-contagious-least-mice

The pic is from http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/mice-acrobats/

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                              Ice is melting faster than we thought

Global warming is a huge conversation right now. One big prediction was recently made that ALL the ice in the Arctic Sea will have totally melted by 2050. A big contribution to the melting is the carbon dioxide we produce. We give off so much oxygen, that leads to the loss of the size 16 small cars of ice each year. (One small car is about 32 square feet.) That result is surprising for scientists. They knew global warming was an issue but they didn't think it needed to be addressed this quickly. The discovery of the melting due to carbon dioxide gets us one step closer to finding a reason to global warming.          

I, personally, have heard a lot about the topic of global warming, but never really learned about it. Therefore I thought it would be interesting to do a blog post on it. I live in a hot place, and if the cold places are getting warmer, the warm places are probably getting hotter. So global warming effects me for that reason also.

Image found at 

http://science.time.com/2010/09/09/climate-change-a-slowdown-on-polar-melt/

Article I read was found at 

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/arctic-sea-could-be-ice-free-2050