Earth Science Current Event

Max Clark

2/28/2015

Earth Science Current Event

Castro, Joseph. "What Would It Be Like to Live on Mars? | Space.com." Space.com. N.p., 17 Feb. 2015. Web. 27 Feb. 2015. http://www.space.com/28557-how-to-live-on-mars.html

Humans have speculated about living on mars for nearly two centuries now, starting from its discovery potentially thousands of years ago till this very day, though it has only become within reach in the previous 50 years. However, ignoring the many sci-fi depictions in modern media, what are the actual circumstances that future space colonists would meet if they were to attempt to inhabit the red planet? With NASA planning a manned mission to mars by the 2030's, this is becoming a much more prominent question in the minds of scientists. First off, if a manned mission were to even go to mars, the best place to settle and conduct experiments would likely be in the “low northern latitudes," said Ashwin Vasavada, a deputy project scientist for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory. Mars has a tilt upon its axis, hence it has seasons similar to earth, but as a side effect of its elliptical orbits, weather and temperature can go into the extremes. Mars’s winters around the poles can go down to as much as - 195 F, but has cool summers at 60 F around the equator. However, Mars is infamous for its spectacularly large dust storms, which can envelop the entire planet within a matter of days, and while they are unharmful to people, they can easily interfere with electronics and signals. Speaking of internet signals, it takes approximately 15 minutes to send one from Mars to Earth on average, making communication fairly difficult for any actual messages to go back and forth, putting astronauts in extreme danger if there is a major crisis. However, the most dangerous threat is radiation from space, which due to a lack of an atmosphere can easily harm life. It may all be worth it for the view, as scientists cite that stargazing would be amazing on the red planet, and there are certain areas that would become nature parks due to their clarity of the sky if Mars were colonized. Indeed, there are some areas with incredible natural beauty, such as Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in the solar system, or Valles Marineris a massive valley that is nearly the size of the width of the US. Gravity is only 38% of Earth’s but is easier than the moon to navigate with.

This article has profound impacts on any potential future ventures from Earth to Mars. Many people are aware of the fact that Mars is potentially habitable, but very few know the finer details of what life would be like on mars. Indeed, this article may not be relevant to the layman, but it still is full of fascinating facts and information which is invaluable to scientists researching on the colonization of Mars. This also gives hope that perhaps the colonization of Mars isn’t as abstract a goal as scientists may have previously thought, and this could have profound implementations, not only for astronauts but for the future of humans as a whole.

Although this article manages to excellently state the many difficulties that would be encountered, but also the beauty of what life on Mars would be like, it does have its faults. For example, it completely abstained from mentioning any information on exactly how easy it would be to get on Mars, and how soon that this could occur. It gives little to no thought on any of the grand details we receive, which is irritating as it fails to mention itself the gravity of its information. It definitely could have improved itself by expanding on its information, and by giving more detailed accounts of the many issues we would face if we were to live on Mars. Other than these issues, it is an excellent article, and I hope to see more of the like quite soon.

Deadly CRE Germs Linked to Hard-to-Clean Medical Scopes

Estelle Kelty

2/23/15

Earth Science IH/ C Even

Tavernise, Sabrina. "Deadly CRE Germs Linked to Hard-to-Clean Medical Scopes." The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Feb. 2015. Web. 23 Feb. 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/20/health/drug-resistant-germ-is-spreading-by-hospital-device-federal-officials-say.html?_r=0

Over the past few years patients receiving long term procedures in hospitals or any healthcare facility, have been diagnosed with a relatively new bacteria in the medical world. This bacteria known as CRE, or carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, is a widely increasing bacteria that is deadly due to its resistance to all antibiotics. The cause of this recent bacteria spread is due to the duodenoscope. This medical tool is used in procedures to treat things such as “diseases of the liver, bile ducts and pancreas.” As defined by the FDA,“Duodenoscopes are flexible, lighted tubes that are threaded through the mouth, throat, stomach, and into the top of the small intestine (the duodenum). They contain a hollow channel that allows the injection of contrast dye or the insertion of other instruments to obtain tissue samples for biopsy or treat certain abnormalities.” However, because of the hollow channels, and structure of the scope, it becomes very difficult to properly sterilize after using. Because of this some of this normally healthy stomach bacteria, can grow an enzyme resisting bacteria and be transferred to other patients. Usually harming those with weakened immune systems or previous infections, this bacteria has become known as the “nightmare bacteria,” because of its fatality rate. Recently in California hospitals seven patients have become ill with this bacteria, two of which, have passed away. The FDA has already warned all medical professionals of the issues occurring if these tools are not properly cleaned and hope to begin to create a new way to sterilize these tools.

Anyone can suddenly fall ill and need to take a hospital trip. We usually associate hospital trips with being helpful and curing what we may have contracted. However, due to these recent occurrences we now know maybe hospitals aren’t as clean and helpful as previously thought. Informing ourselves more about these possibilities to pick up this bacteria creates a new perspective for us. This article is very relevant to everyone and directly relates to the lives of the people around us. As humans we are always curious, interested, and always want to be on top of everything. Diseases such as this pose a serious threat to become an epidemic, especially since it is mostly human inflicted, we feel the need to do something. We always want to know what to be careful of and how to take care of ourselves. Articles informing us such as this one are essential to an informative and healthier society.

Although this article was informative, well written and easy to digest, a few adjustments could be made. One change I would have to this article is the lack of pictures in the article. It would have been helpful to include a picture of the Duodenoscope, since the flaws of this tool are highlighted in the article I ended up looking up a picture anyway. Another change would have been a little more background information on the disease at first before entering the story. Lastly, the article ended with no discussion of what the FDA plans to do to help stop the germ from becoming an epidemic. Other than that the article was a great read and was extremely interesting!

Sophia Anagnostakis Current Event-Should Humanity Try to Contact Alien Civilizations?

Sophia Anagnostakis

2/24/15

Earth Science

Current Event 1

Wall, Mike. "Should Humanity Try to Contact Alien Civilizations? | Space.com." Space.com.

N.p., 24 Feb. 2015. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.

http://www.space.com/28632-active-seti-search-alien-life.html

Since the beginning of Earth, humans have looked up at the sky and seen thousands of stars. As we have discovered more and more about our solar system, there has been a big question asked… Is there life on other planets? Researchers want to launch an experiment called “active SETI” to send out transmissions into the solar system not only to listen for signs of life, but to signal other life forms (if they exist) that we exist too. Douglas Vakoch, director of interstellar message composition at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California hopes to use big radio dishes to send out transmissions to nearby stars. "It's like sending a lot of hieroglyphics to the 19th century — they [aliens] can figure it out based on the redundancy," Shostak said during the AAAS (Association for the advancement of Science) discussion. "So, I think in terms of messages, we should send everything." But, every big decision comes along with controversy in our world.  Researchers are nervous that since humanity has only been a technological civilization for a few generations, if we are to find life on another planet, they will most likely be way more advanced then us. It is likely that they would be able to come to Earth and take over, like countries did in the past when they discovered new land. This would be a difficult topic to gain support for, since it is so controversial.

            This article is relevant to our society today, because if we were to find life on another planet and they were more advanced then us, they could try to take our planet over. This is very unlikely, but we have seen this type of thing happen in history when discoveries of new territories occurred and people wanted to expand their country into the new area taking over anyone who lived there previously. This is why researches have consulted historians to look into the past and see if this is truly a possibility if we do find other life in our solar system. 

            Overall I think that the author did a good job getting all of the information you needed to understand the article without making it too lengthy. It was not hard for me, someone who has not done a lot of research on the topic of the possibility of life on other planets, to understand the different things that were discussed in the article. He seems to have used credible people for quotes who actually work on researching this topic. But, I think that the author definitely could have elaborated more on the different reasons why researchers believe that there are life forms on other planets, because he did not give much background at the beginning of the article.