Science Class Response

During the first trimester, one thing we did was dissect owl pellets. An owl pellet is a mass of undigested remains of a meal that is coughed up by an owl after consuming its prey. An owl regurgitates,food that is already swallowed is ejected from the mouth, because an owl does not have teeth. This means that since the owl can not chew the prey it swallows it whole. Then the prey enters into the digestive tract. This part of the stomach has enzymes and acids to aid in digestion. Next,the food travels to the second part of the stomach, the gizzard. The gizzard is a muscular organ that grinds the food and ”filters” indigestible parts from traveling into the intestines. The pellet is formed from the hair, bones or feathers that are left in the gizzard. The pellet will take several hours to form and several more before it is regurgitated. The owl cannot eat again until this pellet is expelled.
I found this dissection very intriguing and i learned a lot. I liked putting the bones of the prey together and figuring out what animal i had. The hardest part i think was finding the toes and fingers in the mass of hair yet it was still fun. I would like to do this again someday and cant wait for other experiments this year.

Science Current Event 2

This article is about a scientist, Jay Neitz, and his team at the University of Washington. They led a research to help give monkeys a more colorful life. These Squirrel monkeys, Sam and Dalton, lack the proteins that enable them to see red and green. They gave one of the monkeys a helpful virus to give them the proteins they need to see these colors, while the other ate the same food like usual. To test their experiment, after 20 weeks they showed the monkey a grid of colored and grey dots. For an award of getting the correct color they got grape juice. Before the gene therapy they could easily see yellow and blue dots, and now Sam and Dalton can pick out the colors, red and green

I believe this is a hard experiment to determine if it did work or not. I think this because you can't see what they are seeing and it could possibly be that they are seeing different shades of blue and yellow, like it says in the article. Also, I wonder how they knew what gene they needed/ what virus they needed to take to improve their eyesight. Lastly, i wonder how they came up with the idea of improving a monkeys eyesight to see more colors. I would love to hear more about their story and if it did help colorblind people see again.

Source:

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20090930/Note2.asp

Science

Link:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090921091601.htm

My opinion on this is, I think it's cool how, "one whale cadaver offers the same amount of nutrients that normally sinks from the surface to the seafloor in 2,000 years." This provides benefits for a numerous amount species. As it says in the article, " First the meat is eaten by for example sharks and hagfish, then tremendous amounts of various organisms come to feast on the skeleton." This is very important to the marine life. I believe a lot of these animals would have a lot less nutrients with out the whales cadavers.

Lit

Who tastes dog food when it has a 'new & improved' flavor?

Um... dogs??

Lit

How close to the ceiling does a fly have to be before he flips over and lands on the ceiling?

Two centimeters??

Lit

If everyone feels that bullying is wrong then why can't society or our own school community put an end to it? Relate your answer to either The Wave, Slake's Limbo or The Lord of the Flies.

I think even though everyone thinks bullying is wrong, we can't stop it because some people don't realize what bullying is. This relates to Slakes Limbo because, he always has to run to the subway for protection from bullying.

Lit

Summer Reading...
What sort of person do you imagine the author of the novel to be?
The one most like the main charecter in Dunk. He probably had some of the same experiences and had several connections.

welcome scientists

Hi im sassyfrass! My favorit subject is science because i like to learn new things and experiment. I also want to be a marine biologist. The best boo i ever read was.....i dont have one but i hope i find one one of these days. My favorite food in the cafateria is the cookies because i like the way they are oft and hard:) On the weekends when all my chores are done i like to get out for a while with friends or shopping. If i won a free airline ticket i would go to hawaii because it seems so sereen and i love the beach, even though i get burnt. My favorite color is aqua blue. Besides my dog i would get a cat and name it moomoo! I think it would be a cute name. This year if i work hard enough i hope i get better in spanish and keep up good grades.