http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120125091101.htm
Source: (website above) Title: "Barley adapts to climate change" Author: Elhuyar Fundazioa
Date Published: Jan. 25, 2012
Summary: This article is about how environmental changes (specifically global warming) affect the growth patterns of barely, which is a plant that is similar to wheat. Recent expierments have studied the plant and have came to some conclusions. Throughout their experiment, they analysed how the barley grew under certian circumstances. They grew the same type of barley under to different conditions. One was grown in an environment with about the same amount of CO2 that is in our atmosphere today, and another in the same environment but with double the same amount of CO2 which represents what we expect to see in our atmosphere by the end of the century. Both setups were carried out thorugh a progressive imposition of drought. This effect on the plants would determine which setup was able to recover better from the lack of water. During the expirment facts were recored and it turned out that the plant that grew with double the amount of CO2 in the air recovered more efficientatlly. Scientests noted that because the plant was exposed to a larger amount of CO2, it closed the tiny holes in its leaves to a certian degree. Those holes let excess water and oxygen escape but because the plant partically closed the holes, it was able to use the water over a longer period of time. Without closing its holes, it would have evaporated off of the leaves. Even though a drought is harmfull to barley, its effect is much less when combined with an elevated amount of CO2. This does not happen all the time though in plants exposed a doubled amount of CO2. The scientests also speficied the importantance of the take in of carbon and nitrogen. If the take in level of these two are not balenced then this will throw off everything that happens to the barley. Otherwise than that the barley would do ok in an environment with a doubled amount of CO2. When water was introduced back to the two plants after the "drought" the barley with the doubled amount of CO2 recovered back to its normal state much faster than the barley with todays level of CO2. Overall, it was proven that as our earth starts to warm up and our CO2 levels start to increase, this would not negitiveally effect barely in any way. Researchers are now trying to figure out if this is a gene in the plant and if it can be copied or transfered to other plants to help them survive in an environment with very high levels of CO2. Even though global warming is a bad thing it is important that it does not impact our supplies of food too much. At least not to the point where we cant even grow them anymore.
Opinion: I thought this was pretty cool. I never knew that barley could withstand the increasing amounts of CO2 in our atmosphere. Let alone I think it kind of helps it. I love bread, especially with neutella and if theres no more barley to make bread then I would be pretty sad. Plus I never actually thought about how much global warming effects plants as it affects our oceans, animals, and weather. Global warming is a very bad thing that should be reversed or at least stoped but its also good that scientests are taking into consideration that we may hit that point in life when the earth gets so warm that our water levels may start to decrease enough that we start to see droughts were they never occured before. Overall, I found this very instreating and I hope that they figure out how to transfer that gene (if it is a gene) to other plants, incase we hit that point in our lifetime.
Questions:
1. Do you think that we as a human population will have to wait untill global warming starts majorly affecting our food supply to take action to prevent/reverse global warming?
2. What other problems could long periods of drought cause than just effecting barley and other food products?
3. In your opinion, is it a good or bad idea to see if plants are able to withstand high levels of CO2 and other gases that may increase if global warming continues? Why?
4. If we reach a point in our lifetime when global warming gets bad enough that it effects the growth pattern of barley, do you think the barely will react the same way that it did in the experiment? Why or why not?
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
More People Moving to Cities Census Shows
Original article is by Lisa Lambert, posted to reuters.com
on 3/26/12. The article can be viewed here, http://tinyurl.com/covzdlj
Picture: The picture of the left is a bird’s eye view of New
York, New York which is still the highest populated city in America according
to the recent Census. Click here to view the picture, http://tinyurl.com/d3abpby
Summary: After the 2010 Census was recorded, officials
noticed more people moving out of the suburbs and into the heavy populated cities.
Now there is 80% of the population that lives in cities and urbanized areas. New
York Currently has an estimated 18.4 million people living there. California has a higher number of people
living there with 35.4 million people, but considering its great size it was
expected. 95% of the population is crowded into urban cities leaving more open
space out in California. Other huge cities known like Chicago are seeing
similar trends. These popular cities are becoming denser with each census taken
and this issue is starting to worry people.
Reflection: I do not really think that this is a problem
because there are always other places to live. No one is really forced to live
in these heavily populated cities. Once people realize that a place may be
overpopulated, they won’t move there. There are plenty suburban or rural areas
in America or all around the world, that people can live. It will become a
problem when whole states, countries, or continents, get over populated and
crowded like the urban cities listed above. I am actually happy where I live because
I am not far from the beach, far from urban cities like Philadelphia or New
York, and not far from rural areas. I recently went to New York for a day trip
for the second time ever in my life since I was little and it made me realize
how small and insignificant you really are in the world. Just a single person
in such a huge city, with a large name, can be overwhelming. Then it makes you
think if there were any more people in this world, how I would feel then. Over population
could become a real issue in the near future and the limiting factors we
learned in class, and the trip to New York made all of those worries a reality.
Questions:
1: Why do you think more and more people are moving to
highly populated cities? What are the dangers of this?
2: What are some limiting factors that could happen in those
cities that could affect the population of the city or world as a whole?
3: What should we do to prevent or slow the overpopulation
of those cities? Or should we leave it the way it is?
Monday, March 26, 2012
New Power System
httyp://www.macroevolution.net/power-system.html#.T3D2RNliLf0

Summary:
This picture is a molecular structure inside of a plant and biochemists working with researchers figured a way to use the molecular structure of a plant to transform it into power. This is also called as "Green Energy" One of the founders of this energy is called Bruce and he thinks that this way of using energy is more clean and inexpensive. Scientists get the photosynthesis by using a system called photosystem. This way is also more cheap and helpful to the environment and Bruce hopes that in the future everyone starts using this system.
Reflective:
I think that this system can be really useful in the future and that it's green friyendly. What I wonder is will this system harm the plants where your taking the energy away from? How exactly did the biochemists and researchers find this system did they just research about the molecules and see if it was compatible to transform into energy? I also think that this power system is legitimate because the article gives tons of information about this power system.
Questions:
1. What would you prefer? This Power System or our current Power System and back up your anwser
2. Do you think that this power system will be successful and if yes why?
3. Do you think that this power system is fake or real? If you say fake explain why.
Summary:
This picture is a molecular structure inside of a plant and biochemists working with researchers figured a way to use the molecular structure of a plant to transform it into power. This is also called as "Green Energy" One of the founders of this energy is called Bruce and he thinks that this way of using energy is more clean and inexpensive. Scientists get the photosynthesis by using a system called photosystem. This way is also more cheap and helpful to the environment and Bruce hopes that in the future everyone starts using this system.
Reflective:
I think that this system can be really useful in the future and that it's green friyendly. What I wonder is will this system harm the plants where your taking the energy away from? How exactly did the biochemists and researchers find this system did they just research about the molecules and see if it was compatible to transform into energy? I also think that this power system is legitimate because the article gives tons of information about this power system.
Questions:
1. What would you prefer? This Power System or our current Power System and back up your anwser
2. Do you think that this power system will be successful and if yes why?
3. Do you think that this power system is fake or real? If you say fake explain why.
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