Sam

Week 4- A Possible Solution to the Water Problem  There is a major water crisis looming in the future. Currently, there are many people throughout the world experiencing water shortages and without clean water. The water problem will only get worse as the the human population continues to grow. Fortunately, there are some new technologies that are enabling us to extract fresh water from sea water, which will increase the world's water supplies. media type="custom" key="19161298" Reverse osmosis is a process that makes clean, fresh water from salt water. It uses energy to force sea water through a membrane, which allows water through but keeps the salt out. Unfortunately, this process leaves large amounts of brine, which is extremely harmful to the environment. However, the brine created from this process, instead of being dumped into the ocean, can be used to harvest minerals that we would otherwise need to mine. This technology could be extremely helpful in solving the world's water problem.

Week 3- Dead Zones  This week in class we conducted water quality tests on a creek in Robins Park in order to see the condition of the creek. However, pollution does not just harm rivers in which it initially appears but also areas downstream. []

When pollution and agricultural run-off flows through rivers it not only harms the rivers but also creates large dead zones at the mouths of the rivers. Dead zones are areas where the amount of dissolved oxygen is so low due to eutrophication that most organisms can't survive. Dead zones are becoming more frequent due to the increase in agriculture and use of fertilizers. Two of the largest dead zones are in the U.S. One is in the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Mississippi and the other is in the Chesapeake. These dead zones are extremely harmful to aquatic ecosystems and greatly hurt the fishing industry. There is also, unfortunately, no obvious solution. It is difficult and uneconomical to make farmers stop using fertilizers. In addition, once nitrates and phosphates enter the dead zones they move very little and stay there for an extremely long time. The only natural thing that actually gets rid of these nutrients are hurricanes, which are rare. Week 2- Tragedy of the Commons In class on Friday we conducted a simulation of what is known as the tragedy of the commons. media type="custom" key="18681426" The high seas has very little protection. Therefore, there is extreme overfishing which is detrimental to some ecosystems. In addition, there are giant areas of floating trash throughout the oceans that can cause great problems for ecosystems. The only way to stop the dumping of trash and overfishing is for countries to agree on laws to protect the high seas. These laws would determine how much people can dump and fish in certain areas. The law would have to be enforced through the use of tracking technologies that monitor fish populations and fishermen. These laws are needed soon because the ocean's ecosystems are worsening everyday. Week 1- Gene related to autism ==== In class this week we watched a movie which had an autistic woman as its main character. Recently a study done by Duke University Medical Center has linked a specific gene as one of the major causes of autism as well as being related to schizophrenia and obesity in children. ====

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This scientists in this study used a series of genes that caused changes in newborns' head sizes. These genes also were thought to cause autism. The genes were inserted into zebrafish. When the genes were activated the fish had abnormally small heads, but when the genes were suppressed the fish had normal heads. The scientists discovered that the gene KCTD13 was responsible for the differences in head size. The gene regulated the amount of brain cells the body created and destroyed. The scientists linked this gene to abnormal head size and in turn linked it to autism since autism and abnormal head size were already known to be linked. This gene could hold the key to solving why autism occurs in certain cases, and if the gene were controlled then perhaps some cases of autism could be prevented.