Lexie+Moss

Lexie

**__Making a Deep cut in Carbon Footprints By Sucking Carbon Dioxide from the Sky __**

Summary:

 * It was just released that one day the gasoline people may be pumping into their cars will be made from carbon dioxide within the sky, not from oil being pumped from the ground. In order to complete this, the carbon dioxide sucked in from the air can be combined with sequestration for carbon removal. By combing these two things, carbon-neutral hydrocarbons can be produced. More specifically, it is a way to take low-cost carbon-free power sources and turn them into natural fuels to power cars and other transportation devices. The process that sucks in the air is fairly simple. A huge vacuum takes in the air and combines the air with an aqueous solution that specifically picks out and traps the carbon dioxide. Through the process of heating in addition to many chemical reactions, the carbon dioxide that was sucked in can now be reused. This idea has actually been completed by Carbon Engineeringś facility in British Columbia. The idea of making natural fuel is not new, but the idea of a scalable and cost-effective working pilot plant is. The facility in British Columbia realized that the cost of one ton of carbon dioxide will range from 94-232 dollars which are lower than it used to be. It originally used to be 1000 dollars for one ton of carbon dioxide, showing that the price significantly went down. This new cost point is low enough to stop almost 20 percent of carbon emission that comes from transportation. Due to the ultra-low lifecycle carbon intensities, this is a very promising solution to stop the carbon footprint that is taking over our planet and cutting our natural resources. They are hoping to make this into a full-scale project to get rid of pumping oil from the ground because it is more cost-efficient now than ever before!**

Link:

 * This link below gives a more in-depth insight into how carbon is sucked up from the air and made into fresh fuels. Additionally, it talks about how this became much more cost efficient and how it will cut deep into the carbon footprint. I think this idea can be a very cost efficient and great way to help save our resources.**

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180607112759.htm


 * This other link leads to a youtube video that is talking about why fossil fuels are so bad for the environment and how we need to fix this problem. It discusses how the first fossil fuels were made and how we use them for our convenience in today's society.**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaXBVYr9Ij0



====**T his week we discussed resources and our carbon footprint. Personally, I did not know how detrimental each carbon footprint is to the world we live in, but after this week I realized how much we are damaging the earth around us. I think that this invention is a great alternative to cut down everyone's individual footprint, by cutting down gasoline for transportation. There is no reason that we cannot take carbon dioxide out of the air to use for fuel because it is cost-efficient and a resource we have a lot of. I think this may be a step in the right direction for our environment and will make a huge impact on our carbon footprint (which is very impactful). Additionally, in class, we have been discussing how one person can make a change or a diference. I think in this case this one mans idea can make a world wide difference, so I guess one person can actually make a large change. :) **====

__No More Sweet Tooth __ ===Recently there has been research that you can eliminate both the desire for sweets and the taste of bitter by manipulating certain neurons in the brain. The neurons that are manipulated are located in the amygdala, the emotion center of the brain. The brain has a complex taste system, which is caused by thoughts and emotions when tasting a type of food. These units are actually discrete units that are able to be manipulated, isolated, modified, or removed all together. This research is really interesting because it points to new ways to treat and help people with eating disorders, more specifically obesity and anorexia nervosa. Dr. Zucker along with a team of researchers looked more in depth into the idea of taste and how it occurs within the body. His researchers began to reveal that when food enters the mouth it triggers one of five tastes: sweet, bitter, salty, sour, and unami. Specialized taste buds on the tongue send signals to certain regions of the brain to activate taste and cause a reaction. This reaction can be either making a face of disgust, spitting the food out, or more. Researchers then narrowed there discoveries down and began focusing on the bitter and sweet tastes and its connection to the amygdala.The amygdala directly connects to the taste cortex within the brain. This new study showed that the separation between the sweet and bitter taste within both the taste cortex and amygdala means that people can control these brain regions. This can result in the changes of certain behavior after eating a type of food. ===

===Several experiments were done relating to this topic. Researchers used mice as there test dummies and controlled their amygdala and cortex by artificially turning them on. In the experiment when the sweet connection was turned on animals responded to water just like they would respond to sugar. Manipulating connections like these, could even change the perceived taste of certain foods: sweet could be connected to a bad taste while bitter can be appealing. On the contrary, another experiment was preformed where researchers turned off the amygdala and left the cortex untouched. This caused the mice to still distinguish which taste was what but had no emotional reaction when tasting them. Overall, the experiment was completed to show that it was originally thought that both emotions and taste were directly related to one another. These two units are not intertwined and can be isolated and manipulated completely separately. This shows that the amygdala and the cortex can directly help solve eating disorders, by the manipulation of these areas within the brain ===

= Link: =

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180530133034.htm

===This link will lead you to an article that discusses what was talked about above. It gives you a little more detail about the brain functions and how the amygdala and the cortex relate to taste and emotion. This link is directly related to the summary made above about Dr. Zucker and his experiments with mice. The website gives more insight on the experiment and its connection with eating disorders ===

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEXBxijQREo

===**This video is explaining how sugar effects the brain. The video gives a general idea about how the brain directly connects to eating food and why we like sugar food so much. It explains a general picture of how the brain connects to eating, which is helpful when trying to understand the article above. **=== = Connection: =

===**This week we discussed different types of food and there effect on the environment around us. This new scientific discovery is a spin off of what we learned this week. The article discusses food and how the taste of food can trigger certain behaviors. Food is necessary for survival but it also can cause bad effects like obesity and anorexia. If we can control what we like to eat and what we don't like to eat, maybe it is possible to cut down the amount of food we eat. With this discovery we may cut back on the food we eat, leaving more resources for the people that need them. Lack of appetite may be a good thing due to the fact that not as much food would have to be produced, leaving more natural water and food supplies. **===

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Soldier gets a New Ear by Growing it Under Her Arm = =




 * In 2016 Amy Shamika Burrage came close to death after she was ejected from her car in a car accident. When she woke up in the hospital her left ear was missing and she was not pleased with her appearance. Recently doctors did a procedure that was risky but new; the army grew her a new ear. An ear was reconstructed and grown underneath her right forearm. The ear was entirely made of Burrage’s own cartilage, without any prosthetic. Recently, the ear was attached to Burrage’s head for a long recovery. As of Monday, it was reported that Amy was beginning to recover her hearing. The total ear reconstruction was a long process that involved the sculpting of a new ear from the cartilage under her ribs. The ear was placed underneath the epidermis of her forearm to allow the regrowth of new blood vessels. This means that Burrage should regain feeling in her ear, once she is fully recovered. Burrage, although still recovering, is a young active-duty soldier serving for America. It is reported that this is one of the most complicated procedures involving reconstruction in the United States and has only been completed two different time before this. Although this surgery was first of its kind for the United States, the discovery of regrowing ears was in 1990. Known as the Vacanti Mouse, researchers placed a human ear on the back of the mouse to see if it would grow. The picture of this mouse was widely circulated and the feasibility of growing human ears out of cartilage was tested. **


 * Furthermore, this is the first time the army completed this type of total ear construction. It was done by crafting an ear out of the cartilage in the lower rib cage. The cartilage taken from the rib cage is placed behind the skin of the missing ear, being elevated little by little. It eventually gets covered completely by new skin. Originally before the newly constructed ear was placed behind the ear skin, doctors used microvascular free tissue transfer, which has been becoming increasingly popular. Microvascular tissue transfer is when tissue is taken from one part of the body and placed into another part. When it placed in another part, in this case the forearm, it undergoes neovascularization, the formation of new blood tissue. The doctors stitch the new tissue to blood vessels to regain circulation. The process is very long and strategic, but fully worked for the army and patient, Amy Shamika Burrage. **

__** Link: **__ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/05/10/a-soldier-needed-an-ear-transplant-doctors-grew-a-new-one-in-her-arm/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a3f9c28bb7dc

===This link is from the Washington Post. It discusses what exactly happened to Burrage leading up to her getting a new ear and a brief overview of what was done to receive the ear. It gives direct quotes from Burrage and further discusses her accident in detail. If you are interested and want to learn more, there are other cancer patients that have received this treatment although it hasn't been successful each time. There have been patients of cancer patients who have been given new ears made from there own cartilage after they lost theirs to the battle. The procedure is very complicated, in order to restore blood flow and circulation within the newly constructed ear. Below I pasted another link describing the process more in depth. ===

https://www.popsci.com/forearm-ear-grow-reconstruction#page-2

__** Connection: **__ ===<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">In class we have been discussing the lack of drinkable water within the world and if there are ways that this problem could be fixed. People are trying to use the resources that we have available to us to make drinkable water, just like the army used natural resources (Burrage own cartilage) to make a functioning ear. Lack of water within the world will also be a major problem for our troops and doctors. Sterile and clean water is needed for survival of patients. Without water these new discoveries can not be made, Furthermore, doctors thoughts and discoveries will not be able to be created without water. Burrage a hundred years from now may have not been capable of receiving a functioning ear made of her own cartilage. ===

<span style="color: #e300b1; font-family: Arial Black,Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 220%;">Sustainability

<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive;">2. Zero Hunger
=<span style="color: #000af0; font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;">I feel that hunger is another major problem within the world that can be fixed with a giving hand. I think the average person can make a difference in helping hunger, with just a helping hand. The UN World Food Programme is trying to end hunger by providing fort line assistance and emergencies with a partnership to stop the underlying causes of hunger. This is just that start to stopping universal hunger, but more people need to join in this stance to benefit kids and adults. If we are able to stop hunger, why don't we give a helping hand? = <span style="color: #000af0; font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;">

<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive;">5. Climate Action
==<span style="color: #000af2; font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;">Climate Change is one of the most detrimental and urgent issues in the world today. The nation needs to change directions when it comes to climate change in order to benefit the earth. Many scientists believe that if we were to change to renewable energy completely there were be many significant benefits to the United States. Some of these benefits include, creating public jobs, improving public health, and delivering benefits to low income households. In addition to the three benefits listed there are many other ways renewable and free energy can change the world. Climate Action is a problem that has a clear fix to it and I feel that if we come together as a community this problem could be fixed completely, helping not only the environment but the people. == <span style="color: #000af2; font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;">