Irradiated foods

After we learned about the electromagnetic spectrum, we came to class, and Mrs. M just randomly told us she had a great idea about how we each get a pair, and we would have a debate versus another pair, that meaning Mrs. M told us whether we were going to pros or cons (pros means you are supporting the topic, and cons is the opposite.) Once Mrs. M told us who was pros and who was cons, we started researching, there was no talking allowed, when we got all the research we would share it with our partner and see which are the main points and ideas. Once we were done with the researching and putting our arguments together, the debate would start. I was partnered up with Aleksej, we were the cons of irradiated food. Throughout our discussion Teodora, Monica, and Lilla (mainly Teodora) showed and told us the opposite side which in this case was the pros of irradiated food. This was a great discussion, I think and hope Aleksej and I did a good job, both teams came up with great points, and we had a lot of fun, while discussing.

Meaning of Irradiated Food:

Food irradiation is the process of exposing food to ionizing radiation to destroy microorgansims, bacteria viruses, or insects that might be present in the food. rendering foods safe to consume and extending their storage lifetime.

Pros and Cons of Irradiated food:

Pros:

• Destroys harmful substances in the food.
• Irradiation can kill or substantially reduce the number of potentially dangerous organisms in foods. Estimates range of 90 to 99%.
• No need for buying it, irradiated is labeled.

Cons:

• Destroys nutrients in food
• When life was made, it was made to die not preserve
• Not fully tested, not known if it has any long term effects.

You see two container of a food at the supermarket. One is irradiated one is not. The price is the same. Which would you buy? Explain why.

Okay, so first of all, I wouldn't have to make that choice, because the only times I go to the supermarket is either to buy drinks, or chocolate, or ice cream... But that's not the point right now. If I would have to choose, I would pick the natural foods. I would not pick the irradiated one because if it’s healthy I know that it won’t harm me after washing it. Some might pick the other choice, but what i picked, i think is the right choice. Other people should pick what they think would be healthy and good for them, but whether the others' choice is irradiated, or not irradiated, they should always wash their food before eating it.

Do you think science in this case was a good invention? The population of our World-famous Earth keeps increasing and decreasing by the millisecond! However, that doesn’t influence the food storage, in any countries food has dropped of increased because of the population that has increased. I think that irradiated food can be good, and is good to be eaten, but eating it all the time I wouldn’t recommend that. Irradiated food preserves food a lot, so people can ship a lot of types of food over. Irradiated food might be good in many causes, but, to make and have the people eat more of it, scientists have to analyze and research is more to make sure nothing goes wrong in the future.

How was science used to address a global food problem with irradiation?

As said in the previous part, our population has increased and keeps increasing, in the past few years, researchers show that we, humans have been able to feed more people with irradiated food than with normal/non-irradiated food. In these past few years, we have had a lot of natural disasters; in fact, one of the biggest so far was in Japan the earthquake and tsunami that happened, washed away half of its people, and the earthquake that happened in Haiti. These natural disasters all left the country and people unstable, homeless, and hungry. With all these problems that the earthquake and/or tsunami has left, people from different countries came and started to help. As said the natural disaster has left the people hungry and they had no food, so they got irradiated food. Organizations like the Red Cross keep feeding the kids with Irradiated food and they all have a good and healthy life.

Eclipses

Why do eclipses occur?
A lunar eclipse occurs at night and a solar eclipse occurs during the day. There are only certain times when either of them can occur. A lunar eclipse can only occur when the moon is directly opposite the Sun in the sky — a full moon. Even though there is a full moon each month, obviously a lunar eclipse does not occur on a monthly basis because the Sun isn't exactly in line with the Earth and the moon. The moon's orbit is actually tilted 5 degrees more than that of the Earth; otherwise, we would see a lunar eclipse each month.

We can see lunar eclipses more readily than solar eclipses, and it has to do with proximity. The Moon is much closer to the Earth (well over 300 times closer than the Sun!), so the Earth has a much greater chance of blocking sunlight to the Moon, compared to the Moon blocking light from the Sun. Also, a lunar eclipse can be seen from a greater portion of the Earth. Solar eclipses, on the other hand, are more rare and when they do happen can only be seen by a very narrow segment of people on Earth, for a short period of time.

It is quite safe to watch a lunar eclipse with the naked eye, while watching a solar eclipse without eyewear protection can seriously damage your eyesight.



This is an example of a Solar Eclipse. ^^

This is an example of a Lunar Eclipse. ^^

What did ancient people use to think the eclipse was?
Eclipses in the ancient times were though of as my different things. In the ancient times, as some of us should, and probably do already know, ancient people didn't know what an eclipse was and couldn't find the scientific reason to it because they didn't have technology. In some ancient places, some people thought that the eclipses were evil omens, but some of them, also didn't. For example the people who built the Stonehenge looked at the eclipse as a good thing, because there is a stone made when an eclipse occurs you can see right through the stone onto it.



Which type of eclipse occurs most often? Why? Are eclipses seen from every
point on Earth?
The eclipse that is more common is the Lunar Eclipse as i have mentioned before. It can be seen by everyone on the night side of the Earth, which for me, or in my opinion, is really cool. While on the other side the solar eclipse can only be seen if you are standing on a particular spot on the Earth. I learned in class that those eclipses are very rare, and that scientists predict for one to happen in 2012. These eclipses are very rare, thus they don't happen often, they usually happen every 6-12 months.

Moon Phases

Guiding Question: What Causes the moon phases?

Directions:

· For the model place the flashlight about one meter away from Earth.

· Then place the moon between the Earth and the sun, because that’s where it is.

· After you did that observe the moon as if you are standing on Earth.

· Then sketch what you see of the moon in your notebook from four different points.

· Record your observations of the moon when moved 1/4^th of the way around the Earth in orbit, ½ of the way around the Earth and then 3/4^th of the way around the Earth in orbit.

Positions:

· Move the moon one-fourth of the way around Earth in a counter-clockwise direction.

· More the moon half of the way around Earth in a counter-clockwise direction.

· More the moon three-fourths of the way around Earth in a counter-clockwise direction.

These are the phases of the moon:

As you can see in the pictures the new moon is completely dark, because its actual position is behind the Earth and there is no sunlight there. The Waxing Crescent has a bit of sunlight, the First Quarter is half full of sunlight (not half-empty, that's just being pessimistic), the Waxing Gibbous has more sunlight than darkness, the Full Moon has complete sunlight!

The diagram above shows and symbolizes all the phases of the moon as we see them from Earth.

What did you notice about the phases of the moon?

Some things that I noticed were that the phases of the moon aren't very fast, in fact, they are pretty slow (in my head they are slow) I state this because it take the moon 29.9 days to go around the Earth

As we all might of learned or know the moon is around 4.5 million years old which is around the same age as the Earth, it doesn’t produce light on its own it reflects off of the sun. Depending on which phase the moon is located on people down here on Earth can see it in different shapes (Isn’t that cool?!) What I also learned is that we can’t see the other side of the moon unfortunately, we only see one side.

What I learned, which might be less... Or more... Or the same amount as the rest of the class has, was that the moon, very much like Earth, is 4.5 million years old, it doesn't produce or make its own light but it receives it by reflecting it off the sun. Depending on the phase of the moon, it (the moon) looks differently for us on Earth. What i also learned which i found the most interesting, was that we can not see the other side of the moon, unfortunately, or fortunately, we don't know if it is a good or bad thing, basically we can see only one side of the moon.

Why do we see different parts of the moon each night?

You see different parts, not sides, but different parts of the moon each night, just because as the moon revolves and goes around the earth, it reflects the light from the sun at different positions. If the moon didn't revolve around the Earth we would be seeing the same part of the moon each and every night, that meaning we would always see a full moon, or a new moon, etc. But the moon does move around Earth and thats why we do see different parts of the Moon although still only one side of it.

What is a lunar month?

A lunar month is the average time between successive new or full moons, equal to 29 days and a half days, specifically 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes

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How does the Earth, Sun and Moon interact to cause so many things to occur?

As the planets orbit around the sun they always move, some might move/orbit faster than others and some might not. Without the sun around, we wouldn't have light, we would be living in darkness, and all the trees, plants and other living organisms wouldn't be able to function at all. Without the moon we wouldn't have tides and without the Earths tilt we wouldn't have any seasons.

What causes an eclipse and a tide?

Eclipses are caused by the Moon in its orbit passing either between the Earth and the Sun (solar eclipse) or through the Earth's shadow (lunar eclipse). The tides are caused by the gravitational attraction of the Moon (major factor) or Sun (minor factor, because it's farther away) as the Earth rotates on its axis.