41

=Boricua Science Class Student Work Space=

Student Name:
Arturo Arjona -- Prof. Lewis received this work (4/27/09)

Body Burden
In the space between the lines, you will present your research in the form of a pamphlet that anyone could read to learn more about toxic products in the home and office. If you create a Word document, let me know, and we can upload it to this page.

[Type your research in here]

End of Term Reflection
Here are some of the activities we did in class this term: Harper's Magazine ("Boots on the Ice"), Hurricane Evacuation Plan, Designer Babies (GATACA), Genetic Diseases, Evolution Movies/Research, NYT Science Reviews, Punnett Squares, Chemical Bond Diagrams, The Periodic Table, The Birth and Death of Stars

Genetic Diseases and Chemical Bond Diagrams Designer babies(Genes) and Evolution Computer Class = Less Videos = More Student Group Activities = More Evaluations = Less [insert text here]
 * What 2-3 activities did you enjoy/learn the most?
 * What 2-3 activities topic did you find the most difficult to understand?
 * Describe how could we improve this course in the future
 * Explain why you enjoyed, or why you struggled through, this class, offering whatever insights you may feel are valuable:

Name of Disease
ataxia telangiectasia

Symptoms

 * 1) Slurred speech
 * 2) Weaken immune system
 * 3) Movement problems(difficulty walking, balance, Involuntary jerking movements and muscle twitches)

Genes

 * 1) ATM
 * 2) [Type here]
 * 3) [Type here]

Cytogenetic Location
11q22.3

Base Pair Sites
107,598,768 to 107,745,035

Community
Bushwick, Brooklyn which is No zone.

Evacuation Center

 * 1) Location – The nearest evacuation center for me is IS383. Located on Green Avenue between Myrtle avenue and Wilson avenue. The schools phone number is 718-574-0390.
 * 2) Implemented Plan – In my case I would stay at home because I‘m in a no zone area, but In the case that I have to evacuate, IS 383 is very close to my house about 350 feet away. It is walking distance. Walking at a normal pace it’s about 4 minutes away, so no trains would be necessary to take in the event I had to go there.

Your Evacuation Plan
I would first try to speak to my family about meeting at the IS 383 school very early in the morning exactly at 7:00am in case of an emergency. Then I would go straight to my house with my family to secure all important things at home. I would secure many important things in water proof bags in the house. Close all my windows shut and locked. I would listen to the news and see what’s going on. Thankfully I don’t have any pets so I would proceed to prepare a big go bag. It will contain a flashlight, batteries, matches, water, small snacks, important documents, keys, credit cards, medicine, first aid kit, regional, cell phone and a corded home phone even if it does not work at the current time. I would make sure that I have everything I need to survive the storm or hurricane. I would then make sure I’m in front of IS 383 at 7:00am to meet with my family, then I would go home with them. 3)I tried calling the school 3 different times but got nowhere with them. I felt like the issue was not important to them. Many times I was put on hold to speak to someone about it but nothing happened. The secretary or lady who answers the phone didn’t know what I was talking about. After a while I gave up and realized this was something that was not important to this school or they weren’t prepared

#1

 * 1) Summary –
 * 2) Arturo Arjona 4-24-09
 * 3) New York Times Science review Professor: Robert Lewis
 * 4) Industry Ignored It’s Scientists On climate
 * By: Andrew C Revkin Published April 23, 2009
 * 1) This Article is very interesting. It talks about the Global Climate Coalition group and them trying to fight the facts that humans have caused global warming. This is a company that has many ties with the fossil fuel, oil and automotive industries. For many years they tried to hide the fact that humans are the cause of global warming because of the release of green house gases that have been released to the atmosphere. The have used the same tactics that the tobacco companies have done as well. For many years that tobacco companies have denied that cigarettes cause lung cancer. Even though it was a known fact that they did.
 * 2) These companies try to keep these things in the dark because it affects their partners like the fossil fuel companies and the automobile industry. The Global Climate Coalition group felt that in order to win this argument they only have to cause confusion because that will cause the government to stall or delay any actions. The coalitions has spent millions of dollars on campaigns that say that the science is uncertain when it came to the release of gases to the atmosphere being the cause of global warming. The facts were there, but it would hurt there money if this was found out or released to the public. The main interest of the Coalition is money regardless of the facts that were present. In 2002 the Coalition disbanded but there are still some groups that are opposed to the curbing of emissions.
 * 3) The Coalitions arguments were that reason why the temperatures were appearing to rise was because of flawed climate records. The Global Climate Coalition group’s scientist told them since the beginning that emission gasses do cause global warming but the group finally admits it as well. They now admit it, but refused to let it be known because of the effect that it would have towards their income from the ties they have from the oil and automotive industries.
 * 4) Book Citation – This article has a big connection with chapter 19 pages 401-405. This is something that we went through in class and spent some time learning about the cause and effect of global warming. We even saw a video in class with former vice president Al Gore in “The Inconvenient Truth” which spoke about this on going problem we have in our world. In chapter 19 page 401 we can see that it explains how green house gases are trap in the atmosphere and this causes the heat from the sun to be trapped in the earth’s atmosphere as well causing global warming.
 * 5) Personal Interest – The reason why I picked this article was because this is something that I went over in class. It is also very interesting to me because it shows how we as humans are destroying the earth and the future of our generations to come. I feel that we must act now before it’s too late. We must take care of the earth and focus on making energy that is friendly to the world we live in. I learned from this article that greed is something that will never stop. These Companies put up fights to confuse the public because their money is more important then anything else. They don’t care if they destroy the planet as long as their getting money out of it. I really love when these types of articles come out because it educates people and helps the cause.
 * 6) There are many people who to this day don’t really care about global warming and sometimes ignore it, and many just like the cigarette smokers only worry when they get cancer. The signs are obvious and unquestionable. We have recently seen the cause of global warming on the commercial flying jet that hand to make an emergency landing on the Hudson river because the turbines were destroyed by an increase of birds in the winter. These types of occurrences can be prevented if we start taking global warming serious. I’m all for protecting the earth and hope that the automotive industries focuses more on cars that run off environmental friendly energy like hydrogen or rechargeable batteries.
 * 1) Book Citation – This article has a big connection with chapter 19 pages 401-405. This is something that we went through in class and spent some time learning about the cause and effect of global warming. We even saw a video in class with former vice president Al Gore in “The Inconvenient Truth” which spoke about this on going problem we have in our world. In chapter 19 page 401 we can see that it explains how green house gases are trap in the atmosphere and this causes the heat from the sun to be trapped in the earth’s atmosphere as well causing global warming.
 * 2) Personal Interest – The reason why I picked this article was because this is something that I went over in class. It is also very interesting to me because it shows how we as humans are destroying the earth and the future of our generations to come. I feel that we must act now before it’s too late. We must take care of the earth and focus on making energy that is friendly to the world we live in. I learned from this article that greed is something that will never stop. These Companies put up fights to confuse the public because their money is more important then anything else. They don’t care if they destroy the planet as long as their getting money out of it. I really love when these types of articles come out because it educates people and helps the cause.
 * 3) There are many people who to this day don’t really care about global warming and sometimes ignore it, and many just like the cigarette smokers only worry when they get cancer. The signs are obvious and unquestionable. We have recently seen the cause of global warming on the commercial flying jet that hand to make an emergency landing on the Hudson river because the turbines were destroyed by an increase of birds in the winter. These types of occurrences can be prevented if we start taking global warming serious. I’m all for protecting the earth and hope that the automotive industries focuses more on cars that run off environmental friendly energy like hydrogen or rechargeable batteries.

#2

 * 1) Summary –
 * 2) In the Genes of a Hereford, the essence of cow
 * By: Denise Grady Published April 23, 2009
 * 1) This article basically talks about a new discovery that scientist have made about cows. It was a project that involved a cow named L1 Dominette 01449. The cow industry is a 49 billion dollar industry. This project involved more then 300 scientist from 25 different countries and was a process that took six years. It was not cheap either. This project cost $ 53 million dollars to complete. In this project the scientist compared the genome of this cow to human, mouse, rat, dog, opossum and platypus. In this scientific even they notice that cow genes and human genes have 80% similarities.
 * 2) The scientist notice that the 22,000 genes of a cow and 20,000 or so genes of humans have a lot in common. They notice that cows had a lot more similarities to humans then a mouse or rats and because of this discovery they feel they can find new cures for humans and possibilities for improvement of milk. They said that these possibilities will also enable the scientist to lower the amount of green house gases that these cows release. Scientist say this was a very successful discovery that will help them understand the evolution of mammals.
 * 3) Book Citation – In chapter 23 from pages 468-481 there is a lot of connection with this article. It talks about genes and where we get them from. We get our genes from our parents. In this chapter we learned about designer babies and how scientists are altering with genes in order to remove diseases from that persons genes. Scientist are also able to change eye color, hair texture and many more things that are located in our genes. In page 472 in the textbook we can see that they talk about DNA structure and this relates with this article as well. It’s were we can find all information about any person or animal. This is where these scientist were able to discover all the similarities between the cows and humans.
 * 4) Personal Interest –
 * 5) This Article was very interesting to me because it’s new and valuable information that can benefit humanity in the future. I learned that humans and cows genes are 80% similar. Scientist might be able to come up with new cures for diseases through this discovery. Cows are very important to our society. They provide meat and milk for us. Milk has its benefits and anything that scientist can do to better if will be a great thing. I also found this article interesting because scientist normally use rats when testing new medicines for humans.
 * 6) Now that we know that cows have more in common with us humans than rats, we can expect better medicines for us and new discoveries that will better our health. Cows are a big part of our food source and I learned that it is a 49 billion dollar industry which is mind blowing. Cows produce green house gases that may affect our atmosphere and scientist say that after this discovery they may be able to lower these gases, which is also beneficial for us. Through this discovery we can also learn about the history of the cows through there genes.
 * 1) Now that we know that cows have more in common with us humans than rats, we can expect better medicines for us and new discoveries that will better our health. Cows are a big part of our food source and I learned that it is a 49 billion dollar industry which is mind blowing. Cows produce green house gases that may affect our atmosphere and scientist say that after this discovery they may be able to lower these gases, which is also beneficial for us. Through this discovery we can also learn about the history of the cows through there genes.

#3
Back to Science homepage
 * 1) Summary –
 * 2) Third-World stove soot is target in climate fight
 * By: Elizabeth Rosenthal
 * 1) Black Carbon is widely used in many of the poorest parts of the east. Soot is said to be responsible for 18% of the planets warming problems. It was something that was over looked for sometime, but now scientist are saying that something must be done because it’s becoming a major problem in global warming. Soot is widely used in many poor villages in India because it’s very inexpensive, but it’s very bad for a persons health and is warming up the world as well. Soot is used to cook their meals every day. Carbon dioxide is said to be the number 1 cause of global warming and soot as number 2. Many Scientist believe that reducing the use of black carbon to cook can dramatically help the global warming problems which they say can be short term.
 * 2) Black Carbon also known as soot takes only a few weeks to leave the atmosphere as oppose to carbon dioxide which take years lingering in the atmosphere. According to scientist, soot is going to melt 75% of the ice on the Himalayan glaciers by the year 2020. Scientist feel that this is becoming a serious concern. These glaciers are the source of water for many villages and if they melt. It may major flooding in the mountainous villages. Then after time there will be less and less water that can cause even more problems including battles in these countries in Asia and Africa. Soot is not a problem in the United States or Europe because these things are regulated by the government.
 * 3) In some of these countries many have never heard of global warming and many scientist believe it will be a difficult task to convince some of these people about global warming. They believe a better method would be to let them know about the health issues that Black Carbon has and that can lead to a great start. To some of these people the black carbon is what gives off the taste for their foods but something has to be done. A cook stove project was started in march called Surya. Where many environment friendly stoves were introduced to many villages, but some where not too successful because of the durability of some of these stoves. Some of these people have already seen some of the changes they have seen due to warmer weather. Their crops are not growing the same and there has been many droughts. A better way to help the cause is to educate these people on the health issues that black carbon has on them and their kids.
 * 4) Book Citation – On chapter 19 page 401 we can see some of the effect that these gases do to our atmosphere. It causes the earth to be hotter and causes ice caps to melt. This is a problem that should be dealt with. Since Black carbon does not stay in the atmosphere for long, it can have fast and dramatic results. The problem is getting many of these people to change their old habits and educating them as well. Some of the black carbon gasses from India has been seen in many parts of the world.
 * 5) Personal Interest –
 * 6) This was an interesting article to me because this is all new to me. I never knew that Black carbon was such a problem on earth. I thought most of the poor countries used wood to cook their foods. I believe this is a very difficult situation because some of these people in these parts of the world make barely $2 a day, and some of these stoves are $20. It is something that is difficult for these people to buy. Another thing is that a lot of these people have never even heard of global warming and don’t really know what it is. It would be a difficult task to actually educate all these thousands of villages in the world. I believe this is something that should come from the governments of these countries.
 * 7) At times I feel like we in the United States worry more about these types of global problems. I feel like many foreign countries don’t put any importance on any of these issues and more should be enforced worldwide. Another thing is that many of these people are used to cooking with black carbon because it gives their foods the flavor they are used to. It’s something that will change their entire life style. It’s going to take more then a scientific effort to help change this situation. It's interesting to see some of the situations that happen outside of the United States.
 * 1) At times I feel like we in the United States worry more about these types of global problems. I feel like many foreign countries don’t put any importance on any of these issues and more should be enforced worldwide. Another thing is that many of these people are used to cooking with black carbon because it gives their foods the flavor they are used to. It’s something that will change their entire life style. It’s going to take more then a scientific effort to help change this situation. It's interesting to see some of the situations that happen outside of the United States.