Food cold? No worries, Just microwave it.

Weather you are a chef, stay at home mom, or just someone who likes to eat ( including me) you have probably use the microwave oven many times, almost daily. In fact, they are present in 90% of homes in America. But, other than microwave ovens, there are many more uses for microwave radiation.

Microwave is a region of the electromagnetic spectrum that consists of short radio waves that range from 1mm-1m in length, about the seize of a human. They have a frequency range from 1GHz-1000GHz. Microwaves can be produced by cavity magnetrons, which is a high powered vacuum tube.The sun also emits microwaves but most of the rays are blocked by the atmosphere.

Another use for microwaves other than the common microwave oven is for long distance telephone calls. These were especially popular before the invention of fiber-optics. They are also used in television news to transmit single from the remote location of the news van to the the television station. Although this may not work on modern televisions, you can turn the dial of the T.V. to in-between stations. Some of this "snow" is from the noise from microwave radiation. Radars and Global Positioning Systems use microwaves as well.

There are several interesting phenomena related to microwaves. One being that they have the same natural frequency as water. So, when microwaves cause constant vibrations in water, fats, sugars, etc., it causes it to heat up. This same process happens when food is microwaved in a microwave oven. Another phenomena occurs when the universe was created 10-20 billion years ago through the Big Bang and an immense amount of energy was released. This energy is known as Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation and is essentially what is left from the Big Bang that as a result, filled the universe. Because the expanding universe cooled since then, the radiation waves have lengthened and are now part of the microwave spectrum of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Microwaves, unfortunately, can cause health problems. Microwave ovens turn some minerals in the food heated into cancerous agents because the radiation kills the good cells that are within the food. Studies have shown that foods from a microwave can cause tumors in the stomach or intestine. They have also shown that some microwave radiation, including those caused by cell phones, satellites, TVs etc., can contribute to neurological, reproductive, and cardiac problems.

Microwaves are a big part of the technological world that we live in. Many of the objects we use everyday are made possible by microwave radiation. On the flip side, they can also cause a large number of health problems. Nevertheless, microwaves are an important in our society and will help shape the technology of the future.




Microwave photo from: http://dualelectronics.com/shop/index.php?cPath=24
Microwave telephone tower photo from: http://www.cwlab.com/index.php?q=form601
Cosmic Microwave Background photo from: http://www.newscientist.com/articleimages/dn11172/1-satellite-could-see-shadow-of-extra-dimensions.html
Video from : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5Hxhgnni2E

Works Cited:

"cosmic microwave background." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010. Web. 1 Apr. 2010 <http://www.school.eb.com/eb/article-9471314>.

"Microwave." Encyclopedia Britannica. N.p., 2010. Web. 17 Mar. 2010.
<http://www.school.eb.com/eb/article-9052523?query=microwave&ct=>.

"Microwave." Oxford Reference Online. N.p., 2008. Web. 17 Mar. 2010.
<http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/
ENTRY.html?entry=t142.e7554&srn=1&ssid=1035360246#FIRSTHIT>.

Tripathi, Vijai K. "Microwave." World Book Advanced. N.p., 2010. Web. 17 Mar.
2010. <http://www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/
article?id=ar359980&st=Microwave>.

Got Lice?

Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. Parasites are organisms that live in the tissues of other organisms which causes damage to the host with out killing it immediately. Parasitologist studies theses parasites in a lab and their way of life as well as how they effect their host and connect the dynamic between them. This also includes the development of drugs and how the parasite could have been transmitted from animals to humans. Some parasites include, lice, ticks, blood flukes, ringworm and tapeworms.

This type of scientist would appeal to me because it seems so fascinating to study creatures that feed off of others. Parasites are also very common because there are more parasites than free living organisms. More specifically, in the parasitology field, I am more interested in Medical Parasitology which studies how parasites effect humans and how to treat and get rid of the parasite. That way, I would help humans and relieve them form suffering due to parasites.

This scientific field would match my interest because ever since I was young, i loved grossing people out with some new fact that I learned. By being a parasitologist, I would be able to study some of these organisms that i once found interesting and gross when i was younger.

This profession of being a parasitologist would meet my goals because I always wanted an interesting job that does not involve sitting in a cubical. By being a parasitologist, i would fulfill my goal of doing something interesting. Plus, the ever changing science field would make it even more interesting to study something of this field. (I heard the pay is pretty good too. ;D)

This profession would match my learning skills because I am a kinetic and visual learner. Working with parasites would fulfill both skills because i would have to look at diagrams and do lots of hand on work and experiments.

Being a parasitologist would leave a legacy for future generations because as long as there are organisms, there will be parasites. Parasites affect humans greatly and have led to extreme human mortality in the past and in the present, for example malaria. For the safety and health of future generations, parasitologist have to keep studying parasites and stop them from starting an epidemic.




Information from Careers in parasitology and Parasitology.com

Video from youtube
Lice photo from Dr. Paul.com
Mosquito photo from TopNews.In

Death by Penny!?

Can a penny kill a person if it is dropped from great heights?

Imagine you are on the observation deck at the top of the Eiffel Tower. You spot a girl make a wish and toss a penny over the edge of the building. Suddenly, you see and pedestrian below get hit by the penny and appears to have collapsed. He is dead.

Although this is a classic urban legend, is it true? Ever since the creation of skyscrapers, this story has existed. The myth first came about when the Empire State Building was being built. Construction workers would make jokes about dropping pennies off the top. Since then, people have thought that if a penny is dropped at the top of the building, it would gather enough velocity to go through the skull of a pedestrian below, killing them instantaneously or make a dent in the sidewalk. Despite efforts to test this, a penny has never been dropped off of the Empire State Building due to security reasons involving this myth.

A test done by 20/20, a news program on ABC, as well as a test done by Myth Busters show that this myth is only a myth. A penny only weighs about one gram and as it falls, it tumbles. Because there is so much air resistance and the penny is not very aerodynamic, it will never gather enough speed to kill a person. As Myth Busters calculated, the fastest the penny could go, or its terminal velocity is about 65 miles per hour. The speed of the penny isrelatively slow and if you are hit, it will feel like you are being hit by a bug.

This myth, on the other hand, does have a grain of truth. Why do you think construction workers wear helmets? If the object is much heavier like a nut or bolt that weighs about 50 grams or an aerodynamic ball point pen, it can speed up to a couple miles an hour which can be extremely dangerous and in that case may kill a person. For example, a bullet weighs about 5 to 10 grams and can go from 800 to 2000 miles per hour depending on the type of gun as well as the type of bullet and the amount of gun powder. A bullet can defiantly kill a person and so can a relatively large object that is dropped off a skyscraper.

If one penny is dropped off the Eiffel Tower, it can go to about 65 mile per hour. That means it will have a little less than one foot-pound of energy when it hits the ground, which may hurt a little. If it is a 50 gram nut or a roll of 50 pennies, and were to fall 1000 feet, it would be the energy of 100 foot-pounds. So if you were to get hit in the head with that… well let’s hope you have a helmet on.




Videos from youtube.com
Penny photo from istockphoto.com
Eiffel tower photo from travelhouseuk.com

Give me JUICY

Heres a link to my FAV brand, Juicy Couture's website!

http://www.juicycouture.com/

Glee Defying Gravity

GLEE!!!

Fashion Sketches

I absolutely LOVE these sketches. Don't know who drew the blue one, just found it on Google images. I believe the white one is Versace. I am obsessed with them and they are both gorgeous. :D