Article Summary

This Article goes over what causes water pollution and the affects it has when it is contaminated. https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/water_pollution.htm

In this article, they describe the phases that the hydrologic cycle has and how water goes from solid, liquid, and gas. They have a clear image that shows the cycle of the water and how many things affect what happens in the cycle.

When the water cycle is happening, the water is either a solid, liquid, or a gas. First a cloud is form by many  droplets and then the cloud will either rain or it will snow. Which this is a way that we continue to have water. The water that falls from the clouds, will either go into the ocean or it will sink in the ground. And the cycle goes on and and on. 

Earth Floor: Cycles. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 May 2017.

This article, about biodiversity highlights some of the new species that have been found thus far in 2016.  This articles states that there are likely over 10 million species living and extinct, whereas we have only described about 2 million of these organisms.  And while every year scientists are identifying new ones, the number of organisms on Earth keeps growing.  Even the way we define species can affect the species estimates. For example, the article states that the number of avian species was thought to be 95% identified, but recent interrogation into bird species split species into two, which just about doubles the predicted number of avian species previously thought.  In 2016, they highlight some of the species found, such as a bacterium that can break down plastic, and the giraffe long thought to be a single species is not considered to be four separate species.  A new genus of parasitic flatworm was named after former president Barack Obama, called Baracktrema obamai.  Another cool species found was an octopus that is capable of bioluminescence.  This article was very insightful to the ever-increasing list of species that is present on Earth and the expansion of some thought to previously be only one species.

Source:
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/47785/title/New-Species-of-2016/

In this NASA Earth Observatory article, we learn all about The Water Cycle. The Water Cycle, also known as the Hydrologic, Dycle describes the transportatiom of water as water molecules make their way from the Earth’s surface to the atmosphere and back again. In some special cases, water travels below the surface. This huge system, which is solely powered by energy from the Sun, is a continuous exchange of moisture between the oceans, the atmosphere, and the land. This article does a wonderful job at explaining all the steps to The Water Cycle, and provided detailed descriptions for each step. 

In a new study released May 3, 2017 a group from the University of Wisconsin Madison found that in the summer increased electricity demand may play a key role in high levels of ozone, particulate matter and other pollutants.  As shown in the pictures provided in this article, it refers to portable , window air conditioning units. The study shows that although scientists have long known that air pollution is highest in the summer days, few studies have been made on it's contribution to air pollution. The studies show that air conditioning causes emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide to increase by hundreds to thousands of metric tons, or 3 to 4 percent per degree Celsius (or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit). Tracy Holloway who is a professor of environmental studies at the Nelson Institute says researchers plan to continue to study the impact of electricity emissions with other factors affecting pollution formations. It is important to be able to learn more from studies like these to help improve the design and overall performance and impact of air conditioners.       Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-05-cool-summer-air-pollution.html#jCp   From <https://phys.org/news/2017-05-cool-summer-air-pollution.html>;    

 A graduate student from Emory University in Atlanta, GA, has discovered a new protein from frog skins to prevent flu or viruses known as H1Z1. The slim that were taken were frogs from southern India. The slim that was taken in for studies was called hydrophylax bahuvistara and it has 32 different type of protein. Out of the 32 proteins only one of the protein called Urumin seem to fight off viruses. It did not seem to harm mammals, but instead it gave several viruses a hard time developing and reproducing.  When testing was conducted, Urumin was killing off H1N1 viruses and slowing down another common disease called H3N2. Mice that were treated with the protein were less likely to die from the viruses. Another research was also done, and was strictly about the protein and how it was fighting off viruses. The proteins does this by blowing up the particles and target the protein in the H1 strains. It will not be a while before this is turn into medicine or drugs. It is a start for the viruses remedy and more studies and researcher are being taking for future usage of this new protein discovered from the frog.  

I enjoyed the article because I learned a few things, first was the importance of glaciers and what benefits they had. One example was that the water is used for daily use. Also I had no idea that they use satellites to help monitor the size and shape of the glaciers. Also the concern that flodding can occur in the future because of ocean rising. Over all the article was informative. 

After reading on Rainshadow from National Geographic's online article, I feel as though I have a better understanding as to what Rainshadow is as well as what causes it. Rainshadow occurs when a patch of land is basically turned into a desert. Due to a mountain being in the way, this creates zero plant life and or precipitation. The article talks about it being warm and dry in a Rainshadow, while the opposite side is wet, moist and cool. Some examples of where one may find this phenomenon include The Tibetan Plateau, Death Valley, the Sierra Nevada mountain range and some U.S deserts. Overall this article was very easy to read and understand, who doesn't love a good Nat Geo?

This article discusses the pros and the cons of the process called Hydraulic Fracturing also called fracking. This is a process that has come about for natural gas and oil extraction. Fracking is the process of drilling into the Earth's crust where deposits of natural gases and oil are present and injecting high pressured water into the rocks that contain the natural gas or oil. The water contains sand and other chemicals that help to keep the rock open in order for the gas and oil to escape and be extracted. There are many people that are for or against the fracking process and this article gives the many pros and cons that may or may not persuade you to be for or against this process. For example, a pro is that this process gives us more access to more natural gas and oil. And a con is that this process focuses less on renewable energy resources.

"Pros and Cons of Fracking." Conserve Energy Future. N.p., 24 Dec. 2016. Web. 27 Mar. 2017.            <http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/pros-and-cons-of-fracking.php>;.

In this article we learned about the wind turbine. Ageing is a fact of life. A wind was sources that renewable energy. We used the wind turbine to produce the energy over lifetime, the electricity. In this paper talk about reveal the rate of ageing of a national fleet of wind turbines using free public data for the actual and theoretical ideal load factors from the UK's 282 wind farms. Actual load factors are recorded monthly for the period of 2002–2012, covering 1686 farm-years of operation. They use NASA data to estimate the hourly wind speed at the location and hub height of each wind farm, accounting for the particular models of turbine installed. Wind turbines are found to lose 1.6 ± 0.2% of their output per year, with average load factors declining from 28.5% when new to 21% at age 19. This summary from this article to make it short. It was very interesting article to read and here are the website if anyone need read more. References resources; http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148113005727