October Sky Blog

I recently watched the movie October Sky in class. This movie is about a boy named Homer who becomes inspired to create rockets after seeing Sputnik in the sky at night. When Homer begins creating rockets his father becomes disappointed because he believes that Homer is playing around and that the rockets aren't important. Homers father wants Homer to work in the mines just like he does as his job. Homer refuses to work in the mines and he continues to make rockets and set them off. Homer and his partners get arrested later on because the police think that one of his rockets set off a fire. Homer uses mathematical equations to prove to the police and the principal that it is not possible for one of his rockets to land where the fire started. Everyone soon finds out that the fire was started by a flare coming from a nearby airport. Homer goes to a Science fair later in the story where he wins for his fantastic explanation of how he got his rockets to work. In October Sky, Homer was lacking the respect that he deserved. Especially the respect that he needed to be appreciated by his father. His father didn't respect Homer because he didn't believe that the rockets would get Homer anywhere in life and that since Homer was not good at football, he should go work in the mines. Homer's dad never went to any of Homers rocket launches until the one at then end. I enjoyed this movie as it showed how a boy can get to excellence from determination.

Down Syndrome Response

Today, I have been looking around Blogger and I have come across an article about Down Syndrome. Down Syndrome is a common genetic disorder as one in seven hundred forty newborns get this disease. Sadly, this disease includes the symptoms of slow growth, weak muscles, short wide neck with excess fat and skin, stocky short arms and legs, a single crease across the center of the palm, a pushed up nasal bridge, mental retardation and heart defects. Right now there is no cure for down syndrome but there a special classes for people with Down Syndrome and they help the people who have that disease. I hope that the cure for this disease is found soon as I cannot stand how lucky everyone who doesn't have a genetic disease is. Why do we have to live with all this luck and all these exclusive opportunities that these people do not have? I wish that these people never got these diseases and the same goes with the people who have Down Syndrome. One day I hope a cure is found for most of these diseases. As mooselover189 said, "The DNA for someone with Down Syndrome is three copies of Trisomy 21. To develop a treatment for Down Syndrome, we would need to know what really causes it and can than come up with a treatment from there." So if one day we find out what causes this disease then maybe one day we can cure this horrible disease.
I got this information from mooselover189 from the blog url:
http://mooselover1892.blogspot.com/

Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease

The Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease. Have you ever heard of it? No it doesn't have anything to do with teeth. The Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease is a horrible genetic disorder which is one of the most common inherited neurological disorders which was discovered in the year 1886. The symptoms of this disease are foot drop which can cause hammer toe, which is the raising of the foot arch and lowering of the toes, hip sockets can become malformed, weakness in the hands and forearms and scoliosis is also a symptom shown in some cases. I have learned that some people with this disease can't even stand up because of the weakness in their muscles and such. It makes me sad to think that some people have to live with this. The Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease is known for its cause of loss of muscle tissue and touch sensation, mainly in the feet and legs but also in the hands and arms in the advanced stages of disease. The Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease affects the peripheral nerves which are a nervous system that resides or extends outside the central nervous system that consists of the brain and spinal cord. At the molecular level, some molecules are gone which are essential for normal function of nerves due to deficiencies in the structure of the genes coding these molecules. Right now, there are no cures for this disease. The use of ascorbic acid has been proposed though. Ascorbic acid is a sugar acid with antioxidant properties. Ascorbic acid is also deeply known for its link with vitamin C which treats scurvy. The Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease is obtained through heredity, so if your ancestors had it then it is possible for you to get it too. The disease affects one in two thousand five hundred people and is a hard genetic disease to live with. People are looking for a cure and I think that we have to find a way to supply the molecules needed for the normal function of the nerves. I hope we find a cure for this disease soon so that everyone can be cured.

DNA Extraction Conclusion

Just the other day in science class we all did a DNA extraction. Sounds cool doesn't it? Well you and your partner had to choose between extracting DNA from animal cells or plant cells. I chose plant cells. I started with a vial filled with strawberry juice and then I needed to fill it with different things to make the DNA come out into the alcohol we put in later. I then looked closely at the alcohol and I saw DNA floating around inside of it. We added ingredients like enzymes and more. This somehow made the DNA extract from the cells. This was very interesting and I thought this was a very fun experiment.

Florida lab growing new life?

Scientists in a flordia lab are creating new lifeforms. How is this possible? Will this soon lead to humans creating whole new anime species or even sentient lifeforms capable of living among us? Well that's going a bit too out of hand for todays current technology. At the rate we're going, which is pretty fast, that may be possible in the next few centuries. Right now in this florida lab they are creating the first synthetic life form capable of Darwinian evolution. Darwinian evoluton is the theory of evolution using natural selection. Charles Darwin created one of the basic concepts for the modern theory of evolution. The scientists at the florida lab say that the experiment, named AEGIS, is evolving like it was expected to do. This is a monumental achievment and will surely lead onto greater things.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29430688/

State Department doesn't like todays Chinese human rights

The State Department has said that they are not satisfied with the condition of Chinas current human rights. They say that human rights have even gotten worse then before in some areas and before was not very pleasing. They say that problems sky rocketed at huge events such as the Beijing Olympics. Human rights are rights against torture, forced labor, killings and more of that bad stuff. They also say that China is being cruel to some of its areas with different religious and cultural standards. Hillary Clinton took a trip to China last week and she brought up the human rights problems in China. She does not want to put on too much critisizm for we need China as a powerful ally to the United States. As this all goes on in China we also need to focus on the human rights of the United States. The United States human rights is a concern around the world, it is better then Chinas but it is not the best it could be. Hopefully Obama could fix this problem with the human rights in China and here at home.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/25/china.state/index.html

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