Try Raednig Tihs

Summary of "How can we stlil raed words wehn teh lettres are jmbuled up?" by Economic and Social Research Council

The ESCR noted that the human brain is able to decode letters to make up a real word. This could help out people who have learning disabilities. Readers need to be able to read the letters of a word and to accurately code the letters to come up with a word. For example, if someone were to wrtie leik tihs, the reader's brain would take a quick glance and ignore the jumble of letters by reading what their brain thinks it is. But, if someone were to actually look at the mixed up words clearly, they would be able to notice that these words are not spelled right, but are just jumbled up in a way where humans can read them. Researchers would show a regular psychological test a bunch of scrambled up words that would flash momentarily on the screen. The test was too extreme, so the researches switched it up. The team used computer simulations. This would allow the test to question more complex changes in words. The newly improved test will allow researchers to crack the code that the brain uses to make sense of jumbled words and examine the differences between individuals. The ESCR says, "Ultimately, this could lead to new approaches to helping people to overcome reading problems" (ESCR, 2013).

I think this article is really useful for kids, and adults, who have reading problems like dyslexia. It gives a better understanding on why people can make up words from jumbled words, and how it could help with reading disabilities. Even though this article is a year old, it's still useful information. It doesn't only help people with reading problems, but also just people in general. Like, if someone were researching on why our brain can unscramble jumbled up words. Reading in general is a pretty interesting topic. Scribbles on a page, and somehow it's a word. The fact that people can read a word that's all jumbled up is even more fascinating.

References

How can we stlil raed words wehn teh lettres are jumbled up? (2013, March 15). Retrieved September 8, 2014, from Science Daily website: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130315074613.htm

The Northern Lights a Short Production

Picture yourself as an Inuit.

[Enter Inuit]

 Cold. Fluffy fur around your head. Fingers frozen solid. All of a sudden - BAM! The gods have decended from above. You ask your shocked Inuit self, "What is this wonderous display of colors overhead?" Well we have the answers for you!

[Intro theme music]

Some think the Northern Lights were created with the Earth, some think it was with the atmosphere, and some think it's where gods wrath meets earth.

Don't worry little Inuit - the gods are not angry with you.

[Seventies Disco music starts to play. Inuit costume change into irredecent pants]

The Northern Lights occur when electrons from solar wind [intro glitter cannon] interact with particles in the atmosphere. [Drop disco lights] Note the blue and purple colors.

These first lights were formed when the nitrogen in the atmosphere came about. This lasted until after the cyanobacteria started photosynthesizing. 

After the oxygen increases in the atmosphere, the colors changed to red and green.

[Drop second disco light]

As you can see, little inuit, certain particles produce different colors at different times.

The first time any cool cat with the ability to write saw these groovy thangs was 1314 years ago.
So you see little inuit no need to fret its all psychedelic and natural.
Peace!

From RNA to DNA

(Science Channel)

Scientist speculation has born the notion that DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid, had not formed on its own. It has been concluded that over the millions and billions of years, DNA has evolved from something of almost the same complexity. RNA, ribonucleic acid, the single-stranded relative of DNA which made up the first genetic material was in fact a primeval version of DNA itself. The process in which the RNA residing in the first living organisms also known as Protobionts would copy itself in order to reproduce encountered a copying error. It is thought to have been that the RNA did not split from one another once it had copied itself.

This confounding process, in which DNA was created, has intrigued scientists since the discovery of nucleic acids in 1868. Within the earliest stages, scientists tried simply using a burner to concoct the RNA in a pot, but found their plights unsuccessful. Instead, they began to see how they must attempt to recreate the circumstances under which RNA was first formed in order to recreate the phenomenon itself. All the variables that had been forgotten in the excitement were finally being taken into account. Rain, wind, sun, all of these playing a part in the original creation, and yet, omitted in the reincarnation.


Ming and Rob

Science Channel. (n.d.). From RNA to DNA [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/through-the-wormhole/videos/ through-the-wormhole-from-rna-to-dna.htm

CrashCorse. (2012, November 5). The History of Life on Earth - Crash Course Ecology #1 [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/sjE-Pkjp3u4

Homo Sapiens

Basic History of Homo sapiens, or the Modern Human

Homo sapiens, also known as modern humans, evolved in Africa around 200,000 years ago and are still living and breathing today. Resembling what you and I look like today, homo sapiens have little hair on their bodies, bigger skulls and brains, and a lighter skeleton compared to past hominid species. Homo sapiens all share similar characteristics, they all walk upright, have evolved bodies that make it easier to cope with climate change, and communicate intelligently with others of their species. Modern humans started to move to all areas of the globe at a rapid pace 70,000 years ago. 11,000 years ago, they began to farm and started to drastically modify the world they live in; the first hominid species to do so. The scientific revolution began 500 years ago, where modern humans began to research and study the world they live in, and 250 years later the industrial revolution started, and factories began massively polluting the planet, continuing to alter the homo sapiens surroundings. Just 50 years ago, the informational revolution begun, and homo sapiens began technologically storing and creating data that they discovered.

Fossil Finds

There are three main fossil finds in the Klasies River Mouth, Qafzeh IX, and the Cro-Magnon 1. The Qafzeh IX’s estimated age is between 90,000 to 100,000 years old. It was in the Qafzeh Cave, Israel. This specimen is one of about 21 individuals found in Qafzeh Cave. The skull and nearly complete skeleton that accompanied it belonged to a male Homo sapiens who was about 20 years old when he died. It was found buried next to the remains of a small child. The second fossil find in the Klasies River demonstrated that the early members of our species varied in size more than contemporary humans. The third fossil find in Les Ezyies, France, found a skull that is identical of that of a modern human.


Sources

Hebrew University of Jerusalem. (2014, April 22). How are we different and what

gave us the advantage over extinct types of humans like the Neanderthals?.
ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 12, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/
releases/2014/04/140422084736.htm


Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. (2014, September 16). Human
Characteristics: What Does it Mean to be Human. Retrieved September 17,
2014, from Smithsonian Natural Museum of History website:
http://humanorigins.si.edu/human-characteristics


Strawson, G. (2014, September 11). Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by
Yuval Noah Harari – review. Retrieved September 12, 2014, from
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/11/
sapiens-brief-history-humankind-yuval-noah-harari-review


Dewey, T. (2008). Homo sapiens human. Retrieved September 12, 2014, from Animal
Diversity Web website: http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/
Homo_sapiens/


Evolution: Humans: Origins of humankind. (n.d.). Retrieved from PBS website: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/humans/humankind/o.html


Homo sapiens. (n.d.). Retrieved from Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History website: http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-sapiens

The rise and fall of Pangea

    The thought of entire landmasses moving thousands of miles across oceans is one that is difficult to comprehend. From 300 to 270 million years ago, "mantle convection"(Riddel, 2014), the act of heat rising from the earth core to the mantle, splitting the tectonic plates apart, then cooling down and falling back to the core, caused the land we now know as our continents to form one “supercontinent”(Briney, 2014). All of the separate continents that we know today were surrounded by one ocean, named Panthalassa. This land mass is called Pangea (sometimes spelled Pangaea), which translates to all lands in Greek. On the contrary to the name, there was another land mass consisting of modern day China know as Cathaysia, located west of Pangea. After 70 million years of togetherness, Pangea was broken apart by the same forces that brought it together and the movement of tectonic plates, leaving us with the geography we live with today.
    Alfred Wegener was the first to address the idea of Pangea while skimming his colleges library, where he found a thesis about identical reminisce of life all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. The explanation adopted by scientist had been sunken land bridges, but the recognizing that the some countries fit together similarly made Dr. Wegener reject the idea. Not only did Dr. Wegener find multiple similarities in the rock structures, he found coal in an environment that does not typically harbor coal, and multiple plant fossils that do not naturally grow in the areas they were found. Now, Dr. Wegener’s ideas about Pangea are our most accurate look into the past. 

References

Briney, A. (n.d.). All You Need to Know about the Supercontinent Pangea. Retrieved September 23,       2014, from http://geography.about.com/od/physicalgeography/a/Pangea.htm 

Riddel, P. (2014, August 10). What is mantle convection (J. Seminara, Ed.).
    Retrieved from Wise website: http://www.wisegeek.com/
    what-is-mantle-convection.htm

The breakup of Pangaea. (n.d.). Retrieved September 23, 2014, from
    http://www.exploratorium.edu/faultline/activezone/slides/pangea-slide.html

Waggoner, B. (n.d.). Alfred Wegener (1880-1930). Retrieved September 23, 2014,
    from http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/wegener.html

The Anomalocaris

Anomalocaris was a large, shrimp-like predator that existed during the Cambrian period. It was one of the first arthropods with a set of compound eyes. Anomalocaris was around three feet long, and moved by undulating the flexible lobes on the sides of its body, much like a modern day sea cucumber. It’s mouth resembled that of a squid; rows of overlapping teeth in a circular shaped mouth. Over its mouth were two arm-like appendages, which it used to pull prey into its mouth. They occasionally used these arms for combat by grabbing onto the torso of a rival and arching its back, as to break the foe’s plated armor.


Anomalocaris had two compound eyes, which were made up of lots of little eyes. Each eye consisted of at least 16,000 individual hexagonal lenses. The eyes of Anomalocaris were able to tell friend or foe and detect features of the surrounding environment. Scientists have discovered that the eyes were most often on either side of the mouth, but sometimes either nearer the front of the head or further back on the head. The eyes were 2-3 centimeters long and were shaped like a pear, which may not seem very big, but scientists say that Anomalocaris’ eyes were larger than any other animal’s eyes who lived in the same area as Anomalocaris. Not only that, but Anomalocaris, in proportion to its size, had some of the sharpest and largest eyes in history. John Paterson from the University of New England, Armidale, adds, “It would have had close to 360 degree vision.”


The Anomalocaris was the one of the animal fossils found in the Burgess Shale region. The Burgess shale is an area in the Canadian Rockies full of pre cambrian remains, and the Anomalocaris was the largest. Fossils of the first known ocean predator aren’t only found in south east Canada, Archaeologists have dug them up across the globe.This makes it quite unique for pre Cambrian animals considering animals that lived before earth’s biggest extinction are rarely spread out over long distances. The animal looked very similar to a shrimp and tended to fall into chunks after death so for a long time it was very rare to see a full fossil. That is why until scientist began to discover whole petrified Anomalocaris remains it was often confused for a different species.




References


Anomalocaris. (2014, August 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:46, September 18, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anomalocaris&oldid=620653876





Gon, S., III. (n.d.). The Anomalocarid Bauplan. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from Anomalocaris Homepage website: http://www.trilobites.info/background3.html





History.com Staff. (2011, December 7). First Super Predator Was a Hawk-Eyed Shrimp, Study Shows. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from HISTORY website: http://www.history.com/news/first-super-predator-was-a-hawk-eyed-shrimp-study-shows


Yong, E. (2011, December 7). The sharp eyes of Anomalocaris, a top predator that lived half a billion years ago. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from Discover Magazine website: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/12/07/anomalocaris-sharp-eyes-predator/#.VBtNYEtDuMK

Anomalocaris canadensis (proto-arthropod). (n.d.). Retrieved from Smithsonian
     National Museum of Natrual History website: http://www.paleobiology.si.edu/
     burgess/anomalocaris.html

Beringia: A Land Bridge that Connected Continents

            The Bering Strait, also known as Beringia, is a land bridge that connected Asia to Alaska. It dates back to between 12,000 and 30,000 years ago. “During the Last Ice Age, the water level of the oceans was lower, exposing land.” (What is Beringia?) As the Earth turned cold the climate and landscape of the Bering Strait stayed the same. The landscape of Beringia consisted of grasslands with light snowfall. There is evidence that small shrubs and spruce trees also grew there. Native Indians and animals crossed to America by walking the 55-mile long land bridge. The migrating animals were mostly elk, mammoths, caribou, and horses. DNA found near the site of the Bering Strait gave evidence of the animals and humans that lived there. About 12,000 years ago the Ice Age ocean water levels rose due to melting snow and ice. This caused Beringia to be submerged under water.

References

American Indian Heritage Month: Commemoration vs. Exploitation. (2011).

     Retrieved September 20, 2014, from

     http://www.historyandtheheadlines.abc-clio.com/ContentPages/

     ContentPage.aspx?entryId=1171632¤tSection=1161468

Bearing Land Bridge National Reserve. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2014, from

     http://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/indian/2003/park.htm

What is Beringia? (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nps.gov/

     bela/historyculture/beringia.htm

Hoffecker, J. F. (n.d.). Out of Beringia? Science, 343, 979-980.

Pringle, H. (n.d.). Welcome to Beringia. Science, 343, 961-963.

Elias, S. A. (2014, March 4). First Americans Lived on Bering Land Bridge for

     Thousands of Years. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from

     http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/

     first-americans-lived-on-bering-land-bridge-for-thousands-of-years/

Allaby, M. History of human migration and colonization. In Science online. Retrieved from http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE40&SID=5&iPin=DEEX0002&SingleRecord=True

Bering Sea. [Map/Still]. In Britannica Online for Kids. Retrieved from  http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/art-87305