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Nuclear Arms Race P2

Submitted by ameserole on Thu, 02/15/2018 - 12:07

This is where the two paths diverge. With the discovery of nuclear fission both countries started nuclear programs, but the amount of resources dedicated to them varied greatly. In the US, the program started slowly. At the start of the program the idea of a nuclear weapon was a distant thought. In a letter written to Winston Churchill by Bohr in 1944, he recalls that a few years prior the idea of a complete and functioning bomb was a “fantastic dream” (Bohr Letter). Allied British scientists thought that the bomb wouldn’t be a weapon of this war, but one for the future due to the vast amount of resources needed to produce it. The American’s estimated the costs of the project to be much lower than they actually were when the project was complete. This misplaced optimism may have played a part in their decision to put what is now equivalent to $30 billion dollars into the creation of these weapons. This project was never guaranteed to pay off, and putting this enormous of an effort into something during wartime is a big risk. The German nuclear project was run differently. Instead of focusing only on a nuclear weapon, the Germans set out to harness all facets of nuclear power, including nuclear energy. This meant that the already limited resources of a country at war were to be spread even thinner, making the bomb even less of a priority for Germany (Walker 24-25).

Nuclear Arms Race P1

Submitted by ameserole on Thu, 02/15/2018 - 01:11

The race for nuclear arms is often framed as a race between two men, lead German scientist Werner Heisenberg, and lead American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The two men became acquainted many years before the war when they both attended the University of Göttingen in Germany in 1926. Both became distinguished nuclear physicists in their careers before the war. Each man was tasked with taking a lead position in their respective countries nuclear program, both of which were created in 1939. Up until this point, both countries were at a similar level of advancement toward building the bomb. In late 1938 German scientists discovered nuclear fission, the core concept of a nuclear weapon. British scientist Niels Bohr brought this information with him to America, and shortly after in January of 1939 the first successful nuclear fission test in the US was completed at Columbia University. It was with this information that each country realized the destructive force capable of a nuclear device, and decisions had to be made on how far the technology should be pursued.

Embryonic Development

Submitted by ameserole on Tue, 02/13/2018 - 18:57

If you look at a human embryo next to the embryo of a reptile, or that of a bird, you will see striking similarities between the groups. But why is this? If each goes on to take a completely different form, then why would each start from nearly the same point? These embryonic forms have remained the same since the branching of these species from a common ancestor some millions of years ago. I suppose evolutionarily, these embryonic forms provided everything needed to grow into completely separate body types, and any change wouldn’t have been beneficial enough to take place. This is just one of the many vestiges left from our evolutionary past.

What is Ethnonationlism?

Submitted by ameserole on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 12:27

Ethnonationalism is like nationalism in that it is a way to find sense and belonging within a group, but ethnonationalism emphasises the person’s ethnicity rather than where they live. These movements band people together based on their ethnicity regardless of their location. An example of this is seen during the fall of the Soviet Union, which encompassed many satellite countries near Russia such as Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. At the time they weren’t countries, but as the citizens began to see the Soviet Union fall, they began to identify with their region and ethnic identities rather than with the union they were a part of. Another example is Israel’s “right to return”, which grants every ethnically Jewish person the right to return to Israel, and be granted citizenship. This shows they identify with a place they may not live.

Effects of Caffeine on Metabolism

Submitted by ameserole on Thu, 02/08/2018 - 22:01

Effects of Caffeine on Metabolism

A study was conducted in which mice were given a diet of normal food, while other mice were given a caffeinated diet. It was found that caffeine significantly decreased the mass of fat tissues, as well as increasing the transformation of ADP to ATP while all other variables were kept the same. It was concluded that caffeine promotes lipid metabolism via the cAMP pathway.

Resource: Zhang, S., Li, Y., Wang, G., Tan, R., Tsoi, B., Mao, G., . . . He, R. (2015). Caffeine ameliorates high energy diet-induced hepatic steatosis: Sirtuin 3 acts as a bridge in the lipid metabolism pathway. Food Funct., 6(8), 2578-2587.

 

A study was conducted on ten taekwondo athletes, in which athletes were given either a capsule containing caffeine or a placebo one hour before the combat simulation. It was found that while the caffeine didn’t have any measurable effects on the perceived exertion of the athletes, it was estimated to have increased glycolytic contribution during combat simulation.

Resource: Lopes-Silva, J. P., Santos, J. F., Branco, B. H., Abad, C. C., Oliveira, L. F., Loturco, I., & Franchini, E. (2015). Caffeine Ingestion Increases Estimated Glycolytic Metabolism during Taekwondo Combat Simulation but Does Not Improve Performance or Parasympathetic Reactivation.

Global Warming Draft

Submitted by ameserole on Thu, 02/08/2018 - 21:10

Global warming is a multifaceted issues caused by an interconnected series of events, both anthropogenic and natural. Focusing on the anthropogenic side, global warming is something that can be traced back to the industrial revolution, when humans began burning coal and oil in large quantities to power newly created machinery. These sources of energy happened to be carbon sinks, which had previously sequestered carbon both underground and in forests for a span of time. With this carbon now out of its “locked up” form and being released, it travels into the air and builds up in the atmosphere. This carbon, largely in the form of CO¬2, interferes with the Earth’s natural process of reflecting solar radiation and heat back into space. Instead of hitting the Earth’s surface, reflecting off, and being sent back into space, the CO2 absorbs the energy after it is reflected off of the Earth, keeping this energy and heat in our atmospheric system, and warming the Earth in the process. This is called the Greenhouse Effect, as the heat becomes trapped inside much like a greenhouse.

The Coywolf: A New Species?

Submitted by ameserole on Thu, 02/01/2018 - 18:51

From what I can gather coyotes (Canis latrans), wolves (Canis lupus), are separate species, while dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are a subspecies of wolves. Coyotes and wolves are separate species despite their ability to interbreed, and despite the fact that Coyotes tend to have varying amounts of these other species in their genes. The ability to create fertile offspring when interbreeding means that these are closely related species, but it does not mean that they are the same species. This creation of hybrid offspring is a facet of evolution which could create a new species, which could be better suited for the environment, but until the hybrids are reproductively isolated from the non-hybrids for a long period of time, they will remain a variation of a species rather than their own species.

Fly larvae observations

Submitted by ameserole on Fri, 01/26/2018 - 14:59

Alive

Tan translucent skin

“tail” which is longer than its body

Has a mouth

Moves like a worm

Body moves from about half of an inch when contracted to about a full inch in length

Has some form of feet which have grip

Stops moving for about 30 seconds when touched

Tail acts as a sheath for a long black spine, which is uncovered on the end

Can flip itself over

Not sure if it can see, seems to move aimlessly around the dish. Doesn’t react to a pile of woodchips in front of it

Squishy body, seems to be no form of chitenous exoskeleton

Body is about 15 mm fully extended

~15 mm tail, always stays the same length

Locomotion seems to start from the bottom of the specimen, contracting before the rest of the body does, at which point the newly excess “skin” moves in front of the body.

White organs in the underbelly

Seems to use its “mouth” to move, using it as a grip point to pull on

White and brown organs through seen through the translucent skin on top

Tries to get out of petri dish by climbing walls, perpetually unsuccessful

Has small “hairs” on body

Where does it usually live?

What does it eat?

Kill it, cut it open

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