Lit fables

After reading the fable titled The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, I think the maxim is that appearances can be deceiving and just because you trust someone, doesn't mean they can always be trusted. Appearances can be deceiving because as shown in this fable, the lamb fell for the wolf's plan and thought it was it's mother. The lambwas then killed, because it was really the wolf in disguise. This fable also shows that because you trust someone, doesn't mean they can be trusted, because the lamb thought it was it's mother, who he believed he could trust, and followed it's 'mother' to his death.

After reading the other fable, The Four Oxen and the Lion, I believe the maxim is that united/sticking together we stand or succeed and divided we fall or don't succeed. This is shown in this fable because the four oxen stuck together so whenever the lion came, the faced their tails together so he would run into their horns, and they lived by doing this. But the one day they divided/split up to eat, the lion was able to hunt them one by one and before you knew the number of oxen went from 4 to1.

After reading the fable The Crow and the Pitcher, I think the maxim is that step by step, you will succeed. This is shown in the fable because a crow came across a pitcher put could not reach the water. Then he placed pebbles into the water to make it rise. Pebble by pebble he soon succeeded and managed to get the water high enough to quench his thirst and save his life.

After reading the fable The Fisher and the little fish, I believe the maxim is something little is worth something great over time. I think this because in the fable the little fish begs to the fisher to let him go and catch him when he is bigger, but the fisher refuses and says he may not catch him later on. The reason why I think this is because the little fish may seem little now, but later on the same fish could save the fisher from hunger.

After reading the fable The Fox and the Goat, I think the maxim is 'look before you leap' as I have once heard, or think before you act. The goat didn't do this and believed the fox without thinking about if it was a lie or not, and ended up being fooled into jumping into the well to escape the 'drought'.

Ask a Geneticist Science

After reading the articles on the sites given, I learned many interesting facts about genetics. One of the articles compared humans and chimps (this can be read here). I learned that we are about 98% the same, and that we have different amounts of chromosomes (humans=46,chimps=92), but about the same number of genes. Another thing I learned is that chimps only have double the number of chromosomes we have because two of our chromosomes=1 chimp chromosome. So, you could say we have the same number of chromosomes, but in reality and according to this article we don't. This all supports that we have have the same number of genes, the sections of the two genomes that code for our genes only differ by about 1.2%. This proves we are about 98% the same. Even though humans and chimps have similar chromosome and gene numbers, the main reason that makes us different is that the amount of protein in our brains differ from the amount in the heart and liver. The differences of the amount of protein being made in our brains is what is considered the answer to what makes us different from each other. All of this information is very interesting to me, and I am sure you will be interested by these fascinating discoveries, too. Once again, you can read the full article by clicking here.

Lit. Wooden Bowls

Wooden Bowls is a story about a man whose son and daughter in law treat him badly and make him sit by himself at a small table for dinner, only allowed to use wooden bowls to eat since he broke a few plates. The son sees his son playing with wood scraps and asks him what he is doing, to which his son replied with "Oh, I'm making a little bowl for you and mama to eat your food from when I grow up." The son and daughter in law broke out in tears, realizing their mistake. They invited the grandpa back to the table. This relates to C.A.R.E.S because it shows examples of both self-control and empathy. It shows how the son and his wife should have controlled themselves when grandpa disrupted dinner with noisy eating and spilling mile. The son and wife also feel empathy towards grandpa, as they also feel sad and cry when their son says that he will do the same thing to them when they are older. The main idea behind this story is to respect your elders and treat them the way you want to be treated, now and when you are their age. It's also to remember that we will all reach that age if God allows us to, and that age doesn't mean you should be treated a different way than others.

Science- Heredity and traits

After taking the interactive tour here, or http://learn.genetics.utah.edu, the things I learned were very interesting to me. Two of the many things I learned were very appealing to me. One thing I learned while taking this tour is that humans have two complete sets of chromosones (26 each, 46 in total). People receive half of their chromosomes from their mother and the other half from their father during conception. When the two sets join during conception, they form into a zygote, a single cell made up of the two sets of chromosomes. The cell divides and a child is formed. Another thing I learned was that each person has either a straight thumb or a hitch hiker thumb. If a person has one or the other is determined by allele the person inherits from their parents, or set of genetic information. The straight thumb allele is shown by a capital H and the hitch hiker thumb is shown by a lower case h. If a person receives one H from one parent and one H from another, they will have a straight thumb, so two h's mean they will have a hitch hikers thumb. But if a person recieves one H and one h, they will have a straight thumb because the H is the dominate allele and the h is recessive. The H covers or "masks" the h. Out of all the fascinating things I learned from this tour, these two stood out the most. You can take this tour by clicking here, or scrolling back to the top.

Science Class Reflection

For the past four months, we have been doing many interesting things in science class. My favorite was when we learned about how animals camouflage themselves to avoid being hunted by "hunting" various colored toothpicks outside. By doing this, we learned how different animals camouflage differently to adapt to their environment. The colors of the toothpicks were green, yellow, red, blue, and wood. Because green blended in with the grass, it was the hardest to find out of all of them. Wood was the easiest because it stood out. By doing this, we got a chance to see how a predator- prey relationship works. It gave us a visualization of what an organism needs to do to survive and showed us an example of adaptation.

In nature, animals camouflage in order to survive. This gives them a chance to get food, find shelter, and mate. This is an example of adaptation. Adaptation is when an animal adapts to their environment and or habitat. This also includes using physical traits to adapt to an environment (camouflage). Physical traits can be the spikes on a hedgehog, which protects it from predators, or the humps on a camel, which are used for storing water.

Overall, this was a fun and educational experiment. It taught us about adaptation and how animals camouflage because of it. This is one of the best experiences I have had this year.

http://www.uen.org/utahlink/activities/view_activity.cgi?activity_id=4750

http://www.howstuffworks.com/animal-camouflage.htm

Science Current Event 2

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/50200/title/Loneliness_is_contagious,_study_suggests
This article is about the theory that loneliness is contagious. Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School and James Fowler of the University of California have been conducting studies to see how a persons feelings move through social networks. This new study ,which is led by John Cacioppo, found that loneliness is contagious because they do not trust their connections and foster their mistrust into other people. It has been proven easier to catch from friends vs. family and is most contagious between neighbors who live about a mile by each other. It is spread by three degrees of separation: One lonely friend can cause you to be 45-60% lonely, a lonely friend of a friend makes you 14-36% lonely, and a friend of a friend of a friend makes you 6-26% lonely. Although the evidence supports this, some scientists think other wise. Jason Fletcher of Yale thinks that the studies control is not good enough to eliminate the other explanations. Jason, along with other scientists think that there is not enough evidence to prove this theory true. Nicholas and James decided to conduct an experiment in Framingham, Mass., a small town where everyone practialy knows everyone. This study followed people over 60 years while keeping track of mental healths, habits and diets, and physical health. After the test was conducted, the results showed that lonely people used social networking, but first transmit feelings of isolation to friends and neighbors. According to John, when you are lonely you are more alert to social threats and tend to engage in self protective behavior. Loneliness can also be caused by diseases, such as Alzheimer, and reconnecting with them can be important for their public health.
My opinion on this article is that feeling lonely can be considered "contagious", but not literally. I think it is "contagious" because you tend to be more like the people you are around most of the time. If you are around lonely people, I believe there is a chance that you will be lonely, since lonely people do not socialize often. On the other hand, if you are around happy and social people, you have a chance of being of a more social person. Although opposing scientists make a good point, I believe that John's theory is correct. This is why I think that loneliness can be considered "contagious".

Science Current Event 1

http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/49195/title/Newborn_babies_may_cry_in_their_mother_tongues

This article (above) is about how new born babies begin to develop language. Scientist have discovered that around 2-5 days after a baby is born, they begin to cry in a rhythm similar to their parents native tounge/language. This imitation becomes baby blabber as the child begins to grow, and after three months, infants can start to make vowel sounds spoken by adults. Kathleen Wermke, an anthropologist, and her team decided to prove this theory by studying 60 new born babies, one half French and the other German. The scientist recorded over 2,500 voice recordings as the babies went through their daily routines. The results of this experiment shows that German new born's started out making high pitch sound which then lowered to low pitch sounds. The French new born's started out low pitched and then rose to a higher pitch. These patterns are similar to those used by German and French adults. This experiment also proves that babies try to imitate their mothers behaviors as much as possible. However, other scientists, such as Dr. Kimbrough Oller, are debating that the mothers could have reacted differently to crying situations which could lead to different baby cries. Dr. Oller also believes that the recordings could have been from different times, such as changing time or feeding time, which could also affect the babies cries. As scientist continue to debate the face that a parents language determines the way a baby cries, the truth is still not certain.

In my opinion, I agree with Dr. Wermke. Although Dr. Oller makes a point about different situations could affect the cries, the cries still will sound like the language spoken by the mother since babies try to imitate their mother to attract attention. Both doctors make a point, but Wermek's theory makes more sense. No matter what situation the recordings where taken from, the rhythm of the cries still will sound like the language the mother speaks since the baby hears it all the time when their parents are talking or the mother is on the phone, for example. In conclusion, I believe that a baby cries in a rhythm similar to the language that is spoke by their mother.