Journal Entry #3: Asteroid Dust

Newspaper article: Asteroid Dust Could Fight Climate Change on Earth
Article by: Charles Choi (LiveScience)

Summary of the Article

A new, “out-of-this-world” suggestion by Scotland scientists could help fight global warming. Russell Bewick, a space scientist at the University of Strathclyde (Scotland), suggests using an asteroid in space to create a dust cloud to act as a sunshade for the entire planet. This type of project is known as geoengineering. The idea of using dust clouds in space as a sunshade is not new, but the dust clouds had the risk of dispersing over time by the Sun’s radiation and gravity, as well as gravity of other planetary bodies. In order to solve this problem, Bewick suggests using an asteroid because the asteroid could create a dust cloud and gravitationally anchor the dust cloud to help cool down the Earth. Bewick said that he would never suggest geoengineering over reducing emissions, but it could buy time in order for slower-acting measures such as carbon capture to take effect.

Journal Entry #2: The Core

The Core Poster
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Core_poster.jpg

Summary of the movie

For an unknown reason the earth’s core has stopped spinning; as a result strange incidents are occurring, for example, birds acting crazy and people dying because pace makers stopped working. Dr. John Keyes discovers that the earth’s core has stopped spinning and brings it to the attention of the U.S. military. The military organizes a crew of six people (Ed Brazzelton, Serge Leveque, Dr. John Keyes, Rebecca Childs, Commander Robert Iverson, and Conrad Zimsky) with the mission to travel to the center of the earth and detonate nuclear explosions to make the core spin again. The vessel they travel is called Virgil and it is made of unobtanium; an element that becomes stronger as it undergoes extreme heat and pressure. Ed Brazzelton

Journal Entry #1: Bits of Mystery DNA



Newspaper article: Bits of Mystery DNA, Far From ‘Junk,’ Play Crucial Role
Article by: Gina Kolata (The New York Times)

Summary of the article

The human DNA not only has genes but also gene switches. Previously thought to be junk, these 4 million switches are important in controlling how cells and organs work. Diseases like high blood pressure and psychiatric disorders seem to be caused by changes in these switches. Based on this discovery, new drugs can be made which affect the gene switches and therefore better cure and treat various diseases.