Fuhrman,+Sydney

8/31/2011 The article I read was "Itching to Know More About It," only because it's one thing that has never affected me, but had effects on the people I've seen touch it. Like it mentioned in the article, I have known people who camp who practically lived by the "leaves of three, let it be," but they have been proven wrong when they still received crazy fits of itchiness after a few hours. I've also heard that hot water can help relieve the itch of poison ivy, or really any itch, without scalding your skin. Another thing I already knew was is that allergies, like with certain chemicals or materials, can cause inflamed cells in the skin that will itch really badly, just like poison ivy. I did //not// know that people with T-cell lymphoma can become suicidal if their condition isn't treated, due to mostly the uncontrollable itch. I never would have thought an itch could get so bad that people want to end their lives because of it. I didn't know that the feeling of itchiness was caused by chemicals activating cell membrane receptors in nerves under the skin. Honestly, I never thought of what //could// cause it, but it was interesting to find out. A final thing that I learned was that scientists believe, but haven't truly proven, that some receptors in the body only react to pain, nothing else. I found it strange because I thought nerves and receptors felt all types of sensations, not just individual ones. That's what I already knew, and found out, in "Itching to Know More About It."

Sydney, Well written post! Great job. 5 stars! MW

9/19/2011 Oil has a major role in today's economy. I never knew just how much time it took to get the oil to be useable. I learned that fractional distillation separates a liquid-oil-into separate fractions at different temperatures. Industrial distillation is the same process as fractional distillation but on a much larger scale. In industrial distillation, the oil enters the distilling towers at 330 degrees Celsius and leaves at 85 degrees Celsius, different particles leaving at the varying temperatures. In class today, we distilled water mixed with carbon[copper, not carbon] sulfate which is similar to how crude oil is distilled in "the real world."

Sydney,

Good post. It's actually copper(II) sulfate not carbon sulfate but OK. 5 stars. MW

10/5/2011 I read the article "Motion Detectors", and it was interesting because I never really thought about how they might work. I knew from past experiences of trying to race the garage door before it went down completely that some motion detectors send out a beam of light into a sensor, and, if anything's in the way of the light, it will trigger some reaction (ex. light turns on, garage door goes back up, etc.). Another thing I knew before reading the article is that sonar is a method of motion detection. I had once done a project on bats (a while ago) and had researched about sonar. I think it's interesting how sonar can be used with simpler things like lights along with more intricate things like seafloor mapping. The last thing I knew is that the eye is kind of like a photo sensor. Since the eye picks up the seven colors (R.O.Y. G. B.I.V.) and the colors of light vary between them, it makes sense that the eye can be called a photo sensor. One thing I learned is that motion can be detected by heat. I never really knew (before Chemistry) that humans give off that much heat, and we almost glow under the right circumstances (not to the naked eyes). Another thing I learned is that motion detection is a result of the electric currents from light. Like I said before, I never thought about how it worked, but it's interesting that light is used to detect motion in so many ways. A last thing I learned is how a photon's energy can be compared to a steel ball hitting a window vs. a million ping-pong balls hitting a window. Now that I actually think about it, it makes sense that the strength/force/mass of a single particle would be more relevant to what it could do rather than the combined force of multiple particles of the same type. This post includes what I learned and already knew in "Motion Detectors."

Sydney, You wrote very well and did a fantastic job answering the prompt! 5 radiant stars! MW