Music Can Heal Animals?!!??

After being tested, many labs found out that animals can calm down and feel better after listening to the sound of harps playing. Amazing, right? In 2000, a scientist performed for recently hospitalized canines at a Florida veterinary clinic. The hour-long sessions immediately began to lower heart rate, anxiety, and respiration in many cases.

Dogs aren’t the only animals benefiting from the harp music. Cassie, a black and white cow, used to have anxiety-related behavior issues.


On a recent morning, for example, a few scientists walked into the barn to find the 1,500 pound Holstein snorting and stomping.They weren't sure what upset Cassie but decided to try calming her by playing a CD of harp songs.

Within 20 minutes, Cassie calmed down. Now thats cool.


Both wild and domestic animals can benefit from music therapy but not all of them respond to it.

This is how it works:

The scientists use certain harp vibrations to resonate with the animals own cellular rhythms to help release tense muscle tissue, calm anxiety, improve digestion, induce restful sleep, and increase endorphins for pain management.

"Harp of Hope," a collection of 17 songs, was originally recorded for people but Schneider (the creator) decided to release an animal edition last year after owners reported it helped their arthritic dogs fall asleep and calmed their agitated cats.

Today, many Veterinary Hospitals use the CD to relax nervous animals!

If you would like to view the original article, visit:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22539914/

Girl Born With 8 Limbs!

Have you ever heard of a human with eight arms and legs? Well, in Banglore India, a young girl had four arms and legs surgically removed. She was born with four arms and four legs, but luckily, the surgeons were able to remove them successfully.


Lakshmi was born joined at the pelvis to a "parasitic twin" that stopped developing in her mother's womb. The surviving fetus absorbed the limbs, kidneys and other body parts of the undeveloped twin.

A team of more than 30 surgeons performed a 24-hour operation on Nov. 7 at the Sparsh hospital in Bangalore. They removed the extra limbs, transplanted a kidney from the twin and reconstructed Lakshmi's pelvic area.


The family is extremely thankful and glad that the operation was a success.
Right now, Lakshmi can walk and run with no help or problems at all.


If you would like to view the original article, here's the link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22274113/

6 Questions

I’ve tagged students for the Omega Meme!

The rules are as follows:

Each player answers the six questions posted on this blog.

The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those answers are listed.

At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their blog names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.


Then follow the instructions about adding a page element at omegascience.blogspot.com.


6 Questions:

1. My favorite TV show is Greys Anatomy because I like the characters and how they save lives everyday.

2. My favorite meal is chicken quesidillas because i enjoy Mexican food. yummm =]

3. My favorite non school activities are tennis, soccer, and bball because I love playing sports and hanging out with my friends that are on the teams.

4. Someone I look up to is my mom because she always knows when to make the right decisions.

5. My goal for the future is becoming very successful whether it's sports or Fashion Design.

6. In the first hour after school I usually do homework, go on the computer, or hang out with my friends.



I have tagged tennisgirl13, tinkerbell44, livexlaughxlove, softballchik15, xgiants, touchofpink16, smileygirl, and coloryellow

You may not tag someone who has already been tagged.

The Earth!!!

In science class, we are now learning and studying about Earth Science. The subject we are talking about now is layers of the Earth. Some of the key words we had to define were: seismic waves, pressure, crust, basalt, granite, mantle, lithosphere, asthenosphere, outer core, and inner core.

Definitions:

seismic waves- Waves that are produced when earthquakes occur.

pressure- Results from a force pressing on an area.

crust- The layer of rock that forms Earth's outer skin.

basalt- Dark rock with a fine texture.

granite- A rock that usually is a light color and has a coarse texture.

mantle- A layer of hot rock.

lithosphere- The uppermost part of the mantle and the crust together.

asthenosphere- Part of the mantle that is soft.

outer core- A layer of molten metal that surrounds the inner core.

inner core- A dense ball of solid metal.

These are a few of the most important words you should know about the Earth.

A theory that many scientists are working on right now has to do with Pangaea. When volcanoes erupt, the lava and magma spread, causing the land to expand. So, when the lava reaches sea, it extends the borders of Hawaii into the Pacific Ocean.

Three main layers of Earth:

* Crust

* Mantle

* Core

Temperature:

* For every 40 meters down into the Earth's core, the temp. rises 1 Celsius degree.
* When you first start off, the temp. is cool, but then it begins to get warmer.


Crust= 5-70 km thick
Mantle= 2,867 km thick
Outer Core= 2,266 km thick
Inner Core= 1,216

In my opinion, I think learning about the Earth and its layers is very interesting. Before I learned all of these facts, I didn't really understand the Earth's layers. Now I know that they are the Mantle, Crust, and Core. Those are the three main important layers. I would really like to learn more about the Earth and all of its amazing details.


Here are a few sites you can visit to learn more about the Earth and its features:

Roller coasters, Kinetic Energy, and Potential Energy!

In science class, we are learning about kinetic and potential energy. To help us understand about speed and velocity, we were assigned to build a roller coaster out of cardboard, plastic, and more materials. A marble has to be able to travel through the coaster. It has to have four hills and either a bend or a loop. After we finished creating The Extreme Bender, we had to time the marble while it rolled down the Bender. Then, we had to figure out the highest point of the Roller coaster. When we finished recording our data, we had to gather all of the information, and label the coaster with the speed, velocity, highest point, and lowest point.

The Extreme Bender relates to Newton's Laws because it has to do with energy and movement. Potential energy is energy that is stored in an object. If you stretch a rubber band, you will give it potential energy. As the rubber band is released, potential energy is changed to motion. Kinetic energy is energy of motion. A rubber band flying through the air has kinetic energy. When you are walking or running your body is exhibiting kinetic energy. Potential energy can also be converted into kinetic energy. Before a yo-yo begins its fall, it has stored energy due to its position. At the top it has its maximum potential energy. As it starts to fall the potential energy begins to be changed into kinetic energy. At the bottom its potential energy has been converted into kinetic energy so that it now has its maximum kinetic energy. A waterfall has both potential and kinetic energy too. The water at the top of a fall stores potential energy. When the water begins to fall, its potential energy is changed into kinetic energy.

This project relates to science because it is about speed, velocity, and energy. It definitely helped me understand about energy more. I really enjoyed creating the coaster, and in the future, I would like to experiment more with building and creating structures.

If you would like to learn more about building roller coasters, visit these sites:

Learn how to build a successful roller coaster here:

http://www.learner.org/exhibits/parkphysics/coaster/

How Newton's Laws relate to roller coasters:

http://library.thinkquest.org/2745/data/ke.htm

New Planet Found?!

European astronomers have found the most Earth-like planet outside our solar system, and here's what it might be like to live there:


*The "sun" wouldn't burn brightly. It would hang close, large and red in the sky.

*The "sun" would probably never set if you lived on the sunny side of the planet.

*You could have a birthday party every 13 days. [that's how fast this new planet circles its sun-like star.]

*You'd weigh a whole lot more than you do on Earth.

*You might be able to keep your current wardrobe.

[The temperature will likely be a lot like Earth's -- not too hot, not too cold.]


This new planet could actually have life on it! Scientists have discovered that it is one of the first planets to be the closest in size to the Earth.

Astronomers who announced the discovery of the new planet Tuesday say this puts them closer to answering the cosmic question: Are we alone?
"It's a significant step on the way to finding possible life in the universe," said University of Geneva astronomer Michel Mayor, one of 11 European scientists on the team that found the new body. "It's a nice discovery. We still have a lot of questions."

*The new planet is 120 trillion miles away, the red dwarf star that this planet circles is one of the 100 closest to Earth.

The planet was discovered by the European Southern Observatory's telescope in La Silla, Chile, which has a special instrument that splits light to find wobbles in different wavelengths. Those wobbles can reveal the existence of other worlds.

What they revealed is a planet circling the red dwarf star, Gliese 581. Red dwarfs are low-energy, tiny stars that give off dim red light and last longer than stars like our sun. Until a few years ago, astronomers didn't consider these stars as possible hosts of planets that might sustain life.

The discovery of the new planet, named 581 c, is sure to fuel studies of planets circling similar dim stars. About 80 percent of the stars near Earth are red dwarfs.

*The new planet is about five times heavier than Earth, and gravity there would be 1.6 times as strong as Earth's.

Its discoverers aren't certain if it is rocky like Earth or if its a frozen ice ball with liquid water on the surface. If it is rocky like Earth, which is what the prevailing theory proposes, it has a diameter about 1½ times bigger than our planet. If it is an iceball, as Mayor suggests, it would be even bigger.

Based on theory, 581 c should have an atmosphere, but what's in that atmosphere is still a mystery and if it's too thick that could make the planet's surface temperature too hot, Mayor said.


The new planet seems just right -- or at least that's what scientists think.


*The planet is 14 times closer to the star it orbits.

*And it's likely, but still not known, that the planet doesn't rotate, so one side would always be sunlit and the other dark.


Now, scientists are still trying to find more details about this new planet. In my opinion, this article is very important because there could actually be life on this planet! This relates to science because a new planet in space is extremely interesting and amazing.

This article can be found at:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/04/25/habitable.planet.ap/index.html

Star Death Creates Red Square Nebula?

The newly discovered Red Square nebula is one of the most beautiful objects in the universe.
The nebula is similar to a giant, glowing red box in the sky, with a bright white inner core. A dying star called MWC 922 is located at the system’s center and spewing its innards from opposite poles into space.

“This spectacular event is the death of a star,” said study team member James Lloyd of Cornell University.


After MWC 922 ejects most of its material into space, it will contract into a dense stellar corpse known as a white dwarf, shrouded by clouds of its own remains.

In my opinion, this is an amazing creation. A death of a star has created a Red Square Nebula. This relates to science because it has to do with space and the making of a Nebula.


This article can be found at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18082430/

DANGEROUS Animal Food?

More than 95 pet owners have been complaining about Menu Foods Inc., saying that it might be extremely dangerous and possibly deadly, to many animals.
From Winsconsin, Jacqueline Johnson complained about her pet cat Gumbie, for becoming seriously sick after eating food from Iams Select Bites. Later on, Jacqueline realized that Gumbie wasn't eating any food. The cat was then "pet-hospitalized" and had to take many fluids.

"Thankfully we got her to the vet in time. My cat was very ill, but there are lots of people around the country whose pets have died or been euthanized," Jacqueline stated.
After the vet, Gumbie needed special attention for almost every second. She is most likely to require medical tests every few months.

Finally, Menu Foods announced the recall on March 16. The recall affects dog and cat food manufactured between December 3 and March 6, and is limited to "cuts and gravy" style pet food in cans and pouches produced at its plants in Kansas and New Jersey. The food is packaged under a wide variety of brand names.

Both the Food and Drug Administration and Menu Foods have been unable to identify the terrible cause of the problem, but the FDA said that on Tuesday, officials were focusing on a recent supply of wheat gluten, which could be the cause of all the animal sickness.

In my opinion, I think that this is a major problem. Many animals, such as cats, are becoming seriously ill from the "cuts and gravy" that many food companies are selling. For example, Gumbie became very sick after eating Iams cat food. This relates to science because the cause of this cat food problem could be wheat gluten. I strongly belive that this situation should be taken care of immediately.

This article can be found at:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/22/pet.food.recall/index.html

An Astronaut Sets the Record!

In Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams spent more time in space than any other woman, setting an amazing record. On Sunday, Sunita broke the previous female spacewalking record of more than 21 hours! Now isn't that amazing? She and her partner completed three spacewalks in nine days!

The new record is 22 hours and 27 minutes! That is almost a whole day! Can you imagine going up to space and accomplishing that? Sunita must have had a lot of paitence and courage.
During the spacewalk, small amounts of toxic ammonia leaked from a fluid line. The liquid ammonia, which freezes when it hits the vacuum of space, luckily did not touch either astronaut.

The Mission Control told them to continue their task of hooking up ammonia fluid lines from a cooling system to a permanent one.
Once they were back in the space station's airlock, Mission Control made the astronauts test for any serious contamination. Fortunetly, there was no sign of contamination.

Lopez-Alegria (her partner) and Sunita Williams hooked up the permanent cooling system sucessfully, and covered a radiator that was retracted by remote control from the ground and stowed a fluid line that was connected to an ammonia reservoir.
Then, they continued to work. Some of the jobs that they still had to finish were: removing the sun shade, taking a picture of a solar array, and making electrical connections.

Lopez-Alegria planned a fourth spacewalk with Mikhail Tyurin, a flight engineer, on February 22. After Sunday's spacewalk, Lopez-Alegria moved up to third on the list of the most time spacewalking!
It is expected for him to surpass Jerry Ross' U.S. record of more than 58 hours over nine spacewalks by the end of February.

In my opinion, I think this article is very interesting! I would definitly not be brave enough to stay in space that long. First of all, I'm not even planning to go to space! Sunita and Lopez-Alegria must have a lot of courage to never give up and to incite their wonderful goals.

This article could be found at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/02/04/spacewalk.ap/index.html