Lunar Eclipse

If you wake up really early on Saturday morning, you might be able to see the lunar eclipse. The moon is going to be three or four times bigger than it usually is because the moon is going to be closer to earth than it usually is and the eclipse will magnify the moon so it will look like a huge, bloody monster.

It will start at 4.45 a.m. and end in 6.57 a.m.

This happens only twice a year. It happened on June 10, 2011.

By: Rubina H.

Read Along with Charles Darwin

Much of Charles Darwin's work and writing, from personal letters to manuscripts, have been online for some time. In fact, some 35,000 documents can be found at The Complete Work of Charles Darwin website, which is hosted by the University of Singapore and partially sponsored by the British Society for the History of Science.

Now,  The Biodiversity Heritage Library has scanned 300 document from the scientists collection of 1,480 books in his personal library. Now we can see what kind of a note-taker Darwin, an English naturalist who lived during the1800s, was. Many of the books have Darwin’s comments scribbled in the margins. You can also go to Wired News to see a photo gallery of some of the scanned images.

Sources:  The Biodiversity Heritage Library, The Complete Work of Charles Darwin, British Society for the History of Science, Wired News.

A look at jellyfish in the Deep Blue Sea

This article is about jellyfish through an inside look. Jellyfish have lived in the ocean for millions of years even be for the dinosaurs lived on the earth. Jellyfish have tiny stinging cells in their tentacles to stun or paralyze their prey before they eat them. There are many types of jellyfish in the ocean. They have no brain, heart, blood, or gills.

Some jellyfisht are 98% water. There are many types of jellyfish in the ocean. These jelly-like creatures pulse along on ocean currents. Inside their bell-shaped body is an opening that is their mouth. As jellyfish squirt water from their mouth they are propelled forward in the water.

By Jennifer and Nikita

A Heartbreaker: Teens Struggle to Resist Sugar

 SUGAR, SUGAR, SUGAR, SUGAR, SUGAR.

It's true: Teens are officially "addicted" to sugar -- and that could mean trouble for their hearts as they grow older.

If you think about it, many teens eat for breakfast sugary cereal and syrup waffles. For lunch, they drink soda. Soda is actually the main culprit when it comes to a kid's sugar consumption.

In a study, teens who consume added sugar  -- again, usually found in sweetened beverages -- had a higher risk for heart problems latter in life. This sugar makes up 1/5 of their daily calories. This website NPR will give you more info on haw to keep your teens healthy. You can also go this website by the Harvard School of Medicine to read a list of all the different names for sugar. This list could be helpful when someone is trying to figure out how much sugar is in the ingredients of a drink or food item. 

• Agave nectar
• Brown sugar
• Cane crystals
• Cane sugar
• Corn sweetener
• Corn syrup
• Crystalline fructose
• Dextrose
• Evaporated cane juice
• Fructose
• Fruit juice concentrates
• Glucose
• High-fructose corn syrup
• Honey
• Invert sugar
• Lactose
• Maltose
• Malt syrup
• Molasses
• Raw sugar
• Sucrose
• Sugar
• Syrup 

Here is a video to highlight my story:

White House Science Fair!

President Obama is having a middle school high school White House Science Fair ! There are robots, solar cars, and rockets!

There are robots that play soccer, Ninth graders building planes, concoctions that could cure cancer, and electric wheelchairs!

At this fair comes Mythbusters! and Bill Nye the Science Guy!

President Obama Wants America to be number one in science and math not the twenty first.

This is part of his speech:

The importance of tapping this potential is why we’re here. It’s why I wanted to host this fair, which culminates this weekend in a science and engineering festival on the National Mall and across the country where more than a million people are expected to participate. 

So we welcome championship sports teams to the White House to celebrate their victories. I've had the Lakers here. I’ve had the Saints here, the Crimson Tide. I thought we ought to do the same thing for the winners of science fair and robotic contests, and math competitions. Because often we don’t give these victories the attention that they deserve. And when you win first place at a science fair, nobody is rushing the field or dumping Gatorade over your head. But in many ways, our future depends on what happens in those contests -- what happens when a young person is engaged in conducting an experiment, or writing a piece of software, or solving a hard math problem, or designing a new gadget.

It’s in these pursuits that talents are discovered and passions are lit, and the future scientists, engineers, inventors, entrepreneurs are born. That's what’s going to help ensure that we succeed in the next century, that we're leading the world in developing the technologies, businesses and industries of the future. 

You can learn more about his speech at White House!

Adam and Judy went to meet some of the winners!

Maryann made a smarter toilet. A toilet that has a gallon bottle filled with water so that there toilet thinks it has more water in it then it actually does.

Daniel made a MiBike a bike that can go in rain or shine. It has a shower curtain over the bike so that the bike has protection against blazing sun and pouring rain!

Lilly made a Sibling Soaker, a dunking booth with out the booth! She put a bunch of balloons in a tube with holes at the end when she hits something the balloons burst and pore out the tube on to the victim!

Albino Alligators — And Happy Birthday, Claude!

Today is Claude's birthday! He is 15 now. He lives in the Academy of Science. Claude is an Albino Alligator, a rare type of alligator, first discovered in 1987.

Today, Claude will get cupcakes made of gator chow. If you visit the Academy of Science from September 8 to 15, you can make a alligator insipered birthday hat, or design a birthday cake for Claude.

Information from: The Academy of Sciences and Crocsite

How Did the Caterpillar Cross the Road?

Have you ever thought about how a caterpillar moves? A science student Tufts University is study asking that question. For him and others, it may help answer bigger questions about movement and robotics.

As NPR explains, one type of caterpillar thrusts its gut with movement forward. That means, the caterpillar "leads with its gut." According to the research student, this movement is "an entirely new mode of animal locomotion. He hopes this might lead to big discoveries in the worlds of robotics and medicine.

You can both listen to a radio broadcast on the caterpillar movement or watch a video at NPR's website.

Australia Allows Exports of Uranium to Russia

Australia is the world's third largest uranium producer. Not a long time ago, Australia allowed uranium to be exported to Russia. The problem is that it was only Russia. Australia has refused to sell uranium to India. Australia refused to sell it to India for energy use because the South Asian country has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Russia is lucky to be the country that Australia sells Uranium to. Russia hopes that "agreements on the peaceful use of nuclear energy" will be complete. Also, Australia and Russia both signed up to President Barack Obama's plan to secure all vulnerable nuclear material in four years outlined at two-day summit in Washington earlier this month. This had to involve forty-seven countries.

Visiting California Academy of Sciences

Visiting the Academy of Sciences is a fun thing to do on a rainy day. Inside you can discover and and learn a lot of new things.

A few things I did was go to the planetarium, go in the aquarium,and go in "Rain Forests of The World". I liked everything except the the planetarium. I didn't like the planetarium because it was only about how the world was going to end, and because I didn't feel like i actually was in space. Otherwise, I liked the academy of science.
The academy of sciences is a "all day" trip. I went in the planetarium, the "Around The World Rain forest", and the aquarium. I was at the Academy of Sciences for about 4-5 hours and I only looked at about 1/3 of the Academy of Sciences.

Below is a video that I made about the Academy of Sciences. You can also watch it on Animoto.com.

Pierre's Wetsuit Works

Pierre is a 25 year old penguin and the oldest penguin at the California Academy of Sciences. Since Pierre is the oldest penguin he is losing feathers and the feathers are needed to keep Pierre warm. So the people of Academy of Sciences ordered a hand made suit called a Wetsuit. Pierre got his Wetsuit in 6 weeks. When Pierre wore the suit he has gained some of his old feathers and gained a little bit of weight. (Click to watch the video of Pierre in the wet suit.)

The Academy of Sciences has Pierre both the penguin and the penguin cams, which show the penguins doing what they are doing. There is also a daily blog that tells you the penguins are up to at the Academy of Sciences. They are often climbing on the rocks and getting fed. The underwater cam shows them swimmng. You can look at the web cams and read the blog at the Academy's website.

The Ginger-Haired Dinosaur

Scientists from China and the UK have discovered that a dinosaur from 125 million years ago actually had ginger colored feathers.

The name of this dinosaur is the Sinosauropteryx. They used a technique to find out what the colors were like. This showed the presence of microscopic colour-bearing cell structures known as melanosomes in the 125-million-year-old fossil's feathers.

Professor Mike Benton explains how he did it and you can listen to that if you click here.

Icky, Gross, Parasites

Did you know that you can have parasites in you? Well, don't freak out because of this fact.

About 85-95 percent adults have parasites in them. They are very gross to look at up close. Parasites are generally thought of as a Third World problem, but that is not necessarily the case. Anyone can have parasites.

The Disease Control in 1976 found out that six people selected at random had at least one or more parasites in them. Isn't that gross? Parasites can be a very serious public threat. People keep on talking about them, but slowly people begin to stop listening and paying any attention to them.

New York City's RadioLab did an hour-long segment about parasites. Here is the orignal RadioLab audio podcast.
Read this blog entry by RadioLab. Watch the different videos, and embedd several onto you page. Also, read and link to this article by Dan Zimmer, the king of parasite. He made the video below:


Written by Rubina H.
Information and photo from healingdaily.com.

Exploratorium Turns 40

To celebrate its grand opening 40 years ago, the Exploratorium will host special events for free admission all day this coming Saturday, Nov.7th.

The Exporatorium started when famous physicist and professor Frank Oppenheimer founded it in 1969 to give people a hands-on experience of learning with a financial aid of $50,000 from the San Francisco Foundation. Since 1969, the Exploratorium has grown enormously, featuring hundreds of interesting exhibits.

Even before founding the museum, Oppenheimer was already world-renowned for his paticipation in the Manhattan Project and work with other important projects. In Oppenheimer's later years, he was awarded the Gugghenheim fellowship and went abroad to devote himself to physics, where he saw European science museums. He was inspired and wished to do the same in the United States. He got his wish.

by Brigette W.

The Awesome Field Trip

On 9/23/09, the upper graders from Hillwood Academic Day school went on a field trip to the Academy day. First we split our class into three groups. Next the parents and our teacher drive us to the Academy of Science. Later our group arrived at Academy of Science in the front door. Then our class waited in line. Then we went in and we saw a movie called Bugs in 3D. When the movie was done our class split up. I went with my group to the aquarium which was downstairs. At the aquarium we saw a bunch of animals that we saw and animals we never saw. Later we went upstairs and went to see a bunch random science. Finally we went to a diorama of African animal and saw a bunch of real penguins.

By Brandon Wong

Photo credit: Academy of Sciences

A Trip to the Academy of Science

The uppergrade students get to go to the museum. We got there in Mrs. Woods car. the most interesting things there was the rainforest dome, the plastic model of the dinosaur skeleton, t-rex, and the model of the sharp tooth shark.

If I was given an opinion to choose from I'd say "This place is the most spectacular planetarium I've ever been to''. I also liked the little fish there. I really liked the little eel tunnel that had eel garden inside. When entering the museum you see a shark pond which is mixed with other fish. I expected the other fish to be eaten, but I guess they fed the shark well. I hope I go there again.

Current Event: Upper-Grader Trip to the Academy of Sciences

Student Assignment: Jacob, Brandon

Write a brief story—five sentences—about the upper-graders' trip to the Academy of Sciences.

• Who got to go?
• How did you get there?
• What where the three most interesting things you saw?
• What did you think of the museum?

Remember to include the basics -- also known as the five W's -- of a news story:

• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why

Upload three images for this assignment and link to the Academy of Sciences website. You may also write about the website.

Scientists Find More Exoplanet

Assignment: Zack
Has learning the planets just gotten harder? Scientists announce that they've found more planets. Astronomers say there are 32 new planets outside our Solar System, taking the number of known exoplanets to more than 400.

Write a news story about this event. You can use this BBC News story as your source.

Remember to use the five W's of a good news story. Also, explain what an exoplanet is. Use a photo from this page.

RadioLab: Parasites

Student Assignments: Rubina

New York City's RadioLab does an hour-long segment about parasites. Read this blog entry by RadioLab. Watch the different videos, and embedd several onto you page. Also, read and link to this article by Dan Zimmer, the king of parasite.

Write a news story about parasite. What are they and why aren't they all bad.

Also, link to the orignal RadioLab audio podcast.

Happy Birthday Exploratorium!

Student Assignment: Brigette

The Exploratorium turns 40 this weekend. In 1969, Dr. Frank Oppenheimer opened the doors to the Exploratorium. Tell us about both the Exploratorium and its founder.

• Write about the birthday event (use this page for background information).
• Write a little about the history of the Exploratorium. Why was it started and why? (Use this page or this page for background.)
• Play around with and highlight the interactive timeline.
• Highlight a few of the most interesting events during the weekend celebration. This page has information about the weekend celebration. Remember to mention that the Exploratorium is free all weekend.

Reindeer on the Roof? Really?

Student: Anya


'Tis the Season for Science — and your task is to write about all the holiday happenings at the Academy of Sciences. Visit the website for more information, and remember to hit on the following highlights.

Celebrate the holidays with a scientific twist this season! From now through January 2, explore a winter wonderland at the California Academy of Sciences, complete with live reindeer, hot chocolate, an igloo theater, festive decor, and snow flurries in the piazza. The exciting lineup of winter-themed programs changes every day and every week. Programs include:

• A daily rendezvous with Yukon and Windy, the two live reindeer
• Interactive games: Polar Jeopardy and Mad Science
• Performances by SF Circus, Robert Strong the Comedy Magician, and Dance-Along Nutcracker
• Scavenger hunts
• Displays of northern lights in the igloo
• Arctic specimen spotlights
• Photos with Santa Claude, the alligator mascot