"Once by the Pacific"

The shattered water made a misty din.
Great waves looked over others coming in,
And thought of doing something to the shore
That water never did to land before.
The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,
Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.
You could not tell, and yet it looked as if
The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,
The cliff in being backed by continent;
It looked as if a night of dark intent
Was coming, and not only a night, an age.
Someone had better be prepared for rage.
There would be more than ocean-water broken
Before God's last Put out the Light was spoken.

~ Robert Frost

What an amazing poem this is! The rhythm and meaning is ingenious, along with the use of weather throughout all the verses.

In "Once by the Pacific" by Robert Frost, weather was a vital component utilized to create the atmosphere of the poem. The entire event being described in the verse was a deadly storm over the ocean intending to destroy the shore. When reading this poem, one can hear the waves slapping the shore and see the sprays of mist jumping from the edges of the land. Furthermore, the clouds were also described to enhance the effect. The reader can picture the low, dark clouds over the raging waters, angry and malicious with scorn for the stability of the shore (Someone had better be prepared for rage). Robert Frost used a simile to show that these clouds were dangerous and ready to do something formidable (The clouds were low and hairy in the skies/ Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes). Moreover, the lightning of the storm is portrayed through the metaphor "the gleam of eyes." All of these traits of weather were discussed in Robert Frost's poem to create the aura of the storm.

Without a doubt, Robert Frost applied a thorough knowledge of the aspects of storms in this poem. It shows throughout the entire verse that this poet understood how storms looked and felt on the shores of the Pacific. For instance, he describes the low, treacherous clouds above the ocean, the deathly waves contemplating how they shall cause destruction on land (And thought of doing something to the shore/That water never did to land before), and even the mood of the evil night foreshadowing an ugly event (It looked as if a night of dark intent). What else would these details convey other than the familiarity Robert Frost has with stormy weather? Without all of these intricate features of weather put into the poem, the entire purpose of the work would not have made any sense. In other words, Mr. Frost hoped to show the tumultuous side of the ocean. If he had not added all these factors of a storm, the entire mood and theme would have been lost. Overall, weather was expertly embedded in the lines of "Once by the Pacific" to enhance the ambiance of the poem.

El Niño, La Niña

Why does Australia and Indonesia sometimes face abrupt droughts and brush fires? Why does South America occasionally have a poor fishing industry? It’s all because of El Niño. So, what is this El Niño, you ask? Well, we learned in science class that El Niño is a warm current of water by the South American coast that occurs when easterly trade winds weaken.

Normally, easterly trade winds blow off the coast of South America, pushing warm surface water of the ocean toward the western Pacific Ocean near Australia and Indonesia. There, the warm water evaporates and causes clouds to form, resulting in a rainy season for that part of the world. Meanwhile, the eastern coast of South America gets a nutrition-rich upwelling of cold water since cold water always replaces warm water. Fish follow this kind of cold water, so western South America is known to have abundant fish to catch.

However, everything changes when El Niño occurs. The easterly trade winds weaken, causing the warm water to come back to the South American coast. This warm water does not allow cold water to replace it, causing no fish to populate the shores of this country. Moreover, heavy rainfall pounds on South America. In turn, Indonesia and Australia experience droughts and brush fires since no warm water is present to form clouds over that land.

After El Niño, La Niña sometimes creates vicissitudes in the environment. Because the cold water stays blocked by the warm current beside South America, the cold water culminates and engulfs the coast of the country as soon as the easterly trade winds pick up again. The Web site researched for this post explained that La Niñas create weather climates opposite to the ones El Niños bring upon the tropical regions of the Pacific. In other words, El Niño produces droughts over Indonesia and Australia while La Niña makes that part of the world wetter than usual. In addition, the Web site states that El Niños and La Niñas occur every three to five years. Furthermore, La Niñas take place only half the number of times El Niños occur.

In my opinion, it would be lucky for Australia, Indonesia, and South America if La Niña follows El Niño. After all those droughts and fires, the eastern Pacific would probably jump for joy with the superfluous rain replenishing their land. In addition, the extra cold water on the South American coast would probably attract much more fish to cause a booming fishing industry.

As you can see, El Niños and La Niñas affect the weather effortlessly. They not only rule the climate of the Pacific, but also affect the United States (tornadoes in Florida and floods in the West). These sudden currents easily change the state of global climate, only to show how unpredictable weather can be.

Visit this Web site to get any doubts about El Niño and La Niño cleared:

http://www.elnino.noaa.gov/lanina_new_faq.html

The picture was found on: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/fgz/science/elnino.php?wfo=fgz

Talk About Technology!

Thirty years ago, technology did not include all of the economical and efficient machinery, tools, and appliances available to people today. Without a doubt, technology has developed considerably, all of the improvements influencing the world. In my opinion, the advancement that has impacted global societies the most is the Internet. One reason that the Internet has completely ameliorated human lives is that it is extremely beneficial in locating useful information. All the knowledge found in textbooks and other references can now be found at the tip of your fingers with a few clicks of a mouse button. In fact, users can even find educational videos that can also be as useful as any articles found in books. Think of how much time this is saving! Now, one does not need to actually visit a library for any last-minute research for projects. If anyone wants to see and learn about a particular object, there is no need to waste gas or energy to go to museums. In addition, communication has become faster and much more reliable. Without the wait of three days, someone just needs to wait a few seconds to receive an email just sent by their friend or family member. Photos don’t need to be printed out anymore since they can just be sent to other people by the Internet to share any special moments. Moreover, don’t forget the entertainment obtained from all the games, music, and movies that are available from the World Wide Web. Beyond this, people can get degrees online and work online too. This saves gas and time for all the users. In short, the Internet has completely changed the lifestyles of all the human beings who have it in their possession. Nothing but improvements for the world can come from this advancement in technology.

Chemistry Blog - Anders Celsius

Anders Celsius, a Swedish astronomer born in Uppsala, Sweden, contributed to the world of science immensely. He was born in 1701 into a family of professors, his grandfathers being Magnus Celsius and Anders Spole. Magnus was a mathematician, and Spole was an astronomer. Nils Celsius, Anders Celsius’s father, was a professor in astronomy in the University of Uppsala. This is where Anders studied and followed his father’s footsteps by being appointed an astronomy professor at the young age of 29.

At that time, observatories were not built in Sweden, so Anders traveled around the world in 1732 to the most paramount observatories in that time period. His trip lasted four years, and he worked with several eminent astronomers of the 18^th century in Germany, Italy, and France. One of the benefits from this interaction is that Anders published a collection in Nuremberg, Germany of his 316 observations about the aurora borealis, also known as the Northern Lights. They were formulated by him and other astronomers in 1733.

For a long time, there was constant dispute on what shape the Earth has always been. Isaac Newton proposed that the Earth was flattened at the poles while France felt the Earth was elongated at those locations. Expeditions to Ecuador and northern Sweden were arranged to measure the degree of longitude in each spot for comparison. Anders took part in the journey to Lapland in northern Sweden with the French astronomer Pierre Louis de Maupertuis in 1736. Celsius was the only professional astronomer on the team. The measurements the two expeditions brought back confirmed Newton’s theory of the Earth being flattened at the poles. Finally! Solid proof was found at last on the actual shape of the Earth. Thereafter, no more disputes occurred, and this fact was accepted worldwide. The definition of Earth as being a flattened ellipsoid is still acknowledged today.

After returning from the journey, Celsius convinced Swedish authorities to make a budget for an observatory in Uppsala. The Celsius Observatory was constructed in 1741 and was the first and most modern observatory in Sweden. Anders was appointed director of this observatory. He used it to research eclipses and be the first to measure the magnitude, or brightness, of stars using equipment other than the human eye. By utilizing glass plates, Anders compared magnitudes of stars by finding out how many plates it required to extinguish the stars’ light. With these observations, he published catalogues of a total of 300 stars using his own photometric system. His research proved that Sirius is the brightest star in the sky, requiring twenty-five glass plates to douse the light. Also after building the observatory, Celsius was the first to notice that auroras affect compass needles and the Earth’s magnetic field. This discovery helped in the progress of research regarding these intriguing Northern Lights.

Without a doubt, the observations that made Anders Celsius most famous were the ones concerning the temperature scale. In 1742, he recommended dividing the thermometer into 100 degrees. Celsius was not the first to make a hundred-point scale, but he was the only one to propose that 0 degrees, at a certain atmospheric pressure, was the boiling point of water and 100 degrees was its freezing point. The scale was reversed to 100 degrees being the boiling point and 0 degrees being the freezing point after Anders’s death in 1744. For a few years, Anders's measurements were known as the Swedish thermometer until it was accepted all over the world. It was then renamed the Celsius scale. This thermometer thoroughly changed the everyday lives of humans. Now, everyone can find the temperature of the outside air accurately and can be prepared for the day’s weather. The Celsius scale has greatly helped in advances in meteorology, making several measurements for vital weather research easier to understand and work with. All in all, Anders Celsius contributed substantially to the scientific society, and his laudable research thoroughly modified the science world.

The Life Cycle of a Frog

Frogs are amphibians, and this name suits them just fine. The reason for this is “amphibian” comes from the Greek words meaning “double life.” The lifestyle of a frog takes place both in the water and on land. First of all, a male and female clasp each other’s bodies in a tight embrace called amplexus. The male sits atop the female frog as it fertilizes the female’s eggs. The female frog lays several thousands of jelly-covered eggs (sometimes 10,000 or more) in the water. Frogs that lay their eggs in ponds usually form a clump of eggs called frogspawn. Eggs laid in streams are attached to the undersides of rocks, leaves, or are grouped in foam nests on the water. Depending on the weather, the eggs hatch into fish-like tadpoles at different timings. If the climate is warm, the eggs might hatch in one or two days. Cold weather might result in tadpoles hatching thirty to forty days after being laid. Some frogs do not watch over their eggs during their development. Since eggs and tadpoles are prone to being eaten by predators of the waters, I feel the frogs should definitely keep an eye on their offspring! Anyway, tadpoles have oval-shaped bodies and use gills to acquire oxygen from the water. They have a muscular tail with fins along its upper and lower portions for swimming. For its own safety, a tadpole often sticks onto vegetation in the pond until it is ready to break free and swim around the water. Their horny beak and rows of minuscule teeth help them consume algae for food. Some tadpole species even eat frog eggs and other tadpoles! In my opinion, it is appalling for an animal to eat its own kin. After a few weeks, the tadpoles begin to sprout one pair of legs and their tails begin to slowly be absorbed by the lysosomes of the amphibian. Now, they are called froglets. During this stage, the froglets lose their gills, grow lungs and a second pair of legs, develop long, sticky tongues in place of their tiny teeth, and go through changes in their heart and skeleton structures. Furthermore, the intestines in their digestive systems change to adapt to their new insect diet. Finally, the froglets become adult frogs during the last stage of their life. As soon as they are of reproductive age, the frogs produce more eggs, forming a new generation of amphibians!

Interested in gaining more knowledge about the frog's life cycle? Visit the Web sites that this information was based on:
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761552464_2____5/Frog_(animal).html?partner=orp#s5
http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/Frogs/frogs_life.html

The amplexus photo of this post is from:
http://biology.astate.edu/faculty/strauth/Publications.htm
The life cycle picture on this post was found on:
http://www.infovisual.info/02/029_en.html

An Asteroid Headed Near the Red Planet

Mars can easily be described as a red planet speckled with several craters across its entire rocky surface. Recently, scientists have discovered that another crater might be added onto this planet’s exterior. According to astronomers from NASA’s Near Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, there is a one in seventy-five chance for the asteroid entitled 2007 WD5 to impact the surface of Mars. This 164-foot wide asteroid was recently discovered on November 20, 2007 by the Catalina Sky Survey sponsored by NASA. Scientists at JPL that were tailing the orbit of this asteroid hypothesized that 2007 WD5 will pass by Mars at a distance of 30,000 miles at approximately 6 a.m. on January 30^th, 2008. Right now, it is passing halfway between Earth and Mars at a speed of 27,900 miles per hour, according to Don Yeomans, manager of the Near Earth Object Office at JPL. If a collision does occur, it would hit Mars at around 30,000 miles per hour and three megatons of energy would be released from the impact, most probably creating a crater more than half a mile wide. Luckily, with the observations of NASA-funded Spacewatch in Kitt Peak, Arizona and Magdalena Ridge Observatory in New Mexico, it was ruled out that this asteroid would hit the Earth. I feel so ecstatic that this asteroid’s path is not another problem for the world to worry about. Moreover, I would like to see this asteroid hit Mars if I could. In addition, I wonder if this collision would be large enough to spark a burst of life on Mars. This is feasible since this might have occurred on Earth 470 million years ago (see my post “An Impact that Impacted the Earth”). This would make another planet for humans to go to when Earth does not provide the proper necessities for human life. Therefore, this probable meteor collision might be an event worth waiting for.

The information on this post came from this Web site:

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/dec/HQ_07284_Mars_Asteroid.html

The photograph on this post was found on:

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/12/21/asteroid-mars-nasa.html

An Impact that Impacted the Earth

Asteroids are always thought to be destructive and cause several organisms to go extinct. On December 17, 2007, it was proclaimed that scientists suggested an engrossing theory that contradicts this original thought. According to many geologists, there was a period of time named the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event in the Middle Ordovician period (between 488 and 444 million years ago) where several new animal species suddenly evolved on Earth. Also at this time, there seemed to have been a series of heavy asteroids that collided with the Earth. Even though Birger Schmitz and his colleagues from the University of Lund, Sweden knew of the theory explaining dinosaurs dying off from an asteroid, they strongly support the idea that there was a critical asteroid collision in the solar system 470 million years ago. This impact might have caused the boom in Earth’s biodiversity during Earth's early years of life. After this hit, the asteroid blew into several small pieces. The debris created after the crash was inclined to crash into the Earth 10 to 30 million years after that collision. Schmitz and his team have found evidence of prevalent collisions from that time in the rocks of Earth. Even today, Earth is being bombarded with the smaller debris from that catastrophic event. I really hope all the larger asteroids hit the Earth between the 470 million years to when humans began to evolve! Anyway, the team went to Baltic Scandinavia and China to search for fossils in rocks of that era. They found them in extraterrestrial chromite (a brownish black mineral ore) and osmium isotopes (metallic white, crystalline elements). An extraordinary outburst of diversity of marine invertebrates called brachiopods was seen in the discovered rock from around the collision time. Paleontologist Spenser Lucas feels that Schmitz’s ideas are extremely probable, but still believes more evaluation is needed to prove this theory true. Last year, in science class, we learned that a vital change or the destruction of an environment or habitat can cause new niches to develop and grow. This is why I feel Schmitz and his colleagues are going on the right track with their enlightening theory.

To learn more about this new theory, check out this Web site (this is also where the photograph was found):

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/12/17/asteroid-impact-evolution.html