Ever Seen A Gamma Ray?

Have you ever seen a Gamma ray with your naked eye? Well, recently on March 21, 2008, there was a large Gamma ray burst that was visible. It was a little brighter than the softest lit star. Neil Gehrels, Swift principal investigator of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center said that that burst, "blows away every burst seen so far"(National Geographic).

Many of you may be wondering what a Gamma ray is but i'm here to clear that up for you. Gamma rays are one of the most dangerous forms of light we have found so far. Their frequency range is from 10x10^20Hz - 10x10^24Hz. They also have a very small wave length. Their wave length is between 3/100ths - 3/1000ths nanometers. Because they have no electric charge and no rest mass, their interaction with matter is fairly weak. Gamma rays originate from black holes, pulsars, neutron stars, and other things that we haven't understood quite yet(NASA Space Place).

These bursts tend to occur when stars die out and don't give any light anymore, causing them to let out a lot of radiation.

Sound scary? They are! Although Gamma rays might be helpful in some ways, they can be very dangerous in others. Gamma rays kill living cells, and you can not feel or see these rays hitting you. Also, to make it even worse, they can be inhaled or injested with food or water. If this happens the Gamma rays can be exposed to anything inside the body such as nerves or organs. The good thing about these rays is, that because they kill cells, they are sometimes used to kill cancer cells in bodies. This way they are improving people's health instead of destroying it all together. Gamma rays are sometimes put to work in order to improve people's lives by sterilizing medical equipment.

Because Gamma rays are so smalls and high above the Earth's surface, there aren't very many ways to read their energy level. Gamma rays can not get through our atmosphere(which is a relief because a lot of people, plants and animals would be killed). Because they can not get through the Earth's atmosphere, it is pretty hard to measure them.

One way that has been shown useful is to have large balloons put up at an altitude around 40km. These balloons hold many telescopes and electronics and the baloons can hold up to around 2000 kilograms(NASA).

Though there are scary and good things about Gamma rays, there are also a few cools things that you could know. There was a very large extinction over 440 million years ago on earth. Some are lead to believe that it was Gamma Rays that came through the Earth's atmosphere and killed almost everything. Which starts to make people wonder... if it happened once, couldn't it just happen again? Some don't believe that that is even true, but with more research, the answer may soon be discovered. Did you know that that Gamma rays have over 10,000 times more energy than visible light? Well it's true. Gamma rays

have more energy than any other energy source now discovered.

Many more things can be discovered and uncovered about Gamma rays, but some shall just remain unanswered. Remember that these rays can be deadly, so if you see a sign that looks like the one here at the right, remember to not go anywhere near that. Most radiation sickness is from Gamma rays, so be careful while having fun and be aware!

Picture Sources:

• Image 1: Courtesy of NASA. Gamma Ray Burst. N.d. JPEG file.

• Image 2: Filling the balloon for a flight of the GRIP payload . N.d. NASA Goddard Space

Flight Center. Web. 31 Mar. 2010. .

• Image 3: Tri-foil. N.d. JPEG file.

Information Sources:

•Mehta, Aalok. "PHOTO IN THE NEWS: Gamma-Ray Burst Visible to Naked Eye."

National Geographic 21 Mar. 2008: n. pag. National Geographic. Web. 31
Mar. 2010. .

•"The Magic Gamma Ray Window." NASA Space Place. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2010.

•"The History of Gamma-ray Astronomy." NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. N.p., 3

Feb. 2010. Web. 31 Mar. 2010.

•"Module 3: Interaction of Radiation with Matter." University of Toronto
Environmental Health and Safety. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2010.

Under the Sea, Under the Sea!

If I were to become a scientist when I am older, I would choose to become a marine biologist. Marine biology is a field that has the knowledge relating to marine organisms. Marine biologists can range from a person who trains dolphins for a living, to a manager or owner of a marine wildlife preserve. Marine biology has many sub fields which shows what a large field marine biology is. Some of the sub fields are; Fisheries and Aquaculture-"includes the study of their population, dynamics, reproduction, behavior, food webs, and habitats.", Ichthyology- "the study of fish, both salt and freshwater species.", and Marine Mammology- "This is the study of cetaceans which are families of whales, dolphins, and pinnipeds." Pinnipeds are seals, sea lions, and the walrus(What is Marine Biology?). Though those are are a few of the sub fields, there are many more that some may be interested in.

Many people have different definitions of marine biology. Some switch definitions between marine biology and biological oceanography. Marine biology is the "study of marine species that live in the ocean and other salt-water environments", where biological oceanography also "studies marine species but they study locations of the species or where species reproduce most often(What is Marine Biology?)."

This type of science appeals to me because I love the ocean. Ever since I was young,

I was fascinated by fish and coral, and any part of swimming or life in the ocean. I always enjoyed watching fish in fish tanks and how they reacted to other fish that would join them. It surprised me how many colors and patterns that a single fish, or organism in the ocean could have.

This choice matches my interests and preference, because i was always attracted to the sound of waves crashing hard down on a beach. It also suits my interests because I love learning about all living things in the ocean and how they live. I prefer working with any thing that swims over an object that crawls such as a bug because I am terrified of insects and arachnids. This profession meets my goals because one of my goals in life is to go to Australia and they have terrific ocean life there. It also meets my goals because ever since I was eight, i have wanted a salt water fish tank so I could obtain tropical fish and many beautiful types of coral. When I'm grown up, I was always planning on being a marine biologist and I hope I will pull through.

This profession matches my learning style which is visual, because I am intrigued by colors. When studying, I create flash cards in different colors which helps me remember things much easier. So, this suits the profession because in the ocean there are many different colors which make me very interested in learning about them.

Many legacies have been left by marine biologists. Marine biologists over many years have

discovered new types of living creatures such as the strawberry crab(left). This crab was found by Professor ho Ping-ho from the National Taiwan Ocean University. Professor Ho and his team found two female crabs off the coast of Southern Taiwan.

I have been looking at many colleges with terrific marine biology programs and have narrowed down many and found that UCLA has a great marine biology program(UCLA Marine Major). They have many life science programs that i would enjoy to be in when the times comes.

Could Pennies Be Replacing Bullets?

People have been led to believe that a penny falling from the top of the Eiffel Tower or more commonly heard, the Empire State Building, could kill people. Some people say that the penny would not build up enough velocity to actually kill someone. Although i have also heard that a penny that was falling went straight through a person. But you can't believe everything you see. There are many perspectives that help and some that contradict this myth. This certain question comes from one of the more popular myths that if a penny falls from the Empire State Building, it is believed that it would hit a person so hard that it would kill them. But there are many ways that people can prove this myth wrong.

Sources say that a penny falling off the Empire State Building would not build up enough velocity to kill someone. There are also forces working on the penny such as air resistance and wind causing the penny to move around more and flip in the air causing the penny to slow down so i wouldn't hit very hard. The Empire State Building is 486 feet taller than the Eiffel Tower. So, if a penny dropped from the Empire State Building would not kill someone in the landing, a penny dropped from the Eiffel Tower would not kill anyone either.

To bust this myth, i looked at many credible sources. In one of the sources that i observed it said that the Mythbusters team performed experiments for this myth and it was busted. They said that the penny, going at a velocity of 64 mph which was fired at the co-hosts hand did not even hit hard enough to leave a serious injury (Book of Odds). A penny dropped from a very high building will not be able to kill someone because it will not hit a high enough terminal velocity once it gets close enough to hitting the ground, or a person (Big Site of Amazing Facts). When considering the force of gravity you immediately could think that this myth was possible. But then when you think about a penny falling through the air, including the wind moving the penny around in different directions, it will make it not hit as hard. Making it less possible for the penny to hit someone. It is rather unlikely and has been proven to not be true and it was busted.

Picture From: Eiffel Tower Paris France

Taken by: Mathias Vejerslev

http://www.nevershoutnever.com/

christofer drew(:

i took this picture at his concert(: