Mar

6

Best iPad Science Apps for Kids

March 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment

The iPad is a great resource if you want to supplement your child’s science education. The best way to learn about science is to explore the topic through experiments and hands-on applications. These applications help to bring science to life. You can use them to build your child’s curiosity in science or as a way for them to delve more deeply into a subject that they already love. You may want to explore the iBooks available for the iPad. They are each only $15.00 and will explore a topic in-depth with related videos.

Bobo Explores Light
This app takes children through a story that explores how light and electricity works. It has a cute main character that really appeals to kids. It explains how light works, and has games that demonstrates the various points that it teachers. The app itself is not very long; it may take about an hour at most to go through the entire thing the first time. However there is good replay value for the children, which allows your children to review the concepts. This is a good secondary source if your child is learning about electricity.

Solar Walk and Star Walk
The Solar Walk app is one of the first apps that was introduced along with the iPad. A similar application is Star Walk. Solar Walk allows you to explore the different planets in the solar system and the sun. You can check the different positions of the planets currently as well as learn more detailed information on each individual planet. Star Walk is another app that explores space. This application focuses more on space outside of the solar system. It can help you find stars in the night sky. It is a great app to have if you are planning on stargazing. These apps make great resources if your child is currently studying astronomy. The hands on interaction may help them to better understand and absorb the information about the planets and space.

Science 360 for the iPad
This app by the National Science Foundation is one of the most highly rated apps with hundreds of five-star reviews. It is updated on a regular basis and provides the latest news stories. It also provides streaming video and photos if you are interested in exploring a topic more in-depth. This is a great resource to have on hand to support all the different science fields. It can be used as a resource for younger and older students as well.

BrainPop Featured Movie
This app offers a new topic every day with a video that explains the topic and then at least four more resources that allows your child to explore the topic more in-depth. You can subscribe for $1.99 a month, which gives you access to the featured topic for the day. Another subscription rate of $6.99 a month allows you to access all of the topics each day. It is a good option if you want to encourage your children to learn. The topics expand beyond just science topics into other educational areas as well.

Heather Green is a freelance writer for several regional magazines in North Carolina as well as a resident blogger for onlinenursingdegrees.org. Her writing experience includes fashion, business, health, agriculture and a wide range of other topics. Heather has just completed research on healthcare administration degree and online physical therapy assistant classes.

Feb

29

Is Bioprinting the Pathway to Human Cloning?

February 29, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Is Bioprinting the Pathway to Human Cloning?image credits: Patrick J. Lynch

Bioprinting uses a 3D printing device with biological material to create objects; such as replacement human organs. Scientists have already succeeded in printing skin and vertebral tissues, these two experiments have been tested on animals; like the ear growing out of the rats back scenario. However they are still yet to completely master replicating organs… turns out getting the internal vascular systems are a tad tricky!

So with the ever-changing world around us, I don’t think anybody would have predicted the possibility of actually being able to ‘make’ humans. Of course there has been a way found to create functional organs; therefore a scientists ‘logical’ second step is creating a fully functioning human! According to Vladimir Mironov, it is a “logical extension’’!

The idea is to learn how to produce individual limbs and body parts; subsequently building a whole body. The prospect of printing humans is that they can be created at specific ages using the various stems cells, erasing any need for puberty. Mironov believes that the hurdle will present itself when it comes to tackling the human brain as we will probably never understand it’s functions 100%.The idea behind this evolution is that human beings can be made and printed on demand, whether this defies the natural way life is a personal and separate debate; but we cannot deny that it is ultimately brilliant.

So is this a good idea!? It is clear that Bioprinting can and probably will lead to human cloning but is it really ethical!? The humans will be clones and not actually real people, therefore the strange and quite disturbing aspect (especially for those who knew the original human) is that they will look the same, but won’t be the same. And that is what I ponder on… how will the personalities differ? Will it have a personality!? There I just said the word myself… ‘It’.

DollyThe cloning of Dolly the Lamb was, yes a brilliant experiment. However Dolly died early… whether this is a result of cloning it was never proven, however this factor must be taken into consideration. Another issue is that Dolly was the only successful embryo to be created out of 300; a very low ratio causing a great loss of money through experiments… this will ultimately cost so much more for human experimentation.

So this phenomena really would alter the natural way of life, without producing life the ‘proper way’, what are we really here for!? The aspect of the grieving wishing to bring back loved ones, creating an empty shell of a body that simply resembles your loved one? Bizarre.

This article was written by London printing company, PrintExpress.co.uk; for business cards, magazines, brochures and other bespoke printing services.

Feb

28

Proton Therapy

February 28, 2012 | Leave a Comment

For certain types of cancer, standard X-ray radiation therapy may work well; but proton therapy may do the job better, more efficiently and with less potential for collateral damage to surrounding tissue and vital organs.

Also known as particle therapy, proton therapy works to kill certain types of cancerous tissue, especially in places in the body where the growth is isolated. Developed from the workings of scientist Robert R. Wilson, a noted physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, proton therapy was in its mere infancy in the mid-1940s. Since that time, this cutting edge therapy has come to light as an effective way to isolate an abnormal growth, which is ideal for the treatment of many types of cancers that lie adjacent to vital organs, as well as in treating childhood cancers where it is protecting a child’s growing organs is critical.

Though X-ray therapy for cancer patients can be effective in expelling certain cancers, it can also create negative effects that leave the patient with other problems and side effects with which they must contend. Since X-ray radiation therapy affects a wider overall portion area of the body beyond the cancerous growth, this type of therapy is prone to spreading its radiation over a wider scope of a patient’s body during treatment, potentially damaging nearby, healthy tissue. Those administering X-ray radiation therapy are often left with the conflicting choice of whether to use an intense dosage of radiation to eradicate the body of the malignant growth, or to withhold the dosage to try to preserve the body’s healthy tissue.

No such conflict exists in proton therapy, which has a proven track record of effectively killing cancerous tissue. Patients suffering from brain cancers like meningioma, eye cancers like retinoblastoma and ocular melanoma, and spine tumors like chondrosarcoma, and prostate cancer have benefited from proton therapy. All of these cancers are in critical locations with delicate tissue surrounding the cancerous growth or vital organs lie nearby.

With over 200,000 men in the United States diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, the development and growing availability of proton therapy has made great strides to allay the anxiety that comes with such a diagnosis for men.

Though this type of cancer treatment can be costly – it’s expensive to build the necessary particle accelerator to speed up the protons – and there is a limited number facilities that provide such cancer eradicating therapy, the value of peace of mind for those who suffer from prostate cancer, as well as other cancers, it is well worth the effort, and is covered by insurance carriers. One facility that provides such treatment is IU Health Proton Therapy, a center in the Midwest.

The treatment sessions are relatively easy for the patient and cause few to no lingering side effects since proton therapy does not damage healthy tissue. This outpatient treatment takes place for a few minutes each day of treatment and goes on for approximately six to seven weeks. I may seem odd that a cancer treatment could be that quick, but it also gives hope to those looking for alternative cancer treatments.

Matt Herndon writes for Dose of My Own, a blog that discusses what’s happening in the medical field.

Feb

14

Infographic: The Digital Classroom

February 14, 2012 | Leave a Comment

The Digital Classroom: Reinventing the textbooks
Courtesy of Accredited Online Universities Guide

Jan

18

2012 Google Science Fair

January 18, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Google is looking for the brightest young scientists from around the world to submit interesting, creative projects that are relevant to the world today.

The Google Science Fair challenges students aged 13-18 to carry out a scientific investigation into a real-world problem or issue that interests them. The competition asks them to carry the investigation forward through rigorous experimentation, recording and conclusions.

Students compete with peers in their age group from all over the world to win scholarships, internships and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. There will also be a special Science in Action prize, sponsored by Scientific American. This will reward the project with the highest capacity to make a practical difference to the lives of people in a group or community.

See also: The Educator toolkit.