Materials Bonding at the Atomic Level

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101007171413.htm

I read the article from above and learned these four things:

1- Atomic bonds dictate characteristics of an element or compound, such as melting point, hardness, or transparency.

2- It is possible to influence the assembly process of silicon crystals by applying strain as the bonds are forming.

3- Straining these bonds can affect an element or compound's chemical reactivity greatly, and that in turn will also cause the structure of the element/compound to change.

4- Using this method of straining the crystals in one way or another can prove to make silicon and silicon products much more efficient in the future, when more extensive research will be done.

Alloys

What is an Alloy?


An alloy is a metallic solution, composed of two or more metallic elements. It can be a homogeneous solution, which would be a solution that is uniform, or it can be a heterogeneous solution, which would be a solution that is  unevenly distributed throughout.



Examples and Uses


1. Bronze is a mixture typically consisting of copper and tin. In some cases, zinc is substituted for tin. This solution used to be required to make tools, but now is generally used for door knobs, handles, and other small parts. It is also used in sculptures, and some countries used bronze for their pennies (such as England).


2. Aluminum alloy, also known as magnalium, is a mixture made up of aluminum and magnesium. There are varying forms of this alloy, ranging from containing 5% magnesium and 95% aluminum, to a 50/50 differential. The more magnesium in the solution, the more brittle and more susceptible to corrosion it is. It is often used in aircraft and auto parts, such as the chassis (frame of the car), or the wheel hubs.

Birds and their Eyesight

http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/17B.html

I read the above article about birds and how they see colors and their eyesight, and I learned the following:


1. Some bird species can see ultraviolet light.

2. While humans are trichromats (perceive 3 waves of light), birds and fish are tetrachromats or pentachromats (perceive 4 or 5 waves of light), allowing for them to see more types and rays of light.

3. Bird's eyes have a far higher proportion of cones to rods than human eyes, and their cones are more complex than ours. The inner portion of the cone contains a colored oil droplet behind the outer portion of the cone, allowing for light to be filtered before it reaches the visual pigments.

4. The structure of a bird's retina is also more complex than the structure of a human's retina. The area where there is a high concentration of cones (which perceive light) may form a lateral stripe instead of being centered in one single area.

5. Birds use their vision in different ways, such as using it to differentiate the greens of the forest from their food, or using their ultraviolet vision to spot the traces of their prey (such as the urine and feces of mice).

How Are New Elements Are Named?

New elements are typically temporarily named in their Latin name, broken down by the single digits ("un" is one, "oct" is eight, etc.) After a proper permanent name has been decided, the name must be presented to the global science community and it must be accepted by an international group of scientists. If it isn't approved, the name must be revised to something more acceptable. In the past, elements have been named after famous scientists such as Ernest Rutherford (Rutherfordium) and Albert Einstein (Einsteinium). However, the rules have changed for naming. It used to be that the element could be named after anything or the name could have been randomly generated. Now, the name must end with "-ium".

Glow-in-the-Dark Millipedes (Motyxia)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110926131805.htm

Five Things I Learned:

1. There are 12,000 discovered species of millipedes, but 100,000 are thought to exist.
2. Millipedes are vegetarians that feed on decaying plant matter.
3. Motyxia are blind and glow in the dark due to living underground a majority of the time, yet still have the ability to sense nightfall.
4. Motyxia use their glow as a warning beacon and release toxic cyanide when endangered.
5. There are only 3 areas in the world that you can see motyxia, and all of them are in California. They are the Santa Monica Mountains, the Tehachapi Mountains, and the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The evidence that they used scientific method is that they first made a hypothesis about why the centipedes glowed in the dark. After making a hypothesis, they conducted various experiments and studies, such as the study on how Motyxia would survive with and without their glow in the wild, or tracing the Motyxia genus back through the evolutionary tree. Finally, they made a conclusion based on the data they had compiled.