Science

How Will The Universe End?

There are many theories regarding how the universe will die. The most widely accepted of these theories is called “Heat Death.” Heat Death is the result of the death of stars; stars like our sun are slowly using up the fuel stored inside of them and eventually this fuel will run out. When this happens, the star stops producing heat and light, resulting in a frozen and dark Earth. We will most likely be dead long before this happens. The sun is increasing in brightness by about 10% every billion years. This will result in the Earth eventually becoming too hot for anything to live. The oceans will boil, and water will no longer exist in liquid form. We could theoretically survive this by moving to a planet farther from the sun, but that would only last until the sun becomes a Red Giant. A Red Giant is what the…


How Was the Black Hole Image Created and Why?

On April 10th, 2019, the first image of a black hole was released. The black hole is located in the galaxy Messier 87, which is 53.49 million light years away from Earth. This picture was created by a project called the Event Horizon Telescope, also known as the EHT. The EHT did this by using a network of eight ground-based telescopes all over the world to collect data and then generate an image based on the readings that the telescopes picked up.   When one looks at the image, you can see orange and yellow light radiating from the black hole. The reason for this is that black holes are super dense and have insanely strong gravity fields. Because of this, some light rays get pulled through, but some are far enough away from the hole itself that it they don’t get pulled through entirely but do get bent. This…


Results of Russian Experiment to Domesticate Foxes

   We don’t know much about how dogs and cats were domesticated. We have never recorded the process of the domestication of a wild animal. The fact that we have successfully orchestrated the domestication of foxes is amazing. There are very few domesticated foxes in the world, they are part of a 60-year-old Russian experiment by Dmitry Belyayev involving a process that could be described as evolution. Dmitry chose, out of a large selection of wild foxes, the foxes that showed the least aggression towards humans. Those friendly foxes were allowed to breed, then the same process was applied to the offspring. This process continued and eventually 70% of the foxes had reached a high level of friendliness. This meant that the foxes showed no fear or aggression towards humans whatsoever unless provoked. This was a breakthrough and even after Dmitry died in 1985, the experiment continued. The experiment is…


Rare Eclipse: Super Blood Wolf Moon!

On January 20th/21st, 2019, a very special celestial event happened in our skies. A Super, Blood, and Wolf Moon.  A Supermoon is when the moon is closest to the Earth, when it can look up to 35% bigger. A Blood Moon is when the Moon is perfectly in the shadow of the Earth, which causes the light from the sun to be filtered through our atmosphere, which makes the Moon look bright red. A Wolf Moon is the first full moon in a year. This event is very special because every one of these events happened at the same time. The first Full Moon of 2019, lining up perfectly with the shadow of the Earth, coming closest to the Earth in its orbit. This is a Lunar Eclipse, very different from the well known Solar Eclipse. A Lunar Eclipse is when the Earth is in between the moon and the…


Stream Study: East Branch Indian Creek

Throughout the past two months the 8th graders have been going to the East Indian Creek and collecting data. For extra credit thay could post their findings in The Phoenix Inquirer. Here were their findings. “Our job at East Indian Creek is to test the water and find ways to improve stream health. We tested for values, for example,  of dissolved oxygen and took weekly measures of the water’s pH levels. We hope to improve stream health and share ways to protect Earth’s clean water.” Dev Gupta (2023)   RESULT TABLE: Provided by – Eva Kusiatin, Faiza Carey, Juliette Schad, and Lindsay McCammon Visit One Visit Two Visit Three HEALTH Air Temp (in c) 16° 4° 16° Water Temp (in c) 13° 4° 12° pH 7 6 7 GREAT Phosphate 1 0 1 GOOD Nitrate 5 5 2 BAD Do N/A 4 (31% Sat) 4 (35% Sat) BAD BOD N/A…


Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha Visits FCS!

We as a full FCS community had the honor of hosting Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, whose research helped expose the Flint water crisis. She was here for the public on Tuesday, October 30th at 6:30 pm at Friends Central School, Shallcross Hall at the City Avenue campus. But the students were lucky enough to meet her in person. She will met with the Lower School, Middle School, and the Upper School during their assembly periods. Dr. Hanna-Attisha also wrote a well-reviewed book called What the Eyes Don’t See about helping discover the Flint water crisis. The Flint crisis started when the city of Flint was losing money. So Flint switched from Detroit water to water from the Flint river. But river water is harder to treat than lake water and this treatment was being done by a water plant that had not been operational for 40 or 50 years. The problem…


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Stream Data: An Ad for 8th Graders

Stream Data: Ad for 8th Graders Something you should know about the stream data project due on 11/16/18 8th graders. I know many of you are stressed about the stream data website project due 11/16. If you are interested in extra credit on the project, you can get “Up to 10 points for publishing some aspect of your project in FCS Just the Facts or the Phoenix Inquirer (the middle school newspaper)”. If you would like to add an aspect of your project to the newspaper for 10 points (almost 2 pages worth of points) Please email me at kbrady@friendscentral.org. Some things that might be a good idea to add could be a video on how to conduct a water quality test, Some nice photos that you took at the stream site, one or more of the environmental problem paragraphs, or a special project. Please notify me (Kyle Brady) by…


Planet X Discovery

  Some of you may know about the elusive Planet X or Planet 9. Scientists have been looking for this Planet X for years now, and this discovery may lead to a new path to Planet X. Planet X is a planet that NASA has said may exist, it is 10 times the mass of the earth. While looking for this planet scientists have found many small objects but this one is extreme.   2015 TG387,  a.k.a. The Goblin, is a dwarf planet approximately 186.4 miles across, about 2.5 the distance to the sun of Pluto, which is affected by Planet X. The Goblin was discovered in October 2015, but to confirm its existence it took scientists three years. For Goblin to go around the sun one time it takes about 40,000 Earth years. For Planet X, there are five main things that prove the existence of this massive planet….


How An Eclipse Works

For the first time since 1979, there was a solar eclipse of the sun that covered the entire contiguous US. Every single year there are two eclipses either of the sun or the moon. “But Adele, if there are two eclipses every year then why can’t I see one every single year here in the US?” Well my reader, that is exactly why this article is here. This article will cover why we can’t see an eclipse every year, why eclipses occur, and exactly where and when you can view the next total solar eclipse of the sun. So grab your solar protective sunglasses and moon pies and get ready to hear some info on our favorite star, the sun. Photo taken by Jeff Goldader Why eclipses occur Eclipses occur when the sun and the moon align at a particular time of year when the moon is in the new…


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