Lan Mozetic
Jan 25,2016
Patric Youell
After reading many of the stories
about the different science related breakthroughs in 2015 i have chosen the
following three as the most important ones.
Ebola
Ebola was
and still is a greatly talked about problem. Most people know that it is very
contagious. The Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River
in Congo. The greatest outbreak of Ebola started in Guinea in December
2013.Ebola is a virus with several strains and it can cause the disease Ebola hemorrhagic fever. People that are infected with the
Ebola virus get their immune system destroyed and eventually start bleeding
internally and externally .Depending on the outbreak from 50 - 90% of the
infected die from (EBV)
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Picture
1:This is what Ebola looks like in the body. This (thing) attacks your
organism
and causes internal and external bleeding.
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Pharmaceutical
companies raced to make the Ebola vaccine and finally in 2015 two vaccines were
put into trial and gave very good results. One vaccine has a live replicating
(can duplicate) virus and this will make the immune system fight back. The
other vaccine is made of a virus that can't replicate. One trial was done in
Guinea and the other trial had US and West African participants. The Guinea
trial used the ring strategy which means that one patient gets the disease
his/her closest contacts are vaccinated. This should stop the disease from
spreading. Mari-Paule Kieny who is an assistant director general at the (WHO)
said "it
is certainly promising. We have seen that where rings have been vaccinated, the
transmission has stopped." The World Health Organization
believes that the vaccine will be effective between 75%-100%. Since the
vaccines showed no side effects they are going to be given to children.
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Picture 2: After 48 years of the
Ebola virus the pharmaceutical companies
finally
made a vaccine against Ebola!!
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I think
that it is not fair!! I think that it is not fair that so many people had to
die in order to get the vaccine to the people that needed it. The first
outbreak of Ebola was in 1976 that was 48 years ago. I wonder what would have
happened if the Ebola outbreak happened in Europe? Would the pharmaceutical
companies have taken so long to make a vaccine that would save lives? It is
good for Western Africa to become a stable region for people to travel and
invest money into Africa. Africa needs it.
Water on Mars
We have all heard that
someday we will find a way to locate a plant that will be suitable for our
needs. Back in sometime during September 2015 NASA announced that they have
something big up their space sleeve. NASA (National
Aeronautics and Space Administration) they have announced that they have found sighs of water on Mars.
And no i don't mean the chocolate mars bar with a cup over it but the red
planet.
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Picture
3: Not what i mean when i say water on mars
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There have been
indications that there has (a long time ago) been water on it and oceans and
lakes may have been a big part of the planet. NASA is planning to send a drone
to Mars that wouldn't look for extraterrestrial life but that the drone would
pick up stones, sand and other sorts of minerals that would show that there has
been water on the red planet. Big deposits of water are found in the ice capes
of Mars. Frozen water lies beneath the surface of a part of mars. There is also
liquid water that flows down steep slopes. Scientists have confirmed that these
are sciences of salty water running down the surface of the planet.
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Picture
4:The different pictures show that water has been on the plan
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"The detection of
hydrated salts on these slopes means that water played a vital role in the
formation of theses streaks" Said lead author, Lujendra Ojha.
Finding water on Mars I
a game changer. Now we are a step closer to making it our second planet that
humans have lived on. But there is a problem! We as in humans have spent
billions upon billions of dollars on the trips to the moon and sending a drone
to Mars, Pluto, etc... But why are we trying to find a way to get to another
planet and not trying to save this one. Let’s fast forward a couple thousand
years right! We have made our way to Mars and concurred it. What are we going
to do to our sweet mother earth? Are we going to leave it destroyed or will we
still care? The only thing that is going to happen if we come to Mars is the
same thing that happens on Earth. We are going to destroy Mars as well. We are
going to live there and then destroy it in a matter of millions of years. Why
do we have to move to another planet when we can just stay and fix Earth!
Why is the water on Mars
so important to us? Is there a shortage of water on earth that we have to find
another? 75% of the earth is water! 3% is drinkable. Why can't we spend more
money on making more water plants that will turn salty water into drinkable water.
Let’s go back to Mars. We hope to find life on Mars. What are we going to do?
We hope to find primitive life forms on Mars. This is all fine if it make
solutions for earths problems. That's what science is about- to explore and
discover. That's how we came to be.
Fireman gets a new
shot at life
One of the most exiting
stories in medical science was the complete human face transplant. This
unbelievable face transplant is surely one of the most amazing stories in 2015
that I have read. A 41 year old firefighter Patric Hardison from Mississippi
who was a volunteer got horrifying burns in 2001 during a rescue mission. The
firefighter got heavy burns across his face, head, neck and upper part of the
body. He didn't eye leads, ears, lips, eyebrows and lost almost his entire nose.
He had 70 separate operations to try and restore some of his skin. Patric was
finally sent to Dr.Rodriguez, who had experience in facial reconstruction surgery.
It took a team of 100 doctors, nurses and technical staff to make this
successful face transplant. The operation lasted about 26 hours after which
Patric revived a new scalp, parts of bone in the chin and cheeks, ears and ear
canals and a new nose. Patric also got new eyelids and muscles that
control them. " His surgery set new standers in facial
transplantation and will serve as an amazing learning tool.", said
Dr.Rodrigez.Dr. Rodrigez is well known in this section of medical help several
mounts have passed and Patric is doing really well he is receiving
anti-rejection medication and doing rehab to recover his speech and strength
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Picture
5:Before accident/after accident/new face
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I think that it is good
that this man got a new shot at life. He lost his face trying to save someone
and i think that that is very heroic. He lost all fecal fitters and didn't look
like a human. He then got a face of a man that died in a cycling accident that
his body was reserved for donation of body parts. This man (that died in a
cycling accident) also gave away his heart, liver and kidney. He gave his face
to a good cause.
Work sited
Pictures:
picture 5:http://www.techinsider.io/firefighter-first-successful-face-transplant-in-new-york-2015-11
The stories were interesting and well selected. I wish that some words were explained as some might not understand the scientific/technical words/language used in the text, like EBV and also, there were some misspelled words like meany.
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