Saving Rice

Thirteen years ago, David Mackill discovered Sub1, the gene that made a type of Indian rice water-resistant. Recently in Davis, California, he and his team successfully introduced the gene to other types of rice. Farmers found the "new" rice to be both high-yielding and good-tasting. These scientists were trying to find a way to make rice, which die after being flooded for just three days, more water-resistant. This is because floods end up destroying 4 million tons of rice every year. By making the rice more water-resistant, more rice will survive and less people will face food shortages. I think that this is very cool. But I also think that water does not result for all of the crop losses, and many other things, such as bugs and droughts, also contribute to crop loss and people should work on preventing that too.

Source:http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/01/29/waterproof.rice/index.html

Obama's Inauguration

On January 20th, President Barrack Obama (then Senator Obama) was sworn into office as the 44th President of the United States. He is the first ever African American President. 1.5 million people from all over the country watched from the National Mall, and from televisions all over the globe.

The first article described what Obama did on January 20th, such as giving his speech, signing his first documents, and watching the inauguration parade. The article also mentioned several quotes that Obama made during his speech, a quote from Oprah Winfrey, as well as quotes made by several foreign leaders such as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd who said that Obama was "the hope of our time". The article seems to show a very positive attitude on Obama's Inauguration, showing how happy people were to see a new, promising leader in office.

The second article also gave quotes from Obama's speech, but also mentioned the conditions that Obama has run into. His ratings are very high, and the agreement that billions of dollars would be spent in an attempt to save the economy have given him many assets to complete the goals he has planned for his presidency. He has also inherited the badly damaged economy that he must now fix. It states that, " [Obama's] solution to today's recession and financial-market dysfunction lies precisely in having the government open its checkbook to provide stimulus measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars.The underlying fear, though, is that government now will swing too far, becoming not the solution Mr. Obama wants it to be, but the problem that Mr. Reagan warned it could be." His solution to the crisis could make it better, or in many ways could make it much worse by increasing our country's debt.

I believe that it is great that the United States has finally gotten an African American President. I think that his plans will definitely help our country get back up on its feet and even beyond what it was before this economic crisis. In conclusion, I think that Barrack Obama is exactly what our country needs to become great again.

Sources:
First article:http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/obama.inauguration/index.html
Second article:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123249771780200427.html

Super Fast Healing?

Recently a team of researchers from the Imperial College London discovered a way to release a lot of certain stem cells which could help heal injuries faster. They were trying to release endothelial progenitor cells into the body of a rat by injecting proteins but ended up also releasing mesenchymal stem cells, which help endothelial progenitor cells repair tissue. I think that this is a great step forward and could really help people recover faster from injuries. However, I also believe that they should test this very carefully before testing it on humans because so far it has only been tested on rats. All in all, I believe that this is a very important discovery.

Hyperlink:http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/01/09/imperial.stem.cells/index.html

Nanodiamonds:How they could prove that comets made dozens of mammal species of species extinct

Eight scientists from several different universities published a finding on Friday about diamonds and how they could show that comets led to the extinction of dozens of different species of mammals on the Earth about thirteen thousand years ago. The scientists looked at layers of sediment that dated about twelve thousand nine hundred years ago at six North American locations. Each time they founded a rich amount of nanodiamonds that are produced under high-temperature and high-pressure conditions that can be created by comets colliding with the Earth. I think that this is a very important discovery and that it could explain many things. I also believe the subject should be studied more to see if there are any other possible causes for the extinction of dozens of mammals species on Earth.

Source:http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/01/02/comet.diamonds/index.html