Human Bodies exhibition in Barcelona

Open from the 18/4/2014 To 12/10/2014

“Human Bodies” is an exhibition which will take you on a fascinating journey through the inside of the human body, where 12 complete bodies and over 150 individual organs will show us how our bodies perform as it has never been presented before.

“Human Bodies” aims not only to show us what our organism is like and how it works, but also to make us reflect on the experience of life by discovering what is hidden under the skin. Through individual sound equipment, you will be guided through the exhibition with voice, music and sound effects, in a passionate journey to explore the inside of the human body, showing us how to care for ourselves and avoid disease.

If you are anyway interested in studying biology, this is a great place to start. It will give you a sense of yourself!

Place: "Las Arenas" Pl. de Espanya, s/n.

Web site: www.humanbodies.eu

Opening time: Daily from 10am to 9pm (last entry 8pm)

Bojos per les Partícules

Els dies 29 i 31 de maig al CCCB dins del programa DOCSBARCELONA  i el 5 de juny als Cinemes Aribau Club de Barcelona es presenta el documental "Bojos per les Partí­cules", un documental on s'explica  el LHC, l'accelerador de partícules que ha detectat la partícula de Gibbs, la màquina més gran creada per l'home, i com són les persones que hi treballen en aquest projecte.  

En aquests enllaços podeu trobar informació més detallada

• Bojos per les Partícules a el Documental del Mes

Global Forest Watch

We probably all know that world’s forests are under a serious threat. And most of us probably intuit that something should be done about it. But do we know why, when or where this is happening? Do we even know who exactly is responsible for all of this? Did any of you know that the world lost 500 million acres of forest between 2000 and 2012?

Sometimes, we don’t know the answers to these questions not because we aren’t interested, but because we lack a reliable source. However, this has now changed with the creation of Global Forest Watch, a mapping application that monitors forests around the world on a monthly basis. The information provided by it is current and trustworthy. It’s got an extraordinary amount of data, including protected areas, logging, mining, deforestation, oil palm, intact forest landscapes, biodiversity hotspots and a lot more.

Another feature of the website is the option to view data for a specific selected area (icon on the left), which can be extremely useful if you are doing an environmental study on the place, for example. What’s more, you can even set up alerts to receive an email when there are signs of deforestation in a specific region.

All in all, this is a great website, full of fascinating information and that is worth visiting. I hope that all of you who decide to give it a look enjoy it!   

Check it out here!!!

This article was written for the blog by Adriana Cavanaugh from 3rd ESO. 

Watch out for this name in the world of Science!

Family Day 2014 in the Science labs

To Oak House School family day 2014!!!

Have you been to the Science labs yet?

Look at the Torre and look right and there we are! Come and see us!

In Drosophila, on the right, we have work that has been presented by our 1st and 2nd ESO students, both in their Science classes and their enrichment afternoons. Also lots of cool experiments for you to try, even the Van der Graaf (shocking!)

In Gaudí, in the middle, we have robots, models, bridges and bizarre applications of physics. This is work presented by 2nd ESO and 4th ESO technology and 4th ESO Physics students.

On the right we have Marie Curie. Outside, where it's hopefully shady, you will find the poster presentations for the first ever Oak House School Science Fair. Have a look, decide the winner and learn some cool Science. Inside you will discover lots of things to interact with and to learn from. Also there will be demonstration experiments every half an hour as follows:

Time	Demonstration
10:30	Exploding bubbles
11:00	Electrostatics
12:00	Burning Money
12:30	Flour bomb
13:00	Volcano

Come and see us, have a chat and see some Science!!

Have the Americans finally realised what they are doing?

I happened across this link and when I opened it I first thought

as a teacher: "This will be great for my Environmental Management class and next year's IB ESS".
then as a person: "Wow, the Americans do know what they are doing after all and still doing nothing about it!"
then as a Dad: "Boy, what sort of a mess have we left for my kids to deal with?"

This website is very slick and represents the evidence for global warming and climate change very well. I challenge any climate sceptic to read this and not be swayed. But reading it leaves me with a sense of despair, what can we do to change this?

I listen to lots of different podcasts on this issue. Some are saying we can do nothing while others are saying we must leave all of our fossil fuels in the ground unburned and write off their value (that'll be a fun debate!). Whatever the solution we have a mammoth task ahead of us!!

Is El Niño coming back?

Idly looking at things on my phone I happened across this image...

so what does it show you? Well you would think that red represents hot water and the blue cold and in a way you are right. What this imaging satellite is able to do is measure the height of the water. Why is it higher you ask? Well because it is hot and has expanded. So yes, red does mean hot (or warmer than it should be at least).
So why is this a problem? Well the warm water shouldn't be going East across the Pacific (that's left for non-compass readers) but West. That warm water will bring rain and flooding to normally desert area and take the rain from places that expect it leaving drought. The warm water will also sit on top of the cold ocean up well off the coast of Peru thus starving the Plankton of vital nutrients and dissolved gases. So that's bye bye plankton, bye bye fishies who eat plankton and by bye fishing industry that supports about 15% of Peru's economy.
But this happens every so often and the Peruvians are used to it so why did this image have such an effect? Well, the image on the left shows the start of the 97-98 El Niño event that changed the phenomenon from a local pain into a global buzz word for changing climate. (I even remember the effects of it in Ireland!) And the image on the right is this year......doesn't it look kinda worse?
Now maybe it won't develop into anything, or maybe it will. What could be making it worse/hotter? I'll let you answer that one!
Watch this space!!

For more on this article go here. Follow these guys, they release some cool stuff!

I SIMPOSIUM DE BIOLOGIA A OAKHOUSE The videos

As you know, (if you have been reading this blog), our dedicated Biology students in second Bachillerato held the first ever Biology symposium here in Oak House School. The purpose of this symposium was to give the students a taste of Scientific academia outside of the confines of the school. To see how the other (scientific) half lived.

We were very lucky to have with us, three esteemed members of the Scientific community talking about three distinctly different things. These talks were videod (thanks Dani) and are now available at these links.

Juli Busquets MD, Transplant surgeon, Bellvitge University Hospital,

Michela Candotti Computational Biology, Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB)

Samuel Ojosnegros, PhD Bioimaging, Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG)

The students also created their own website which will give you more information about the symposium and a bio of the speakers. You can access that here.

Let's see what next year's crop of second Bach students can do!!!
By the way if you look closely you'll see me appear too!
Enjoy!

Notícies i curiositats

Aquesta setmana m'han cridat l'atenció tres notícies:

• s'ha fet un vídeo amb la simulació cosmològica de l'Univers més acurada fins ara,

• Ha caigut la novena gota a l'experiment més llarg del món, i aquest cop sí que l'han gravat, 

• s'ha donat un pas més en l'estudi de la vida artificial en crear dues noves lletres de l'alfabet en el que s'escriuen els gens.

Exporecerca Jove

Una vegada més deixeu-me compartir amb tots vosaltres el goig que em produeix veure com els nostres alumnes participen d’activitats pròpies de la comunitat científica.

El Pepe Amich ha presentat aquest any un treball sobre proteïnes a la XV edició de l’ Exporecerca jove , treball que ha portat a terme amb la col·laboració dels científics: Jonathan Lowery, Alex Andonian i Vicki Rosen del Department of Developmental Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge MA.

La Carla, l’Ariadna, la Júlia, el Gonzalo, la Maria i el Mauro (alumnes de la classe de biologia de 2n de Batxillerat ) ben cofois  van assistir a la primera jornada  per demostrar el seu suport i  gaudir dels estands dels altres participants.

Espero que la promoció d’aquest curs acadèmic  hagi posat la primera pedra de tot un seguit que ens aportaran les properes generacions.

COMITÉ DE BIOÈTICA

Els alumnes de Ciències pel món contemporani  (1r Batxillerat ) han estat analitzant una sèrie de problemàtiques bioètiques a partir de simular el procediment que se segueix quan es presenta la necessitat de consultar un comitè ètic.

Els casos que s’han treballat han generat molta polèmica i els representants del diferents àmbits no ho han tingut fàcil per arribar a un acord.

Com posar-nos d’acord en temes tan complexos?

EUTANÀSIA:  Tenim dret a acabar amb la nostra vida i anar en contra de l´ instint més bàsic de supervivència?

DRET A NEGAR-SE A SOTMETRE´ S A UNA INTERVENCIÓ QUIRÚRGICA , TRACTAMENTS , VACUNES... : Només quan ens afecti com a  individus  i no quan la decisió pugui afectar a la resta de persones ? Podem decidir pels nostres fills?

MARES DE LLOGUER: Per què en alguns països és legal recórrer a una mare de lloguer i en d’altres no?

CANVI DE SEXE: Podem triar el nostre gènere ? Què ha de determinar el  nostre gènere? Aquest tipus d’intervencions han d’estar cobertes per la seguretat social?

EUGENÈSIA: Com es pot justificar?

TIRANIA DE LA SALUT: Les llars per la tercera edat són comparables als centres penitenciaris en alguns aspectes? Són la millor solució al nostre model social?

BEBÈS A LA CARTA: Té sentit terapèutic?  Podríem acabar sent tots rossos i amb ulls blaus?

PATENTS BIOLÒGIQUES: Es pot patentar un gen ? No hauria de ser patrimoni de la humanitat?

VENDA D’ORGUES: És lícita ? Què provocaria la legalització d’una activitat lucrativa   tan conflictiva?

TRANSGÈNICS: Genera perills reals la manipulació genètica? Estem disposats  a no utilitzar la tecnologia que ja tenim? Posarem límits raonables?

CLONACIÓ HUMANA: Tema tabú?

Si us sentiu atrets per aquest temes us recomanem algunes pel·lícules prou interessants per iniciar activitats de debat.

We may have been eating Horse meat for years!!!

L’Alba Southern, alumna de 1r de batxillerat ciències , aquest curs inicia el seu Treball de Recerca i atreta per algunes notícies que parlen de com la indústria alimentària no sempre juga net , ha decidit centrar la recerca en una cadena de  restaurants de menjar ràpid de molt èxit entre la gent jove per tal de comprovar si utilitza carn de vedella per fer les seves hamburgueses.Us preguntareu com podrà aconseguir aquest objectiu . Gràcies a la col·laboració existent entre el nostre centre i el Centre de Regulació Genòmica , aquest estiu podrà portar a terme la part experimental del seu treball als seus laboratoris .L’Alba està impacient per començar el treball de camp. La recollida de mostres serà la primera etapa.Es mostraran participatius o contràriament posaran dificultats a l ´ hora de fer aquest estudi ?Esperem  tenir els resultats després de l’estiu .