Thursday, February 17, 2011

The History of the Telephone

The History of the Telephone
By: Gus Joseph

I. Intro

The invention of the telephone has no doubt revolutionized the way people communicate nowadays. With the push of a button, you can communicate with somebody on the complete other side of the world. The man credited with the invention of the telephone was Alexander Graham Bell, who patented the machine on February 14th, 1876. The telephone is one of the most used inventions every day, along with the car and the computer.

II. Invention

The telephone has come a long way from its first model made in 1876. A telephone is a device that converts sounds into electrical pulses and frequencies and then transmits them to another device, which then “translates” the pulses back into distinguishable sounds. A man named Michael Faraday thought of the idea that vibrations of metal could be converted into electrical pulses, which served as the foundation on which the telephone was made. The first working telephones were invented by two men, Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray, who worked completely independent from each other and just happened to create the same invention in almost the exact same time period. In fact, both men patented the telephone on the EXACT SAME DAY, and Graham Bell’s patent was filed a mere 2 hours before Gray’s.

The First Telephone

Because of this, Graham Bell was credited for the invention. The first audible sentence that was sent over a telephone was Graham Bell calling his assistant in another room. He said “Come here, Watson, I want to see you”, and the first telephone call was made. The first phone had a stationary speaker, where you would talk, and a receiver, which was detachable and you would hold up to your ear to listen. Since then, the telephone has gotten some major upgrades, and have definitely evolved a lot over the years.









III. Biography of Inventor

Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 3rd, 1847. He had 2 brothers, one older and one younger. He was very intelligent as a child and built a wheat de-husking machine when he was only 12 years old. As he grew up he began to experiment with sound and speech, and was even able to manipulate his dog’s vocal cords and mouth to make it sound like he was speaking. He eventually became a professor of Vocal Physiology at Boston University, but then soon gave it up to focus his works on experiments and tests with sound. He also began to study vibrations of sound waves and experimented with a phonautograph, a machine that drew shapes to match sound waves. He also designed prototype telephones that could transmit and convert sounds, but none of which was audible. But soon, that all changed on March 10th, 1876, when the first audible telephone call was made, and Graham Bell’s hard work paid off. On that day, he invented the cornerstone of modern communication. Then in 1878, he created the Bell Telephone Company, which then went on to become The American Telephone and Telegraph company, or more commonly known in the world today, AT&T. AT&T is still one of the leading phone providers in the world today.

IV. Impact on the World

The impact of the telephone in modern society is one of the biggest in history. Being able to dial a phone number and almost instantaneously be connected with that person is still one of the most impressive technologies today. Now, telephones have been upgraded immensely, and are now really more like small computers than telephones. The upgrades the telephone has undergone have been huge, but without Graham Bell’s invention, none of this would’ve been possible. Almost every person on the earth has a phone and is now something that nobody can live without.

V. Journal Article Review

The Association Between Cellular Telephone Calls and Motor Vehicle Collisions

The journal article I decided to review was one about the association between using a cell phone while driving and getting in collisions. The people doing the test gathered up the billing records of 699 people who had been involved in car crashes and compared the time of collision to the time their cell phone was being used. For 231 of these people, the time of collision matched exactly to the time their phone was being used. This test proves that texting while driving increases the risk of a car accident greatly, especially when holding the phone in your hand. People using hands-free headsets had a much lower percentage of collisions, but were still more dangerous than not talking on the phone at all. Unfortunately, this study didn’t study the correlation between texting while driving and car crashes, because this study was taken in 1996, much before texting became popular. Because of this study, we can definitely associate talking on the phone while driving and getting into car crashes.


Bibliography

Journal Article

http://www.chescrosbie.com/library/Association%20between%20Cellular-Telephone%20Calls%20and%20Motor%20Vehicle%20Collisons.pdf

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/telephone.htm

http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ba-Be/Bell-Alexander-Graham.html

Insulin by Morgan Levy

free glitter text and family website at FamilyLobby.com
Glitter Words
[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]
Insulin is a hormone that regulates the carbohydrate and fat in the body. It is produced in the pancreas, which is an organ that sits behind the stomach. Without insulin, you can actually eat a lot of food and be in a state of starvation. This is because your cells cannot access the calories contained in the glucose without insulin. This is the problem that people with diabetes have. People with diabetes now receive some outside source of insulin, but it wasn’t always that way. Insulin wasn’t discovered until the 1920’s.
Glitter Words
[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]
Insulin was discovered by Dr. Fredrick Banting when he hoped to make an antidiabetic extract. Banting began to perform experiments. He worked with medical student, Charles Best. Their first experiment consisted of tying a string around the pancreas of a dog. This caused the pancreas’ digestive cells to deteriorate and be absorbed into the immune system. What was left behind was thousands of islets. Banting and best then isolated the extracts from the islets and produced isletin. What they called isletin became known as insulin. They then began testing isletin on dogs with diabetes. The dogs became stronger and healthier. After many weeks of being injected with the isletin, the dogs actually began to appear free of symptoms of diabetes. Banting and Best then began to experiment on the pancreas of a cow. In 1921 Bertram Collip joined the team and tried to purify the isletin and find a correct dosage in order for it to be used on humans. In January 1922 in Toronto, Canada, Leonard Thompson, a 14-year-old boy with diabetes who was dying in Toranto Hospital, was chosen as the first person to receive insulin. Leonard quickly regained strength and appetite.

Glitter Words
[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]
Fredrick Banting was born on November 14, 1891 in Ontario, Canada. He went to the University of Toronto, where he received his Medical Bachelor degree. He then worked in the Canadian Army Medical Corps during World War I in France. In 1919 he returned to Canada where he began working with medical student, Charles Best. After the first successful injection of insulin in 1922, he received the Nobel Prize of medicine. Banting Worked again in World War II and was killed In February 1941, in an air disaster in Newfoundland.

Glitter Words
[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]
Banting’s achievements are world-renowned because he saved so many lives. The discovery of insulin provided a treatment for all patients with diabetes. Before insulin, diabetes patients lived at most 1-2 years before dying. Now, people with diabetes can live a pretty normal life, as long as they can get insulin.

Glitter Words
[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]
Insulin resistance, characterized by reduced responsiveness to normal circulating concentrations of insulin, is common in most patients with type 2 diabetes. If you have insulin resistance, your body doesn’t respond to insulin, and therefore does not receive blood sugar The resistance of two types of insulin known as peripheral and hepatic insulin suggests that enhanced insulin might be an effective approach to diabetes. New classes of drugs, called Thiazolidinediones are designed to enhance the actions of insulin. This reduces the chance of insulin resistance. After many tests, these drugs have demonstrated an effective new treatment. Although he mechanics of the drug are unknown; it is known that transcriptional changes in the cells produce this enhanced insulin.
http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/45/12/1661.abstract


Glitter Words
[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]
http://nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/insulin/discovery-insulin.html
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/diabetes/discoveryofinsulin.php
http://www.endocrineweb.com/conditions/diabetes/diabetes-what-insulin
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/histday/insulin/impact.html http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1923/banting-bio.html

Invention/Creation of American Sign Language:


Introduction:


Deaf people have always existed but they have not always had means of communication. Dr. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet travelled to France and investigated French Sign Language in 1755 and brought it back to America and combined the signs that Americans were already used in America to create a formal American Sign Language.


Invention/Creation:


1700’s: Charles-Michel de l’Epee: Published the manual alphabet

1755: Abbe de l’Epee: Founded the first deaf school in Paris.

1817: Clerc (Abbe graduate) and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet: Founded the American School for the Deaf (Connecticut)

1856: Edward Miner Gallaudet: Founded the school for Deaf in Washington DC.

1864: Gallaudet University: The only University for deaf people in the world that is liberal arts



Biography: Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet!




Thomas was born in Pennsylvania. He has a bachelors degree from Yale (1805). He graduated at age 17.He then got his masters from Yale also (1808). He was a preacher but was planning on becoming a minister but then he met Alice Cogswell a deaf 9 year old. Thomas managed to communicate with her using a stick and scrapping things in the dirt. Then Dr. Cogswell (the girls father) asked Thomas to join him to Europe to study methods of teaching the deaf. He learned Manual Communication from Laurent Clerc and Jean Massieu and brought that back to America with him. Thomas's father was George Washington's personal secretary when the office of the president was in Philadelphia. Thomas's Son Edward Miner founded Gallaudet University in Washington DC.


Impact on the World/Humanity:


Not every deaf person knows sign language. But sign language has impacted the deaf culture and the hearing culture so much that when we now say "that person is deaf" we assume that they know sign language. Sign Language gave deaf people the ability to communicate.


Journal Article:




My journal Article was on the possibility of deafness being inherited. It explained that there is a gene that regulates the production of proteins in the fetus to form channels between adjacent cells. The mutations that occur in the Cochlea will most likely result in deafness.


VIDEO ON THE ABC'S



Work Sited:


Butterworth, R. R., & Flodin, M. (n.d.). American Sign Language History. University of Illinois at Chicago - UIC. Retrieved February 17, 2011, from http://www2.uic.edu/stud_orgs/cultures/daa/ASLHistory.html

Hearing loss - MayoClinic.com. (n.d.). Mayo Clinic. Retrieved February 14, 2011, from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hearing-loss/DS00172

History of American Sign Language . (n.d.). Start American Sign Language (ASL) . Retrieved February 16, 2011, from http://www.start-american-sign-language.com/history-of-american-sign-language.html

The Ideology of Normalcy: The Ethics of Difference by Tom Koch. (n.d.). Questia School - The Online Library for Students and Educators. Retrieved February 11, 2011, from http://www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5011971465

Smartwater by Elizabeth Feins

I. Intro

There are over 100 brands of bottled water in the world. Some come from springs, others are fortified with vitamins, and a few add artificial ingredients for modest flavoring. Smartwater, however, insists its liquid is the healthiest bottled water to date. Created by Glacéau, Smartwater is vapor distilled and supplemented with electrolytes. This ensures a healthier drinking experience, as well as faster hydration.

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II. Background and Discovery

Fig 1: The Water Cycle

Invented in 1999, Smartwater is created by mimicking the earth’s water cycle (Fig 1). During this cycle, water droplets from oceans, rivers, and lakes evaporate into a gas and rise into the sky, leaving behind salt, dirt, and everything else that made it unfit to drink. The water vapor then condenses, forming clouds, and rains back down to earth. However, as it falls to the ground, it must pass through various pollutants emitted by cars, trains, airplanes, factories, etc. By the time it actually lands, a drop of water contains an enormous amount of pollution. 97% of the water found on earth is salty; 2% is trapped in glaciers and icecaps. Only 1% of all the water on earth is fresh, and every drop of it became contaminated when it fell to earth. Smartwater eliminates this contamination by vapor distillation, a method of purification that imitates the water cycle without adding the pollution.

In addition to purifying the water, Smartwater is also enhanced with electrolytes—liquid substances that, among other things, aid various bodily processes. Common electrolytes in the human body include sodium, potassium, magnesium, chloride, and calcium. A major function of the electrolyte is maintaining the balance of fluids in the body. When you sweat, you lose electrolytes; this causes fluid levels to become unbalanced and potentially leads to dehydration. By adding electrolytes, Smartwater reduces the risk of dehydration.

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III. Biography of Investigator

J. Darius Bikoff, creator of Smartwater

J. Darius Bikoff grew up surrounded by beverages; his father owned a business that sold aluminum to soda companies to make cans for their drinks. Bikoff began working for the company when he was eleven, answering phones and doing various jobs, but by the time he was in college he was contacting European businessmen overseas to negotiate products. Immediately after graduating from college, Bikoff took over the company altogether. Under his instruction, the business soared, making over $300 million per year.

In 1993, a possible contamination of tap-water was reported in Bikoff’s neighborhood in New York City. To avoid the health risk, Bikoff decided to buy a large stockpile of bottled water. The caps on the bottles irritated him greatly. Bikoff was an avid cyclist, and it was difficult to unscrew the cap while riding a bike. In 1994, he invented the push-pull cap that made it easier to take a drink while exercising. The cap became extremely popular, and many other bottled water companies adopted the design.

The exercise enthusiasm also led Bikoff to create Smartwater. He knew that excessive exercise caused dehydration, but he was also aware that drinking too much mineral water could be dangerous—the minerals found in water are non-organic, and therefore a burden to the body. So Bikoff created water that did include organic substances: electrolytes that replaced the ones lost through exercise.

In addition to Smartwater, J. Darius Bikoff invented Vitaminwater and Fruit-Infused Water, which followed the same principle as Smartwater: H2O infused with organic, healthy substances.

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IV. Impact on Humanity

Action for Healthy Kids

Smartwater is one of the most popular brands of water in existence. The eye-catching labels explain the exact method by which Smartwater is purified, educating consumers about health and exercise. People swear they can taste the difference between Smartwater and other brands of bottled water; one woman tried watering her plant with it, and found that it made the flower bloom for the first time in five years. In addition to creating a healthier world, Smartwater donates a percentage of each sale to “Action for Healthy Kids,” a program that will adjust school environments to help kids exercise more and eat and drink well.

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V. Journal Article Review: Microbiological Safety of Natural Mineral Water

The article analyzes the composition of natural mineral water and explains different health hazards that can result from drinking too much of the substance. A distinct quality of natural mineral water is that it is, in fact, natural: it cannot be exposed to any type of decontamination that alters its biological components. If any minerals are extracted from the water, it is no longer truly natural. Certain laws require drinking water to undergo sanitation to remove pollutants. Minerals, however, are not considered pollutants because they are found in unpolluted groundwater, and are therefore allowed to stay.

While the minerals are natural, they aren’t necessarily good for human health. They’re made of metal and take a lot of effort to expunge from the body. They build up in the kidneys, and if too much mineral water enters the body in a short time, kidney failure can result. Mineral water may appear to be healthy, but there are much safer drinking options.

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Works Cited

"Glaceau Smartwater." Bottled Water Store Offers Unique Bottled Water,bottled Water News and Information,private and Custom Label Bottled Water. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. http://www.bottledwaterstore.com/smartwater.htm

"Is Mineral Water Harmful? - by Skien - Helium." Helium - Where Knowledge Rules. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. http://www.helium.com/items/51503-is-mineral-water-harmful.

"J. Darius Bikoff Biography - Life, Family, Childhood, Children, Name, School, Young, Son - Newsmakers Cumulation." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2007-A-Co/Bikoff-J-Darius.html.

"Keeping Your Electrolytes in Balance." Exercise - Get Weight Loss Advice, Cardio and Strength Training Workouts, Information on How to Get Started and More. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. http://exercise.about.com/b/2010/08/13/keeping-your-electrolytes-in-balance.htm.

Kondolojy,, Amanda. "Definition of Vapor Distilled Water EHow.com." EHow How To Do Just About Everything! How To Videos & Articles. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. http://www.ehow.com/about_5128247_definition-vapor-distilled-water.html.

Leclerc, H. and Moreau, A. (2002), Microbiological safety of natural mineral water. FEMS Microbiology Reviews, 26: 207–222. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6976.2002.tb00611.x

McGuigan, Brendan. "What Is an Electrolyte?" WiseGEEK: Clear Answers for Common Questions. Ed. Niki Foster. 15 Feb. 2011. Web. 16 Feb. 2011. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-electrolyte.htm.

"The Water Cycle." MBGnet. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. http://www.mbgnet.net/fresh/cycle/index.htm.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Discovery of Ice on Mars by Kelly Riebesell

Introduction:
     Using instruments on NASA's 2001 Odyssey Spacecraft, scientist found enormous amounts of ice just under the surface of Mars, on May 28, 2002, and again on September 25, 2009. They first found enough water ice that could fill Lake Michigan, twice over.  "It must be ice," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it's ice. There had been some question whether the bright material was salt. Salt can't do that." Scientists were very excited to discovery that there is actually ice on mars.
Discovery:
           The Phoenix Mars Lander was only digging a trench in the soil when it came across dice-sized chunks of bright material.  The pieces later vanished, meaning they had to have been frozen water, that when exposed they melted.

           The ice found on Mars was only a few meters below the rubble on, but could run up to a kilometer thick.  Based on the features of the local impact craters, which are used to date the landscapes on Mars,  it is suspected that the ice sheets existed tens to hundreds of millions of years ago.  Although that may seem like a long time ago, compared to the billions of years that have passed since mars might have been capable of supporting liquid water, it's nothing.  This shows that Mars can have very long-term climate changes, because of the gradual wobble in the tilt of the planet's axis.  The wobble creates periods when Mars poles dip very low, allowing the sun to shine more on the poles in the respective summer time.
        “We knew there was ice below the surface at high latitudes of Mars, but we find that it extends far closer to the equator than you would think, based on Mars’ climate today,” said Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona, a member of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment.  “The other surprising discovery is that ice exposed at the bottom of these meteorite impact craters is so pure,” Byrne said. “The thinking before was that ice accumulates below the surface between soil grains, so there would be a 50-50 mix of dirt and ice. We were able to figure out, given how long it took that ice to fade from view, that the mixture is about one percent dirt and 99 percent ice.”
Biography of Investigator:
            Technically there is no specific person that was the investigator of the ice found on Mars, but the real investigator would be the Phoenix Mars Lander. NASA's invention of the Phoenix plays a very important role in the space exploration, especially in exploring Mars and any possible traces of life on the planet.  The scout class missions are led by a scientist known as the principle investigator, Peter Smith.  He is responsible for the missions the Phoenix undergoes and all the aspects of it.  It is not just Peter Smith alone; there is also a team of people involved in the missions, making sure everything runs smoothly with the Phoenix.  This powerful team is responsible for the Phoenix mission.  Their ultimate plans are to pave the way for future robotic missions, and possibly, human exploration.
Impact on the World/Humanity:

       The discovery of water ice on Mars has a huge impact on predicting possible new discoveries and finding out if there is life on Mars.  As we have found on Earth, wherever there is water and heat, there is life, so this is very encouraging for the search of possible life on Mars.  
        This discovery is also very beneficial for the astronauts that will go on future missions to Mars, because they now know they will have an easy access to water, hydrogen, and oxygen.  Water is very heavy and difficult to transport, but for the scientists who plan to go and establish a base there, they may be able to purify the water just under the surface of Mars to drink.
        Water is the essential ingredient in survival.  Without it, most of the biological processes needed for life will not take place.  With the discovery of water ice just under the surface of Mars, there can now be made theories that Mars had been a much wetter place and it is possible that the water could have been a substantial part of Mar's surface in the past.
        It is very exciting for scientists who spend their life researching Mars to have this discovery.  This tells them that it is very possible life could have evolved on Mars, even more excitingly, human life could still be hidden in tiny pockets beneath the surface of Mars.
Journal Article Review:
         The Phoenix is designed to study the history of water and also to study and search for complex organic molecules in Mar's soil.  Mars is a cold desert planet that has no liquid water on it's surface.  In 2002, large amounts of sub-surface water ice was found in the northern arctic plains.  This is the main region the Phoenix lander targets.  It digs its robotic arm through the surface to dig up both soil and water ice for scientists to then analyze.  The Phoenix explores the habitability of the environment by using chemical experiments.  These assess the soil's composition to see if the is life-giving elements, such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, and hydrogen.
        Mars is very cold and dry with a  thin carbon dioxide layer.  Therefore, the discover of water ice on Mars was a huge discovery! The surface of Mars has no liquid water.  There are no rivers, no lakes, and no oceans.  There is no evidence of water present on the surface currently, but there is building evidence of past presence of water on the surface of Mars.


 


     

      





List of References:
Found it! Ice on Mars | . Retrieved January 29, 2011, from http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2002/28may_marsice/
Ice on Mars an important breakthrough | . Retrieved February 4, 2011, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/3345155/Ice-on-Mars-an-important-breakthrough.html
Launched in August 2007, the Phoenix Mars Mission is the first in NASA's Scout Program. Phoenix is designed to study the history of water and habitability potential in the Martian arctic's ice-rich soil. | . Retrieved February 4, 2011, http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/mission.php
A Martian's view of Mars | . Retrieved February 5, 2011, from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/a-martians-view-of-mars-1036906.html?action=Gallery&ino=3
Phoenix Mars Mission | . Retrieved February 16, 2011, from phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/pdf/fact_sheet.pdf


Monday, February 14, 2011

The Polio Vaccine by John Stiffler

I. Introduction


Poliomyelitis, or Polio, is a disease which has afflicted mankind for centuries. It causes a withering and deformation in the legs,weakening of the spine, and neurological malformation, often occurring among young children and causing the need for a cane or wheelchair. A constant fear for parents, it couldn't be stopped, only slowed. Then, in 1952, Jonas Salk created a vaccine for the virus. After several years of testing, it was released in 1955 and saved the lives of millions of children. This vaccine was one of the most important medical developments of the 20th century, and has become one of the most important vaccines ever created.

II. Creation

While Polio was first diagnosed in 1789, it may have existed for thousands of years before that. At first it only affected small numbers of children or those in more remote parts of the world, but in 1900, several small epidemics broke out in Noth America and Europe. By 1950, the disease had peaked into a pandemic, infecting 58,000 people in the US alone in 1952. During the 1930's and 40's, many doctors and medical professionals attempted to create a cure. Federal funding, supported by Congress, was given to many researches in hopes of finding a cure. In the late 40's, John Enders was able to cultivate the virus in human tissue. This led to the research of Jonas Salk, who began researching in the early 50's. In 1952, he had a breakthrough, and created the Inactivated Poliovirus Vaccine (IPV), which was an injection of dead polio cells. After three years of testing on several large groups of children, he published his results in 1955, and massive vaccination campaigns began. Another man, Albert Sabin, used Salk's to create the Oral Poliovirus Vaccine (OPV), which was made from attenuated (weakened) polio cells, and was easier to administer. As a result, the two vaccines, of which Salk's remained the most prominent, went into wide-scale production.

III. Biography

Jonas Salk was born on October 28, 1914, in New York City, to Russian-Jewish immigrants. Graduating from the City College of New York City in 1934, studying at New York University for his Ph.D., focusing in bacteriology and biochemistry. After residence as a lab assistant at Mount Sinai Hospital, Salk worked at the University of Michigan, devoloping Influenza vaccines. Then, in 1947, Salk began working in the for the University of Pittsburgh as a researcher. As the fight aginst polio became a nationwide, heavily-funded research project, Salk went on board the project and attempted to create his own vaccine using the much safer killed polio cells. Using himself, his wife, and children as willing test subjects, he reached a conclusion in 1952. In 1954, large field tests began on 220,000 volunteers. On April 12, 1955, he published his findings, stating the vaccine was a success. Huge vaccination campaigns followed, immunizing 100 million people in two years. After facing a large controversial battle with Dr. Albert Sabin, who created the OPV, Salk was backed by the Federal government, and his vaccine became the most widely accepted. Going on to further researching cures for cancer and a common cold vaccine, Salk opened the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in 1963. In the 1980's, he began work on finding a cure for AIDS. On June 20, 1995, the 80-year-old Salk died of heart failure. He is honored as the creator one of the greatest medical achievements in history.

IV. Impact on The World

Jonas Salk's polio vaccine was one of the most important medical discoveries of the 20th century, and perhaps in all of history. Before his discovery, tens of thousands were infected in America alone every year. His vaccine was able to save the lives of millions of people, and prevent the disease infecting many people not yet born. His research has allowed for the immunization of hundreds of millions of children around the world. By the 1980's, polio had been 97% eradicated, becoming an extemely rare illness. Today, all children are immunized as infants and again throughoght the first few years of life. In the US and in much of Europe, Latin America, and Eastern Asia, polio has been destroyed. Immunization efforts continue in Africa and the Middle East in hopes that the disease will be completely eradicated. Jonas Salk's contribution to the medical world has save millions and as a result, I've never met or seen anyone with polio. May 6th is Dr. Jonas E. Salk Day.

V. Journal Article

In the journal article titled "50th Anniversary of th Polio Vaccine", the results of the polio vaccine since it was introduced in 1955 are discussed. The author discusses how over the seventeen years that a cure was researched, millions of people came together to support and help each other, volunteering to let themselves be used as test subjects and assisstants. Communities joined together in one national fight against a disease. Since the licensure of the vaccine, the disease has disappeared in America. However, the article goes on to say, the disease is still prevalent in many parts of the world, such as Africa and the Middle East. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative works towards the destruction of the disease. Because of their immunization efforts, the disease has dwindled to 1,200 repoted cases a year worldwide. The article concludes that the reason why polio is gone in the US is because the government completely backed the research for a cure. Other countries aren't as lucky, and because of that, everyone must work together for complete global immunization.

VI. Conclusion

In conclusion, Jonas Salk's research was able to almost completely destroy a disease that had ravaged milllions of lives in under a hundred years. His creation of the IPV was a feat of medical science. With help from the research of many other men and women of his time, he was able to create, test, and release a successful vaccine in only three years. His discovery has saved the lives of hundreds of millions of people throughout the world. His achievement is the reason why many people today have been able to lead successful, happy lives. Because of the Inactivated Polio Vaccine, an extremely harmful disease is almost completely gone.

References

1. 50th Anniversary of the Polio Vaccine. (2005). Journal of Environmental Health, 68.

2. Oshinsky, David M. (2005). Polio: An American Story. Oxford University Press.

3. Seytre, Bernard, Shaffer, Mary. (2005). The Death of a Disease: A History of the Eradicate of Poliomyelitis. Rutgers University Press.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Cell Phones - By Carter Moore

CELL PHONES

BY: CARTER MOORE


I. Introduction-

The cell phone is one of the most widely used pieces of technology in the world. The first telephone was invented in 1876 by Alexander graham bell and it was almost exactly 100 years after until the cell phone was invented by Dr. Martin Cooper in 1973.

II. History-

1843 - A skilled analytical chemist by the name of Michael Faraday began exhaustive research into whether space could conduct electricity. (thehistoryof.net)

1865 - Dr. Mahlon Loomis of Virginia, a dentist, may have been the first person to communicate through wireless through the atmosphere. Between 1866 and 1873 he transmitted messages at a distance of 18 miles between the tops of Coshocton and Beorse Deer Mountains in Virginia. He developed a method of transmitting and receiving messages by using the Earth's atmosphere as a conductor and launching kites enclosed with a copper screens that were linked to the ground with copper wires. (thehistoryof.net)

1973 - Dr Martin Cooper, is considered the inventor of the first portable handset. Dr.
Cooper, former general manager for the systems division at Motorola, and the first person to make a call on a portable cellular phone. (thehistoryof.net)


1973 - Dr. Cooper set up a base station in New York with the first working prototype of a cellular telephone, the Motorola Dyna-Tac. Dr. Cooper and Motorola took the phone technology to New York to show the public. (thehistoryof.net)

1977 - Public cell phone testing began. The city of Chicago was where the first trials began with 2000 customers, and eventually other cell phone trials appeared in the Washington D.C. and Baltimore area. Japan began testing cellular phone service in 1979. (thehistoryof.net)




III. Journal Article-


http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/98/23/1707.short


In this article they say that after much research and the following of many Danish cell phone users over a span of 21 years, these people, all 420,095, that first subscribed to a cellular telephone company between 1982 and 1995 were followed up in 2002 and of all 14,249 cancers that were found none were related to the use of cellular telephones.


IV. Biography-

Martin Cooper was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 26, 1928, and earned his Bachelors and Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Prior to working at Motorola in 1954, he served in the Navy for 4 years, working on destroyers, and on submarines. In the early years at Motorola, he worked on portable products, including hand radios, made for the Chicago Police Department in 1967. Shortly after this project, he began working on Motorola's Cellular Research project, and developed the 3lb prototype from his base in Washington. On April 3, 1973, standing on Sixth Avenue in New York City near the New York Hilton hotel, Cooper made a phone call from a prototype Dyna-Tac hand-held cellular phone before going to a press conference upstairs in the hotel. The phone connected Cooper with the base station on the roof of the Burlington House (now the Alliance Capital Building) across the street from the hotel and into the AT&T land-line telephone system.

V. Impact on Humanity-


It took cell phone companies 37 years to make cell phones available all over the US. According to the CTIA today there are more than 250 million people who have cell phones. Cell phones have revolutionized and streamlined the way we communicate.


VI. Bibliography-

How a Cell Phone Call Works | Cellphones.org. (n.d.). Cell Phones. Retrieved January 10, 2011, from http://cellphones.org/blog/how-a-cell-phone-call-works/

HowStuffWorks "Search". (n.d.). HowStuffWorks - Learn How Everything Works!. Retrieved January 10, 2011, from http://www.howstuffworks.com/search.php?terms=cell+phones


Leard, G. (n.d.). Biography: Martin Cooper - by George Leard - Helium. Helium - Where Knowledge Rules. Retrieved January 10, 2011, from http://www.helium.com/items/1235159-martin-cooper-mobile-phone-inventions-whartonmotorola-attwireless-technology-innovatators


The History of Cell Phones – A Vision Realized | TheHistoryOf.net. (n.d.). TheHistoryOf.net. Retrieved January 10, 2011, from http://www.thehistoryof.net/history-of-cell-phones.html


Image 1: http://www.puremobile.com/communityblog/cell-phones/5-reasons-why-retro-cell-phones-suck/


Image 2: http://forums.mwerks.com/showthread.php?4754568


Image 3: http://skattertech.com/2010/06/infographic-evo-4g-vs-iphone-4-vs-droid-x/