Sophia Elahi RPC Blog

This week I learned about the Earth’s atmosphere. In this essay I’m going to talk about what the atmosphere consists of and the different layers of the atmosphere.

The Earth’s atmosphere consists of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.9% argon, and 0.03% carbon dioxide with small percentages of other elements including water vapor, traces of dust particles, pollen, plant grains, and other solid particles.

Then there are the 5 main layers of the Earth’s atmosphere:

The troposphere – is the lowest level of the Earth’s atmosphere. It contains 80% of the total atmospheric mass and most of the water vapor.

The Stratosphere – is the 2^nd layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. This is the ozone layer. This is where airplanes fly through.

The Mesosphere – is the 3^rd layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. This area is too high for jet powered aircrafts, but too low for satellites. The average temperature is 120 F.

The Thermosphere – is the 4^th layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. The temperature here can rise to 2700 F! This is also where the ISS orbits.

The Exosphere – is the 5^th and outer layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. It begins at 700 km above sea level and dissipates into space. The atmospheric pressure is very low in this area; which is also where majority of the satellites orbit here.

Well, that’s the Earth’s atmosphere in one little essay. I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!

 

In this essay I’m going to talk about 4 main points about Earth, God, and the human race.

Does God Still Care?

Of course he does! Humans are God’s creation; Earth, is God’s creation. God have given us animals to eat, and fresh water for us to drink. God have given us more food and water than we can eat and drink! God has created human beings to be a superior race; superior to animals, angels, and the devil.

If God didn’t care, don’t you think that we’d be gone by now?

Is God Still in Control?

Yes, God has created the world. He of course still has control; there is no one higher than God. It’s like your Minecraft world; you still and always will have control of it, right?  What if you get hacked? Then you can’t control the world anymore. So, how is it any different with God? Who can “hack” God? Who can God hand the controller of Earth down to? No one.

Are we at the Mercy of Nature?

No, God created nature, that means if something like the end of the world would happen because of nature then He would protect us (unless He thinks otherwise). The only person that human beings are at the mercy of is God (and your parents while you’re down here on Earth).

How Should we Live as Stewards in this World

I think that we should not produce so much waste, not dump our trash into the ocean, not use so much plastic which does hurt sea animals. I think that if us humans don’t use so much waste, be careful about what we release into the environment through trash or gas. Maybe if we do this enough the Earth might be a cleaner and less polluted place. 🙂

I hope that you learned something from this essay, and please think about what I said in the last paragraph. Thanks for reading!

I’ve already written an essay about plant diseases, but I like writing it so much that I decided to write another one (that or I have to write another one, you’ll never know!).

Bacterial Canker

Bacterial Canker is a disgusting looking fungus that grows on common cherries, peaches, plums, and other stone fruit. This disease can get to a tree through injured bark or an existing wound, such as a pruning cut on a twig or branch. Frost damage in the spring may worsen additional infections. Bacterial Canker infections occur during fall, winter and early spring (during cool, wet weather) and are spread by rain or water, and pruning tools. The way to know if what you’re looking at is Bacterial Canker is by asking yourself two questions. One, is it brown and slimy looking; two, does it look like a brown melted gummy worm? If both are yes you have Bacterial Canker.

Gray Mold

Gray mold is exactly like what it sounds like. It’s gray mold. This disease is identified as gray soft, mushy spots on leaves, stems, flowers and produce. This disease can be found on a wide variety of produce (too much to list). Disease symptoms appear as grayish colored soft, mushy spots on leaves, stems, and flowers and on produce. Spots may become covered with a coating of gray fungus; especially if humidity is high. Fruit or plants shrivel and rot.

Gray mold is often found near the soil surface or in the densest areas of the plant. It develops on wilted flowers first, and then spreads quickly to other parts of the plant. The disease may also occur in storage areas causing rotting of harvested fruits and vegetables.

There you have it, two more disgusting plant diseases. If you’ve noticed a common theme with all plant disease is, they form with moist and humid conditions. If you have a garden, remember this. Thanks for reading!

PS. Sorry I couldn’t give any pictures. The website won’t allow me to post. But if you would like to see pictures you can Google! Sorry again. 😦

Apple Scab and Black Knot, sounds like pirate names, right? Well, these aren’t pirate names, these are plant diseases. These diseases take the energy from the plant and result in wilting, scabs, moldiness, and rotting tissue. In this is essay I’m going to talk about these two diseases and its effects on certain plants.

Apple Scab

Apple is a disease most commonly found on apples. It looks like scabs on the fruit and the leaves are sunken. It also may contain velvety spores in the center.

Symptoms on fruit are similar to those found on leaves. Scabby spots are sunken and tan and may have velvety spores in the center. As these spots mature, they become larger and turn brown.

Infected fruit becomes distorted and may crack allowing entry of secondary organisms. Severely affected fruit may drop, especially when young.

Diseases usually develop in the spring and early summer. This development is favored by wet, cool weather that.

Black Knot

Black Knot mainly attack plum, apricot, cherry, and chokecherry trees. Black Knot is easy to recognize by its hard, uneven, black galls that seem to enwrap twigs and branches. Black knot is a slow developer, taking a season before it’s visually apparent and producing spores.

It looks a lot like mold right? If you ever see this you can still save the tree by pruning the affected branch.

As you can see, plant diseases come in all shapes and forms. If you ever see things like these at an apple, plum, apricot, and cherry orchard don’t be hesitant to tell the owners. If you ever see anything in your own garden you know what to do, prune! Thanks for reading!

The flu vaccine, it protects you from the flu. Right? What if I told you that the vaccine does nothing to protect you from the flu, and that it actually harms you!

I thought that the vaccine is supposed to protect me! Well it doesn’t, it’s actually very dangerous. The ingredients that are in the vaccine are extremely harmful to us. This is a list of some of the ingredients of the vaccine, specifically the harmful ones:

Mercury— Poisonous to humans

Formaldehyde — A known cancer causing agent

Aluminum — A neurotoxin that has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease

Triton X 100— A detergent

Phenol— A carbolic acid

Ethylene— antifreeze

These are very poisonous stuff to put in your bloodstream. There are also antibiotics that some people are allergic to. People with deadly allergies to these antibiotics could possibly die! Or get seriously harmed!

Everybody knows that the flu can kill you if not treated. Everybody also knows that the flu attacks weak immune systems, such as children under the age of 2.

As you can see, this vaccine isn’t affective and can be more harmful than the flu itself! After reading this I hope you think twice about letting you, or your child get the vaccine.  Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

The flu in 1918 during and after WWI killed 50 million lives, that’s more than the number of people who died in WWI! Things can’t get any worse, can it?

The flu started infecting soldiers in the trenches in WWI, and then it started spreading to people all over the world. Young and old died. The flu started infecting people in 1918 after WWI. The flu was a deadly virus and people who had weak immune system usually contracted the virus and died. But then it got worse; the flu mutated into a virus called H1. H1 unlike the regular flu, H1 attacked people with strong immune system. Many people died from the viruses.

As you can see, the flu is a very dangerous illness. The flu can kill you, or change into Pneumonia. If you have the flu don’t take it like a common cold, it’s much more dangerous. Now days when you get the flu the likely hood of you dying is low, but likely. Now you know the dangers of the flu. Thanks for reading!

 

Like humans trees and plants can contract diseases or pests. In this essay I’m going to talk about two diseases and pests that can harm trees, specifically cocoa trees.

There is a disease called Witches’ Broom. A fungus called Moniliophthora perniciosa cause Witches’ Broom. Well the affect that this disease has on the cocoa tree is simple. The fungus, with the complicated name, only attacks growing tissues (shoots, flowers and pods) causing cocoa trees to produce branches with no fruit and ineffective leaves. The pods that the trees grow will be distorted and won’t be fully ripe.

Diseases aren’t the only thing that can harm cocoa trees; pests can also harm cocoa trees. There is a bug called Mirids. Mirids can pierce plant tissues, feed on the sap of the plant, and sometimes transmit viral plant diseases. Cocoa Mirids pierce the surface of cocoa stems, branches and pods, killing the penetrated host cells.

I only listed one disease and one pest, but there are tons more out there that can harm cocoa trees. Thanks for reading!

Everybody knows that chocolate is delicious; however, does everybody know how chocolate is made? Keep reading to find out.

Cocoa beans grow on trees; so, the first part of the fermentation process is to pick the cocoa beans from the tree. Then the cocoa beans are taken to a factory where the bean gets cracked open. The workers at the factory will remove the pulp from the bean and dumps the pulp into a huge container. It is then dried in the sun. The sun will melt the pulp and will dry the beans. Afterwards the dried beans will be shoveled into big bags and shipped to chocolate companies. At the companies the beans are then cleaned  with magnets and air. Magnet for any metal that might be in the bean; and air for dust and any bugs or dirt on the beans. Then they get grinded and molded into delicious chocolate.

I hope you learned something from this essay. Please leave feedback. Thanks for reading!

Everybody knows that candy and chocolate aren’t the healthiest things for you. But, what if there is a chocolate that is healthy that you can enjoy without the guilt?

Scientist and researchers have discovered epicatechin, a compound in dark chocolate, may protect your brain after a stroke by increasing cellular signals that shield your brain cells from damage.

If you don’t know what a stroke is, it’s when the blood supply to your brain becomes blocked or reduced. This deprives your brain of vital oxygen and nutrients, causing you brain cells to begin to die within minutes.

An experiment was done on mice and an hour and half after being fed epicatechin they suffered significantly less brain damage following an induced stroke.

Previous research has also shown that not only does dark chocolate protect your brain from stroke it can also restore blood vessel function and protect you from heart disease. Dark unprocessed chocolate can improve your Glucose metabolism (diabetic control), blood pressure, and Cardiovascular system.

Now, I’m not saying that all chocolates do this. Mainly dark chocolate; the health benefits are mainly because of the high amounts of antioxidants in the cocoa. If you process the cocoa, like milk chocolate, it loses its healthiness (unfortunately).

Even though dark chocolate is healthy, doesn’t mean that you can eat tons of it. Studies show that just 6.7 grams of dark chocolate per day, a bit less than half a bar a week, is enough to protect against inflammation and cardiovascular disease. If you eat any more the health benefits won’t work.

As you can see, dark chocolate is very healthy but, like all chocolates, you can’t eat too much. This essay is just scraping the surface of the benefits of dark chocolate. If you look online there’ll be so much more. But, this is for the kids that just want to know a bit so they can bribe their parents to buy chocolate for them. Thanks for reading!

When you step outside do you ever notice the clouds in the sky? Do you ever lie down in the grass and look at the shapes of the clouds? But; do you know the types of clouds that you’re looking at? And, no, elephant looking cloud doesn’t count.

There are 4 main types of clouds (there are also hybrids but I’m just going to focus on the main types), Cirrus, Cumulus, Stratus, and Nimbus clouds.

Cirrus clouds are considered to be high level clouds that typically form between 16,000 and 50,000 feet above Earth’s surface. The Cirrus cloud consists of tiny ice crystals suspended in the upper parts of the troposphere. Cirrus in Latin means curl of hair, which is what this cloud looks like! You judge!

Next is the Cumulus clouds, which are the regular ones that you see every day! You know those different shaped clouds you always see? Those are Cumulus clouds! Cumulus clouds are often detached or isolated from the other clouds. Cumulus clouds are considered as low level clouds forming between a few hundred to a few thousand feet. Cumulo in Latin means heap or pile.

 

Third is the Stratus-form cloud. Stratus-form clouds or layer clouds often appear as a sheet or layer of cloud; it can also appear as a white or gray mass. Stratus clouds form at about 6500 feet in the sky. Stratus in Latin means layer or sheet.

Last is the Nimbo- form clouds. Nimbo-form clouds are the clouds that cause rain! This type of cloud form from 7,000 to 15,000 feet above Earth’s surface. Nimbo in Latin means rain.

Well, there are the 4 main types of clouds. I hope that this essay taught you something. Next time you go outside pay a little more attention to the clouds around you. Thanks for reading!