HEALTH AND DISEASE
Keeping healthy
Your heart plays and important part in being healthy. It keeps all the blood in your circulatory system flowing. Blood helps oxygen get around your body.When you exercise you can feel your pulse, it tells you how fast your heart is pumping.
Avoiding cigarettes and alcohol, eating right and exercising help your health and fitness.
Are you keeping healthy? How fast is your heart beating?
Your heart
Your heart is a very strong muscle that pumps blood around your body.
It is made of four chambers, two upper chambers and two lower chambers. Blood enters the upper chambers. These squeeze and push the blood into the lower chambers, which then squeeze and push the blood out of your heart. More.
Bacterias
What Is Salmonellosis?
An infection with Salmonella bacteria usually affects the gastrointestinal system (the stomach and intestines) in humans. In more severe cases, Salmonella can spread to the blood, the bones, or even to the fluid around the brain, but these types of infection are less common. More.
Virus
What is H1N1?
Last year, “swine flu” was all over the news. This strain of flu virus (a combination of flu viruses that affect pigs, birds, and humans) first surfaced in spring 2009. Later that year, health experts declared an H1N1 “pandemic,” meaning the new virus had spread widely around the world and there was a risk a lot of people could become seriously ill.
In the end, the H1N1 pandemic turned out to be far less serious than previous flu pandemics. H1N1 influenza is still around, but it’s less of a health concern than it once was. So what’s the story with H1N1? Click here.
Malaria
Malaria is a disease that is common in most tropical countries. It is caught by being bitten by a mosquito that carries malaria parasites in its saliva.
Malaria parasite is an organism called Plasmodium, which belongs to the group “protozoa”.
These parasites enter the bloodstream and go to the liver, where they multiply before returning back to the bloodstream to attack red blood cells. They multiply in the red blood cells until they burst, releasing the parasite and causing the fever. This phase usually lasts 48 hours.
Symptoms: Flu-like fever, Shaking, Chills, Headaches, Muscle aches, tiredness, Nausea,Vomiting, Diarrhoea
- Symptoms can begin 10 days to 4 weeks after the infection.
- Malaria can be treated with prescription drugs.
- You cannot be vaccinated against malaria but you can protect yourself.
To protect yourself you should:
1) Wear long sleeved clothing at night, as this is when most mosquitoes bite.
2) Spray insect repellent.
3) Take anti-malarial tablets. These are not 100%, and there are different ones for the different zones, so make sure you take the appropriate ones. You must take them before you travel and after your return (leaving the malarial zone).
http://www.traveldoctor.co.uk/malaria.htm
The species of mosquito that carries the malaria parasites is the Anopheles mosquito.
Malaria occurs in over 100 countries and more than 40% of the people in the world are at risk. Large areas of Central and South America, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Oceania are considered malaria-risk areas.
AIDS
I would like you to write four questions and their answers. We will correct them next week.
GENETIC REVOLUTION
DNA:
Transcribe and translate a gene
Gene
Have people ever said to you, “It’s in your genes?” They were probably talking about a physical characteristic, personality trait, or talent that you share with other members of your family. We know that genes play an important role in shaping how we look and act and even whether we get sick. Now scientists are trying to use that knowledge in exciting new ways, such as preventing and treating health problems. Clik here.
Gregor Mendel
Gregor J. mendel (1822-1884) was an Austrian[3] monk and botanist. He founded genetics by his work cross-breeding pea plants. He discovered dominant and recessive characters (genes) from the crosses he performed on the plants in his greenhouse. What he learnt is known today as Mendelian inheritance.
Mendel used the edible pea (Pisum sativum) for his crosses. He selected seven characters which were distinctive, and never blended; they occurred as either-or alternatives. Examples: plant height (short or tall); colour of peas (green or yellow); position of flowers (restricted to the top or distributed along the stem). More.
You can try this quizz about Mendel
DNA Transcription and Protein Assembly
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Sustainability.
Natural resources in different countries
Water cycle
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Follow a Drop Through the Water Cycle
Energy and Water Conservation
20% renewable energy by 2020
Energy, let’s save it!
RECYCLING
Becky Taylor sent us the two following videos:
How to save water in your home
Go Green – Recycling in Westminster London / UK
More information about recycling, click here.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change is already happening and represents one of the greatest environmental, social and economic threats facing the planet. Read more.
Climate change animation.
EU action against climate change
Global warming is one of the biggest challenges facing the world today. Unless we act quickly to change the way we use and produce energy, the damage could be irreversible. More…
Action steps, here.
Test your climate change knowledge.
Another quizze about it.
Greenhouse effect explanation
Some interesting links:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/pubs/pdf/factsheets/climate_change.pdf
http://www.greenfacts.org/en/climate-change-ar4/index.htm#1
http://www.cambio-climatico.com/
http://www.mma.es/portal/secciones/cambio_climatico/el_cambio_climatico/
Greenhouse effect, click here.
Acid rain
Ozone layer
Earthquake destruction
ORIGIN OF LIFE
