Subject Specific Challenges to Making Science Labs Work

Most students do not go on to become scientists and for these students the main goal of science education should be to teach rigorous, evidence-based thinking and to convey a sense of wonder about the natural world. These goals can be met by any branch of science; there is no obvious reason why biology would be better than physics or Earth science would be more important than chemistry. Indeed, it is undoubtedly possible to point to curriculums and classes in all areas of science that do a wonderful job of teaching scientific thought. However, that doesn't mean that it is equally easy for teachers to meet these goals in every domain.

It is clearly important for students to have real, meaningful laboratory experiences in science classes. It is possible to have great labs in all branches of science but the challenges can be quite different. One of the big challenges in biology is that experiments often take an extended period of time. Frequently, getting results is simply not possible in a single, 45 minute class period. Even with 1.5 hour double periods, designing biology experiments that fit can be difficult. On the other hand, working with animals (and even plants, fungus, and protists) is inherently motivating and exciting for most students. Furthermore, many of the most important ideas in biology are less abstract and mathematical than the big ideas in physics and chemistry, and are therefore easier for many students to absorb.

In contrast, physics labs often get much quicker results than biology labs and can have the advantage of being visually dramatic. The difficulty for physics teachers is bridging the gap between the labs and the principles which they demonstrate. It's no secret that physics involves quite a bit of math and many students get so caught up in their struggles with the math that they are unable to see the ideas behind the formulas. One of the most successful solutions to this difficulty is conceptual physics classes, which are often successful in helping students understand the big ideas of physics.

Chemistry labs also tend to be quick enough to fit into class periods and they are often very exciting. Indeed, the most common request I get as a science teacher is for "explosions" which are almost entirely the domain of chemistry. With chemistry labs, the duel challenges are safety and connecting the macroscopic results with the microscopic reasons behind the results. Safety in chemistry labs is often best addressed by having well-designed, dedicated lab rooms in schools. When that is not possible, work-arounds using household chemicals instead of their more exciting and dangerous counterparts are sometimes possible. Connecting lab results with the actions of molecules is becoming easier for teachers as better and better computer simulations for chemistry education are developed.

Earth science is the fourth major branch of science and it is the most forgotten one. In some ways it is the broadest of the subjects; any study of earth science will inevitably touch on aspects of chemistry, physics, and biology. Designing earth science labs is quite challenging because it is impossible to actually manipulate landforms or weather in the classroom. For this reason, earth science labs rely strongly on models. Reliance on models can be a strength if it is used as an opportunity to really explore the place of models in science or it can be a weakness if simple models are used as stand-ins for complex systems without discussion.

Each branch of science has its own advantages and disadvantages from the point of view of a teacher designing a curriculum with a strong, relevant, and exciting laboratory component. For most students, it is not especially important which branch (or branches) that they study; rather it is important that they learn scientific thinking and evidence-based reasoning.

Drilling and Producing Crude Oil and Natural Gas

This article demonstrates how crude oil and natural gas wells are drilled.

One of the main questions is how do we find the traps where these natural resources are found? Years ago it was based on the ancient strategy called "luck". Producers would simply drill one well right at the side of another; there were no scientific methods, just simple guess work. By doing this the landscapes really suffered.

Today the good luck and guess work have been replaced with science and technology, the same technology and principles that are used for drilling in Alaska, Texas, and Oceans and even in the Middle East.

Suppose a geoscientist finds a possible trap, meaning that potentially there is either crude oil or natural gas in that location. This presents us with some common questions.

First, are there giant pools of crude oil and gas under the ground or do we get it from certain rock formations?

Secondly, how do we extract that natural resource from the earth and create energy out of it?

Once the geologist find a trap that could contain crude oil and gas a drilling rig is brought in.

What is a drilling rig and how does it work?

The drilling rig is a piece of equipment that is brought onto the rig for five or six or seven days which drill a hold about the size of a football and is capable of drilling down several thousand feet down into the earth's surface. Once the hole is drilled a variety of sensitive instruments called logging tools send electronic messages that provide a detailed record of the rock and fluid properties of the geologic formations.

A typical rotary drill rig goes about 5,000 feet down. Imagine taking 16 football fields and placing them end to end and turning them upright, that's about 5,000 feet. 

The rigs process is very similar to drilling through a piece of wood, only the drill bit is about the size of the football we mentioned earlier. The drilling is performed by highly trained members of a drilling crew.

Once the rig has drilled through various rock formations, steel piping is placed in the ground, then a cement shield is placed around the pipe to protect any water table or aqua furs, the piper is then perforated a and fractured only at the crude oil and natural gas rock formation to allow the flow of these vapours and liquids to move up the well to the surface. If the rock formation contains enough crude oil and or natural gas the rotary drill rig will be replaced with a pumping unit. Now the purpose of this is to keep the crude oil and natural gas flowing. Crude oil is sent into storage tanks and natural vapours are sent into vapour pipelines.

Often times today we need a drill in areas that won't allow us to drill down straight vertically, but with some of the latest technologies we are now able to drill directionally, this is an excellent way, for example to drill under a park or a school's property, many pre-developed areas tend to be a great place for crude oils r natural gas so the directional drilling technology is a great way to retrieve the source.

So what is the cost?

The costs usually ranges from 350,000.00 to 1, 000, 00.00 and an offshore well can cost up to a billion dollars per well and there's still no guarantee it will even produce.

I'll now use Ohio, USA as a case study

In Ohio there is over 64, 00 crude oil and gas wells producing in 49 of Ohio's 88 counties, with more than 273, 00 well drilled.

Do all Ohio counties produce crude oil and natural vapours?

The answer is no! The potential geological formations that contain crude oil and gas simply do not exist throughout the state which is why technology plays such a key role in retrieving this vluable rescource.

Now back to a question asked at the beginning of this article -

Once we have drilled to our targeted rock formations, how do we get the crude oil and natural gas out?

Utilising scientific principles of movement the fluids, crude oil and vapours are lifted out of the ground to the surface using a variety of different pumping units. How do these units work? Well first of all kepp in midn that if a pump jack is not moving then it doesn't mean that a well is not producing. The pump is just turned on long enough to create a syphoning effect. Petroleum engineers, production supervisors or well tenders will typically determine how long each individual well should be turned off and on. Also, keep in mind that the motor on this pumping unit also need energy to work. This energy is either the well's own gas source or electricity or solar panels. If electric is used the pumping units may be switched on overnight during off-peak electric times.

Where does it go when it's out of the ground? The first place it will go into will be a separator, the separator separate the crude oil liquids from the gas vapours. the crude oil when then move onto a storage unit called a Tank Battery and the vapours will be transported through a number of Natural Gas Pipelines for distributions.

Why can't you always see these crude oil and gas wells? New technology allows us to have a very small environmental footprint. These wells are hidden by plants and other landscaping like and can be found in car parks or in back yards if schools, churches, cemeteries, parks, cornfields or even your own back yards and these wells can produce energy for decades.

Newly Discovered Diprotodon Fossil Gives Hint at Extinction of Ancient Marsupials

Ancient Marsupial Fossil Suggests Climate Change A Cause of the demise of Megafauna

Scientists at the South Australian museum (Adelaide, Australia) are hoping the discovery of the fossilised remains of a giant marsupial might be able to provide them with further insights as to what led to the demise of Australia's megafauna, animals as diverse as hippo-sized Wombats, predatory Thylacines, giant Koala bears and Monitor Lizards twice as big as Komodo Dragons.

Giant Marsupials - Diprotodontids

The giant marsupial in question is a Diprotodon, a strange and diverse group of mammals unique to Australia. Diprotodontids are an extinct family of marsupials, the majority of which were plant-eaters and some evolved into giant forms becoming the largest mammalian herbivores the continent has ever seen. The first Diprotodontid fossils are known from Eocene deposits and they may have persisted until around 45,000 years ago.

Palaeontologists have puzzled over why the Australian megafauna died out. It has been proposed that hunting and the burning of forests by the first human settlers on the continent hastened the demise of these large animals, however, rapid climate change may also have played a prominent role.

Giant Prehistoric Animal From Australia

The fossils of the three metre long Diprotodon were found at the remote Collinsville Merino Stud, a substantial sheep and cropping station approximately eighty miles north of Adelaide. The fossils were discovered in mid 2010 when Paul Cousins, a sheep station worker, came across the fossils eroding out of a riverbank whilst on a camping trip with his family. He took some of the exposed fossilised bones to a local museum knowing that they represented the remains of a prehistoric animal but he was unsure whether or not they had discovered a dinosaur. Museum staff identified the specimens as Diprotodontid fossils and a team from the South Australian museum was dispatched to excavate the rest of the fossil material still embedded in the ground.

Associate Professor Rod Wells of the South Australia museum commented that over 500 man hours had already been spent excavating and preparing this specimen and he asked for more field volunteers to help with the excavation. The fossils have been dated to around 120,000 years ago, a time when people had yet to reach Australia, according to most palaeoanthropologists. The fossil matrix, the sediment in which the material was found, may provide clues to the extinction of Australia's unique megafauna.

Sediment Suggests Extinction due to Climate Change

The sediment in which the bones of this large, plant-eater were deposited are very finely grained. The fossils were discovered by the Cousins family in a creek bed that was eroded by seasonal flooding and exposed. The strata in the immediate vicinity of the fossil material, as it is so fine suggests a hot, dry and windy environment. The Australian scientists have speculated that this large animal may have died in a prolonged drought or fallen into a dried up river channel, the carcase would have been washed down to its final resting place in later, seasonal flooding.

This suggests that the climate may have been more extreme 120,000 years ago with very dry periods followed by intense, seasonal rains which may have caused extensive flooding. The location of this fossil material adds to the debate as to whether climate change played a significant role in the extinction of a lot of Australia's unique, native fauna.

Harsh environments and rapidly changing climatic conditions would have affected large animals at the top of the food chain to a greater degree than smaller animals. The larger species of Diprotodontids may have been struggling to survive and then with the advent of the first human settlers, they were finally driven to extinction.

Palaeontologists Hoping to Find More Fossil Remains

Rod Wells has suggested that the more fossil sites such as the Collinsville location that the scientists explore so they will be able to build up a more complete picture regarding the climate of Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch. Such data will help them to understand why these huge animals perished along with the other amazing megafauna that once roamed the outback.

Is It Possible To Travel Backwards in Time?

Einstein based his entire theory of relativity on two simple assumptions, one about predictability of optical experiments irrespective of lab conditions and the other about constancy of velocity of light in fundamental system/empty space.

Thereafter, Einstein fantasized a space ship travelling along a straight line for further construction of his theory. He assumed a scenario in which space ship can be potentially accelerated to the velocity of light.

It is a common experience that when matter is heated by supplying energy to its atoms and molecules, it results in increase of kinetic energy of its atoms and molecules and increasing kinetic energy of atoms and molecules is associated with not only increasing temperature but also increasing velocity of constituent atoms and molecules. This increasing velocity of atoms and molecules is necessarily associated with change of one or the other kind. Ensuing change may be physical, chemical or nuclear reaction and may be essentially nonlinear in character. Physical change often consists of nonlinear change of state from solid to liquid to gas to plasma state and may be even thereafter. Appropriate chemical reactions, again essentially nonlinear in character commonly occur depending on nature of interacting entities and conditions of the experiment. Very high velocities of atoms and molecules are associated with thermonuclear reactions such as nuclear fusion of Hydrogen into Helium at 50,000°K.

Exact nature of change can only be empirically known and is rationally unpredictable. In most general terms, nature of change can be attributed to nature of interacting entities.

But Einstein arbitrarily assumed that increasing velocity of the said space ship shall lead to reduction in speed of time measuring devices such as clocks and watches in order to compensate effects of increased velocity. Einstein stated "A moving clock, no matter what its construction, runs slower than an identical clock that is at rest." Einstein never bothered to explain as to why frequency of a pendulum in linear motion changes when in the equation of simple pendulum length of the pendulum and gravity are the only two variables determining its frequency/time period. Moreover why should errors of observation determine behavior of the observed, i.e. why incorrect recording of time by clocks and watches should have a bearing on behavior of time itself and properties of matter?

Einstein's arbitrary conclusions were extended to Biological domain leading to speculation that one day using a device designated as time machine; it shall be possible to travel backward in time.

Time is linearly progressive. This is the inherent nature of time. No experimental conditions or errors of observation can have a bearing upon intrinsic nature of time. Therefore, it shall never be possible to travel backward in time. Hence time machine is nothing more than science inspired fantasy which shall never materialize.

Backward travel of time by any stretch of imagination, if ever becomes feasible than it is bound to lead to many absurd situations and universal chaos. Imagine the following scenarios:

1. A time traveler goes back to times of Jesus and is able to persuade Pontius Pilate not to crucify Jesus. Consider its impact upon subsequent world history and turmoil it will create in the contemporary world.

2. A time traveler in India travels back to Mahabharata period and is able to persuade Pandavas not to indulge in the game of chess with Kauravas or is able to persuade Duryodhana not to insult Draupadi by removing her saree. Alternatively, another time traveler is able to persuade Duryodhana to justly give Pandavas their share in the kingdom. Imagine impact of these backward journeys in time upon subsequent Indian history and changes it will lead to, in contemporary Indian society.

3. A person meets an accident, fractures several bones, is put in time machine, backward travel in time restores his health. A novel technical innovation, yet to be discovered, shall be used to rehabilitate the person in contemporary world. This technology may be employed to treat a large number of ailments.

4. A person has left for his heavenly abode; his dead body is put in time machine, the person comes to life and is than rehabilitated in the contemporary world by some novel technology yet to be discovered.

5. Consider impact on world history of abortion of Hitler's mother while Hitler was still in the womb!

Clearly, there can be countless number of such examples providing ample food for thought to science fiction writers for infinite generations to come. But it is self-evident that the mere feasibility of backward travel in time is bound to lead to countless absurdities that would disrupt natural order and precipitate universal chaos. Such universal chaos is bound to be in conflict with universal instinct to exist. This will jeopardize existence of universe itself of which we all are a part.

THEREFORE NATURE CAN'T AFFORD TO FUNCTION IN A MANNER THAT HAS THE POTENTIAL OF BACKWARD TRAVEL IN TIME.

Hence, backward travel in time is nothing but a pure fantasy of scientific origin devoid of any foundations in fact and logic. However, this is without prejudice to rational predictability of past based on our understanding of natural laws and intrinsic nature of things and events.