Science
Scrubs Club gives back through Habitat
CHASE WEAVER
ANDREA ADAMS
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Penn State Behrend's Scrubs Club
donated their time Saturday to con
struct a home in the Erie community
by participating in Habitat for Human
ity. Approximately twenty of these stu
dents volunteered their time to this
project.
Dr. Jim Warren spearheaded the vol
unteer workforce. Warren, a professor
at Penn State Behrend, has volun
teered much of his time to Habitat for
Humanity over many years. When he
saw the opportunity to get the Scrubs
Club involved in giving back to the
community, he took it.
The Club separated their work into
shifts: one morning and one afternoon
During the 2009 spring semester, the
Scrubs Club donated time to con
structing a house on the east side of
Erie where they placed siding and dry
wall. Saturday, the club assisted in the
construction of two houses in Union
City.
Work was divided up into several
groups that included placing gutters,
working on the roofs, indoor painting,
and building a deck. The Scrubs Club
Today in Science
In 1961, the largest atomic bomb
ever detonated was set off over No
vaya Zemlya. The bomb was set off
by the Soviet Union and is still the
largest atomic bomb detonated to
this day.
Today, most nuclear devices yield
less than one megaton. This bomb
had an amazing 58 megaton yield.
Beacon Science Staff
Science Editor
Brian Carlson
Co-Editors
Andrea Adams Chase Weaver
Math Writer
Physics Writer
[leather Wagner
Ni hole Buczynski
Biology Writers
Andrea Adams
Chase Weaver
Chem. Writes
Marie Ebner
Computer Writer
Max Deliso
also had the opportunity to work with
members of the Pepsi-Cola Company
who also volunteered their time to this
project.
According to the Habitat for Hu
manity website, Millard Fuller and his
wife Linda started Habitat for Human
ity in 1976.
The organization's mission is to re
move poor quality housing and home
lessness from the world. People of all
backgrounds, races, and religions join
to build houses alongside the families
in need. This program does not simply
give away homes.
Homeowners supply many hours of
their own labor into constructing their
house and even help to construct the
houses of others. They must also have
to provide a down payment and
monthly mortgage payments.
This presents the opportunity for
volunteer companies, organizations,
and clubs to meet directly with the fu
ture homeowners. Habitat for Human
ity has built over 300,000 houses
around the world, which has provided
more than 1.5 million people in 3,000
communities with safe, decent, inex
pensive shelter.
Scrubs Club specializes in bringing
together students interested in the
medical field. The club provides op-
A chemist's
Cue the maniacal laughter and
werewolf howling, Halloween is read
ily approaching, and it's time to bust a
few ways chemistry can help make
your Halloween the creepiest yet!
Now, everyone has heard of fog
machines, but do you know how they
work? Typically the kinds you can buy
in a store contain a bottle filled with a
mixture of glycerin or glycol and
water which is then pumped through
an exchanger heated up to 400" C.
When this water mixture hits the ex
changer it turns to steam, and then is
forced out of the machine into a much
cooler environment. This causes the
steam to condense and you get a fog
which rises in the air. Another way to
achieue this eerie fog effect on a
tighter budget is with dry ice. Dry ice,
which is solid carbon dioxide, subli
mates at room temperature. This
means that when heated slightly, dry
MARIE EBNER
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contributed photo
The Scrubs Club donated their time to Habitat for Humanity. Habitat has built over
300,000 homes worldwide.
portunities for students to expand
their knowledge of possible medical
professions and the ability to network
with fellow prospective students with
the same interests. Scrubs Club do
nates their time to these immense
approach to
ice will go from its solid state directly
to a gaseous state and create a fog
which is denser than air. This causes
the fog to fall to the ground rather
than rising, as seen with the store
bought fog machine. Having this ef
fect at your party will be sure to create
a frightening atmosphere, no pun in
tended.
Another interesting eerie effect can
only be seen with the help of a black
light. Several chemical compounds
glow when put under a black light,
such as zinc sulfide and strontium alu-
science reporters with the Behrend Beacon.
tasks twice a year. The club has now
been volunteering their time to Habi
tat for Humanity for five years.
Halloween
minate, however those would be hard
to get your hands on for a Halloween
party. Some more common and less il
legal household chemicals contain
phosphorescents, which glow under a
black light, such as bleach and tooth
whitener. Both contain these phos
phorescents to uphold their advertise
ment of trying to make things whiter
than white. Craft stores also sell
paints containing phosphorescents
which will either glow in the dark or
glow with the help of a black light.
Carving a pumpkin and then painting
it with glow in the dark paint can be a
creepy alternative to the traditional
candle. Also, any dye from a high
lighter will be fluorescent under a
black light as well as most bodily flu
ids. On that note, please refrain from
having a black light in the bathroom!
Now go buy some dry ice, paint a
pumpkin with glow in the dark paint,
put on a chilling rendition Franken
stein for that party of yours and see
just how creepy chemistry can be.
BEHREND BEACON
October 30, 2009
www.thebehrendbeacon.com
Top Science News:
SPACE
For the first time, a skylight on the
moon has been found. This skylight
was most likely carved out by old lava
flows on the moon and could lead into
a vast underground tunnel. With this
underground structure, humans may
finally have a place to stay when they
go to the moon.
The hole measures 65 meters across
and extends at least 80 meters down
wards. Since the skylight sits in a rille,
scientists believe that the skylight
leads into a lava tube at least 370 me
ters across. This lava tube would be a
perfect spot for lunar colonization be
cause of the shield from solar radia
tion, meteor impacts and large
temperature fluctuations.
TECHNOLOGY
A research team has finally been
able to control a beetle from a distance
using electrodes and radio antennas
connected to the beetle's nervous sys
tem. Using a remote-control, the team
is able to make the beetle fly in any di
rection and
stop when
ever they t„: 4 t. : ... r.
want. This 'MAT
new cv-
bong insect
is helping
scientist
understand how insects fly and could
one day be used to search for sur
vivors after a disaster, and even be
come one of the best spies in the
world.
ENVIRONMENT
Recently, people have been trying to
be eco-friendly by buying hybrid cars
and using more solar and wind energy,
but not many people think about their
pets as having a large carbon foot
print. A new study by Robert and
Brenda Vale, authors of Time to Eat
the Dog: The real guide to sustainable
living, suggest that our pets have a
very large carbon footprint.
In their study, they found that a
medium sized dog had a footprint of
0.84 hectares, and for a big dog, such
as a German shepherd, the figure is
1.1 hectares. Meanwhile, an SUV - the
Vales used a 4.6-litre Toyota Land
Cruiser in their comparison - driven a
modest 10,000 kilometers a year have
a footprint of only 0.41 hectares.
So the next time you want to help
your environment, take some advice
from Bob Barker and get your pets
spayed or neutered.