Pluto and the GED: GED Science Lesson

http://www.popsci.com/why-i-still-love-pluto

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They also show signs of geological activity on Pluto and its moon Charon.

On Wednesday, scientists presented the first pictures acquired by the New Horizons probe during its historic flyby of the dwarf planet.

The team has also named the prominent heart-shaped region on Pluto after the world's discoverer Clyde Tombaugh.

The spacecraft sped past the dwarf planet on Tuesday, getting as close as 12,500km and grabbing a huge volume of data.

This exceeds what we came for

Dr Cathy Olkin, New Horizons science team

Mission scientist John Spencer told journalists that the first close-up image of Pluto's surface showed a terrain that had been resurfaced by some geological process - such as volcanism - within the last 100 million years.

"We have not found a single impact crater on this image. This means it must be a very young surface," he said.

How to Answer GED Science Questions

https://www.eddigest.com/sub.php?page=product&product_id=131

How to Answer GED Science Questions

When you are reading a selection on the GED test, you should read anticipating the kinds of questions that the test will ask you. Here is a list of the kinds of information that the GED testers are looking for:

1. What is the main idea?
2. How would you restate the information in the graph or article in your own words?
3. Can you list some opinions opposed to the facts in the article?
4. Are there any unstated assumptions in the graph or article article?
5. What is the conclusion of this article?
6. How do the details support the conclusion?
7. How can you apply what you learned from the article to your real life?
8. What situations might this information relate to?
9. What fact or idea is implied by this article (idea not stated directly)?
10. What is one cause-and-effect relationship described in this article?
11. Is there enough information to support the generalization or conclusion?
12. What values are demonstrated in this article or graph  ?
13. What unstated fact or idea can you infer (figure out) based on the stated information?

14. What two important things are alike?
15. What two important things are unalike?
16. Are there any wrong arguments made in this article? Or…. Did the author jump to any conclusions?

GED Science Lesson: WORLD'S FIRST BIOLIMB (An artificially produced limb)

From Digital Trends:

"While there are those who have warned against the dangers of bionic beings and artificial intelligence, one solution to combating the rise of the machine may be to turn ourselves into one of them. And with the latest innovations at Massachusetts General Hospital, this may be closer to reality than to science fiction than ever before. Scientists in Boston have successfully grown a rat limb that may revolutionize the ability of doctors to perform whole-limb transplants. Already, the technique known as decel/recel has been used to create kidneys, lungs, and hearts in a petri dish, and now researchers believe that larger organs are in reach as well.

The rat’s forearm, grown entirely in a laboratory, is the world’s first biolimb, and scientists are cautiously optimistic about what this may suggest for the future of human medicine. This latest decel/recel approach is unique it its whittled-down mechanical application, as it examines biology from an engineering perspective. The technique effectively washes the limb of its deceased owner until only its most basic structure, or its “scaffold” remains. Once scientists are left with only the mold of the original, they provide the new cells that will grow into an entirely new limb."

Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/scientists-develop-first-biolimb/#ixzz3cDLpS55G
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GED Science Lesson: Big Bang Video SuccessGED

PBS show NOVA Video on Big Bang and much more 

From Wikipedia

The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model for the universe from the earliest known periods through its subsequent large-scale evolution.^[1][2][3] It states that the universe was in a very high density state and then expanded.^[4][5] If the known laws of physics are extrapolated beyond where they are valid there is a singularity. Modern measurements place this moment at approximately 13.8 billion years ago, which is thus considered the age of the universe.^[6] After the initial expansion, the universe cooled sufficiently to allow the formation of subatomic particles, and later simple atoms. Giant clouds of these primordial elements later coalesced through gravity to form stars and galaxies.

In the mid-20th century, three British astrophysicists, Stephen Hawking, George F. R. Ellis, and Roger Penrose turned their attention to the theory of relativity and its implications regarding our notions of time. In 1968 and 1970, they published papers in which they extended Einstein's theory of general relativity to include measurements of time and space.^[7][8] According to their calculations, time and space had a finite beginning that corresponded to the origin of matter and energy.

Since Georges Lemaître first noted, in 1927, that an expanding universe might be traced back in time to an originating single point, scientists have built on his idea of cosmic expansion. While the scientific community was once divided between supporters of two different expanding universe theories, the Big Bang and the Steady State theory, accumulated empirical evidence provides strong support for the former.^[9] In 1929, from analysis of galactic redshifts, Edwin Hubble concluded that galaxies are drifting apart, important observational evidence consistent with the hypothesis of an expanding universe. In 1964, the cosmic microwave background radiation was discovered, which was crucial evidence in favor of the Big Bang model, since that theory predicted the existence of background radiation throughout the universe before it was discovered. More recently, measurements of the redshifts of supernovae indicate that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, an observation attributed to dark energy.^[10]The known physical laws of nature can be used to calculate the characteristics of the universe in detail back in time to an initial state of extreme density and temperature.^[11][12][13]

GED Science Lesson: How Do Continents Move

Full story here at Huffington Post Tectonic Plates

Scientists have long known that the Earth's crust consists of at least 15 tectonic plates--continent-sized slabs of rock on the surface of the Earth that shift about to create mountains, volcanoes, and earthquake zones. But the exact mechanism by which the plates move has remained a mystery.

Until now.

A new study suggests that the plates glide about on a six-mile-thick hidden channel of "soft" rock located between the base of the plates and the upper portion of the Earth's mantle (the layer of molten rock above the planet's core), Live Science reported.

“The idea that Earth’s surface consists of a mosaic of moving plates is a well-established scientific paradigm, but it had never been clear about what actually moves the plates around," study co-author Dr. Tim Stern, a professor of geography, environment and earth sciences at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, said in a written statement. “To work this out requires an understanding of what happens at the bottom of a tectonic plate."

The data showed that the seismic waves slowed abruptly at the base of the plate--which suggests that they must have hit a hidden layer of jelly-like rock, Cosmos magazine reported.

The researchers hypothesize that the soft rock creates a slippery base upon whichplates drift when they are pushed or pulled--though exactly what is doing the pushing or pulling is still up for debate.