Why does water expand when it freezes?

A: When most liquids are cooled in a stable environment the same affects takes place on all of them: They shrink. This is not the case for the greatest biological solvent: water. When water is cooled is shrinks until a temperarture of 4 Degrees Celcius is reached then it begins to expand until it reaches the freezing point when it continues to expand more. This strange occurrence has to do with the fact that the structure of the water molecule is very unique.

Water is formed when a hydrogen atom bonds with two oxygen atoms. This bond gets stronger as the temperature decreases. The solid form of water which is ice is completely hydrogen bonded.

'Stephen Hawking Is Making His Comeback'

This article journeyed through the life and career of Stephen Hawking and it thoroughly showcased the amazing accomplishments that he gained even while suffering from a crippling disease. The different headings within the article captivated me because I saw it as different time periods in Hawkings's own life and that forced me to read on because they were so unique and informative. The type of science that Hawking's focuses on does not really intrigue me but the way the article interfused his illness with his career was impressive.

Lede: The lede did not impress me at all. I found it to be boring and much too long. It would have been better if the author condensed some facts that would have created a better flow into the second paragraph. It was the second paragrapgh and third that got me into the story. I would give this lede 14 out of 20.

Content: This article was crammed with information and what astonished me was that everything seemed relevant to the story. 20 out of 20.

Organization: Like I stated above I love the different headings in the article. It just made it easier to understand when reading and gave it a better structure. 20 out 0f 20.

Quality of Writing: This confused me somewhat because it seemed that the style changed throughout the aricle. At some points in the story I was fully engrossed in what was being stated and then at other points I was drifting off while still reading. 17 out of 20

Clarity of Expression: I understood mostly everthing that was written and this shocked me because I don't consider myself that well informed about science terminology and culture. A few things did perplex me but I was still able to formulate some idea of what was being said. 17 out of 20.

Nature Blog 3

It was 2 a.m. My friends and I were driving around Plattsburgh. We didn't know where we were going so we just drove. I don't even remember where we stopped but at that moment I looked out the window of the car and saw this huge owl. It was brown and it was perched on a tree.

Owls are from the order Strigiformes. They are nocturnal birds that are also very solitary. They hunt mostly small mammals, insects and other birds. Owls live everywhere with the exception of Antartica, some parts of Greenland and a few islands.

Best Lede from Discover Magazine

"The crackling radiation would kill you in 10 minutes—that is, if you did not first asphyxiate in the nearly nonexistent atmosphere, die of exposure to the –300 degree Fahrenheit temperature, or plunge into a thousand-foot-deep icy crevice. Jupiter’s moon Europa is a forbidding world, yet NASA intends to devote billions of dollars over the next decade to getting there. At the center of this effort will be the most complicated orbital explorer ever built, each of its components carefully armored against the deadly stream of particles in Jupiter’s massive wake. The orbiter will require six years to reach its destination. Then, when it arrives at Europa, engineers will consider the mission successful if it survives for just three months of exploration before shorting out."

This lede from the article 'Is Jupiter's Bizarre Moon Our Best Hope for Finding Extraterrestrial Life?' grabbed me immediately because of the unique scenarios that it presented in the first opening lines. It allows the reader to be extremely visual and therfore want to read on. The entire first paragraph also flows very well and there does not seem to be any information that is irrelevant or that should be omitted. It makes the reader think and a thinking audience is one that will read and truly appreciate and be interested in what they are reading.

Nature Blog 2

It was around midnight. I was leaving the library after a long night of studying. Normally I walk down the stairs in the library and go through the ACC but for some reason that night I left the library through the entrance facing Yokum Hall. It was there that I saw something that I had never seen in person before, and I don't think I ever want to see it again.

It was a skunk. I know some people right now are saying, "Why were you afraid of a skunk?" but when you come from a country that does not have skunks, and the first time you see one it is running wild and catches you off guard you would be scared to. It was running by the railing, and it stopped when it saw me. I did the same thing. I tried to remember what I knew about skunks but the only thing that came to mind was that it was gonna spray me with something nasty, and I was going to smell really bad.

For a moment the animal looked at me directly in the eye and I stared back. Then it just ran off and it was all over. This little encounter intrigued my interest in skunks because I never thought my first time seeing one would be on campus walking back to my dorm. I began to do a little research.

Skunks belong to the Mephitidae family and to the order Carnivora. They are best known for the secretion that they produce which has extremely strong, disgusting smell. They look different according to the species. The one I saw was black and white but they have brown and cream colored skunks. I learned that it wasn't surprising that I saw this skunk alone because they are solitary animals unless when breeding.

Skunks eat both plants and animals. However, they have very little predators. This can be linked to the secretion that they produce. The great horned owl is the one of the only predators for the skunk.

Lede of the Week

I thought it would have been relatively easy to find a lede that actually got my attention and kept my interest so much so that I finished the entire story. It shocked me that when I simply glimpsed at a lede I knew whether it would get my attention or not.

I eventually narrowed my search down to two ledes but even then I was still not sure which one was more effective in keeping my interest. What made me unsure was the fact that both the stories were based on topics that intrigued me, and I would have read them regardless of how good the lede to the story was. This became a problem because I didn't know whether the ledes grabbed my interest simply because I liked the topics of the story or if they really were good ledes.

The first one was a basic news lede. I really appreciate those types of ledes for the reason that they delve straight into the issue and they are very concise. The second was a basic news lede as well but it had a little more flair and humor than the previous.

I evetually decided that the lede I liked best was: "Paleontologists said Thursday that they had discovered what amounted to a miniature prototype of Tyrannosaurus rex, complete with the oversize head, powerful jaws, long legs — and, as every schoolchild knows, puny arms — that were hallmarks of the king of the dinosaurs." This was from the story 'Fossil Find Challenges Theories on T. Rex'.

This lede was effective because it used so much imagery. This was the aspect that drew me in the most. The description of the T-Rex tapped into my desire to be educated about something that was still seemingly unknown. It's stories like these that get the readers excited about what is going on in the scientific world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/science/18dinosaur.html?ref=science

Nature Blog 1

Every time I leave or enter my dorm I always notice this one spider that has this huge web and in my mind looks poisonous. After noticing that spider for a couple of days I realized that there was a large number of similar looking spiders at various locations all over the dorm.

After doing some research I found what I thought to be the spiders that I was witnessing on a daily basis but then again I can't really notice the difference between every spider. "My spider" I think is a crab spider. They come from the family Philodromidae. They usually live in damp garden areas. The family contains over 500 species.

They are dull colored and the male often looks completely different from the females.