Cordyceps, the real zombievirus

Cordyceps is a parasitic fungi that targets arthropods, mainly insects. There are 400 known species, which only a few have been studied. Ophiocordyceps unilateralis is the one we will focus on. Like most other cordyceps types this fungi takes control over the hosts body. O. Unilateralis targets ants of the species Camponotus leonardi that lives in the rainforests of Africa, South America and Asia.

The fungi penetrates the ants exoskeleton, bypassing host defenses and then progressively takes control of the victims brain. As it enters the ants body it starts to consume less vital tissue of the ants body which causes it to spread rapidly. How it manipulates the host is still unknown but scientist believe it uses enzymes.
After the fungi seizes full control of the host it forces it to climb up the stem of plants, about 25 cm above the unknowing ant colony. It then uses the hosts mandibles to grab onto a leaf, then it kills the host.
Then its fruiting bodies starts growing out of the back of the dead ants head, finally rupturing and releasing spores upon the doomed colony below. This process takes from 4 up to 10 days. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as zombie ants.
But the healthy ants aren't completely helpless as they have learned to recognize an infected ant, as they carry them away from the colony whenever one is spotted.
In the popular post apocalyptic video game The Last Of Us the zombie virus is a mutated version of cordyceps, but there is no need to worry as the chance of it mutating into being able to infect humans is highly unlikely.
 - Erik & Leo

The Polar Zones

The Polar Zones

Polar zones are climate zones furthest from the equator. The Arctic Circle is located at latitude 66.3 ° N and south of latitude 66.3 ° S. The area north of the Arctic Circle called the northern polar zone, and the area south of the Antarctic Circle is called the southern polar zone. There are two polar regions. At the south pole is called the Antarctic area and at the North Pole 's Arctic. The poles are the coldest places on earth. It's so cold that the ground is always frozen and almost all the water is ice. The phenomenon when the ground is frozen all year called permafrost. The cold is due to sun rays from space spread out over a larger area when they hit earth than at e.g. The equator. This is caused out of Earth inclines. Another source of cold is the ice in the polar zones reflects the light back into space.

Climate

In the polar regions, there are two seasons. The winter that takes up two thirds of the year, and the summer, which is much shorter, only about 4 months. During the winter, the soil temperature drops down to -30°C or lower. At the poles, it is an average of 100 mm of precipitation per year. The precipitation is always snow because it's too cold for rain to fall. This leads to low humidity.

In winter, it becomes even very dark, so dark that the sun does not even go up some months. This is called the polar night.

In summer, however, it will be for some time bright all day. This is called the Midnight Sun. But as the sun's rays spread out more at the polar zones, it will not get hot. The temperature is around 0 degrees or lower, but sometimes the temperature goes up to 5 degrees Celsius. In the summer, the ground warms up so much that tolerant plants can live. Grasses, lichens, mosses and shrubs are among the plants that thrive in this climate. But only the upper five feet of ground thaws. Below that is permafrost. It can reach down several hundred meters below the surface.

The People and their Influence

The people who live at the poles are the Sami and Inuit. The Sami people live in the tundra in northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and an insignificantly small part of Russia. The Sami people live on reindeer herding, fishing and hunting. They have long been nomads who followed the reindeer and lived in their huts, but have begun to settle down more as the new technology is developed. The Inuit are also nomads but they live in Greenland and northern Canada (Baffin Islands). The inuits mainly live on sealfishing.

As the Arctic and Antarctic is so rich of non- found oil resorvoirs, people come there to find oil and wealth. As oil extraction is very dirty, it destroys the environment around it, making life much more difficult for animals and several species are endangered. People's excessive carbon dioxide emissions heat the earth more and more, the so-called greenhouse effect. It gets its name because the atmosphere has about the same effect as a greenhouse, it will hold the heat.

This new, increasing heat causes the ice around the poles to melt and the permafrost declines in some places. Ice that melts makes it more difficult for polar bears and other animals at the poles of life, it affects some species so much that they become endangered.

If the ice at the poles were to melt entirely, sea level would have risen sharply which led to global flooding and low-lying countries and cities had been completely submerged.

To stop these potential natural disasters, all people think about their carbon footprint and the amount of energy they use. You can also donate money to various funds which cares for a better environment.

- Erik

Introduction to our new Blog.

So, as you might've found out already we're going to write a lot about what we learn in class at the Science aswell as Social Science lessons. 

We are 4 guys in school that find Science and Social Science very interesting aswell as important. We will be continuously posting over the semester and we'll probably take a break during the christmas break when we will go hibernating. 

We only use reliable and relevant sources and information e.g. Bitesize and/or books. Our information will be straight forward and not biased.

Here are some rules:

- You are allowed to use the information we post, but we'd appreciate that you do not copy our posts.

- No negative, racist or any kind of offensive comments/posts.

- If you have any questions send to the following E-mail : arssk70@gmail.com

Sincerely, William, Erik, Leo and Ali.