WATER - drink or fuel?

We all know what water is. We all use it for drinking every day. Its properties are well known all around the world since always. All of them? Of course not. Trough a simple machine, we can transform an everyday drink into the third most explosive gas in the world. How? 

The machine is often called “hydrogen cell generator”, discovered by William Nicholson in 1800, who used it for lighting. It’s based on the electrolysis effect, which consists of applying electricity to water. The materials used are the following ones: 

• Stainless steel from fizzy drinks cans
• A glass container with its cap (as Nescafe or Nutella ones)
• Some wires and a plastic tube.
• An electric battery (9V). 

1.-To begin with, obtain two stainless steel plates from fizzy drinks cans. Make sure they fit inside the container. You must make them a hole in each of them in order to connect them to the wires.

2.-Secondly, drill the cap of the container so that the plastic tube and the wires enter inside it. You can fix it with cello tape or superglue.

3.-Then, fill the container until the top with tap water. Add a bit of one of these products to improve water conductivity: salt, sodium bicarbonate or bleach. Beware of them!

4.-Finally, submerge the steel plates inside the water and close the container with its cap. Make sure the steel plates are not in contact inside the water. To switch it on, connect both wires to the battery. The result must be something similar to this:

Through the plastic tube, Hydroxy gas will start to emerge. The yield of the machine depends on the voltage of the battery and the size of the steel plates. You can watch a professional explanation of this machine in this video. It has several uses that can be adapted depending on the needs. Its main use is as fuel. Does it pollute? It doesn’t. In its combustion, only water vapour is released to the atmosphere. Actually, some people adapt this machine to their cars, so that they replace gasoline fuel and save some money on their fuel bills. Moreover, Hydroxy gas is also used for filling floating balloons. Check its power in this amazing video!

In conclusion, we can obtain an easy, cheap and environmentally-friendly fuel from one of the most abundant substances on Earth: WATER. The end of the gasoline era is coming!

SWIMMING IS FOR EVERYBODY

 Swimming can be practised all around the world. It is very simple and not very difficult as most people are taught to swim when they are young. It doesn’t need much material, just a towel, a swimsuit, goggles, a swimming cap and a pair of flip flops. Apart from that, if you want to develop your muscles more, you can use oars and swimming flippers that are not too expensive.

Swimming is a very healthy sport because it mostly makes the whole body work. It also relaxes. However it is not the best sport; it can be dangerous if you start to swim before you haven’t finished your digestion. Therefore you can get injured if you don’t properly make some movements of the arms or legs, or if your posture is not correct, you can acquire serious problems in your back.

To practice this sport in our country and province, we have several levels of difficulty and also of speed. If you are just starting with it, there are short courses in which you are not told to swim much and that take few hours every week. If you are more advanced, in these short courses there are also levels in which more hours every week are added and the number of meters you have to swim increases. If you think that your level of swimming is higher than this, you can go to the school of swimming in which you pay a fee for four months and you swim one hour everyday of the week, from Monday to Friday. Moreover there is a higher level than this, it is the club of swimming, in which you pay the same as the last one but you swim two hours every day of the week and in which you can compete with the rest of the provinces of Castilla y León and within the rest of the communities in Spain. Actually this is where I swim.

It is a bit hard, but it is worth it because you end with the satisfaction that one day when you compete you can win some medals and also you can get to be the best swimmer of our country. Here in Soria there are a lot of people who swim that are really good and that win a lot of medals and are good people. Swimming here doesn’t mean that you leave your studies, because it is surprising that with the number of hours that we spend swimming, they have really good academic results. Being here means to be good at swimming, be a hard worker, and a good student (or at least trying to be). Here we can find people of all ages, from 11 or 12 years old to people of 18 or 20 years old.

All in all, swimming is great; you can have a really good time without spending a lot of money and you can be healthy. For the ones that haven’t tried it yet, I advise them to try it. It is worth it and they can get a lot of advantages. 

I hope you have liked it. BYE!!

LAKE NATRON: THE LAKE THAT WILL PETRIFY YOU

It is said that there is a lake in Tanzania that petrifies every animal that submerges in its deadly water. Is that true?

If you tape Nick Brandt, Lake Natron in Google, you will be shown an amazing collection of balck-and-white photographs of a decadent grey moor. Probably it willl remind you somehow of a 19th century poem, or even of death. It is grey, dark and quite sinister.The photo is dominated by a prettified animal, probably a bird. Also grey. Spooky, isn’t it? It feels cold: as if a death had arrived there like a deadly breeze.

But if you only type Lake Natron in Google (and you omit the pictures by Brandt) you will see a bright red lake surrounded by yellow hills and a bright blue sky. You will also see flamingos, lots of flamingos. I’m not cheating you. It is just the same lake, the same époque. I will also add that the photos by Brandt are not false, nor retouched. 
Lake Natron is a salt lake located in North Tanzania, In the border with Kenya. It covers between 600 and 100 square kilometers depending on the season It is very near to a volcano: Doinyo Lengai (translated as God’s Mountain). This is a major factor. The volcano releases minerals and compounds to the lake: chlorine, sodium, magnesium and sodium carbonate.They are all very alkaline compounds. This sodium carbonate is very abundant in the lake. Sodium carbonate is a salt that, in reaction with water, creates a very alkaline solution. This salt helps the process of conservation of corpses –in ancient Egypt it was used in the process of mummification. This solution rises the PH of the lake’s water up to 10.5. Taking into account that caustic soda’s PH is 13.5 we can assume that this is an extremely alkaline (and hostile) environment. This alkaline water scalds and ocular damages to undapted animals, but that’s all. No animal is petrified by the lake, although some people argue that it does, especially after watching Brandt’s work. The animals were not killed by the lake, they died accidentally, naturally… And the compounds of the lake petrified (calcified) the corpses.

The environment is extremely alkaline, so Whow can flamingos live in there? Well it also has a scientyfical explanation: The redish color that paints the lake is not a mineral, but organic. An algae called Spirulina (adapted to the alkaline water) releases red pigment that paint the water. this red pigment attract the 2,5 million flamingos that live in the lake. They are well adapted to the environment, and they feed on the Spirulina. As well s they have a great place to brred, safe from predators. To avoid the alkaline water they stand on the mud or salt islets.

The artist also had a trick. He did not find the corpses as they appear in the photos. He found the calcified animals on the shore of the lake but he admitted that he moved the corpses to create an illusion, and I think it was quite effective.

SCHOOL DRAMA!

On the 16th of April, we started the Easter holidays! Well... you could call it holidays but really, with all the studying/homework/preparing for our third and last term, we couldn´t relax.

On the last week of the second term we arrive at class and we are bombarded with homework for the holidays. OK, one teacher gives us something that’s easy, another something that can be done in 30 minutes. We don’t mind. But if you add; the little amount of homework that “that” teacher gives us, plus the little amount of homework that “that” teacher gives us, plus the easy homework that “that” teacher gives us, plus the easy homework that “that” teacher gives us, and so on, IT ISNT A SMALL AMOUNT OF HOMEWORK!! For me, seriously, the worst part is when our teachers say, enjoy your holidays, after giving us the enormous list of homework.

Some of us do our homework at the beginning of the holidays; others of us leave it for the last minute. These problems are ours, but still... I agree totally with homework, because if we didn`t have homework, well, we would forget most of the things we have learnt in school, but...

Perhaps all of the teachers should have a meeting before the holidays to put in common the amount of homework we are going to be sent so that it balances out. 

I talk for every teen when I say this; how do our teachers want us to enjoy our holiday when they give us so much homework?

The importance of music in our life

 Music is an art which improves the cerebral development and furthermore it improves skills such as the reading and the mathematics. It develops intelligence, the brain, hearing and sensorial organs. As this, it improves concentration, coordination, attention, the memory, interaction with people, language, as I have said before, Mathematics. You can also learn about the history of music.

In addition, music makes us to feel emotions and also it controls our mood. Music is like the "soundtrack” of our lives; we have favorite songs which remind us people and also it can remind moments that we want to keep forever.

The musical training for playing an instrument establishes neural connections that also improve other aspects of human communication. That is why children with musical training have better vocabulary and reading skills. It also explains why the musicians are better able at hearing conversations when there is background noise. 

Apart from that, music also has importance in the integration of people in society; it makes people express themselves in a different way because music helps to win autonomy and also makes us to look after ourselves. 

Of course, that music has different uses. The best form is to develop everything, as said before, by playing an instrument and studying how music is formed. Also listening to classic music and learning the basics of music develops some capacities a lot. Because of this, some pregnant mothers listen to classical music and some studies say that pregnant mothers that listen to that type of music have intelligent children.

Our feelings and our way of being is usually represented by the music we listen to. Music provides us calmness and happiness. It helps to clear our head when we have depression or an annoyance. Music is like a pleasure which makes us feel better, not only listening to music, but also dancing and singing. 

The musical preferences of each individual define their personality. Consequently, depending on our mood, we choose a different type of music just to listen to or maybe to dance or sing to. For example, when we are in love with someone, and in some moment we feel that love, we prefer to listen to romantic music. In a party or to celebrate something we look for music which motivates you or funny music. 

Of course, those those types of music can be very different. Romantic music is not the same than jazz, pop, rock or rap. For instance, people who prefer jazz and blues the most are likely to be intelligent, tolerant, liberal, an open to new experiences. The ones who prefer heavy metal are also intelligent, but they are curious, athletic and usually the heads of a social group. The features that prevail in people who prefer funky and hip-hop are extroversion, energy and a very high self-esteem. But this is just an example. 

In conclusion, the importance of studying music at schools is very high because makes children to develop some capacities needed in the day by day.

Flyboard

This summer, when I went on holidays to Peñiscola, I saw a man, over the sea, that was flying. I did not believe what my eyes were seeing. The person could go up because he wore an object that, with the pressure of the water, and the air could go up very high, but he had to have a lot of balance, because he could fall into the water. I didn’t have the opportunity to use it, because it happened on the last days I stayed there for holidays.

When I arrived in Soria, I had a lot of curiosity about this sport. I had never seen it before. This new sport is called Fly board. Nowadays, it has become very famous. With this object, you can fly over 12 meters high, but at first it is a bit difficult because you have to have a lot of balance. Also, it allows you to submerge under water. 

The board has two nozzles to provide balance. The first ones are located under the feet to promise drive, and the other ones are located in the hands, to secure balance as if you were using ski canes. This object is like a board, where one stands on. It has to be connected to a watercraft by a very large tube, because you need another person to control along with you the pressure of the water and the air. This sport needs two people; one on the board and another on the watercraft to help the other with the pressure he wants, giving speed to make the board go higher.

If you want to do this alone, you have the opportunity to do it by another method where you control the pressure you want for the board, but doing it alone is a bit more expensive. If you want to rent it with the help of another person the price is around 100 euros for 20 minutes.

RUGBY IN SPAIN

Rugby es one of the most popular sports in England. England´s team plays in the 6-nations cup, which means that England´s team is in the elite. Meanwhile …. this sport in nearly estingushed in Spain . I am one of those rare Spanish rugby playes. Furthermore, I am a girl.  That means that it is really hard to find other girls to play with. Let's say Rugby is not seen as a very femenine sport, and it is quite impopular. After some years, our team, Ingenieros de Soria, has reached our goal; to createm a femenine team. After all, we have created two teams, one for senior players and another one for girls under age. We are more than twenty girls ready to play our favorite and unpopular sport. Now, the most dificult thing is to find girls and teams to fight with.  We play in the Aragon League of Rugby, but there are only there teams so we can barely play matches.

Although there are barely any teams to play with, we have managed to play some matches. On December  we played against  Fénix in Zaragoza, on their pitch. But last Saturday we played in our  home, in Soria, in “Los Pajaritos” in our pitch. We were ready to win; we had been preparing for that  match for ages.

It was raining. We played in a grass pitch. It was full of mud. It was cold. Freezing cold. We fought an we won.

After all we wan. This twenty girls who prefer studs and rugby balls to heels. These twenty girls that tried to practise a very unpopular sport have won a match. And we will try to make it popular; this, our beatiful, favorite, noble and femenine sport.

-“Good night, my little princess with studs”

And my dreams come …..., as a victory over the Fénix girls. Understanding that Rugby is a worderful sport. Just like English people say.