FACT:Each person sheds 40lbs of skin in his or her lifetime

When I first read about this topic I did not believe it at all…. I was thinking, why do humans even shed skin? I know that sometimes we have some dead skin, and they fall off, but those are so little amounts of skid lost. 40lbs is approximately 18.1kg. Actually, humans shed their skin every 25-45 days and we get a completely new layer of skin. Starting in our stratum basale(one of the layer of the skin), new cells replace old cells (through continuous mitosis) and push old skin cells, which are being keratinized, up to the free surface of our skin. When the old skin cells reach the top, they are dead, and they flake off without us even noticing half the time, (unless our skin is really dry then we notice) As a result, every 25 days we can have a brand new epidermis!

FACT;The Ebola virus kills 4 out of every 5 humans it infects.

The Ebola virus is a type of RNA virus that causes the disease known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever (also called just Ebola). The origins of this virus in unknown, however, however, on the basis of available evidence and the nature of similar viruses, researchers believe that the virus is zoonotic (animal-borne) and is normally maintained in an animal host that is native to the African continent. Research scientists continue to search for the exact animal host. This virus Is transmitted through direct contact with an infected person or his or her body fluids (such as blood or secretions). The late stage of an Ebola infection is when the spread of Ebola most often occurs. Well from the title, we can see how deadly this Ebola virus is, so to protect ourselves, we should NOT eat monkey meat (monkeys and apes are known carriers of Ebola virus), have direct contact with a person suffering from Ebola or wear their clothes. Also, it is important to wash your hands after shaking hands with strangers…..

FACT:Human tapeworms can grow up to 22.9m

Ok, let us talk about human tapeworms now. Human tapeworms are actually really worms that crawl around in the inside of people who have them, and I find these tapeworms disgusting…..

Tapeworms are gotten from eating raw or inadequately cooked, infected pork, meat, or fish. They flat, segmented and shaped like ribbons. Tapeworms are the largest intestinal parasites and can grow to up to several feet in length. Tapeworm larvae can be found in undercooked meat or fish. From larvae, worms develop in the body and attach to the small intestine. It survives in humans by absorbing nutrients from ingested foods. Tapeworm infection is often symptomless.

So, we must be careful when eating our food, or else we may get a long disgusting creature crawling around in our body, and absorb OUR nutrients!

Reflections on term 3 performance

Now let me reflect on my term 3 performances in Science. This term, I was rather close again to my goal- A1 for science. My failure to achieve my target this time is due to some really careless mistakes here and there. Most of the people in the class have gotten an A1 grade while I did not, and that really disappointed me. However, I think if I have been more focused when revising and doing the test, those little mistakes would not have been made, let this be a lesson for me and I will make good use of the 1-week holiday to revise my science focused. I will try my best and hope that my EOY results will make me proud of myself.

Performance in science in term 2

Now let me reflect on my term 2 performances in science. Sad to say, I again did not achieve an A1 because I used up all my time on the IH exam which was a major exam. However, I do not think that can be an excuse for me to not get a good score in science. If I had cut down my time on leisure activities, I would have been able to have enough time to prepare for both the Science and IH papers and I think I should not have given priority to the IH paper just because it is an exam and not a test. In conclusion, I think I still need to work on my time management to do well in Science.

Term 1 refection on performance

Now I shall reflect on my performance in term 1. Although chemistry taught in term 1 was interesting, I found it challenging and did not ask for help from anyone, and thus did not do as well as I wanted. I feel that in the process of learning, one should not be shy and ask when in doubt of anything so as to learn well. Most importantly, I feel that I should set a goal for myself, a target score so as to strive for better results. Apart from that, I should also work on my attitude and be more hardworking when it comes to memorizing notes, such as the charges of the ions and the 1^st 20 elements of the periodic table.