Forensic Science For Insect Lovers

Students pursuing a forensic science degree will need to be equipped with some knowledge in entomology. It is possible to be full majors of entomology specialists resulting in their being forensic entomologists. Entomology is the study of insects and is a branch of zoology. Students aiming to specialize in entomology will need to be equipped of the knowledge of the myths involved with the subject.

One myth you may encounter in the course of a forensic science degree is that forensic entomologists are able to make an accurate estimate of a person's time of death. As a matter of fact, it is the medical pathologists that do time of death estimates and not the forensic entomologist. All forensic entomologists can do is make a very precise estimate of postmortem time. This is because forensic entomologists have a concrete knowledge of the growth and lifespan of insects.

For the development of these specific species of insects, many variables affect its rate of growth. Under optimum conditions, growth rate of insects are very fast. Students and professional forensic entomologists create a baseline for insects development time in order for them to be able to estimate how long a dead body has been deceased. For instance, a colony of insects that have grown upon a corpse and was able to reproduce would give a specific time span.

Specifically, insects that feed on human tissue only feed on dead human tissue. For example, the Sarcophaga haemorrhoidalis or the flesh fly prefers the indoors and grows as it feeds. It also has the capacity to give live birth, which has generated theories on the spontaneous generation of life.

Enodia port-landia butterflies also known as the Southern Pearly Eye which are plentiful in the South East United States are commonly found at human death situations because they feed on body fluids which are abundant in sugar. Wasps and bees are also important as their existence in a crime scene indicate many clues to the forensic entomologist.

Insects are now used to determine levels of toxicity due to drug use when no other source is present. When there is no blood, tissue or urine, insects are used to detect the presence of narcotics or other drugs. Students of a forensic science degree specializing in entomology need to be equipped with enough knowledge of toxicology for cases involving drug use. Certain fly larvae do not grow as fast as a result of a certain type of narcotics.

Future forensic science degree holders as well as Forensic entomologists are also consultants for major beverage or food corporations. In cases regarding contamination of products with insects, forensic entomologist are the ones who state the degree of contamination and if it occurred after the customer purchased the product or while the product was being created in the plant. A forensic scientist is also called in to court cases regarding emotional trauma caused by such structural or business related bug infestations such as bed bugs in hotels, which feed on animals as well as human blood.
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Television Has Changed Forensic Science

The highly popular television series Crime Scene Investigation or CSI has brought about a new demand for students pursuing a forensic science degree. Techniques that are mostly provided by biomedical specialists are being used to solve crime-scenes and there is a large need for specifically forensic specialists in this area. Now available for students are an undergraduate Bachelor's Degree, a post-graduate Master's degree or a certification which you can augment your particular undergraduate degree with.
The basis for students of dentistry, medicine or veterinary medicine can be provided by a forensic science degree. A varied field which blends the different skills of various subjects such as digital and non-digital photography, physics, law, chemistry with an emphasis in DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid analysis is what comprises this particular field of study.
Holders of a degree in forensic science are able to quickly find employment as there is quite a need for specialists in this field today, due to the rising population causing the rising crime rate. Forensic science degree holders have employment opportunities in hospitals, police departments, crime or private laboratories, death investigators, general forensic scientists, laboratory technicians or forensic computer scientists among others.
Jobs include technical assistance with lie detector test, skills in computer analysis, academic assistance with psychological profiling, statistics and forensic engineering.
An establishment accredited by the Accreditation Commission of the American Academy of Forensic Science is highly recommended for forensic science degrees. Many different schedules are offered as part time or full-time course loads or online as well as on-campus learning. Forensic science degrees finished at accredited institutions with a preferably professional staff will give you better facilities, higher quality computer interface equipment, software and forensic-specialized libraries.
Internships usually given in the third year of study are available at police-departments in partnership with the establishment. This is a big step in accomplishing your forensic science degree course requirements as it is in your internship that you get an approximate feel for the demands of this type of work and exposure to real live crime scene investigations.
Your education should emphasize similar skills as that of the scientific method. Emphasis on research, presentation methods and publications on crime-related problems solved. Specialized studies in Crime Scene Investigation, Forensic Chemistry, Forensic Toxicology, High Technology Crime Investigation and Forensic Molecular Biology are eventually, the choices available for each student to concentrate in.
A four year undergraduate Bachelor's Degree, a two year certification or a post graduate Master's degree are available in this course of study. Certifications are available for those who have finished a different undergraduate course such as law or medicine and would like to augment their knowledge with forensics.
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How to Cram For Exams In Under 2 Days

It's that stressful time of the year again. You have been going out and drinking all week and now you have an exam to perform in the next few days. There's not much time to dwell on the past on why you didn't turn up to the lectures or tutorials. It is now time to get down and dirty.

Here are three easy tips you can compress weeks of lectures and tutorial into a few days:

1. Look at past exam papers. Try to collect as much past exam paper info as possible. The questions in the exams will tell you exactly what you need to know and memorize. Some lecturers are lazy and will tend to use past exam questions in your new exams. Also, make sure you try to find the solutions to these questions. Sometimes you don't have enough time to look back at your notes or find the solutions in your text book.

2. Find a classmate or friend that has already done the exam the previous year. These people are very helpful in explaining certain theories and solutions. They will also condense their knowledge and give tips on what component of the exam to focus on. For example, some subjects have some filler materials in them and your friend of yours will tell you what materials you don't need to learn.

3. Read all the text material in one shot and then try to summarize it without looking or referring back to it. This forces you to memorize and focus on what the subject is about.
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Facts About Jupiter's Atmosphere

Jupiter's upper atmosphere experiences differential rotation. It rotates at different speeds due to the variance in the atmosphere and its unusual shape. This may also be partly due to the fact that Jupiter is almost entirely gaseous.
Jupiter is composed of 10% helium and 90% hydrogen, and also has traces of "rock", ammonia, water and methane. This is quite like the composition of the Solar Nebula, which formed the solar system. Saturn's composition is very similar to Jupiter's, but Neptune and Uranus have much less helium and hydrogen.
The facts about Jupiter that we can claim for certain about the interior of the planet (as well as the other gas planets) is only indirect knowledge, and it seems likely that it will remain thus. The data that scientists have received from the probe Galileo only extends to 150 kilometers below the tops of the clouds.
Scientists hypothesize that the core of Jupiter is made of rocky materials of a mass that equals ten to fifteen planets the size of Earth.
Above Jupiter's core is the bulk of the gas planet, which is metallic liquid hydrogen. These are the same electrons and protons found in the interior of the sun, but at a much lower temperature. On Jupiter, the hydrogen is a liquid, not a gas, and it conducts electricity. It is the source of the magnetic field of Jupiter. It also likely contains helium and some types of "ices".
Jupiter's outermost layer is made up primarily of ordinary helium and hydrogen. Other simple molecules are present in minute amounts in the atmosphere.
Scientists seeking facts about Jupiter expected to find a good deal of oxygen in Jupiter's atmosphere, but data from the probe Galileo suggests that Jupiter has much less oxygen than exists around the sun.
Jupiter and its sister gas planets have winds of high velocity that are confined in broad latitude bands. The winds in adjacent bands blow in different directions. The colored bands that dominate the planet's appearance are the result of slight temperature and chemical differences between the bands. The darker bands are called belts and the lighter bands are known as zones.
Information from the Galileo probe has indicated that the winds of Jupiter are faster than scientists expected - about 400 mph. Galileo also found that the atmosphere of Jupiter is very turbulent. This tells us that the planet's winds are driven more by internal heat, rather than like Earth's winds, which are driven by heat from the sun.
The bright colors one can see in the clouds of Jupiter are most likely the result of chemical reactions of the trace elements in the atmosphere of the planet. Facts about Jupiter indicate that this may perhaps involve sulfur, whose compounds have been known to take on many different colors.
The colors seem to be correlated with the altitudes of the clouds - reds are highest, then whites and browns, with blue the lowest. Sometimes scientists are able to see the lower layers of the atmosphere through holes in the upper layers.
The Great Red Spot of Jupiter has been seen by observers for over 300 years. It is actually an oval, about 12,000 by 25,000 km, large enough to hold two planets the size of Earth. Other, smaller spots have been seen for decades. Observations using infrared, and the type of rotation indicate that the Great Red Spot is actually a region of high pressure, with cloud tops colder and higher than the surrounding regions. There have been similar "structures" seen on Neptune and Saturn. It's not known how these high pressure regions can last for so long.
Jupiter radiates more energy than it gets from the sun. Jupiter's interior is hot - probably about 12,000 degrees kelvin. Jupiter doesn't produce energy the same way the sun does, however. The sun's energy comes from nuclear fusion, but Jupiter's interior is too cool for nuclear reactions to take place.
Jupiter has an extremely large magnetic field - a lot stronger than Earth's. The magnetosphere extends more than 650 million kilometers away - past Saturn's orbit. Facts about Jupiter confirm that its moons lie inside the scope of its magnetosphere.
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Objects in Outer-Space

Comets (Sometimes called dirty snowballs or icy mudballs) are really small solar system bodies. They orbit the sun. When a comet is close enough to the sun; it emits a visible coma. As of 1995, we have cataloged over 850 comets. Comets are only visible when they are near the sun. Otherwise, they are invisible.
Asteroids (sometimes also called minor planets or planetoids) are very small solar system bodies. They orbit the sun. They are smaller than planets; but larger than meteoroids. If we add up the entire mass of each and every asteroid; it would be less than our Moon. 11 Asteroids have been explored by spacecrafts, so far. The largest asteroid is 1 Ceres. It is 974 km in diameter and holds about 25% of the mass of all the asteroids combined.
A black hole is a region of space that has a gravitation field so powerful, that even light cannot escape it's pull. A black hole only has a one way surface, which is called an event horizon. Objects can fall into it. But absolutely nothing can come out. Although its very hard to spot a black hole in the universe. It can often be detected due to it's effect on surrounding matter. Black holes started appearing 300-800 million years after the big bang. It's now believed that at the center of nearly every galaxy, there are super massive black holes. These super massive black holes have huge solar masses. The most massive black hole ever found was estimated to have 18 billion solar masses.
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Why Is Neptune Blue?

Our First Close-Up View of Neptune

Though Neptune is so far away from the Earth that it only looks like a tiny faraway star when observed with binoculars, we have discovered that this planet is actually a startlingly brilliant blue celestial object upon closer inspection. When Voyager 2 flew by Neptune in 1989 (twelve whole years after it was originally launched from Earth in 1977), we got our first glimpse the planet, revealing it to be a brilliant blue. So, what gives Neptune its blue color? We must first clarify what we are actually seeing and we also must know exactly what to analyze to discover the answer.

What We Are Actually Seeing

When we see the planets in the night sky, we are actually viewing the light from the sun that is reflecting off of them. Therefore, we can ascertain that we are seeing reflected sunlight off of Neptune. But, why does this reflected light appear blue and not yellow like the sun's light normally looks?

Where Do We Look?

The answer to why Neptune is blue lies within Neptune's atmosphere, which merges into its liquid mantle. More specifically, we must examine the components of its outer atmosphere to find out the solution our question. What do the high cloud tops of Neptune's atmosphere reveal?

Unveiling Neptune's Atmosphere

There are three major gases that make up Neptune's atmosphere: hydrogen, helium, and methane (along with trace amounts of water and ice particles). While hydrogen and helium make up about 99% of its atmosphere, it is the remaining roughly 1% of methane that is important. The presence of methane is why Neptune appears blue.

What Does This Methane Do?

These icy methane particles in the clouds take the red and orange light waves and absorb them, leaving the blue light waves to escape and reflect outward to our eyes. This is how the sunlight is reflected off of Neptune's atmosphere and appears blue.

Conclusion

Why is Neptune blue? We've seen that after the sun's light reaches Neptune, the methane in the atmosphere of Neptune absorbs the red end of the spectrum's light waves, allowing only the blue light to be reflected back towards Earth.
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What to Consider When Looking For the Best Telescope For You

Are you a budding amateur astronomer looking for the best telescope? There are a few things that you should keep in mind before heading out to the store and spending your good and hard earned money.
Firstly, remember that aperture is the key to a telescope's performance, not magnification. Aperture determines the telescopes ability to capture light and this, over and above magnification, will determine how good the image is that you see. Thus, the best telescope, will have an excellent aperture to match its intended use. Magnification, by its very nature, will simply enhance the image that is already there.
So, if there is a faint and blurry image (as will be achieved with a cheaper and smaller aperture telescope), it will just become a bigger faint and blurry image. An easy rule of thumb to remember regarding magnification is... on a normal night with reasonable conditions, expect 50x magnification per inch of aperture. So, for example, a 2.5" telescope will have a magnification of 125x and a 6" telescope's magnification would reasonably be expected at 300x.
Secondly, telescope size, telescope design and telescope price will all be dictated by what you want to achieve, what you want to see, how much you want to spend (not just in money terms, but also in terms of time and effort), how technical you need / want your telescope to be and how portable you want to be. Answer these questions first before heading to the store because the best telescope for you will be the one that you use the most.
Lastly, a great way of experiencing astronomy, learning about telescopes and finding the best telescope for you is to join an astronomy club. There are clubs all over the world in every major (and many smaller) cities. Most clubs have observation nights or 'star-parties' and you can come along and learn and trial different telescopes to find the one best suited to your needs. You can look up clubs (and telescope information) in an astronomy magazine too. Two very good and popular ones are Astronomy and Sky & Telescope.

Adrian Magalas is a keen and passionate outdoors guys, loving adventure sports, snow skiing, hiking and cycling. He also has an interest in business ownership, internet marketing, photography and astronomy.

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Advantages of Telescope Binoculars For Astronomy

Telescope binoculars are getting very popular these days as more and more people are going for it. Many people ask me if there is any difference between telescope binoculars and binoculars. The difference between the two is in its usage. Binoculars are used to get a magnified view of objects that are relatively close whereas telescope binoculars are used for viewing very distant objects - mainly for stargazing.

Telescope binoculars have the best of both binoculars and telescopes:
• You can view it using both your eyes, which means that your eye muscles will not get stressed.
• Sturdy and portable. You can carry it with you where ever you go.
• It has more focal length which helps you in stargazing.
• Focusing is very easy on telescope binoculars.
• Easily be mounted on a tripod for steady viewing.
• No set up time - just pull them out and start gazing!
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There are many different types of telescope binoculars available on the market. There are a few things that you need to keep in mind while buying them:

First thing that you need to look for, while purchasing telescope binoculars, is 'porro prism' which are best for viewing in dim lights and make stargazing easy and enjoyable.

It is important to make sure that big astronomy binoculars have a provision for mounting on a stand. Mounting your binoculars using tripod or any fixed object will facilitate better viewing. Even a small shaking movement can disturb your view, from your focal point and moreover it is hard to keep the binoculars pointed in the same direction.

If you are interested in astronomy and do not use binoculars for watching the stars then you definitely are missing out on a great experience. It is such fun to watch stars in the clear sky with your telescope binoculars which are very easy to use. You can see different stars, constellations, moon and planets without straining the muscles of your eyes as the equipment facilitates viewing with both the eyes. The best thing about most of the binoculars is that they can be mounted very easily. They are pretty sturdy unlike telescopes which are very delicate and have to be handled very carefully. It does not take a long time for you to set it up on a tripod or any other stand. So just put the binoculars and tripod in a bag on your back - and get going!

Fun Astronomy Facts

If you want to measure our solar system, how would you do it? This simplest way is to measure it in light years. For those not familiar with the term, a light-year is the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year. This is because the distances between stars is so huge that it is otherwise very challenging to imagine them. A light year is exactly 9,460,730,472,580.8 kilometers. Putting this into real world distances, the Milky Way is approximately 100,000 light-years across.

The Earth is one of nine planets that form the Solar System, so called because the sun, the source of solar energy, is the central point around which all the planets revolve. So far, scientists have not been able to establish or prove the existence of life forms on any other planet within the solar system. Often, the search for other life forms has focused on looking at the climatic conditions of the celestial body in question. Scientists assume that life forms on a different planet would need similar conditions as life on earth, such as oxygen, light and water, to grow. This may or may not be true.

Other than the sun, no other celestial body significantly affects the earth as the moon does. It is well know that the moon affects the rise and fall of the ocean tide. Such is the effect of the gravitational pull between the earth and the moon. Jupiter is easily the largest planet in our solar system. To put its size in context, Jupiter is more than 300 times the mass of Earth. Here is the interesting part; Jupiter has 63 moons that orbit it and yet it is not the planet in the Solar System with the most moons. That honor belongs to the ringed-planet Saturn, which has 66 moons identified so far. Pluto, the farthest flung among the nine planets, has been the subject of heated debate on whether it really qualifies to be considered a planet. Nowadays, it is classified as a dwarf planet. Its orbit around the Sun is somewhat heavily elliptical. In fact, there are instances where Pluto is actually closer to the Sun than Neptune, the planet that precedes it.

Now speaking of size within the Solar System, well, let us just say that the Sun is unmatched. Did you know that the Sun comprises more than 99% of the total mass of the entire solar system? Jupiter actually takes up much of the remaining proportion. Surface temperatures on the Sun stand at 5000 Kelvins (4727 degrees Celsius). With temperatures at its core reaching a 15.6 million Kelvins (15.6 million Celsius), the Sun is truly a celestial spectacle. It gets even better when one realizes that the Sun is classified as a class G star. Stars are classified in six major categories that tie in to the surface temperature and brightness. The categories are M, K, G, F, A, B and O listed in ascending order brightness and surface temperature. You can see that the Sun falls on the lower end of this classification. Category B and O are rare in the universe while most stars are in the category M and emit less heat and light energy. That said, the Sun is within the 90th percentile by mass among all stars. We have found other stars that are larger than our sun: one is estimated to be approximately 60,000 times bigger.

The Solar System forms a tiny part of the Milky Way Galaxy, a vast conglomeration of stars and planets. What makes astronomy so thrilling is that despite its size, the Milky Way is not the only galaxy in the universe. There are hundreds of billions of galaxies out there, probably more. The closest galaxy to our own Milky Way is Andromeda. Now, brace yourself for the distance: it is 2.3 million light years away. One of the most exciting phenomena for astronomers is the black hole. It is an area of the universe where the concentration of mass is so massive (no pun intended) that the gravitational pull it generates sucks in everything around it. Everything includes light. Remember that the escape velocity for any object in the universe is the speed required to escape the objects gravitational pull. The escape velocity for the Earth is slightly over 11 kilometers per hour while for the Moon is 2.5 kilometers per second. Well for a black hole, the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light. That is how strong the pull is.
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