library.SCOTCH: Science: Solving the World's Problems?: Earth and Space

Definitions

Atmosphere
Atmosphere is the mass of gases that surrounds a planet or other heavenly body. Scientists divide Earth's atmosphere by temperature into four layers: the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere, and the thermosphere. (World Book Online, 2019)
Biosphere
Biosphere, relatively thin life-supporting stratum of Earth’s surface, extending from a few kilometres into the atmosphere to the deep-sea vents of the ocean. The biosphere is a global ecosystem composed of living organisms (biota) and the abiotic (nonliving) factors from which they derive energy and nutrients.
Hydrosphere
Hydrosphere, discontinuous layer of water at or near Earth’s surface. It includes all liquid and frozen surface waters, groundwater held in soil and rock, and atmospheric water vapour. Water is the most abundant substance at the surface of Earth. About 1.4 billion cubic km (326 million cubic miles) of water in liquid and frozen form make up the oceans, lakes, streams, glaciers, and groundwaters found there. It is this enormous volume of water, in its various manifestations, that forms the discontinuous layer, enclosing much of the terrestrial surface, known as the hydrosphere.
Lithosphere
Lithosphere, Rigid, rocky outer layer of the Earth, consisting of the crust and the solid outermost layer of the upper mantle. It extends to a depth of about 60 mi (100 km). It is broken into about a dozen separate, rigid blocks, or plates (see plate tectonics). Slow convection currents deep within the mantle, generated by radioactive heating of the interior, are believed to cause the lateral movements of the plates (and the continents that rest on top of them) at a rate of several inches per year.

The Greenhouse Effect

TWIG. (n.d.). The greenhouse effect [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www-twig-world-com.db.plcscotch.wa.edu.au/film/the-greenhouse-effect-1245/

NB: Video requires Google Chrome or Safari to view.

Deep Ocean Currents

Miller, S. (2004). Orwell once more. Sewanee Review, 112(4), 595-618. Retrieved from Literary Reference Centre.
Presents literary criticism which profiles English writer George Orwell. His essays are often found in freshman college readers and in anthologies of English writers, and two of his novels—"Animal Farm" and "1984"—have been translated into many languages.

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Why biographers are interested in Orwell is understandable because he led a life that was unusual for a writer. He was a British policeman in Burma, a dishwasher in Paris, and an investigative journalist in England; he was also a bookstore assistant, schoolmaster, grocer, and foreign correspondent. Orwell's interest in military affairs is apparent in his essays and reviews, many of which touch on military questions.

Effects of Climate Change

Welch, C. (2019) Arctic permafrost is thawing fast. Retreived from
ARCTIC THAW - Across nine million square miles at the top of the planet, climate change is writing a new chapter. Arctic permafrost isn’t thawing gradually, as scientists once predicted. Geologically speaking, it’s thawing almost overnight. As soils like the ones at Duvanny Yar soften and slump, they’re releasing vestiges of ancient life—and masses of carbon—that have been locked in frozen dirt for millennia. Entering the atmosphere as methane or carbon dioxide, the carbon promises to accelerate climate change, even as humans struggle to curb our fossil fuel emissions.

Humans and the Carbon Cycle

TWIG. (n.d.). The carbon family [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www-twig-world-com.db.plcscotch.wa.edu.au/film/the-carbon-family-1272/

NB: Video requires Google Chrome or Safari to view.

Ocean Currents

Katz, C. (2019). Why does the Arctic have more plastic than most places on Earth? Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/10/remote-arctic-contains-more-plastic-than-most-places-on-earth/
Plastics travel on ocean currents and through the air to the far north and accumulate—sometimes inside the animals that live there.

The Birth of our Solar System

TWIG. (n.d.). The Birth of Our Solar System [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www-twig-world-com.db.plcscotch.wa.edu.au/film/the-birth-of-our-solar-system-882/

NB: Video requires Google Chrome or Safari to view.

Solar system, assemblage consisting of the Sun—an average star in the Milky Way Galaxy—and those bodies orbiting around it: 8 (formerly 9) planets with about 170 known planetary satellites (moons); countless asteroids, some with their own satellites; comets and other icy bodies; and vast reaches of highly tenuous gas and dust known as the interplanetary medium. (Britannica, 2017)

Mirrors / Telescopes

BBC Bitesize. (2014). Light waves and mirrors. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/zq7thyc/revision/2
The law of reflection states when light reaches a mirror, it reflects off the surface of the mirror:
the incident ray is the light going towards the mirror the reflected ray is the light coming away from the mirror. Ray diagrams show what happens to light in mirrors and lenses.
The Physics Classroom. (2017). Reflection and the ray model of light.Retrieved from http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/refln
The Physics Classroom discusses the physics of mirrors, plane, concave and convex. Reflection and image formation for mirrors, ray diagrams and image characteristics are discussed.
Urone, P. & Hinrichs, R. (2012). Telescopes (College Physics). Retrieved from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/physics/chapter/26-5-telescopes/
Telescopes are meant for viewing distant objects, producing an image that is larger than the image that can be seen with the unaided eye. Telescopes gather far more light than the eye, allowing dim objects to be observed with greater magnification and better resolution. Although Galileo is often credited with inventing the telescope, he actually did not. What he did was more important. He constructed several early telescopes, was the first to study the heavens with them, and made monumental discoveries using them. Among these are the moons of Jupiter, the craters and mountains on the Moon, the details of sunspots, and the fact that the Milky Way is composed of vast numbers of individual stars.

The Satellite Story

TWIG. (n.d.). The Satellite Story [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www-twig-world-com.db.plcscotch.wa.edu.au/film/the-satellite-story-872/

NB: Video requires Google Chrome or Safari to view.

The Large Hadron Collider

TWIG. (n.d.). The Hadron Collider [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www-twig-world-com.db.plcscotch.wa.edu.au/film/large-hadron-collider-861/

NB: Video requires Google Chrome or Safari to view.

Large Hadron Collider (LHC). (2017). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://school.eb.com.au.db.plcscotch.wa.edu.au/levels/high/article/Large-Hadron-Collider/471193
Large Hadron Collider (LHC), world’s most powerful particle accelerator. One goal of the LHC project is to understand the fundamental structure of matter by re-creating the extreme conditions that occurred in the first few moments of the universe according to the big-bang model.

Cosmos

NASA. (2107). Physics of the Cosmos. Retrieved from https://pcos.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/darkenergy.php
The discovery that the expansion of space is accelerating presents one of the most important scientific problems of our time. The implication that the universe is dominated by an unknown entity, now called "dark energy," that counters the attractive force of gravity, may revolutionize our understanding of cosmology and fundamental physics.
Urone, P. & Hinrichs, R. (2012). College Physics: Dark matter and closure. Retrieved from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/physics/chapter/34-4-dark-matter-and-closure/
One of the most exciting problems in physics today is the fact that there is far more matter in the universe than we can see. The motion of stars in galaxies and the motion of galaxies in clusters imply that there is about 10 times as much mass as in the luminous objects we can see.