Making Music with Water

     Have you ever tried making music with glasses or bottles filled with water? I bet your favorite band hasn't. Experiment with your own special sounds by turning glasses of water into instruments, make some cool music and find out how it works.

     What you'll need:

     Five or more drinking glasses or glass bottles.

     Water.

     Wooden stick such as a pencil.

     Instructions:

     Line the glasses up next to each other and fill them with different amounts of water. The first should have just a little water while the last should be almost full, and the ones in between should have slightly more than the first.

     Hit the glass with the least amount of water and watch the sound, then hit the glass with the most water, which makes the higher sound?

     Hit the other glasses and see what noise they make. See if you can get a tune going by hitting the glasses in a certain order.

     What's happening?

     Each of the glasses will have a different tone when you hit with the pencil. The glass with the most water will have the lowest tone while the glass with the least water will have the highest. Small vibrations are made when you hit the glass, and this creates sound waves which travel through the water. More water means slower vibrations and a deeper tone.

    Garbage(垃圾) Island

    You can't see it from the air. It's almost impossible to see from a ship. But somewhere in the North Pacific is a huge island of garbage, just below the water surface.

    What is the island made of?

    The garbage island is not an island, but a collection of millions of plastic and other objects. The water movements of Pacific Ocean bring the objects together and cause them to go around in a big circle.

    Charles Moore found it in 1997 and named it “the Great Pacific Garbage Patch” .

    Where does all the plastic come from?

    Much of the garbage comes from everyday objects, such as shopping bags and water bottles. Some of these objects finally reach the ocean. Garbage from the western coast of North America takes about six years to reach it. Objects from East Asia take about a year. Other garbage comes from ships passing through the area.

    Is the Garbage Patch dangerous?

    The larger pieces of garbage are a problem for wildlife. For example, sea turtles（海龟）and seabirds often think the plastic is their food. They eat the plastic and die.

    In addition, the plastic stops sunlight from reaching deeper water. Without sunlight, very small sea animals die. Then, there is less food for larger fish to eat.

    What can we do to help stop it?

    Cleaning up the island isn't easy. But we can make people realize the problem. One environmentalist(环保主义者), David de Rothschild, is sailing around the world in boat made of plastic bottles to teach people about the problem of garbage in the sea.

    Another idea is that we can recycle the plastic garbage. Environmental engineer Cesar Harada is building a robot that collects pieces of plastic. Harada hopes to use his robot in the Pacific. Harada also has a website for reporting environmental problems. He says, “I hope everybody can become an environmental activist.”

    We all want to protect the environment, but we're mostly too busy or too lazy to put up big change. There is nothing new here but if you follow at least some of these tips, you can be proud of yourself in the protection of the environment.

    Use LED light bulbs: They last much longer and they can save energy.

    Donate: You have many clothes or things you want to throw. If they are still usable, give them to someone who needs them.

    Turn off your devices: When you do not use a house device, turn it off. For example, if you don't watch TV, turn it off. Turn off the light when you leave a room.

    Walk or cycle: Driving is one of the biggest causes of pollution. If you want to use your car, ask yourself the following question: do I really need my car? Walk or use your bike if the journey is a short one.

    Detergent (洗漆剂):Use less dose of detergent to wash your clothes or dishes.

    Leaky faucets(漏水龙头):Fix them, or they will waste a lot of water.

    Rainwater: Think of collecting rainwater. This water can be used for different purposes.

    All these tips will help you save money and protect the environment.

    What is the best way to help control air pollution in our towns and cities? Choose public transportation instead of private cars, or reduce the total amount of cars on the street. These can be useful. But here is a more creative way—write a poem.

    "I write in praise of air. I was six or five, when a magician opened my fist(拳头), and I held in my hand the whole of the sky."

    Professor Tony Ryan (the science expert) and Professor Simon Armitage(the words expert), from the University of Sheffield, UK, came up with the idea.

    But in fact, the poem is not the key part. It is the poster that the poem was written on that plays the biggest part. The poster is 10 meters by 20 meters. It is coated with nanoparticles(纳米粒) of titanium dioxide (二氧化钛). It can absorb the waste from around 20 cars each day if you put it by a busy road. The poster is now displayed on one of the University of Sheffield's buildings.

    It doesn't get rid of all the pollutants from traffic, but it will eat up things called nitrogen oxides (氧化氮). These play a part in breathing problems, including asthma(哮喘).

    The technology is cheap. "It would add less than £100 to the cost of a poster and would turn advertisements into catalysts(催化剂) in more ways than one," Ryan told the BBC.

    He's also working on another idea, which is to add the nanoparticles to washing powder, so that your clothes soak up these poisons while you walk along. And you wouldn't be able to see or feel anything different.

    We all cry for water when we are thirsty. But do you know, in very hot, dry weather, plants also make very low sounds as if they are crying for help?

    You see, in a plant's stem there are several hundred "water pipes" that bring water from soil all the way up to the leaves. When the ground turns dry, it becomes harder and harder for plants to do this.

    In very hot days, plants have to get any water that they can get.

    Scientists Robot Winter has found out that when plants can get no water, their "water pipes" snap(发出声音). When that happens, the whole plant vibrates(颤动) a little.

    Robot knows that healthy, well-watered plants are quiet. He also knows that dry plants are many insects' favorites and they often attack(袭击) them. How do the insects know which are healthy plants and which are not? Robot thinks that the insects may hear the plants "crying" and they may come to kill them.