The process begins when snow forms in the clouds and falls to the ground.  The sun melts the snow which is absorbed into the peat (adding impurities to the water) and from there water moves to the edges of the bogs where it reaches branches of heather.  Next the water runs down the heather which acts as scaffolding and, thanks to sub-zero temperatures, freezes on the plant. This forms an ice shaft, on top of which an icicle can grow. Slowly thin layers of water will run down the ice shaft and freeze.  This process increases the size of the icicle. ​

​In almost all natural icicles you will notice distinctive ridges.  These are usually about 1cm apart but their height can vary.  Ripples form around the circumference of icicles due to a morphological instability.  Icicles formed in nature are rarely constructed using pure water but ones that are do not exhibit ripples.  Icicles formed with water that has ionic impurities will exhibit ripples. The concentration of the impurity will not affect the size of the ripples or how fast the ripples form. Icicles are fascinating and studying them can lead to a deeper understanding of water, how it moves and… how it freezes.

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When an opaque body is placed in front of a light source, light is unable to pass through. Thus, an area of darkness known as a shadow occurs. The size of a shadow depends on the size of the light source, and the distance between the light source and the object. ​

The darkest, centre part of a shadow is known as the umbra. This is clearly noticeable directly beneath the chair in my photograph. From here, the light source cannot be directly viewed. ​

Meanwhile, the penumbra is like a semi-shadow and can be seen surrounding the umbra. From this viewing point, the light source can be viewed but is partially blocked. ​

In the picture above, there are shadows of the chair facing in different directions. This is because there are multiple artificial light sources (bulbs). The difference in the positioning of these sources results in shadows of different directions.  ​

We can draw a comparison between my umbrous chair and what occurs during an eclipse – an atmospheric phenomenon in which one celestial body passes in front of another, blocking its light source (the sun). ​

A total eclipse occurs when one celestial body is in the umbra, while a partial eclipse occurs when a celestial body is in the penumbra of a shadow. 

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Now it is able to defend itself against danger. From the 13th to the 17th day, the bee becomes a "construction worker". Together with other bees, they repair broken cells, cover honey or larvae cells and build new combs. During this work, she transforms nectar into honey.  Until the 21st day, she now becomes a guard bee. She keeps watch in front of the hive and makes sure that only the bees that are allowed to enter come in. In addition, she flies over the surrounding area to get an overview of the nearby surroundings. 

Then the last phase of each summer bee begins. The bee, now of age, flies through the colourful flower landscapes and collects nectar, pollen, water and other important things for the colony. When a bee has found a nourishing source, it tells its comrades with a dance containing all the important information. If necessary, it helps with the construction, with the heat shivering or with the cool fanning into the burrow. After several intensive weeks of work, the bee has hardly any strength left and its wings are also out of tune. In most cases, the bee simply falls to the ground, where it becomes food for other animals.

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Sixty million years ago the entire county of Antrim was subject to intense volcanic activity, which caused the intrusion of molten and very fluid basalt through gypsum beds, forming a vast lava plateau.

he lava, in contact with the water and the atmosphere, quickly cooled in the present basaltic columns. As a result of the variation in temperature and the erosion, the rock took on otherworldly shape. It has a prismatic shape with a hexagonal base, but there are also four, five, seven or eight sides. The highest ones reach twelve meters and some rise even 28 meters above sea level.​

But there are a lot of local legends about the creation of Giant’s Causeway. The most popular one tells the story of the giant, called Finn McCool, who is said to have had a fight with a Scottish fellow, named Benandonner, across the sea. The rabid Finn grabbed huge rocks and hurled them into the water. After spotting his rival, however, Finn realised he wasn’t quite up to size. So, Finn’s wife disguised the giant as her baby. Once he caught sight of the oversized infant, Benandonner made a retreat back to Scotland. As he dashed across the causeway, the bits of rock crumbled, and so Giant’s Causeway was created. 

Yet astonishingly, these scorching hot incendiaries won’t sear or sizzle your skin like a sausage. In fact, it is unlikely to cause any damage at all!​

That’s because temperature and thermal energy are not the same. Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the particles in an object.​

Therefore, it doesn’t matter if it is an iron spark or a 2kg iron block…if the temperature of each is 1000°C the average kinetic energy of the particles in each will be the same.​

However, you don’t have to be a bright spark to know that a 2kg block of iron at 1000°C will cause a lot more damage to your skin than a small spark at the same temperature.​

That’s because thermal energy not only depends on the temperature and material that an object is made from but the mass of the object. It is the total kinetic energy of all the particles in an object. In simple terms the more particles an object has, the more thermal energy it possesses.​

Therefore, despite reaching torturous temperatures each spark that flies has such a low mass that the thermal energy it contains isn’t enough to hurt a fly!

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These hairs can be found on the majority of the leaf's stem and on the leaf itself. These hairs are called trichomes. Nettles contain acid, histamine+ and other chemicals.  ​

​The nettle, just like any other regular plant, gets its nutrient from a process called photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is a process where the plant uses sunlight, water, and CO2 to create energy in the form of a simple sugar called glucose. During this process, the plant releases oxygen so that living things like animals and humans can breathe and live on earth. There is a chemical equation for photosynthesis: ​

                               6CO2 +6H2O---------->C6H12O6+ 602 ​

​Whenever most humans think of a nettle, they think of how it can sting you and hurt you, but did you know that nettles can be used for healing things too? for example, it is known that nettles help to cure: painful muscles and joints, eczema, arthritis, gout and anemia. It is said by the `Arthritis Foundation` that nettle tea can help reduce these sores and inflammation involved with these sicknesses.

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During the day, cat pupils are narrow, vertical slits so that they are not blinded by too much light. When it slowly gets darker and darker, the pupil dilates to catch residual light. To do this, the cat's eye has strongly curved lenses. The tapetum layer amplifies the residual light. In darkness, the cat's pupils dilate until they are circular. By dilating the pupils, they catch every ray of light, no matter how small, and more light can fall on the retina. ​

​This retina has an extremely complicated structure and consists of more than 10 layers. On this retina sit 2 light-sensitive cells: The cones, which are responsible for the perception of colors, and the rods, which react to light-dark stimuli. In the eyes of nocturnal animals, mainly the rods are active. In the back of the eye, cats also have a kind of mirror layer. This mirror-like layer is called tapetum. This tapetum acts as a "residual light amplifier". Light rays are reflected, pass through the retina a 2nd time and the cones can benefit from them again. This process is the reason why cat eyes glow in the dark.​

​However, when it's pitch black, even cats can't see. 

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This is the process of which water vapour becomes liquid. This is the process of which water vapour becomes liquid.Like all matter, water consists of molecules. As the vapour enters cooler temperatures the molecules gradually become slower and closer togeher. Eventually this leads to a vapour becoming a liquid. Clouds are an example of condensation.

They’ve form when water vapour in warm air rises to meet cold air higher in the atmosphere. The warm air gradually cools and the molecules stick together, drops of water form and surround dust particles in the air. Clouds are billions of these water coated dust particles swirling together. Clouds are part of the water cycle and make life on earth possible. When clouds cannot hold anymore water drops, the excess water comes down as precipitation know as rain or snow.

Rain and snow drain into our rivers, streams and reservoirs. This water eventually evaporates, turns back into water vapour, rises in the air and forms more clouds. And so the cycle continues…

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Algae can survive in lakes (freshwater) or oceans (saltwater) and between a range of temperature growing near the Antarctica and at the equator. ​Algae comes in a variety of colours; blue, green, red, and brown are just some of the colours. The algae in my picture are green in colour because of a pigment in them called chlorophyll. Algae are a living organism that conduct photosynthesis; chlorophyll is the molecule that allows photosynthesis to take place (a process in which algae make their own energy.) ​

​Algae is an important organism as many marine animals would not be alive without it. Algae is a primary food source for many marine animals at the bottom of the food chain. Coral reefs are also dependent on algae to survive and thrive. Humans also find algae not only helpful but necessary for us to be alive.​

​Algae can be used to do many things and used as a material in products. Algae is sometimes used in plastics, lubricants, fertilizers, cosmetics, wastewater treatment, biofuel, animal feed and vegetable oil. ​

​This is why algae is a unique organism.

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Four of its branches sprouted and grew into new tall trunks stretching up to the sky to obtain the sunlight it needed which it would use for photosynthesis (when green plants produce food and water for themselves using carbon dioxide, water, chlorophyll, and light), this process is called Heliotropism. ​

​Heliotropism directly translated is ‘the directional growth of a plant in response to sunlight’. Heliotropism is a growth movement in plants that is induced by sunlight. It is sometimes called solar tracking, a directional response to the sun.​

​I find this extremely fascinating!  Trees and plants reach for sunlight by whatever means, so they can gain the light to produce oxygen and glucose, and, in the process, they make creation look like unique and interesting pieces of art!

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You can get lots of different types of carpet, but the most common types are made of natural fibres such as wool or manmade fibres such as nylon, polyester and polypropylene.​Carpet is either tufted or woven into close loops. Large machines can use many needles to push carpet fibres through a piece of fabric which is called the carpet backing.​

​Wool is strong and made to last. It has a left and right handed helix at its core, it can be bent thousands of times and still spring back. This why wool carpet is useful on floors that people walk on.​

​Wool is fire resistant due to its high water and nitrogen content. If you hold a match to wool it will smoulder and then go out. It doesn’t melt or give out poisonous fumes. ​

​Wool is sustainable because its naturally grows on sheep and they regrow their coat each year. This makes wool more environmentally friendly and a good material for making carpets.

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The trees breathe in the carbon dioxide, use the sun to convert it to oxygen, and breathe the oxygen back out. This is called photosynthesis, and it's what gives us 28% (almost one third) of our oxygen; which we obviously need to live.​

​So trees are pretty great, right? But unfortunately there's this thing called deforestation: it's when we cut down mass amounts of trees in order to build beds, furniture, houses, etc. Not only does this reduce the amount of oxygen being released into the air, it also emits a whole lotta carbon dioxide back out. This is because during photosynthesis, the trees store the carbon dioxide inside themselves until they can convert it to oxygen. So when a tree is cut down, all that CO2 is released back into the air and we're pretty much back at step 1.​

​You see, carbon dioxide contributes to a thing called the 'greenhouse effect'. The greenhouse effect is when the sun's heat and light get into our atmosphere, and the heat gets trapped by greenhouse gases - one of which is carbon dioxide. Because of this, the earth slowly heats up as the sun's heat is unable to leave. So you can see why trees are so important to our lives, and why we should make more of an effort to replant trees and cut less of them down.

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