1) How do flowers get their colors? Why are roses red and violets blue?

People always admire the beautiful colors of flowers in bloom but rarely
does anyone know the perfect science that goes into the color production
of one of the earths greatest natural beauties. The reason a flower has
color is the same reason a person may be born with brown or blond hair,
possess blue or green eyes, dress in colorful clothing or wear red lipstick.
Color, when you boil it down to the simplest terms, exists solely to
reproduce and procreate in plants and in humans. The Color Making
Process The color of flowers, such as the red in roses and yellow in
marigolds, are found in pigments that are decided upon in the hereditary
genome of the plant. Flower colors of red, pink, blue and purple come
mainly from the pigments called anthocyanins, which are in the class of
chemicals called flavanoids (what gives plants their color). Other pigments
are carotenoids, found in tomatoes and carrots, that provide yellow, red and
orange in the plastids. Chlorophyll is the most well known pigment,
providing all that green you see in leaves and foliage. All these scientific
terms really mean that, similar to people, plants carry certain pigments in
their genes that decide before they are born what color they will be.

Why are leaves green in colour?
So, we know that sunlight is essential for the survival and growth of all plants. Though plants need fresh
air, water and nutrients to grow, sunlight plays the most important role in preparing their nutrition. And
leaves do this process of photosynthesis.
Leaves are green because they have a green pigment called chlorophyll. They have small pores called
stomata. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is absorbed into these leaves through the stomata. And sunlight gives
energy to the plant to convert water and CO2 into sugar and starch, which is the food of the plant. Leaves
also have small disk-like structures called chloroplast and the process ofphotosynthesis takes place
inside these chloroplasts. Some plants like Cactus can survive even in dry regions because they can
store their food for months.
Why does chopping an onion make you cry?
Onions produce the chemical irritant known as syn-propanethial-S-oxide. It stimulates the
eyes' lachrymal glands so they release tears. Scientists used to blame the enzyme allinase
for the instability of substances in a cut onion. Recent studies from Japan, however, proved
that lachrymatory-factor synthase, (a previously undiscovered enzyme) is the culprit (Imani
et al, 2002).
The process goes as follows:
1. Lachrymatory-factor synthase is released into the air when we cut an onion.
2. The synthase enzyme converts the sulfoxides (amino acids) of the onion into sulfenic
acid.
3. The unstable sulfenic acid rearranges itself into syn-ropanethial-S-oxide.
4. Syn-propanethial-S-oxide gets into the air and comes in contact with our eyes. The
lachrymal glands become irritated and produces the tears!
What is lightning?
Water and ice move around inside the cloud; forced up by warm air currents, down by gravity, and
compressed in the cloud. Just as rubbing a balloon can create static electricity, the particles in the
cloud become charged. Its not clear how it happens, but charges separate in the cloud. Positive
charges move up, and negatives move down.
Once a significant charge separation has built up, the positive and negative charges seek to reach
each other an neutralise. Streamers come up from the ground to form a pathway. Once a pathway
is completed a spark forms, neutralizing the charge.
As the negative charge races down, the air surrounding it heats up.The spark is very hot at almost
20,000 degrees Celsius, and it rapidly heats the air to create a shock wave.
Considering light travels very fast about 300 million metres per second, and that sound only travels
at 300 metres per second; light is a million times faster than the sound produced. To find out how far
away the storm is, you can count how long you hear the sound after the lightning. For every 4
seconds between the flash and the rumble, the thunderstorm is 1 mile away.
Rainbow
A rainbow is an optical and meteorologicalphenomenon that is caused by
both reflection andrefraction of light in water droplets resulting in aspectrum of light appearing in the
sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured arc. Rainbows caused by sunlightalways appear in the
section of sky directly opposite the sun.
Rainbows can be full circles, however, the average observer sees only an arc, formed by illuminated
droplets above the ground.
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In a "primary rainbow", the arc shows red on the outer part and violet on the inner side. This rainbow
is caused by light being refracted (bent) when entering a droplet of water, then reflected inside on
the back of the droplet and refracted again when leaving it.
In a double rainbow, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has the order of its colours
reversed, red facing toward the other one, in both rainbows. This second rainbow is caused by light
reflecting twice inside water droplets.
What do plants need to make food?
Answer In a plant, the leaves contain many layers. The top layer is the waxy layer it prevents the leaf
from losing too much water. The palisade cells contain alot of chloroplasts which contain a green
substent called chlorophyll. The airholes allow gases to come in and out . The Spongy cells contain
alot of air spaces. And finally the lower layer exchange gases through the stomata. The green
substant in the chloroplasts are in the upper layer of the plant because it has the job to carture
sunlight for photosynthesis. The roots down at the bottom absorbs water and nutrients in the soil.
There are root hairs stuck to the roots. They are long and skinny this is becaus ethey have to
provide a large surface area to absorb water. Once it absorbs all the water it was transport up the
stem through a little tube called the xylem and then to the leaves. The chloroplasts carture the
sunlight and the air holes allow gases to pass in and out, and the roots uptake the water. Now the
plant can photosynthesise. They combine the carbon dioxide from the air with the water from the soil
and the sunlight from the sun to make oxygen, glucose and energy. Carbon dioxide + Water =
Oxygen + Glucose + energy. the oxygen which was made was wasted into the air. The food
(glucose) that was made was transferred down the stem through a tube called pholoem and finally to
the plant. The plant contain alot of water this is why it could stand up straight and the roots hold it in
place. If there were no water in the plant it would go all floppy.
Wind
Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On the surface of the Earth, wind consists of the bulk
movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from
the sun through space, while planetary wind is theoutgassing of light chemical elements from a
planet's atmosphere into space. Winds are commonly classified by their spatial scale, their speed,
the types of forces that cause them, the regions in which they occur, and their effect. The strongest
observed winds on a planet in our solar system occur on Neptune and Saturn. Winds have various
aspect, one important aspect is its velocity; another the density of the gas involved; another is the
energy content or wind energy of a wind. In meteorology, winds are often referred to according to
their strength, and the direction from which the wind is blowing. Short bursts of high speed wind are
termed gusts. Strong winds of intermediate duration (around one minute) are termedsqualls. Long-
duration winds have various names associated with their average strength, such
as breeze, gale, storm, hurricane, and typhoon. Wind occurs on a range of scales, from
thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces
and lasting a few hours, to global winds resulting from the difference in absorption of solar
energy between the climate zones on Earth. The two main causes of large-scale atmospheric
circulation are the differential heating between the equator and the poles, and the rotation of the
planet (Coriolis effect).
What are clouds and how do they
form?
How do clouds form?
Clouds form when the invisible water vapour in the air condenses into visible water droplets or ice
crystals. There is water around us all the time in the form of tiny gas particles, also known as water
vapour. There are also tiny particles floating around in the air - such as salt and dust - these are
called aerosols.
The water vapour and the aerosols are constantly bumping into each other. When the air is cooled,
some of the water vapour sticks to the aerosols when they collide - this is condensation. Eventually,
bigger water droplets form around the aerosol particles, and these water droplets start sticking
together with other droplets, forming clouds.
Clouds form when the air is saturated and cannot hold any more water vapour, this can happen in
two ways:
1. The amount of water in the air has increased - for example through evaporation - to the
point that the air cannot hold any more water.
2. The air is cooled to its dew point - the point where condensation occurs - and the air is
unable to hold any more water.
The warmer the air is, the more water vapour it can hold. Clouds are usually produced through
condensation - as the air rises, it will cool and reducing the temperature of the air decreases its
ability to hold water vapour so that condensation occurs. The height at which dew point is reached
and clouds form is called the condensation level.
Where Do Plants Come From?
Plants come from seeds. Each seed contains a tiny plant waiting for the right
conditions to germinate, or start to grow.
What Do Seeds Need to Start to Grow?
Seeds wait to germinate until three needs are met: water, correct
temperature (warmth), and a good location (such as in soil). During
its early stages of growth, the seedling relies upon the food supplies
stored with it in the seed until it is large enough for its own leaves
to begin making food through photosynthesis. The seedling's roots
push down into the soil to anchor the new plant and to absorb water
and minerals from the soil. And its stem with new leaves pushes up
toward the light:
The germination stage ends when a shoot emerges from the soil. But the plant is
not done growing. It's just started. Plants need water, warmth, nutrients from the
soil, and light to continue to grow.