http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/health/23liver.html?ref=science

This article is about the ability of the liver to regenerate and how doctors have been using this to their advantage. There is now a very successful new way for a "temporary" transplant for livers. For very young children who need a liver transplant there is now a temporary transplant that can allow for the child to grow out of the transplant and become a perfectly normal and healthy person. The idea is that a liver is transplanted into the child, over a few years the patient's own liver regenerates, while they are taking antirejection drugs for the transplant, then when their own liver is large and strong enough to function on its own the doctors cut out the antirejection medicine and the transplant is then destroyed by the body's immune system. This then allows the child to live a perfectly healthy life, without the medication, which lowers the immune system's ability to fight off disease. I think this is such a great idea and can make a child's life that much better and healthier. It also makes it easier on the parents who then don't have to pay for the medications and won't have to worry about their kid getting sick as much.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/business/energy-environment/23recycle.html?ref=science

This article is about how airlines produce an enormous amount of waste; not only from the exhaust from the planes, but from all the trash collected before the flight. Airports force you to throw out any liquid that you have when going through security, generally there are mostly plastic bottles that are disposed of. There is so much trash and possible recyclable items and airports don't do a good job at all of recycling the waste. Allen Hershkowitz made a great point in saying “It does not make sense to acquire oil from the Middle East or the north slope of Alaska and turn it into a plastic bottle, use it once and throw it away,” 75% of trash generated in airports is recyclable and only about 20% is recycled. This can so easily be fixed and would help the environment greatly by stopping the buildup of landfills, but airports still don't have a good recycling program. I think this is just ridiculous, airports probably have a lot of money because of the high demand for flights so they should be able create a respectable recycling program.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/science/space/09shuttle.html?ref=science
This article is about future plans for our space program and the recent launching of the Endeavour. The flight

was originally cancelled Sunday because of bad weather conditions. This morning was not perfect, but still good enough for a launch. The space shuttle had one problem, some of the foam insulation was peeling off into the first two minutes of flight. This, however, was not seen as a major problem, but was still going to get checked out. The article also mentioned how president Obama cancelled our next project to go to the moon, which was planned for 2020. It wasn't totally thrown out, but the plan will be delayed some years. Instead, we will focus on our orbiting space station. I think the Endeavour should be inspected immediately because that could be a serious problem. Obama's plan I think is better because I think it's more important to invest in something that is going on now and to help make our current astronauts more safe and comfortable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/business/02oil.html?scp=2&sq=oil&st=cse

This article is about how the oil company Exxon has been not downsizing or being conservative during the recession, but rather expanding and contracting smaller gas companies. It very recently acquired a natural gas company worth 31 billion dollars. They are also looking for more gas in brazil and Iraq. Although their profit has went down, they are still making billions a year, showing how powerful they are. I find it scary that an oil company can still be doing so well in this economy. If the oil companies have this much money and power then how is a renewable resource or more efficient method of energy use to become popular? This just shows what a predicament our world is in if we are basically ruled by the oil companies, there can be almost no way for a different method for energy to come along if the oil companies are so powerful.