Hot Zone Part 4

It's funny that the two places I said I want to go least are the two places Richard Preston visited. The beginning of this part confused me a bit but it got more clear as I read on. Robin seems like a very interesting person. He has had a lot of unique experiences. I am impressed that Richard Preston went to two of the major hot zones even after doing all of his research. After knowing all I do from the book I would not go. I bet it was really cool for him to visit the places he heard so much about though. This book was really good! I enjoyed reading something that was informative and interesting at the same time. I had to remind myself the story is true on many occasions! It is very scary to think that the Ebola viruses have the potential to have an outbreak similar to that of AIDS. That would be terrible. I agree with Isa that part 4 could have been left out, but this book is still one of my favs! 

Scavenger Hunt 1

 

Fronds are large leaves that are divided into several different parts.

Examples of fronds are: ferns and palms.

Heterotrophs are organisms that depend on organic compounds for their

main source of food. They cannot make their own food. Examples of
heterotrophs are: humans and many animals. This is my dog Buddy. 

Adaptation of an animal- this is a picture of a Mallard in my
neighborhood. Mallards have webbed feet. This is an adaptation that
allows them to swim faster. Their feathers also contain oils that
allow them to repel water. These adaptations help them survive in
their environment.

Altruistic behavior is behavior by an animal that may put it in
danger, but that helps others of its kind. An example of this is a
warning call. Many animals use warning calls like: ground squirrels,
prairie dogs, and passerine birds. I couldn't find a bird but here is a bird's nest. 

Autotrophs have to ability to produce their own food through
photosynthesis and the use of inorganic materials. Autotrophs are
great food sources to heterotrophs. Examples of autotrophs are:
plants, algae, and some bacteria.

Ps. I do not know why all of my pictures turned sideways... 

Hot Zone Part 3

Going inside the monkey house would be the scariest thing ever. I don't see how everyone survived. How can some one be infected by Ebola and not get extremely ill? The pictures of the viruses look identical to me. I don't understand how one is completely deadly to humans and the other isn't (so far). I can't imagine what would happen if there was a major Ebola outbreak. It would be like WWIII or a zombie apocalypse. Reading this book makes me want to wear rubber gloves and a mask every where I go. It's funny how everyone has a different story of what happened. I guess when you are experiencing the most terrifying moments of your life you get things mixed up.  I have decided that the top two places I would never want to visit are kitum cave and the vacant monkey house.  

The Hot Zone: Part 4

I think the book could've gone without this part. I got sort of bored when the author was writing about being in Kitum Cave. I would've been scared to go back to the Reston Monkey house, even though the virus didn't show negative effects on humans. I find it sort of eery that spiders and plants have found their way into the building and are living there, could they become infected? I did some research and found out that the Reston Monkey house was eventually torn down and now a daycare center stands there now. I think that was a good idea; I wouldn't feel safe going back inside that building.

I also found out that in 2009 in the Philippines, there was an outbreak of Ebola Reston. This time, it came from sick pigs. Workers who had come in contact with the pigs contracted the virus. They still stayed healthy but this scares me. The virus jumped species, meaning its mutating. How long will it be till it mutates to become harmful to humans?

The character guide and glossary at the end of the book really helped me cement the different roles the characters played and the new vocabulary in my head.

I absolutely loved this book. I didn't have high expectations in the beginning, so I am surprised how interesting it was.

I tried reading this on the plane to England. I had to stop for the whole ride because it said that there is at least one hot virus on every single airplane. Coupled with my fear of long overseas flights, it became a recipe for disaster. The writing style of the author is some what of a fishing line. You begin to read and say " Oh I think I go it!"only to be left disappointed that the plot is heading in a different direction. I agree with everyone else that all the Johnsons are a pain. So far the the thing I've learned are the precautions that the researchers take when they study Ebola. It is phenomenal the steps they have to follow in order to protect themselves, which is warranted due to the detrimental effects of Ebola. Still curious about the different strands of the virus and what makes them more deadly than the other. Otherwise great book!

The Hot Zone: Part 3

This part annoyed me so much.

The style that the author uses sets you up to expect the absolute worst. When he described the girl whose space suit battery broke and let the contaminated air in, I thought she was a goner. I prepared myself for everyone to get ebola, and I kept waiting for it.

Have you ever seen "Soul Surfer"? Its about Bethany Hamilton, a shark attack survivor. In the beginning, before the attack, Bethany is just surfing; doing her own thing. The camera keeps doing underwater shots of her board and you automatically get nervous because you know the shark is going to get her. The thing is, they do this like five times. Each time you're like "Oh its going to get her this time" but you keep holding your breath and nothing happens. That's how I felt throughout part 3.

What confuses me is how this strain of Ebola doesn't affect humans. It scares me that the workers have been infected yet nothing happens. So we all could have Ebola Reston and be transmitting it, yet we don't know. What happens when one day it mutates and flips a switch to start to destroy people? There is an app/game on my phone called "Plague Inc" where you create your own virus and the challenge is to wipe out the human race. There is a specific virus called the Nano-Virus, the best way to use this one is to infect everyone, keeping the lethality really low.These people don't know they have the virus because it has no symptoms yet. It just hides and multiplies in their body.  It has a feature called "the kill switch". Once you infect everyone, you can activate the kill switch and everyone instantly dies. I hope Ebola Reston doesn't come with a kill switch. If we don't know we have Ebola Reston and it activates a kill switch, it's game over.

Hot Zone Part 2

I am enjoying the second part of this book even more than the first! I
cannot put it down! All of the back history and randomness from part
one is starting to make sense. If this truly is Ebola Zaire, I think
it would be impossible for all of the people who dealt with the
monkeys not to be infected considering how careless they were. I can’t
imagine how terrifying it must have been to discover that you are
working with one of the most deadly viruses known to man. I think the
virus they are dealing with may be a sister virus to Ebola Zaire that
does not effect humans since no one has been infected. All of the
experiments they are performing are really cool! I can’t wait to see
how it goes in the monkey house.