IMC

Hello everyone! On our last meeting, we were able to view lipstick under the microscope and find a numerous amount of heavy metal existing such as lead, beryllium, and more! It allowed me to realize how this can be deadly, especially if someone put on lipstick multiple times a day! The club is going to create a petition to the companies regarding a change in the ingredients a lipstick is made up! Come join!  

For all of you who wear lipstick for makeup, this may not be the brightest news to listen to as the post will talk about what lipstick consists of. See those colorful spots on the lipstick smudge? Well it turns out . . . those are different types of metals! The FDA released a study in 2009 which showed lead in every lipstick sample that was tested! The metals include lead (as stated above), beryllium, thallium, and more! According to the University of California, women put on lipstick from two to fourteen times a day, meaning a significant amount of possible lipstick ingestion! Perhaps in the future, lipsticks should be created with less harmful substances that would also substitute the large amount of metals found in lipstick. For example, Cleopatra of ancient Egypt was said to create lipstick by crushing bugs to obtain the red color!

IMC   Report :   Sep 29, 2017 club meeting Observation of Mono Lake water                                                                                 IMC/ Kyu Been Lee       An overall summary of my experience with Mono Lake water Over the summer, I took a trip up to Mammoth L ake s and encountered something I've never seen before:  a salty lake!!! The lake is called Mono Lake and the reason for its saltiness is because there is no place for water to leave the lake: mountains flow water down to the lake but since the only way for the water to leave is by evaporation, it is saline. Some fun facts: The lake is covered in brine shrimp, attracting A LOT of bird to the shore line! The lake is also nicknamed as the lake that is "saltier than the sea"! If you've seen my posts about drying lubricant tear drops and baking sodas, then this must seem a bit familiar to you. I also dried some of the Mono Lake water I collected and sure enough, they show

Hello everyone! This is your IMC president Kyu Been! For our first club meeting this school year, we were able to view dried Mono lake water! 40X illuminator When I went up to mammoth lake, I stopped by Mono lake to view one of the largest lakes up there.  One thing I realized about the lake was how basic it was as compared to regular tap or freshwater (having a pH of 9.8). 40X During our club meeting, we viewed the dried mono lake water under the microscope, which had a similar image to dried baking soda and lubricant tears likely because mono lake is said to be "saltier than the sea" since it is like having baking soda and table salt mixed together in the water. The reason for the saltiness is because the water in the lake cannot leave the area unless through evaporation. When water evaporates, the minerals are continuously left behind, causing an excess of mineral particles and salts.  The towers you see in the picture are actually tufa towers. At the