It's Spring! What to do when you find a baby animal.
It happens all the time in spring. You find a baby bird out of it's nest, or you're lucky enough to spot a fawn laying immobile in a thicket, and parents are nowhere to be found. What should you do? For the most part....nothing! These animals are usually fine without human assistance. There are few occasions when you should do something, but more often, keep a respectful distance and delight in the wonders of spring's renewal.
Click on the robin's image for a very informative article from the National Wildlife Federation that explains when you should or should not pick up a baby animal. |
More Up Close and Personal Images from National Geographic!
Predators up close
Recently the Intermediates went out to the pond and discovered a whole world of macroinvertebrates living in the weeds and muck. We brought back a variety of dragonfly nymphs, beetles, backswimmers, water boatsman, fishing spiders, water scorpions, damselfly nymphs, green frog tadpoles, and lots more! At the same time, one of our dads brought in a large common green darner dragonfly. These are the insect hawks in the sky, but they are also serious predators when they are nymphs in the pond. They have these scary jaws that can shoot out a pierce their prey, which include tadpoles, water beetles, other nymphs and pretty much anything that moves. Check out this cool adaptation in the video above.
Things Slowed WAYYYYY Down
Sometimes things go too fast for us to really appreciate the wonder and beauty of something as simple as a bubble freezing or popcorn popping. Here are 2 videos that show these events in very slow motion.
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NOT Wierd, but definitely WONDERFUL!!!!
Blue Blood Supermoon 2018
Supermoon Trifecta Ends in Shadow
Supermoon Trifecta Ends in Shadow What's a supermoon? What's a blue moon? What's a blood moon? Well, on Wednesday morning, January 31, 2018 you can experience all three! And this doesn't happen every day. In fact, this 3-way occurrence happen won't happen for another 19 years.
Skywatchers in Madison need to get outside early to witness this event and look to the west as the moon sets minutes after 7 a.m. There's a great animation that shows you the eclipse in Madison and the timing. Just click on the image on the left!
Skywatchers in Madison need to get outside early to witness this event and look to the west as the moon sets minutes after 7 a.m. There's a great animation that shows you the eclipse in Madison and the timing. Just click on the image on the left!
Supermoon Facts
,A supermoon occurs when the moon is closest to earth in its orbit. The moon will be 223,068 miles from Earth, compared to the average distance of 238,855 miles. It will appear 14% larger compared to the moon’s regular size and it will reflect 30% more light from the sun than usual. On January 31st, this will be our 3rd supermoon in a row! Supermoons usually happen 3-4 times per year.
Those of you who remember our lessons about gravity, will know that the closer the objects (in our case the Earth and the moon), the greater the gravitational attraction. So my family out on the west coast get to witness how the tides are much lower than normal during the supermoon. Makes for fun tide-pooling adventures! But they are also much higher than normal as well. These are called "king tides." |
Blue Moon Facts
Ever hear the expression, "It happens only once in a blue moon? When someone uses this expression, they mean that the thing that "happens" rarely ever does happen or doesn't happen at all. This centuries-old meaning seems to have arisen from the "fact" that the moon is never blue. But, in reality, it sometimes appears that way when dust particles following a big volcano or forest fire enter the earth's atmosphere and refract light. A similar expression is "When pigs fly," which is to say that it's impossible.
People who study words explain that it was the interpretation of the Farmer's Almanac by a man named Pruett that gave "blue moon" a new meaning. Because the moon's orbit around earth occurs every 29.5 days and a typical lunar calendar month is 30-31 days, it happens on occasion that a a 3 month season can have 4 instead of 3 full moons, and more recently it's been interpreted that a blue moon occurs when single month can have two full moons. This happens |
Phew...words and expressions can be very wiggly. Want to know more? Go to this website. But, for the purposes of this discussion, we will use the "two-full-moons-in-a-single-calendar-month" meaning.
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Lunar Eclipse Facts
And now for the 3rd phenomenon of this wonderful trio - a blood moon, or total lunar eclipse. Hopefully my students are already familiar with how shadows can be "umbral" and "penumbral" from our light unit, but a refresher is always a good thing! Why is it red? Refraction!! Check out the video on the right.
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Huge swath of butterflies appears on weather radar!
A parent recently alerted me to the news that a 70 mile swath of painted lady butterflies lit up the weather radar near Denver on October 5th, 2017. Apparently this can also happen when large flocks of migrating birds congregate. Here's a video that shows the radar and all the butterflies.
Adaptations aren't always about survival......
In class we were talking about how adaptations help and organism survive AND reproduce in their habitat. Sometimes a behavioural adaptation is just for reproduction. Take the bower bird for example.....
Strange flickering in distant star causes scientists to speculate about alien life!
Junior 3/4 Lois B. and her dad stopped me in the hallway the other day to tell me about a star that has an usual flickering pattern that scientists can't explain - yet! Scientists and citizen scientists have been scanning Kepler telescope images looking for other solar systems with planets. One way to find a planet is to watch the star and see if it dims periodically, suggesting that a planet is orbiting the star. A huge planet the size of Jupiter will dim the star as it passes by only about 1%.
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But one star, named KIC 8462852, that is 1500 light years away is not only dimming, but its dimming by a very large amount and not in a regular, periodic pattern. Once it dimmed the star by 15%, and another time by a whopping 22%! Scientists have not yet been able to explain this. This link will take you to an article that explains some of their thoughts about various natural phenomenon that could be happening, but they are still perplexed. The one thing they DO know is that the data is accurate. This leaves open the possibility of an alien civilization that may be interfering with the star's illumination. Scientists are not ruling this out. What a gas!!!
The Acorn Weevil
When the acorn falls to the ground, the weevil grub eats its way out and then buries itself in the ground for up to 2 years before metamorphosing into the adult beetle.
Interestingly, squirrels seem to know there is a grub inside and will leave those acorns behind. Chipmunks, however, will not only eat the acorn, but the grub as well. |
This year was another mast year for Eagle's mascot oak tree. A mast year means that it's a year in which LOTS of acorns fall. And if there's a well-timed rain, those acorns will begin to open and send down a root. But sometimes, SOMETHING ELSE comes out. Ever notice a tiny hole on the side of the acorn that looks like it is perfectly drilled? Well, that's the escape hatch for the tiny acorn weevil larvae that grew inside. How did the egg get inside the acorn? Click here to see the National Geographic video that explains all! Unfortunately, you'll have to watch a commercial beforehand.
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One for the record books!
I woke up this morning to my local NPR station and heard them say that you HAD to google this image. It's not too often that I hear that recommendation, so, of course, I was curious. This animal is an example of how animals we breed to serve our needs become dependent on us. This sheep had apparently separated from the original flock for several years. Sheep and the wool they grow is a big industry in Australia. This sheep is bred for growing merino wool, which is used to make lovely sweaters and socks (among other things). They are shorn every year and produce, on average, 11 pounds of wool. A very fast sheep shearer takes about 3 minutes to do the job.
National Champion sheep shearer, Ian Elkins , volunteered to shear the sheep, which had to be sedated for the process. It took him 45 minutes. He estimated that the sheep had not been shorn in 7 years and probably would not have made it through another summer. It was barely able to walk with the heavy load. How heavy was the fleece? 89 pounds! This blew away the previous world record of 68 pounds. |
Cat Plays Dead to Avoid Going for a Walk
I just couldn't resist sharing this one. Watch it until the end. Too funny! Just goes to show that cats do as they please, with no desire to please.
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Eeyore of the Ocean - The Ocean Sunfish
I once was lucky enough to see one of these very odd fish off the coast of Australia. I found this wryly humorous article on the sunfish, dubbed the Eeyore of the ocean. Among other things, this fish will grow 60 million times the size it was when it first hatches! If you did that, you would weigh 450 million pounds as an adult.
The largest sunfish ever discovered weighed over 5,000 lbs, which makes it the largest bony fish known. Okay Jr. 3/4's, what class does the bony fish belong to???
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Faster than a speeding bullet, faster than Superman (I think), the fastest living thing lives on .......(wait for it).......POOP!
FINALLY111 The mystery of the moving rocks is solved
Since the 1940's, evidence showed that large rocks and boulders moved on Death Valley's Racetrack Playa, but no one ever witnessed it happening in this remote place on earth, let alone understood how or why. This week, researchers from the Scripp's Institute revealed evidence supporting one of two hypotheses. Watch the video below to find out how this mystery was finally solved.
How to fish farm - the ecological way
This TEDTalk is 20 minutes long, but really speaks about the true meaning of sustainability, and how 3 billion years of living ecosystems show us how to really farm! Dan Barber is a chef with a great sense of humor.
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Epic gathering of rays
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If a group of geese is called a gaggle, and a group of crows is called a murder, what is a humongous group of rays called?
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"Stunning Time-Lapse Video of Yosemite National Park
Growing up in California, I remember many visits to this national treasure. Only recently, I was lucky enough to see Yosemite from my airplane window as I went back home. For my geology students, these huge rocks are made of intrusive igneous granite that once was far beneath the earth. Over millions of years, the granite was exposed by uplift and erosion (by glaciers). The video on the right is a National Geographic time-lapse video. You can also follow this link to get more descriptions about which locations they visited in Yosemite to capture this video.
For a very interesting video (on the right) and more information on the granite of Yosemite Valley, go to this USPS link. |
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How Wolves Change Rivers
Learn why top predators have a broad and important affect on not only the members of a community lower down on the food chain, but even on the abiotic factors such as rivers.
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Argentina's extraordinary & elusive pink fairy armadillo
"The remarkable pink fairy armadillo (Chlamyphorus truncatus), a 5-inch-long, quarter-pound critter with a rosy shell atop silky white hair. This smallest of all armadillos spends almost its entire life burrowing through the earth, hunting various invertebrates and chewing up plant matter. It is a rarely seen, almost totally unstudied marvel — what you read here is pretty much all we’ve observed about the pink fairy armadillo." - Matt Simon, Wired Science
If this cutie doesn't qualify for "Nature's Wierd & Wonderful", I don't know what does. But don't look for it in pet stores. They are uniquely adapted to burrowing in Argentina's deserts, and die in captivity. For an interesting article that includes some video footage showing how it burrows, click on the photo.
If this cutie doesn't qualify for "Nature's Wierd & Wonderful", I don't know what does. But don't look for it in pet stores. They are uniquely adapted to burrowing in Argentina's deserts, and die in captivity. For an interesting article that includes some video footage showing how it burrows, click on the photo.
Excavating an ant colony of grand proportions
It's a Pumpkin Palooza!
Violet Coral Mushroom
On October 23rd, 2013, this beautiful image was Science 360's "Picture of the Day". It was taken at Babcock State Park in West Virginia. To learn more about this beautiful coral mushroom (Clavaria zollingeri), go to this link at NSF.
Humans didn't invent the gear!
Published in Nature this week is an article about how leafhoppers are able to perfectly synchronize their legs when they jump. Their legs are connected by tiny gears.
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New ideas about herd animals, ecology & climate change
In ecology, we have talked about how the methods we use to raise meat animals are damaging to the ecosystem and contribute to greenhouse gases and climate change. Allan Savory's work, detailed in the TED talk on the right, talks about how proper herd management not only may reduce, but reverse desertification (the process of making deserts). He also argues with compelling data that climate change can be reversed as well. Perhaps this is an idea worth exploring further!
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To tell a story
Writing stories conveys the magic and creativity of the human mind - an evolutionary trait that has helped humanity adapt to many different environments. This is my own justification (should it be necessary) for posting this lovely fantastical short movie on my science-oriented webpage. Remember that science is also about good stories that reveal the underlying mysteries of nature. Enjoy!
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Is fairness a human concept?
This amusing and illuminating experiment demonstrates that monkeys understand the concept of unfair behavior. Apparently, this experiment has since been tried with other species and had the same effect.
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How to Get to Mars
This clip is taken from the IMAX movie "Roving Mars". It gives both animated an real-time account of
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Aurora of Denali
The following information was copied from the Denali National Park website.
The aurora borealis (Northern Lights) occurs when a coronal mass ejection (CME), a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields, interacts with elements in the earth's atmosphere. Coronal mass ejections are often associated with other forms of solar activity, most notably solar flares. Near solar maxima the sun produces about three CMEs every day, whereas near solar minima there is about one CME every five days. Solar winds stream away from the sun at speeds of about 1 million miles per hour and reach the earth roughly 40 hours after leaving the sun. As the electrons enter the earth's upper atmosphere, they will encounter atoms of oxygen and nitrogen at altitudes from 20 to 200 miles above the earth's surface. The color of the aurora depends on which atom is struck, and the altitude of the meeting. Check here for current aurora activity and the aurora forecast. |
• Green - oxygen, up to 150 miles in altitude
• Red - oxygen, above 150 miles in altitude • Blue - nitrogen, up to 60 miles in altitude • Purple/violet - nitrogen, above 60 miles in altitude All of the magnetic and electrical forces react with one another in constantly shifting combinations. These shifts and flows can be seen as the auroras "dance," moving along with the atmospheric currents. The auroras generally occur along the auroral ovals, which center on the magnetic poles and roughly correspond with the Arctic and Antarctic circles. The lights can be visible at lower latitudes when solar activity is high. |
Murmuration (and the physics of biology!)
Click on the photo for more information about European starlings
As fall approaches, we begin to see large flocks of European starlings gathering. They tend to gather in large numbers near sunset just before they roost for the night.
Starlings were released in New York City's Central Park in 1890 by a group of individuals who wanted to introduce all of the animals mentioned in Shakespeare's plays. From an original flock of 60 birds, the United States is now home to over 150 million starlings. The amazing behavior as they gather in large flocks and fly in amazingly coordinated patterns with their quick turns has been studied as a phenomenon of physics, as is explained in this link to Wired Science. You can watch this wonderful gathering of starlings (called a murmuration) in the video on the right. |
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Is this science?
Watch the video on the left. Question for the day? What makes this science? Can you explain why or why not?
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The Scale of the Universe
Click here to see a wonderful interactive that puts size into perspective
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NOVA: Secrets of the Sun
Fabulous documentary about the sun, solar wind & electomagnetic radiation. Click on the picture to see!
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Biovisions
Harvard University and HHMI teamed up to create an amazing animation showing the "Inner Life" of a cell. It shows the latest research in cellular activity in animated form. Click on the picture to go to their website.
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The animation above is the same as the link on the left except that it is narrated. The one on the left is set to music.
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The dangerous and beautiful job of sulfur mining near an active volcano
_From Boston.com comes another amazing series of photographs by Photographer Olivier Grunewald, who has made several trips into the sulfur mine in the crater of
the Kawah Ijen volcano in East Java, Indonesia, bringing with him
equipment to capture surreal images lit by moonlight, torches, and the
blue flames of burning molten sulfur. Covered last year
in the Big Picture (in daylight), the miners of the 2,600 meter tall
(8,660ft) Kawah Ijen volcano trek up to the crater, then down to the
shore of a 200-meter-deep crater lake of sulfuric acid, where they
retrieve heavy chunks of pure sulfur to carry back to a weighing
station. Mr. Grunewald has been kind enough to share with us the
following other-worldly photos of these men as they do their hazardous
work under the light of the moon. (30 photos total)
Miniature chameleon
Eensy, weensy mini chameleon found in Madagascar. Julia's dad, shared this remarkable creature with me. If you click on the picture, it will link you to a website about the discovery. Possibly the smallest reptile known to man.
Major solar flare causes coronal mass ejection
_From NASA's Space Weather website.....A major solar storm, marked at the Sun by an M8.7 soft X-ray flare and the
eruption of a fast coronal mass ejection (CME), began early on January 23, 2012,
igniting the most intense solar energetic particle storm since 2005. The
expanding CME drove a shock through the solar wind, analogous to a bow wave in
front of a fast moving vessel. In the shock, electrons and protons were
accelerated to nearly the speed of light and appear in the video clip as streaks
of light as they hit SOHO's detectors. When the shock reached Earth, CME
particles spiraled down the magnetic field lines near Earth's poles and caused
spectacular aurora displays in the higher latitudes. Some observers claimed it
was the best display they'd seen in many years. You can watch a clip of aurora
from Sweden by clicking the video below. Click on the picture of the recent solar flare to link to SpaceWeather's video on how solar flares cause the aurora borealis.
Largest single-celled organism
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Xenophyophore (Domain: Eukaryota, Kingdom Rhizaria, Phylum Foraminifera, Class Xenophyophorea)
Sean brought this interesting organism to my attention recently when we were discussing why cells are so small. As is often the case in nature, we find exceptions to the rules. In the class Xenophyophore there is an organism called Syringammina fragillissima (meaning very fragile sandpipe) that is the largest single-celled organism. It was discovered in 1882 off the coast of Scotland and can grow to 20cm in diameter. The other unusual and interesting thing about S. fragillissima is that it also has many nuclei in its one large, branching cell. Most eukaryotic cells have only one.
In some areas of the deep, Xesnophyophore are the dominant species with over 2,000 individuals per 100 square meters. Then there is the fact that, like ameobas, they use a pseudopodium to engulf food from the mud around them. While doing this they secrete a mucus that can cover a sizeable area on the seafloor. In the case of S. fragillissima, there is a lot we do not know about it. We don't know what it eats, for example. (Click on the picture for more information)
Fourth and last, you know this is going to be a cool species when its scientific name means "bearer of foreign bodies". The over 40 species of Xenophyophores all build tests from the dead parts of other things, be it diatom skeletons, sponge spicules, or broken shells. To this they may add in sediment grains and a fecal pellet or two for fun.
So to recap, big single-celled animal that secretes a slimy goo all over and attaches the parts of dead things to itself.
Xenophyophore (Domain: Eukaryota, Kingdom Rhizaria, Phylum Foraminifera, Class Xenophyophorea)
Sean brought this interesting organism to my attention recently when we were discussing why cells are so small. As is often the case in nature, we find exceptions to the rules. In the class Xenophyophore there is an organism called Syringammina fragillissima (meaning very fragile sandpipe) that is the largest single-celled organism. It was discovered in 1882 off the coast of Scotland and can grow to 20cm in diameter. The other unusual and interesting thing about S. fragillissima is that it also has many nuclei in its one large, branching cell. Most eukaryotic cells have only one.
In some areas of the deep, Xesnophyophore are the dominant species with over 2,000 individuals per 100 square meters. Then there is the fact that, like ameobas, they use a pseudopodium to engulf food from the mud around them. While doing this they secrete a mucus that can cover a sizeable area on the seafloor. In the case of S. fragillissima, there is a lot we do not know about it. We don't know what it eats, for example. (Click on the picture for more information)
Fourth and last, you know this is going to be a cool species when its scientific name means "bearer of foreign bodies". The over 40 species of Xenophyophores all build tests from the dead parts of other things, be it diatom skeletons, sponge spicules, or broken shells. To this they may add in sediment grains and a fecal pellet or two for fun.
So to recap, big single-celled animal that secretes a slimy goo all over and attaches the parts of dead things to itself.
Yeti Crab of Deep Sea Vents - 'Gardening' chemotrophic bacteria
Cephalopod camouflage
Life in the Deep Oceans
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Watch How Smart Is an Octopus? on PBS. See more from NOVA SCIENCENOW. |
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The Beauty of Pollination
The credit for this beautiful video goes to my sister, Annie, who is always sending me interesting things. The video on the left starts with a brief talk about the importance of biodiversity and, in particular, pollinators. It is followed by a magnificent video on pollinators - well worth watching!
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