Saturday, January 16, 2021
Top Photographs of 2020 All in One Place
Friday, January 15, 2021
Friday Poem
Environmental & Science Education, Poetry, Art and Environment
Ed Hessler
Good morning, it is Friday, January 15 2021.
Converted to hours 15 days is 360; to percent of year 4.11%. Sunrise is at 7:47am, sunset is at 4:57pm, and there are 9h 10m, 39m of sunlight.
On this day in 1929 was born Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King, Jr).
Two quotations by Dr. King on education from the Morehouse College Newspaper, The Maroon Tiger, 1947:
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and and to think critically. Intelligence plus character--that is the true goal of education.
If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, 'brethren!' Be careful, teachers!
Today's poem is by Dudley Randall.
Thursday, January 14, 2021
How the Coronavirus Spreads: Infra Red Footage
Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Health, Medicine
Ed Hessler
The Washington Post series (free) on the pandemic posted has an essay on how the coronavirus spreads.
It includes a video (6m 12s)--using "a military-grade infrared camera capable of detecting exhaled breath. Numerous experts — epidemiologists, virologists and engineers — supported the notion of using exhalation as a conservative proxy to show potential transmission risk in various settings.
Even with this high tech camera, experts interviewed for the story note that "the footage underrepresents the potential risk of exposure from airborne particles. These particles may spread farther or linger longer than the visible exhalation plume, which dissipates quickly to a level of concentration the camera can no longer detect." (my emphasis).
Again: masking is a good idea even when it is inconvenient and it is for me now that winter is here and my nose tends to plug up and drip. Ugh!
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Researchers from Seven Different Nations Describe Their Pandemic Experience
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Bringing Out the Best in Gardens
Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Wildlife, Nature, Society, Sustainability
Ed Hessler
Guardian reporter Phoebe Weston asked some readers to describe what they have been doing to help wildlife in their gardens in 2020. Weston writes "Gardens are important habitats for small mammals, songbirds and insects and gardening in a wildlife-friendly way can make a massive difference in counteracting biodiversity loss. As always, the response was amazing, with readers from the UK, Australia, the US and Mexico sharing their innovations. Here are the best of them."
The reader responses are short and endlessly fascinating, e.g., a free service to cut holes in fences so that hedgehogs can travel more freely, "one thing I have done is...nothing! (read on)", and pocket meadows. Each story is accompanied by a photograph.
I loved these stories.
h/t Molly
Monday, January 11, 2021
A Doctor Finds in the Covid-19 Era Judging Patients' Decisions Comes Easier Than It Should
Sunday, January 10, 2021
Death of Nobel Physics Awardee (1988) Jack Steinberger (Muon Neutrinos)
Environmental & Science Education, STEM, History of Science,Nature of Science
Ed Hessler
Jack Steinberger is a Nobel awardee of whom I'd never heard (shared the Nobel for discovering muon neutrinos with Leon Lederman and Melvin Schwartz, 1988). He died recently at age 99. He was an experimental physicist.
The obituary published in Nature (22 December 2020) provides information about his rich life, his important contributions and a little bit about neutrinos (millions of which are passing through Earth and you and me right now without us knowing it).
I was struck by his attitude toward prizes in general. "Uninterested in prizes, he often reiterated his belief that 'the pretension that some of us are better than others [is not] a good thing'. He felt he been dealt lucky cards in his life, and expressed his deep gratitude to the Chicago family who gave him opportunities as a child. In his words: 'You have only one life: whatever crops up, crops up.'” (my emphasis)
The novelist, poet, art and literary critic John Updike wrote a poem about the ghost-like properties of neutrinos which has been widely published, including this entry in Symmetry in 2011. The poem is unusual because it is about a physics phenomenon. Below the poem is a line-by-line explanation but remember quite a bit has been learned about neutrinos since. At the time he wrote it (1960) the muon neutrino had not been found.
Saturday, January 9, 2021
Google Doodle on the Death of Sudan
Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Biodiversity, Nature, Extinction, Wildlife
Ed Hessler
Google Doodle puts it spotlight on Sudan, believed to be the last northern white rhino born in the wild and now dead. C/Net provides some details.
CNN has photos by Ami Vitale and a story by Kyle Almont.
And here is a YouTube Video (3m 17s).
Friday, January 8, 2021
Friday Poem(s)
Environmental & Science Education, Poetry, Art and Environment, History of Science
Good morning from St. Paul on the 8th day of 2021--192 hours of it representing 2.19% of the year.
Sunrise is at 7:50 am and sunset at 4:49 pm giving us 8h 59m 15s of sunlight (or light depending on the cloud cover.We are covered with a lid of gray, fog, mist, haze, even light snow earlier.
Quote: To contribute usefully to the advance of science, one must sometimes not disdain from understanding simple verification.--Leon Foucault (The Life and Science of Leon Foucault, William Tobin, 2003)
Today is celebrated Earth's Rotation Day.
This has become a Leon Foucault day and so this poem by Ella Wilcox Wheeler (1850 - 1919). She left us with a memorable line: Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep and you weep alone. Her poems? not so memorable. The Wiki entry explains.
My intent was to feature a different poem poem by David Budbill.