Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Fire Ants: Part 2


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Behavior
Biodiversity
Science and Environmental Education
STEM
Edward Hessler

The Washington Post, 8/30/2017 has a headline about fireants that if not over the top, is close to it. It reads,


No need for terrifying. The science is not terrifying but the result of adaptations fireants have for coping with water is. Science tells how it is possible and the suggested remedy is based on what is known about the properties of water and fireant behavior thanks to scientific research.

This great article by WaPo reporter Christopher Ingraham is a rich extension to the previous post on fireants. It has several short films and includes the work of Georgia Tech engineer Davd Hu, the subject of the previous post.  The issue is that these critters cannot be flooded out because they can raft and are doing just that.

The result could be called firewater.

Fire Ants: Part 1.


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Biodiversity
Science and Environmental Education
STEM
Miscellaneous
Edward Hessler

PZ Myers (Professor of Biology, University of Morris, World-Class Blogger) posted this incredible short film about fire ants. 

The engineer featured in the video has interesting things to say about the nature of science/engineering and evolution.  And I learned a new term (visoelastic), not that I needed another but it suggests where a degree in engineering can lead. 
What an incredible, wonderful biological world evolution has produced.

I smiled/grimaced when I read the comment about this by Dr. Myers.

These antz don't belong in anyone pantz!

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

It's a Fact, Jack/Jill


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Climate Change
STEM

There is both ink and words on whether Tropical Storm Hurricane Harvey was "caused by" climate change.

What can be said is nicely summarized by climate scientist Michael Mann, writing for the The Guardian who steers us away from the notion of causation (this is, as he says an "ill-posed question") to evidence about worsening and exacerbating the flooding that followed.

His short article is worth reading. These are some of  the factors at play which he describes in more detail

--A combination of sea level rise and coastal subsidence due to human disturbance led to a higher storm surge.

--Regional ocean surface temperatures have risen almost 1 degree Fahrenheit (about 0.5 degrees Centigrade over time. Mann notes that there is rough relationship between average atmospheric moisture content and each increase of 0.5 degrees Centigrade of warming. The result is some 3-5% increase in moisture in the atmosphere.

--Not only is the surface of the ocean warmer than it used to be, the warming effect of global climate change is penetrating into deeper layers. This means that the surface layer can "feed" on warmer water below.

--Many reports have emphasized that Harvey stalled, stayed in place moving only slowly away from where it made landfall. The prevailing winds are weak so the storm spun and wobbled almost in place. Mann writes that this pattern "is associated with a greatly expanded subtropical high pressure system over much of the US at the moment, with the jet stream pushed well to the north. This pattern of subtropical expansion is predicted in model simulations of human-caused climate change."
 The take home message: global climate change worsened this ferocious storm. It is also important to note that this is based on evidence.
And this is the fact to which I refer.

A Blood Draw: Mosquitoes at Work


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Environmental & Science Education
Health
Biological Evolution
Edward Hessler

Mosquitoes are commonly found on lists of the world's most dangerous animals, often in the top ten. This occurs when the ranking is about causes of human deaths.  Malaria is the largest of several diseases transmitted by their "bites."

Just how does a mosquito penetrate the skin and withdraw a blood sample? It is not quite what Frank Sinatra had in mind in his song I've Got You Under My Skin.

They use six needles. In this short video produced by KQED Science (San Francisco) we see just how they do it, painlessly and quickly. The video is part of the Deep Look series.

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Hawk Hops a Cab


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Behavior
Miscellaneous
Edward Hessler

Just before Tropical  Storm Harvey made landfall, a Houston cab driver who was stocking up returned to his cab to find a passenger who noticed the cab was empty.

A Cooper's Hawk.

William Brusco tells the story here.

The video is preceded by a short advert.

h/t Huffington Post

Ingredient for Making a Glacial Lake


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Glaciers
Geology
Science and Environmental Education
STEM
Edward Hessler

One ingredient for the making of Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Rocky Mountains, Alberta, Canada is "glacial flour."

Time for some magic or science; sometimes they are interchangeable.

From the EPOD archives.

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Happy Birthday


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History of Science
Mathematics Education
STEM
Edward Hessler

Ninety-nine remarkable years!

Today, August 26 2017, is Katherine Johnson's birthday. She played a key role in assuring the success of the Apollo 11 mission, among making other stunning calculations and achievements. Along the way she shattered one stereotype after another.

A year ago Vanity Fair published a short article about her by Charles Bolden, former NASA adminstrator and NASA astronaut.  It is a polished gem.

Happy Birthday Ms. Johnson.

If you've not read Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly, consider reading it. I know that there is a movie and even if you've seen it I don't think the book will disappoint you but add to learning more about her and her colleagues. I'm a book guy.

h/t: Molly Redmond.


Friday, August 25, 2017

Thursday, August 24, 2017

A Correction: Never Too Late!


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History of Science
Environmental and Science Education
Edward Hessler

The Australasian Journal of Philosophy issued a correction to a journal article published 35-years ago. It has been cited four times. This was reported in the journal Science for August 31, 2016.

Be sure to click on the paper mentioned in the article about the retraction. The paper published in Physical Review Letters is described as an influential paper on atomic behavior and is widely-cited.

It also has a four-footed co-author who became a co-author because the author had written "we" and "our" throughout and didn't want to re-type it. This co-author was subsequently offered a position in the physics department.

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

#eclipse2017


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STEM
Science and Environmental Education
Miscellaneous
Edward Hessler

The last coast to coaster--total eclipse from one coast to the other--was in 1918.

In that long period of time taking a snap has changed as shown byWaPo's Armand Emamdjomeh and Dense Lu who "took more than 44,000 geolocated Instagram photos uploaded with the hashtag #eclipse2017 during the eclipse’s route over the United States and grouped them by latitude and longitude."

They selected the most liked entries and put them into a graphic which you may click on. I'm not sure what these data "say" but the entries are fun to view and read.  You may be surprised--I was--by the  coverage up and down and across the United States. In addition they created a bar graph of time of submission of the entries by one-minute intervals.

Take a look (and thank them for their work which they completed the day of the eclipse!).

Antarctica


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STEM
Environmental and Science Education
Climate Change
Edward Hessler

The NYT has two video programs, one an Antarctica Series and the other which captures two weeks on the ice. I recently discovered both.

These provide a virtual-reality experience of what it is like there both on, above and below the ice.

Here is the link to the he Antarctica Series.

Here is the link to the stand-alone, Two Weeks on Ice In McMurdo Station, AntarcticaThis is where I started viewing.

Monday, August 21, 2017

It's da' Eclipse. Why not a Poem, too?


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Poetry
Art and Environment
Edward Hessler

Many of you know this poem by Robert Bly (a native son) and perhaps saw it today on the Poetry Foundation website.

Sunday, August 20, 2017

In Memoriam: D. L. Menard


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Culture
Art and Environment

Cajun icon D. L. Menard died a few weeks ago.  He was known as as the cajun Hank Williams.

His most popular song is "Back Door." Here with L'Angelus (LAWN JAY LOOSE)--four brothers and sisters.

Whew!

h/t 3QuarksDaily

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Moggie Behavior: Inside the Box


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Behavior
Environmental and Science Education
Edward Hessler

Moggies love boxes and sometimes we wonder why.

If you have a kitteh, here is a small, one-off "experiment" you might try just to satisfy two curiosities: that of the cat in question and the one who the cat keeps around for its own ends and purposes--you.

There is also a discussion about this aspect of kitteh behavior.

Friday, August 18, 2017

Thursday, August 17, 2017

An Eclipse Essay

Art and Environment
STEM
Environmental and Science Education
Edward Hessler

The Atlantic has re-published Annie Dillard's essay, Total Eclipse. It is a classic that was first published in 1982, first appearing in Teaching a Stone to Talk. It is beautifully written and will be available "until the day after the 'Great American Eclipse' on August 21."

Thanks to The Atlantic for republishing this glorious essay and making it freely available.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Sustainability in Iceland

CGEE Student Voice
Sustainability Abroad
by Jenni Abere


Iceland is a unique country that draws crowds of tourists because of its natural beauty. It's got waterfalls, glaciers, mountains, volcanoes, hot springs, geysers... These attractions brought my family to Iceland for a week, and while I was there, I noticed that Iceland is an interesting country from a sustainability standpoint.

Skógafoss, one of the most popular waterfalls in Iceland.

As Icelanders are known to brag about, 85% of their energy is produced domestically from renewable sources. While driving in the southwest, we glimpsed some proof of this in the form of a large geothermal plant. The unique geology of Iceland meets a lot of their energy needs.

Just past this geothermal plant is the town of Hveragerði, the geothermal capital of Iceland ("hver" means "hot spring" in Icelandic). An hour hike into the hills beyond the town will bring you to a stream fed by hot springs — a perfect temperature for soaking! This was one of my favorite things we did in Iceland.

Hveragerði also claims two restaurants which use geothermal steam to cook their food. Geothermally-cooked rye bread is a traditional treat. Some of the food is locally produced as well. There are many greenhouses in this area that are heated with geothermal energy.

We enjoyed a lunch of soup and bread cooked at this geothermal restaurant in Hveragerði.


Tomatoes growing in a greenhouse at the geothermal park in Hveragerði.
The white pipes behind the plants carry hot water directly from the ground. This greenhouse is hot enough to grow bananas!
Electricity produced at geothermal plants provides light for the greenhouses, a necessity in a place as far north as Iceland.

Traditionally, Icelandic cuisine features little produce. Much of the cuisine is based on meat, dairy, and seafood. Animal agriculture represents a huge use of land in Iceland. There are sheep nearly everywhere you look. There are also large numbers of horses and cows. Much of the farmable land is used to grow hay to feed the livestock during the winter. These animals are hardy enough to stay outside during the long winter, when they eat from large hay bales instead of grazing.

One surprising fact about Iceland is that there is very little wildlife. Besides sea birds, you would rarely encounter a wild animal on land. In fact, the only native land mammal at the time of human settlement is the Arctic fox. Since then, small mammals like mink and rabbits have populated the island. There are also herds of reindeer, although they are not originally native. Many of the plants are not native either.

This is one unique aspect of sustainability in Iceland. There are very few wild animals for livestock to compete with. This means that animal agriculture in Iceland has a smaller footprint than in many other places around the world.

We encountered this sheep while on a hike.
Judging from the number of sheep we saw outside of fences, there may be a sizable feral sheep population in Iceland.

Of course, fishing is very prominent in Iceland. Common menu items include trout, salmon, herring, lobster, mussels, shrimp... Less common menu items include shark, whale, and puffin. Whaling is taboo in America, but Icelanders maintain that the whales they hunt are not endangered.

The water in Iceland also provides energy in the form of hydroelectricity. When we drove inland to see the Hekla volcano, we passed a large hydroelectric dam on a river. Iceland has a steady supply of rushing rivers in thanks to the many glaciers.

One of the larger rivers is home to the famous Gullfoss waterfall. In the early 20th century, some Icelanders wanted to dam the river to produce energy. Sigríður Tómasdóttir, known as Iceland's first environmentalist, protested the project in order to protect the natural beauty of the falls.

Gullfoss is one of Iceland's biggest tourist attractions, and part of the "golden circle." 

Although the story of Sigríður is more myth than fact, it presents an enduring conflict: Do we produce renewable energy or preserve natural beauty? Dam projects are often halted for concerns about wildlife in the river, but many of Iceland's frigid glacial rivers are fish-free.

Iceland has several large glaciers, noted by the Icelandic word jökull. On our trip, we saw Eyjafjallajökull (the notorious glacier-topped volcano), Snæfellsjökull, and Myrdalsjökull. We got the closest to a tongue of Myrdalsjökull called Sólheimajökull. This long outlet is a canary in the coal mine for climate change, and has shrunk rapidly over the last several years.

Sólheimajökull is one of the most easily accessible glaciers in Iceland, and therefore a popular site for guided glacier walks.
For a quick and free visit, you can park and follow a path to get a good view of the glacier. 

The natural landscape in Iceland has been conserved thanks to several factors including: the climate and geology that makes much of the land useless for industry or agriculture; the small population of only 300,000; and the efforts of the government to establish parks and reserves.

Tourism provides another incentive to preserve Iceland's wilderness, its biggest attraction. But it also provides a conflict, since tourists can triple the population of the small country in the busy summer months. This is a huge burden on Iceland's resources, requiring more energy, food, and living spaces. Not to mention, all tourists have to take an airplane to the remote island, and then many drive or take buses once they're there, producing greenhouse gases. 

Iceland is currently one of the most sustainable nations. Hopefully as tourism continues to boom, this won't change. 

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Monday, August 14, 2017

The 4th R


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Schooling
Edward Hessler

Recess, of course!

Dr. Michael Hynes is the superintendent of the Patchoque-Medford schools on Long Island. He has been a long-time proponent of essentially making recess an official part of the school day.

Here is a short video for which I thank Diane Ravitch who posted about it today on her blog. Ravitch's aim is to have an ongoing discussion of better education for all students. Dr. Ravitch  also includes a letter from Superintendent Hynes to the NYS Superintendent of Schools and the NYS Board of Education to "strongly consider and discuss a mandate" for recess.

I let the tape run after I watched it while I attended to other things and noticed that it is followed by a TEDx talk by Dr. Hynes. Didn't pay much attention but caught a few words about his visit to his former school to see his transcript so I suspect it has something to do with recess and other ideas he has interest in, one of which is meditation, a practice that is being used in some schools with success for dealing with and understanding the tensions of daily life.


Sunday, August 13, 2017

A Human Gnomen


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STEM
Environmental and Science Education
Miscellaneous
Edward Hessler

There are three Internet sites that I seldom miss checking. Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is one.

On August 12, 2017, APOD featured a short video of a human sundial, well almost completely human.

The Liverpool Museum has a nice step-by-step link on how sundials work. You can check it out here.

Saturday, August 12, 2017

Three Portraits from A Corner of Japan


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Miscellaneous
Population

Edward Hessler

Japan's population is mostly urban, about 94% according to data cited in the introduction to a video made by Eiji Iwakawa.

In this film he shows three portraits of villagers who live in Yadorigi, a small village in southern Japan. Their lives may surprise you given the overwhelming urbanization of Japan. Each of them is likely to warm your heart.  Their lives are fascinating and their views often thoughtful. Who wouldn't want to know them?

It is long (30 minutes) but I hope you can find time to watch at least one segment. I liked them all (choosing to watch them in segments) but if you think you have time for only one my suggestion is pick one right out of the blue and let it serve as a place holder for the other two.

Who knows you may return later.

Three cheers!

Friday, August 11, 2017

Keeping the Water in Iraq


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Water and Watersheds
Sustainability
Environmental and Science Education
Edward Hessler

For more than seven years, Nabil Musa, an Iraqi water keeper has been traveling his country to promote the importance of clean water.

Ensia just published a short article and video about him and his work.

Friday Poem


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Poetry
Art and Environment
Edward Hessler

Today's poem is about a morning coffee in Italy.

A coffee in a white porcelain cup. Not bad; only a saucer missing.

It is by Billy Collins.

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

The dead zone

Water & Watersheds
Environmental and Science Education
Edward Hessler

"It has become a rite of summer," writes NPR's Dan Charles. "Every year, a 'dead zone' appears in the Gulf of Mexico. It's an area where water doesn't have enough oxygen for fish to survive. And every year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration commissions scientists to venture out into the Gulf to measure it.

The dead zone in 2011.

"This week, NOAA announced that this year's dead zone is the biggest one ever measured. It covers 8,776 square miles (2,272,974 ha)— an area the size of New Jersey."

You may read Charles's essay (or listen to it) here. The written piece includes a striking photograph and an equally striking diagram as well as link or two.

h/t NPR, Dan Charles

Monday, August 7, 2017

The Five Day Forecast


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Environmental & Science Education
Edward Hessler

xkcd has a great take on the nature of the 5-day forecast.

Cosmologist Sean Carroll (CalTech) couldn't resist adding another row at the bottom, making it much more long term. The differential of temperature change is interesting when you try to consider all that time.

This is a physics blog so there are some interesting takes and comments from physicists and bound to be more. Not to be missed.

h/t Sean Carroll

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Murmurations

Behavior
Biological Evolution
Edward Hessler

You've probably seen a video of a starling murmuration. These murmurations are mesmerizing. The birds appear to be in communication as they turn and fly in perfect synchrony without colliding. It is as though there is a "super-mind" regulating this dance in the sky.

Here is a video of one.

Starling Murmuration [Wikimedia

So, what is known about this phenomenon? Andrea Alfano writing in The Living Bird, a publication of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology describes current knowledge as well as what is not known. Such flocks are leaderless and this challenges our minds and imaginations. A smart swarm, so to speak.

Alfano provides a link to Grainger Hunt, a scientist with the Peregrine Fund. He makes this observation about a murmuration resulting from an encounter by a large flock of starlings with a hungry peregrine falcon. "Here is a peregrine, intent upon a meal, and the focus of each desperate starling is avoidance. The wondrous cloud is thus secondary — an extraneous property, emerging from independent attempts by each individual, within the multitude of self-interested starlings, to escape the falcon — and how better than by getting in the middle of the flock and staying there until the peregrine leaves? At each point during a peregrine attack, there are safe places to be, and there are unsafe ones, and so each starling strives to place others between itself and the falcon."

This is a common-sense analysis based on ideas we have about adaptation. Alfano reports on a recent computer analysis (see link in her article) that begins to provide needed details on the mechanics of the behavior. The researchers found that starlings co-ordinate "their movements with their seven nearest neighbors." However, this doesn't explain such movements. There is still much to be learned on how the birds do this.

In a more recent paper published in PlosOne, the authors call attention to a basic difficulty of studying this behavior. Empirical analysis is very difficult. In this situation, computer models become useful. The model the researchers used was based on the idea of self-organization. Among the findings was that group size influences the variability of the shape of the murmuration. A bonus of the study is that it led to several hypotheses that can be tested empirically. The authors made the following comment on the limitations of their study, notably shortcomings of the model. It also points out the complexity of murmurations and some of the variables that might be involved.

"Despite its usefulness, our model has shortcomings. First, of such complex animals as birds, it concerns merely their movement behaviour in relation to the position and heading of others and of the roost, while using a simple model of flying behaviour, ignoring e.g. flapping flight. It ignores any behaviour related to other motivations, such as nutritional, reproductive, or motivations to avoid a predator. It also ignores environmental disturbances, e.g. by physical forces, such as wind. Thus, in nature, there will definitively be additional reasons that cause flock shape to be variable beyond those that we consider in this paper. Indeed, in the model the variability of shape of, for instance, small flocks of 200 birds is below that observed in real flocks in nature."

The use of models is beginning to play a much more important role in K-12 science education. They are used widely by scientists in all disciplines. Here is a summary table on developing and using models as described in the Next Generation Science Standards.

Friday, August 4, 2017

Choosing a School


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Education
Environmental and Science Education
Miscellaneous
Edward Hessler

Another slice from the Onion, an article to help us help kids make the right school choice--the best fit of school and kid.


Friday Poem


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Poetry
Art and Environment
Edward Hessler

Louis Menand's "The Defense of Poetry: Can a poem change your life?", (The New Yorker, July31, 2017) called my attention to August 4 1914 when Great Britain declared war on Germany.

He also wrote that "on August 5th, the first war poem appeared in the London Times--"The Vigil," by Henry Newbolt. I was very surprised by the quick response of a poet. This means, of course, that there is only one choice for today's poem.

For information about Sir Henry Newbolt see here.

There is a short bio of Professor Menand, a regular contributor to The New Yorker and also to the article mentioned above here.

Thursday, August 3, 2017


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Women in Science
STEM
Biodiversity
E. Hessler

Science Friday has a first-rate series, Breakthrough, Portraits of Women in Science.

The featured scientist for the June 30 program, was Dr. Karyn Rode who as a United States Geological Survey (USGS) biologist studies the polar bears of the Chukchi Sea. She focuses on their health, mostly what they eat and then how quickly they metabolize their food.

View it here.

Rode describes how she became a polar bear biologist at this site.  Scroll down to her biographical video. Graduate students and post-docs often take a winding path to their ultimate career in which serendipity plays a big role.