This Week's Sci-light

I love writing this blog--I get to search the internet for interesting and breaking news and then pass it on to an eager audience.  What could get better than that! 

Perhaps I've found an answer in an article on ScienceNews for Kids by Sid Perkins called Cool Jobs:  Repellent Chemistry.  As part of a STEM initiative funded by the Northrop Grumman Foundation, this article explores first nature's use of repellent surfaces through chemistry and physical structure and then highlights three scientists who are researching applications of nature's strategies. 

Photo credit:  iStockphoto

The lotus leaf is a perfect example of both chemistry and structure to accomplish the task of repelling water because of it's waxy leaves (that's chemistry) and the very tiny bumps on the leaf's surface (that's structure).  But reading on, I'm amazed at the potential applications and discoveries being made.  Whether you're a student of science or a teacher of science, this fascinating article will make you want to know more.  And knowing more is what Sci-curious is all about!

This Week's Sci-light

On June 28, 2013 I wrote a Sci-light on the Voyager I--a spacecraft launched in 1977 the same year Star Wars was released.  This amazing spacecraft seems to share a common ancestor with the Energizer bunny. 

Image obtained from NASA 2002 shows one of twin Voyager spacecrafts, launched in 1977.

It's still going!  Where do you end up when you just keep going?  Apparently, "where no machine has gone before!"  Ok...I'm done.

But truly, Voyager has now gone where no machine has gone before.  In a news conference on Thursday, NASA scientists announced that on August 25, 2012 the month NASA's rover, Curiosity, landed on Mars, Voyager slipped out of the Sun's empire, the heliosphere, and passed into interstellar space.

While the New York Times article, "In a Breathtaking First, NASA's Voyager 1 Exits the Solar System" by Brooks Barnes introduces you to the Voyager 1, the NASA team, and what's next for the spacecraft, the stark comparison between the past and the present caught my attention.  In this story, a spacecraft with 8 track tapes, transmitters with the power of a refrigerator light bulb, and computers with a fraction of the memory in a low-end iPhone took us to where we have only imagined, and Lawrence J. Zottarelli, a 77 year old retired NASA engineer, wrote precise and expert computer coding to increase the amount of data we received at the boundary.

Sometimes it's easy in the search for the new and better technology to forget the steps taken before and disregard them as outdated.  But just as we would not be without our ancestors, so the technology of today would not exist with out the innovations from before. 

So my hat's off to the "imagineers" of yesterday who remind us of the ever circling spiral of time that brings the past to the present and into the future!

TED talk UCSD Style

Just a quick post for today. 

Check out this talk "The Real Scientists of San Diego: Kathryn Furby at TECxUCSD," who highlights what it is to be a scientist and how scientists can communicate who they are and what they do more to increase effectiveness. 

Would love your comments on this one!

This Week's Sci-light

A New Twist on Place-based Education...

 I was surfing the internet for organizations that support students interested in STEM when I came across an article by Judy Lin entitled, "UCLA Engineers work to keep Watts Towers from cracking."  For those of you not from LA, the Watts Towers are an iconic monument in south LA, created by an Italian immigrant, Simon Rodia, between 1921 and 1954.  For more history about the artist and the tower, visit the Watts Tower website.  (Even reading the history of this website will be interesting.)

From UCLA Today, August 21,2013

The tallest tower rises to the height of 99.5 feet and all are an intricate lattice work of concrete and steel ornamented with broken glass, sea shells, and tiles.  But there are problems.  This is where art meets science.  The towers are cracking and some of the ornamentation is falling away.  Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), that preserves the towers, has been working on a solution.  But repairs have not held.  A grant from the National Science Foundation brought in a team of UCLA engineers, Robert Nigbor and Ertugrul Taciroglu along with undergraduate and graduate students, to collect data and analyze the reasons for the problems. 

The referenced article from UCLA Today outlines the instruments used and documented tremors detected in the structure as well as recorded changes in even the properties of the tower that occur simply from sunrise to sunset. 

Beyond the fascination with history and the science of conservation, this article reminds me that the application of science is not just for far away places like the Great Barrier Reef or Yellowstone National Park.  It is right in our backyards and neighborhoods, available for brilliant minds who like the coal miner and construction worker by day and artist by night, Simon Rodia, can see potential in the 'found items' of our environments.

Use your knowledge of science, engineering, technology or mathematics to advance and protect your place in the world!

This Week's Sci-light!

           Did you know?

Artist image courtesy M. Kornmesser, ESO

Richard Parker, astronomer at the University of Sheffield in the U.K., and his colleagues have discovered a massive star, currently 265 times the mass of our sun, in one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies called the Large Magellanic Cloud.  Want to know more?  Read Andrew Fazekas' article Most Massive Star Discovered--Shatters Records on the National Geographic site.

Did you know?         

Credit: Yuri Beletsky, Las Campanas Observatory

Astronomers have designed and built a new camera that when fitted to the world's most powerful telescopes can take pictures with higher resolution than the Hubble telescope?  Author Andrew Fazekas explains how in Photos:  Sharpest Views of the Cosmos Ever.

        One last thing...Did you know?

There is a scholarship specifically for students who are transferring from a 2 year college to a 4 year school?  Read all about the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship and shoot for the stars!

This Week's Sci-light

My mother loved birds.  I don't know why, but I spent many hours of my childhood looking through binoculars, traveling to wild life refuges, and filling the bird feeder in the backyard.  Even these many years later, I can't see a blue heron without thinking of her and the excited look on her face.

Enough nostalgia (or perhaps too much!), today's Sci-light is about Crowdsourcing, for the Birds.  What caught my eye about this story by Jim Robbins in the New York Times was not the scientific discovery that orchard orioles are not one but two genetically distinct populations or the migratory patterns of the chimney swift, but rather how this was discovered.

Emma Rose Burgess/Associated Press

An estimated 6,000 Vaux Swifts entering a chimney in CA

A project called eBird uses volunteers to report bird sightings electronically.  One such observer was Mr. Martinka, a retired state wildlife biologist who several times a week travels to mountains and grasslands (even the city dump) near his home to watch birds.  He then reports his sightings to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a nonprofit organization based at Cornell University.  According to author Jim Robbins, "such bits, gathered in the millions, provide scientists with a very big picture: perhaps the first crowdsourced, real-time view of bird populations around the world."  Further in the article, Steve Kelling, the director of information science at the Cornell bird lab, reminds us of the importance of studying birds "because they occur in all environments.” So studying changes in their populations can help us understand environmental impacts. 

There are questions posed about the validity of the data and the computer used to analyze and learn about it.  Don't be confused by this section of the article.  This is how scientists challenge and improve their methods and understanding.  Read and look at the many sides of the story.  Perhaps you have a few suggestions or questions of your own.

In fact, that is the hook of science--someone trying a new method to answer a puzzling question.  I have often spoke to students who are interested in science about the importance of participating in science.  It is imperative for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is for you to discover your passion.

If it's birds or whatever look for a way to engage in discovery. And when you do it, take someone along.  That's what mom did and look at me now!  :)

This Week's Sci-light

I have often challenged students to recognize that our designations of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology, etc. are categories that simply enable us to more easily understand the world around us.  Nature knows no such boundaries. 

Mojave Desert tortoise.  Photo by Michael Tuma.

Today's Sci-light also crosses boundaries.  Perhaps the picture of a Mojave Desert tortoise doesn't inspire you to imagine boundary crossing, but the story behind the picture should help you get there.  The natural habitat for this Tortoise is not limited to the California Mojave; it spans into Utah, Arizona and Nevada interacting with humans, business, as well as other desert dwellers.  Michael Tuma, USC Dornsife graduate student in Integrative and Evolutionary Biology, is trying to understand the behavior of this species who can withstand as little as 2 inches of rain a year and temperatures greater than 140 degrees Fahrenheit. (You did notice how integrated his field of study was, right?)

So far, this story sounds like a scientific investigation.  How do animals live and survive in extreme environments.  But here is where the story shifts.  In Emerging From Their Shells, Amber Dance writer for USC Dornsife explains that it is not only the natural environment that this tortoise must adapt to.  In fact, it is the impact of humans in their environment.  As businesses like BrightSource Energy, Inc, a solar energy company, move into the desert to build a solar plant, the tortoise faces loss of habitat.  And people live in the desert, too, creating roads, homes, and trash that attracts the tortoise's predators.  This is why Michael works with SWCA Environmental Consultants in Pasadena, California to help clients minimize harm. 

Michael's work is not just done in the field.  He primarily uses a computer model.  Curious about how?  Read the full article and find some great Tortoise Tidbits at the end.

Let's review.  We've touched on biology, evolution, business, environment, sociology, and computer science.  In my opinion, the Mojave Desert tortoise has crossed many boundaries!