No science in summer? I have another life?

I haven't posted here in a long time. Why? Well, it might be that I really haven't had time although I did some really cool science stuff last summer. I promise to catch up soon. In the mean time check out Second Life, a virtual world (metaverse) with currently over 200 universities, government entities like NASA and NOAA, non-profit organizations, politicians, malls, residential areas, clubs, activist groups, and hands-on educational material. You can get more information from http://secondlife.com. Here is a picture of me in my second life temporary office.
I learned about Second Life from NASA (my next post will be about seeing the shuttle launch) and I was kind of embarrassed that a technonerd like me had never heard of it. Anyway I have now and am introducing my students to it. Over 9 million avatars have been registered (yes some of those probably represent the same person - maybe as many as 1 million of them. So that means only 8 million actual people have experienced Second Life). In the past 30 days over 1 million people have been "in world" and typically, when I check, between 35,000 and 45,000 people are there at any one given time. I am working on it as a teaching/learning tool but yes, I did get a real charge out of visiting the deck of the Enterprise.

Soon to come, a video of my experiences there. By the way, this is an adult world. Some areas are rated "mature" and others are PG. But you have to be 18 to participate. There is another world for teens called Teen Second Life (ages 13-18) and adults are restricted - they have to have a background check, a sponsoring institution like a school, and are limited to one island. Teens have to be validated by a parent. It is likely that a few creeps slip through the cracks but, since the environment is such that there are pretty good controls, apparently they tend to get reported fairly quickly. For little kids who want a virtual experience, try Club Penguin (http://www.clubpenguin.com).

Okapi again

I am posting this picture of one of my favorite animals for a special girl. I took it at the St. Louis, Missouri zoo last week.

Lack of Reality is too Unreal for me.

I wish someone could explain how the physics of subatomic particles can tell me that reality doesn't exist? Maybe this really is the Matrix! The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle has been used by radical constructivists as evidence that reality is all in our own minds. If that is true then what is the point of studying anything? If there is no ecosystem then why study it? If there is no Earth then why try to save it? If there is no fat, then why not just eat chocolate? Sounds like a deal to me (the chocolate thing that is). Now there is a new study that is supposedly backing up this idea. http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070425-reality.htm. I am a relatively bright person but I still don't get this whole idea. Just because something is unstudiable does that mean it doesn't exist? Sounds like a bit of scientific arrogance if you ask me. According to John Wheeler, "No el­e­men­ta­ry phe­nom­e­non is a phe­nom­e­non un­til it is an ob­served phe­nom­e­non". Basically, as I read it, since particle movement and velocity are random and, since position, spin or speed can be observed at a moment but cannot be predicted before or after that moment, if you aren't looking, reality doesn't exist. Little children think that, when they play peek-a-boo the person disappears (or child psychologists and learning theorists think they think this). These theories are like that. If no one is observing then it isn't real. Again, that seems really arrogant.

I can buy the randomness - Einstein apparently had problems with that. Perhaps it is the randomness that keeps it all together. Too much order might result in events of harmonics that would break the universe apart like the Tacoma Narrows bridge or other bridges that suffer due to resonance: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bridge/meetsusp.html#clips.

This is just science according to Carolyn, of course. I am not an atomic physicist but I wonder how they justify studying anything if it isn't there at all?

SCIENCE TEACHING!!!

Hey science teachers! Do I have a deal for you!!! Seriously, we have some great programs going on here at NMU. For all K-12 science teachers, there are two classes offered during July for 2 weeks only - 4 credits in 2 weeks in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan. What a wonderful time and place for a family vacation! One is entitled "The Effective Teaching of Science" and I promise it will be fun and exciting. The other is "Exploring your Environment". E-mail me or visit http://www-instruct.nmu.edu/education/clowe for more information.

For K-8 teachers of all types (ESPECIALLY those who don't know much about science) there is an all-online course in the fall, "The Living World" which is a 4 credit laboratory based life science course. The good thing is that you DO NOT have to know any science or anything about online classes to take it. I will walk you through every step. See the link above or contact me directly for information.

Seriously Big Bugs

Just some catching up. When I was in St. Louis for the National Science Teachers Association, I had the opportunity to handle some seriously big bugs. Both of them are types of walking sticks. These are well-camouflaged insect-eating insects. I am not sure but I wouldn't be surprised if these wouldn't eat a small lizard or other animal. The hands in the picture are not mine although I did get to hold them. I couldn't hold and take a picture at the same time. One of the pictures appeared below as well but I wanted to speak of them again. We talk a lot about how there were huge insects in older times. Well, some of the insects today aren't all that small. There are also very large spiders (tarantulas) and huge centipedes (I once saw one about 13 inches long, about 3/4 inch wide black centipede with orange legs while at girls camp in southern Oklahoma). Goliath beetles can be 4 1/2 inches long, about as long as these bugs, but much heavier thanks to their heavy bodies. There are the Io moths and some butterflies that can have wingspans of almost a foot. So, while most "bugs" are little, some are really pretty big. By the way, there is a such thing as a true bug. A true bug is an insect with a sucking mouth part and wings that make an X on their backs. Stink bugs and weevils are true bugs. And, yes, stink bugs really do stink.

More Birds and Snow

Oh please - not more birds. As my son Curt says, "Why would you want to take pictures of birds? Other people do that and you can just get the ones they took." I suppose so but still - I like taking pictures of birds....MY birds!

Our snowstorm is up to 4 feet - probably a bit more. There was one station with 52 inches of snow this week. That is a record since snow depths were recorded for April in the UP. It is still snowing but is supposed to diminish this evening after dumping another 2-4 inches.

Above is a picture of snow on our oak branches and a fir in the background. To the right are icicles outside my home office window.

Now for the birds. As I mentioned before, there have been sometimes up to 20 birds on our porch and bird feeders. As a result much competition exists. The chickadees and nuthatches seem to lose out the most. I got this humourous picture of birds competing for a spot. The two reddish birds are purple finches and the yellow birds are American goldfinches. My captions, from RIGHT to LEFT, are: "MOVE!" "NO!" "If you're going to fight I'm outta here!" and finally "These guys really annoy me." To the right is a picture of a female purple finch in flight.

To the right is a female purple finch in flight. Besides the purple and gold finches, and chickadees and nuthatches, we have had juncos, hairy woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers (on our suet), and a blue jay or two.

SNOW?????

Well, today is April 4, 2007 and we are in the midst of a blizzard. Yep, not unheard of but not common either. The record for this area was 25 ½ inches in Negaunee in 1977. We are a ways from that but we have at least a foot outside. The snow was nearly completely gone yesterday with only spots in the woods or where the plow had piled it up. It was a “snow day” at school today (which is a pretty rare occasion) and it remains to be seen whether we will have classes tomorrow. Pretty amazing for April I think.

This storm is pretty cool. It is a classic mid-latitude cyclone in which we are sitting in the “comma” and much of the moisture is being brought up from the Gulf of Mexico as you can see in the water vapor satellite image. In addition, the moisture is being augmented water vapor brought in by high winds blowing over Lake Superior.

Many birds have begun arriving from the south and are not adapted to this weather. It is, however, not that cold with current temperatures around 18 degrees F. We have filled both bird feeders in the past 24 hours and one is already empty. In addition, I have been throwing seed out on the ground for the juncos (snow birds). I have seen a white throated sparrow, several purple finches, a lot of gold finches and juncos and, of course, my regular customers, the chickadees and nuthatches.

Traveling Show

I was only home for 13 days in the month of March. I left for Oklahoma on March 1 and returned on March 11 – our “winter” break (there really is no spring here). I went to visit my Mom, three sons, two daughters-in-law, and, most of all, my two grandkids, one of whom was just born in January. But enough of the personal stuff. For more of that you can go to my family blog http://hownowlowe.blogspot.com/.

While in Oklahoma I visited the egret rookery (shared with a few herons) that I visited last summer. The birds were not yet back from their winter vacation down south but I noticed that the land was for sale. I was concerned so I contacted the Nature Conservancy, my favorite conservation organization. They told me that they do not work with urban land but to contact the Audubon society. I did and they said they would monitor it but likely couldn’t do anything to prevent the sale. However, they said that the birds would likely find the nearest available appropriate area and move there. If I can’s find them next summer when I return, I will contact the Audubon Society to see if they know where they have moved.

I was back in the UP for three days then left for the Michigan Science Teachers Association Convention in Grand Rapids. While there I stayed at the very plush Amway Grand Hotel. I made four presentations, one on Project Globe with my NMU colleagues Mitch Klett and Greg Coverdale, and one on ways to incorporate active participation in lecture settings. The other presentation I made was about teaching vocabulary in science (“What Does ‘Vocabulary’ Mean; Better Ways to Teach Terminology”). This session was scheduled twice and, amazing to me, was completely full both times. In fact, the first time I presented the room was full with standing-room only and some had to leave. I guess a lot of people need this help. If you are interested in the presentation, it is available on my NMU Instruct Server account: http://www-instruct.nmu.edu/education/clowe.

Back home for 10 days and then off again to the National Science Teachers Association Convention in St. Louis, MO. I was part of the NASA team presenting a full-day seminar for NSTA on “Living and Working in Space: Habitat”. The current NSTA website (how long it will remain I don’t know) is http://institute.nsta.org/stlouis/habitat/symposium.asp and there are upcoming webinars (web seminars) scheduled. Participants built habitats to take home including seeds, plants, and (unexpectedly) “bugs” which were found in the plants.

I also had the opportunity to hear Susan Solomon of NOAA – one of the world’s specialists in climate change. She originally focused on Ozone and was instrumental in working toward the elimination of CFC production globally. Her research now is in the area of global warming and atmospheric changes leading to it. She was pretty convincing that CO2 is, in fact, the primary anthropogenic contributor to global warming, something I have had issues with. However, she seemed very much entrenched in her own views and, as Kuhn said in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, that could prevent her from seeing or acknowledging truths. Something to be studied and seen in the future. Regardless, we need to find alternatives to fossil fuels for a variety of reasons.

I asked the question about wavelength absorption. She indicated that it is true that many of the infrared wavelengths that carbon dioxide could absorb are already absorbed and that other molecules such as methane, and particularly SF6 (a byproduct of catalytic converters) had more “bang for the buck”, that is that they absorbed more infrared radiation than carbon dioxide per atom. However there are much fewer of these molecules in the atmosphere. Her comment was that there is still a big enough wavelength window that carbon dioxide is, in fact, the forcing mechanism. However, she became somewhat irate at my question and commented that this was an argument nay-sayers use which makes me wonder. Hmmmm.

While in St. Louis, I was able to go about in short sleeves, eat outside, hold some seriously big insects (walking sticks) and visit with a couple of penguins. I am exhausted from all the travel – I’m not twenty something any more – but it was a lot of fun.

pond scum nematode (roundworm)

POND SCUM!

The last 2 weeks have been my favorite in biology - survey of pond scum. Yep, I love those little critters. Today we hooked up the Proscopes - digital USB microscopes. Here is a a ciliate. Ciliates are unicellular organisms from the Kingdom Protista. They are among the most complex single cells in the world - much more complicated than any one cell in your body!

Coyote Love

OK - so most of you won't have a clue about Coyote Love. This was a song by Joe Walsh (of the Eagles and one of the geekiest rock stars - he's even scientifically literate - he's a HAM operator - WB6ACU). Anyway, this is about my friend the coyote. A couple of days ago Amber, my golden retriever mix (pictured with Melvin, our old, overweight tabby) began barking strangely. Actually she doesn't bark that often and when she does there is something to bark at. It was dusk and I went to the window to see what was the matter (OK - Santa wasn't there). There, only a few feet from the window, was a coyote looking toward the house to see who was barking. I had plenty of time to get the camera, focus as best I could through the screen, and hold it as still as possible during the long exposure time (thus the blurry nature of the photo). I thought seriously about throwing out the bones from the left over barbecue ribs I had eaten that night but realized that could create serious problems especially if the coyote began to see Amber as a competitor for it's food. I remember seeing what, I thought at the time was a very large fox, leading my large lab (since passed on) in a slow trot. They were obviously familiar with each other and even friends. I now realize it was a small coyote, perhaps the same one. I hope it finds Amber to be just another friend, not a competitor. Last night I saw fresh prints in the snow where the coyote had been the previous night. Amber was "babysitting" our daughter's dog so wasn't home - I know my friend was back.

Herman Crabtree

I guess this is not an unusual occurrence but it was strange for me. We spent early January in Clearwater, Florida where I attended a conference (yes, I did go to the meetings) and we spent a couple of extra days. One of the first days we were there, I picked up a few shells. I put them in the floor of the back seat and left them. On our last full day there, about 4 days later, we went to a new (to us) beach and picked up a lot of shells which I packed into my favorite Fossil canvas purse (I hope it survived). When we got back to the hotel I picked up the few shells still in the back and put them in a plastic bag with trash in it.

In the hotel, while Kevin slept, I washed shells and sponges for the long trip home. After about an hour I needed a break. So that I wouldn't awaken K I sat in the floor with a Coke and chilled for a few minutes. In the quiet, I heard a noise. Yes, it was the Wal Mart bag in the bathroom. Well, I hadn't set it down particularly well and the bottles of pop were shifting. Nope, it was still moving. I opened it up and poured out the contents. Out came about half a dozen shells and some empty pop bottles. One shell would not come out. I grabbed it and began to pull and that is when I noticed the claw coming out of the shell clinging onto the bag. "Please let me live in a Wal Mart bag!" it seemed to be saying.

You probably figured out that a hermit crab had been living in the shell. Actually, I think he probably had been living in a smaller one and took advantage of the bigger one so close. The amazing thing was that he survived four days in 80+ degree heat in a car with no water or food (unless, of course, the shells had munchies in them). I put the shell into a glass on the countertop. It didn't really fit - sitting at an angle. It would roll depending on whether the crab was in or peeking out of the shell. When I finished cleaning the shells and putting them into baggies, I went to bed.

After laying in bed and almost dozing off, I suddenly became concerned that the crab would reach up and pull himself out of the glass. Then he would walk off the vanity top and his shell would break into a million pieces on the bathroom floor - possibly injuring him or even causing his demise. So I got up and put the glass on the floor. I dozed off. I awoke to the awful thought that a hermit crab suspended in a small glass was pretty cruel. Besides, he might crawl out and one of us would get up and step on him so I got up (again - it is now about 3 am) and put the shell in the bathtub. As I lay in bed that night I could hear him going scrape-scrape-scrape bump bump as he crawled around the perimeter of the tub.

In the morning we decided to let him go back into his natural habitat. Kevin took him to the beach where a photographer was taking pictures. He left Herman with the photographer so he could take some pictures then let him go into into the wild once again.