Dance Your Ph.D.

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Nature of Science

Art and Environment

Dance

Edward Hessler

Dance Your Ph.D. is an annual contest hosted by the scientific journal Science and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the largest scientific organization in the world. "The contest challenges scientists around the world to explain their research through the most jargon-free medium available: interpretive dance."

The winner of the 12th annual contest is Dr. Antonia Groneberg whose Ph.D. thesis was on "how the motions of zebrafish larvae affects brain development and behavior, teasing out the impact by raising some larvae in isolation differences." Groneberg has been a dancer since she was a child, a lifelong passion equal to her passion for science. There is a long standing joke "that my Ph.D. was easily danceable as it's about movement."

The categories for this year's contest were biology, chemistry, physics, and social science. Groneberg won the latter contest as well as the overall contest prizes. The physics category winner is about the use of a scanning technique to detect effects of global warming on trees.

John Travis's essay in Science discusses the contest and describes Groneberg's entry in more detail. The essay also includes links to the videos for each of the four categories. 

The announcement of the contest includes rules and FAQs.

Friday Poem

Environmental & Science Education
Poetry
Art and Environment
Edward Hessler

Poetry Friday, the 59th day of the year and 20 days until spring. The sun rises in St. Paul at 6:52 am and sets and 5.58 pm with 11 hours, 5 minutes and 13 seconds of daylight.

Today's poem by Marge Piercy is about what's ahead--the greening of the world.

Letter from Two Nurses in Wuhan on COVID-19 Withdrawn

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Health
Medicine
Edward Hessler

I just posted a letter published on February 26, 2020 from the British medical journal Lancet in which two nurses described their situation--exhaustion and suffering among health-care workers in Wuhan, China. They begged for help from the international community.  That letter was retracted today, February 27, 2020..

"We were informed by the authors of this Correspondence that the account described therein was not a first-hand account, as the authors had claimed, and that they wished to withdraw the piece."

COVID-19: Two Nurses Write for Help

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Health
Medicine
Society
Edward Hessler

Nurses Yingchen Zeng and Yan Zhen in Wuhan, Chian have written a heart-rending letter in the British medical journal Lancet asking for help from the international community.

The letter gives you an idea of what it is like to be a nurse during the COVID-19 outbreak. They do what nurses do: nurse under conditions most of us can only imagine.

Estimating the Carbon Footprint of a Story

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Climate Change
Sustainability
Sustainable Energy & Transportation
Edward Hessler

The Future Planet series produced by the BBC includes a carbon footprint that estimates the carbon emissions associated with producing the story.

The BBC has an article that describes how the figure is arrived at and why they take the time to make the estimate.

Read it here.

Bird Girl

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Sustainability
Nature
Children
Biodiversity
Edward Hessler

At the age of 17, a British teenage birdwathcher urged students to "tackle the environmental crisis" during remarks made upon receiving an honorary doctorate of science degree from the University of Bristol (UK). 

Mya-Rose Craig is the founder of Black2Nature (2016) an organization devoted to getting more Visible Minority Ethnic (VME) people engaged with nature. As a British Bangladeshi birder she noticed that there was nobody like her in the countryside watching birds. She organized a nature camp for VME children and teen agers from inner city Bristol. when she was 13 years old. These have continued.

Ms. Craig was nominated by Professor Richard Pancost, a biogeochemist in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Bristol. In the BBC report about the award Pancost said that "'to bestow a comparable honour on someone who is only 17 years dold is not a decision we take lightly'" and that "he felt 'proud' to see her receive the doctorate as she had created a 'phenomenal amount of positive change' for nature," Pancost continued by noting that "'she is a champion for diversity and equity in the environmental and conservation sector, challenging institutions but also creating and driving transformative projects like Black2Nature'."

The full report from the BBC includes photographs and additional links, including information about the nature camps and why Ms. Craig is getting teen-agers involved in bird-watching. After a gap year, Craig intends to study politics and international relations at university.

A Peril of Being a Homemade Astronaut

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Culture

Society

Earth Systems

Flat Earth

Edward Hessler

Quite a while ago, I posted about Mike (aka "Mad" Mike) Hughes. It seemed inevitable then that he would die pursuing his quest to prove, as he put it, that the planet was flat. 

It was announced today, February 23, 2020 that he was killed in an attempt to launch the home-made rocket he was riding. The cause is unknown (but see below) as well as is the altitude he achieved. In March 2018 Hughes reached an altitude of ~ 572 m (1875 feet) in the Mojave Desert.

The Wiki entry on Mike Hughes notes that at the time of his death, "he was 63 or 64 years old. During launch, the rocket's parachute, which was designed for landing, appeared to deploy early and detach from the craft. The launch event was being filmed for the Science Channel television series Homemade Astronauts, in which Hughes was to star."

There are many other ways, all far, far safer as well as easier, to show that the planet is roundish, e.g.., the way ships appear and disappear on the horizon, a flight in a jetliner, photographs taken by balloonists and astronauts, a lunar eclipse but for Hughes none of these were not convincing..

Here is one of many news reports which includes some film of the flight. 

And here is an interview on Tosh-O with Hughes about his quest..

Feel I'm Bound to Go

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Nature
Edward Hessler

Here is a family that must have kept a mother busy when they were younger (and still does as they go to "class" each day.)

About these critters. 

This is an excellent video (7m 28 s) of a similar family hunting rabbits (snowshoe hares). It is coordinated, a team effort. The rule-of-thumb I've heard is that an adult requires a snowshoe hare a day to survive and thrive. Just think about the work involved in keeping the first family alive. Please read the description. "The actual kill happened in about 3 seconds and I had lowered the camera for a few seconds to watch, so I missed it."

h/t: Molly for the Manitoba video.

Keepers of the House

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Health

Medicine

Miscellaneous

Edward Hessler

Neil Prose and Ray Barfield are pediatric doctors who work in a large medical center. In a chance observation and conversation they learned that there is more to hospital care than physicians. There is a invisible team who are participants in patient care that had long escaped their notice.

They write, "After finishing our respective rounds one afternoon, we noticed that Malcolm was deep in conversation with the parents of one of our very sick patients. We met him later in the hall, and the three of us began to talk. After Malcolm told us a bit about the concerns of our patient's family, he mentioned the ways he often supports and cares for the children being treated on our ward."

Malcolm went on to say that he didn't think of himself as a housekeeper, instead, he remarked, "I am the keeper of the house." 

Malcolm (and other housekeepers) had been largely unnoticed--Prose and Barfield described this as "our blindness"-- led them to form "a focus group to learn more about (what housekeepers do, in additon to cleaning 36 rooms a day). From that grew a film project that documented ways hospital housekeepers participate in patient care. Throughout this process, we quickly realized that they often interact with patients more than physicians do, and they do so with great compassion."  (material added)

"No matter where you work," the authors write, "you are a member of one or more teams that are larger than you imagine. Doctors like us--and our health care institutions--need to give keepers of the house, along with food service workers, patient transporters, and outer 'invisible' workers the respect they have long deserved."

The essay by Prose and Barfield adds muscle and bone to this brief introduction, includes a link to the film (14 m 32 s) and also reports the results of interviews with keepers of the house.

Friday Poem

Environmental & Science Education
Poetry
Art and Environment

Today's poem is by Grace Paley.

Scientific Publishing for the Younger Set

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Science Fairs
Children
Edward Hessler

Nature Index has an article about a "first of its kind peer-reviewed science journal for young investigators (as young as six years old)."

The Canadian Science Fair Journal "accepts submissions from students aged 18 and younger" and "aims to give greater visibility to their projects while connecting students with young scientists through it mentorship and peer-review program."

An interesting feature is publication help in the form of collaborative peer-review. "When students submit an article, they are paired with an undergraduate or graduate researcher whose area of study matches their article topic. Together, the student and their editor work to get the article ready for publication."

And it comes with the promise that “Every article that is submitted will ultimately get published, if that student is willing to make the effort to learn about how to properly write a science article.”

The link above describes some projects (e.g., better transport boxes for poultry chicks), and links to the journal where you can, learn much more, explore and sign-up for a monthly newsletter. The journal home page includes several publications from the journal. Of course, you will be interested in the staff and biographies/photographs are provided.

So far it is for Canadian students but it appears that they are thinking about expanding this to other countries, too.

Here is the link to the current issue.

A great idea and one I hope that will prove sustainable in future.

Peregrine Falcons

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Biodiversity
Biological Evolution
Nature
Edward Hessler

In this 4 m 13 s video, KQED present their case: peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) are fighter jets, basically.

Convinced?

By what evidence?

There is an accompanying essay on the University of California--Berkeley peregrine falcons and peregrine falcons in California.

Relating to Nature

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Sustainability

Biodiversity

Behavior

Society

Culture

Nature

Edward Hessler

Can ye no leave the bloody horse alone?--Horse Owner to James Herriott

I've been meaning to post this short clip from The Dodo (category Soulmates) for a while. It is a touching story about a wild fox, a woman and a fable for us. 

The fox and woman have something in common which I can express only in my terms since I'm unable to ask the fox.  Let me call it a condition of regard one for the other.

This is a time when the term "bonding" with nature is frequently used. It often includes disturbing it and in the case of critters invading their space as well as touching/petting them. I think this short video suggests another, more natural way. It is certainly one worth considering.

You may have read books by James Herriott (pen name for James Wight) about his years of veterinary practice in Yorkshire. The epigraph is from a story he told about his first year in Veterinary College when, on the third day, he attended his first class on animal husbandry. It concerned the fine points of a horse. To make it more interesting the professor included some practical points, too. The lecturer used a life-size picture to point out terms such as pastern, stifle, poll, coronet, snip.

While walking home that day Herriott noticed a coal cart and a horse. So he walked around the horse pointing out to himself what he had learned. When it was time to leave he thought he would make a gesture to the horse and patted him on the head. The horse immediately grabbed him by a shoulder (fortunately he was wearing a strong jacket) and lifted him from the ground. No matter his loud pleadings, the horse would not release him. Others tried to help but the horse was having none of that. The coal man returned, yelled and finally dug his thumb deep into the horse's belly and Herriott was dropped.

The owner was very annoyed with Herriott. He also said something else, too, which Herriott heard as he rounded a corner. This could have been used as the epigraph, too. "Dinna meddle wi' things ye ken nuthin' aboot!"

Camouflage!

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Behavior
Nature
Biodiversity
Biological Evolution
Edward Hessler

Camouflage as practiced by squid in the PBS video (3m 17s)

Antarctica's Melting

Environmental & Science Education

TIMES

Climate Change

Earth Science

Earth Systems

Geology

Edward Hessler

Justin Rowlatt, the BBC's chief environmental correspondent, writes that "glaciologists have described Thwaites Glacier as the  'most important' glacier in the world, the 'riskiest' glacier, even the 'doomsday' glacier."

Rowlatt reports on his visit to learn about the work of scientists studying glacial change who are members of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (United Kingdom and the United States) in this film (2m 59s)

State of the Union Address Annotated

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Society
Edward Hessler

Each year, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) annotates the State of the Union address, using reports published by the NAS. It is one way to note the relationship between science and society.

Take a scroll.

I'd like to hear/read a SoU that is about the state of this nation, one minus cheers and jeers. None remotely represents what might be considered a "physical" about the health and future health of the US and some reasoned prescriptions and actions to maintain/improve that health. It is long past time to call an end to them.

Friday Poem

Environmental & Science Education
Poetry
Art and Environment
Edward Hessler

Today's poem is by Adrienne Rich.

January's Best Science Images Picked by Nature

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Art and Environment
Edward Hessler


The British science journal Nature picks of this month's (January) best science images.

Corona Virus: Official Name

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Health

Medicine

Edward Hessler

The Corona virus has an official name: COVID-19.

The World Health Organization (WHO) replaced its provisional designation, 2019-nCoV (indicating year, that it was new, and that it was a member of the corona family of viruses).  The new name is place and people-free, avoiding stigmatizing.

Whether it will stop online and media inventions, e.g.,. Wuhan virus or Wu Flu, etc., remains to be seen.

Andrew Joseph writes about the name change for STAT. 

In this Nature Video (3m 49s), reporter Heidi Ledford explains three key areas of research on COVID-19: epidemiology, virology, and biomedical science.

Use of Field Notebooks from more than a Century Ago Provide Data on Salmon Population Change

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Biodiversity

History of Science

Nature of Science

Climate Change

Edward Hessler

From 1919 to 1948, government employees collected information about sockeye salmon runs in the Skeena River (British Columbia). They recorded weight, length, sex, and catch date for a sample during each day of the runs. In addition, a scale was scraped from the salmon and pasted, using the slimy glue of the salmon's skin, next to the record. The scales include a yearly growth ring, just like a tree and these can be counted.

The original notebooks were boxed, stored and forgotten. Twenty-three years ago, a fisheries biologist who was studying sockeye salmon in the Gulf of Alaska found them. He was in search of more detailed data than the averages from the Skeena logs. It was a question he was always asking other fisheries biologists. While "attending an unrelated meeting...he learned the records were sitting in a closet down the hall."

I can only imagine his surprise and pleasure when he opened the notebooks to find fish scales which he knew "had potentially preserved salmon DNA, which could enable modern molecular biologists to link the long-dead fish to current wild Skeena populations, each genetically distinct because adults breed in a complex of nursery lakes where their offspring grow for at least a year before migrating downstream to the sea." 

This has resulted in a paper in which researchers have...sequenced DNA from the scales of 3400 fish caught between 1913 and 1923) in Conservation Letters and a short article about the research in Science (August 20, 2019) by staff writer Lesley Evans Ogden. Ogden's essay includes two photographs, one of an open notebook held over a bin of  stored notebooks and of a technician counting the age rings of a fish scale.

The Skeena River is home to 13 major sockeye salmon populations and the research team  found that "declines have been more precipitous and widespread than previously understood." The river's sockeye salmon populations have plummeted "by 56% to 99%" over the period studied. Not one population has not been affected.

Now you might expect that the cause is due to habitat destruction, e.g., logging and agriculture. Nope. Overfishing. Climate change "may also be influencing salmon success." There are data to support this. The northern populations "in Alaska are thriving despite heavy fishing pressure."

Please take a look at Ogden's story for more details and quotes by fishery professionals.

A Visual Guide to the Corona Virus Outbreak

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Health
Medicine
Society
Culture
Edward Hessler

The BBC has produced a thorough visual guide to the Corona virus outbreak as of February 7, 2020.

Deaths so far include 910 worldwide (97 yesterday--2-9-2020) and more than 4000 cases have been confirmed.

Gray Seals Clapping

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Biodiversity
Behavior
Edward Hessler

This short clip (57 s) records the sound of gray seals clapping underwater.

Dr. Ben Nurville spent 17 years--not all of it underwater--to achieve this. Nurville is an underwater cameraman and a medical doctor. There are more videos of him and seals at this link.

Friday Poem

Environmental & Science Education
Poetry
Art and Environment
Edward Hessler

Today's poem is by Nebraskan, Marilyn Dorf.

"The Future Lies in the Past"

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Sustainability

Reduce Reuse Recycle
Waste

Climate Change

Edward Hessler

Do you ever think of the food you waste? We waste?  And its contribution to climate change?

An essay in The Atlantic introducing the documentary, "The Future of Food is Zero Waste" begins by calling attention to a few facts. "[E]very year, one-third of the food produced globally for human consumption--1.3 billion tons--is wasted. (Americans in particular throw away 40 percent of their food, despite the fact that most of it is perfectly edible.)  In aggregate, the world's annual food waste produces 3.3 billion tons of carbon. That's more greenhouse-gas emissions than from 37 million cars. Needless to say, a global effort in the reduction of food waste would go a long way toward mitigating our carbon footprint."

The documentary is by by Matt Hughes and features British chef Douglas McMaster who, after traveling the world visiting some of the very best restaurants, returned disillusioned by the waste he had seen. He decided to open a zero food waste restaurant. Silo in Brighton was opened in 2014. Silo in London opened recently. Surely there must be some waste no matter the efforts and there is. It is compressed and composted.

The documentary (9 m 37 s) and short essay introducing it are found here.

You may take a tour of Silo in Brighton, opened in 2014, here (7m 57s). Information about Silo in London, A PreIndustrial Food System is found here. And if you'd like to know more about Chef Douglas McMaster, he is well represented on the web. I chose this one.

A Problem of Lifetime: Dementia

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Health

Medicine

Edward Hessler

I've written before about a paper by Rodger Bybee in which he speculated and presented some ideas on what a biology curriculum for high school should offer for the emerging ecological society way back in1979. 

Bybee summarized the content of such a curriculum in three memorable words, well memorable for me obviously since I have not let go of them. This curriculum would deal with problems of lifetime, lifespace, and lifestyle.  Each remains a dominating issue today.

One of the problems of lifetime is aging and senesence. Among the diseases, a worrying one, is dementia. In STAT, writer Alissa Ambrose and photographer Socia Mathiessen, in words and photographs help us think about the end of a life when one of the partners in a marriage has dementia. It is the story of how one of the partners decided to manage it.

Read and view it here.

From Sticks to Sculpture

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Art and Environment

Engineering

Edward Hessler

Often the public imagines that a work of art should be made to last, but I believe that a sculpture , like a good flower bed, has a season--Sculptor Patrick Dougherty

Its a large sculpture of sticks and was designed and constructed by Patrick Dougherty for the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, known in Minnesota-speak as the "YouBetcha" Stick Sculpture." It was completed May 2019.

While it is made of sticks most of us (me) know little, if nothing, about the sticks-- where from or what kinds. One thing we do know is that they weren't picked up on casual walks through the woods.

A recent entry in Nature Notes from the Arb, the blog of the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, tells the stick-to-sculpture story in pictures. It begins in research plots near Waseca in a study of living snow fences. The research design included "5 different cultivars...as well as a shrub variety." 

All were effective but the willow varieties grew faster.

Elixabeth Blackwell

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

History of Science

Medicine

Women in Science

Edward Hessler

On this day in 1821 was born Elizabeth Blackwell in Bristol, England, the first woman to graduate from a medical school in the United States. She was rejected by many medical schools no matter that she was clearly and highly qualified. Geneva Medical School which later became Hobart College finally admitted her. The decision to admit was based on a vote of the students and it was unanimous. 

Her path in medical school and medicine was not easy and she faced discrimination no matter where she turned even while in medical school and after her unanimous acceptance. Please read this short biography from Women History. These are some quotes; inspiring,of course but they provide a sample of her thinking.

 

There is much more information at the webpage about Dr. Blackwell from Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

What a Piece of Ancient Chewed Birch Bark Pitch Revealed

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Archeology

Nature

Edward Hessler

While it is not known what some of our ancestors used birch bark pitch for--a pain remedy for aching teeth, a glue to attach sharp points onto weapons/hunting tools--much is known about the woman who chewed one piece approximately 5700 years before present but not why she was chewing it..

NPR reporter Merritt Kennedy provides a summary of the paper published in the journal Nature Communications.  

The technique used is becoming a commonplace, DNA sequencing. What was most surprising was that the research team was able to reconstruct a complete genome for her. This was also a first. Previously complete human genomes had only been extracted from teeth and bone marrow.

According to paleogeneticist Hannes Schroeder at the University of Copenhagen, "'She had this really striking combination of dark hair and dark skin and blue eyes.' Those features were common to other hunter-gatherers at the time in the area...which is now an island in Denmark called Lolland."

"(Schroder) said she does not have any traces of ancestry from a group that had a very different lifestyle--farmers. Agricultural communities were beginning to spring up in Northern Europe at the time. This suggests that 'there were pockets of hunter-gatherers that survived in different parts of Northern Europe in the Neolithic.'"

"Microbes from her mouth that were also sealed in the ancient gum. They found traces of the Epstein-Barr virus, which can cause mononucleosis. They also extracted remnants of what could have been the woman's last meal--duck and hazelnuts."

See Kennedy's reporting here (read or listen).

XX Series Scientist Dr. Patty Brennan

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Behavior

Biological Evolution

Nature of Science

Edward Hessler

Dr. Patty Brennan is an evolutionary biologist at Mount Holyoke College who studies the diversity of genital structures, with an emphasis on vaginal structures--from snakes, to birds, to sharks. 

She is shifting the exclusive focus on what might be called phallocentric science to include vaginocentric science. Dr. Brennan points out that the morphology of vaginas and penis are very closely co-evolved.

Professor Brennan is included in a Science series, the XX series, featuring the work of women scientists. There are three short videos.

More of the Same, Plus a Little Bit More

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Earth Science

Earth Systems

Climate Change

Edward Hessler

Two accurate, no-brainer predictions for 2020. As climate modeler Gavin Schmidt puts it: "More of the same, plus a little bit more..."

It is too bad that these have earth and life changing consequences.

Time--past time--to do some things about this changing climate..

See here.