July 30, 2009
How much do you know about your favorite feline friend? Cats are fascinating, complex creatures. Since cats were first tamed more than 100,000 years ago, they have enchanted people with their elegant beauty and mysterious manner. But cats can also be playful and affectionate pets, death-defying acrobats, or ruthless hunters.
This is an updated introduction to these beloved and beautiful pets. Would you like to vote on which is your favorite pet? Drop me a note and vote for 1. Dogs 2. Cats 3. Another kind of animal. I’ll report your preferences on here.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
July 30, 2009
It’s easy to see why dogs are the most popular pets in the world. For a run in the park or a cozy snuggle on the couch, a dog is the perfect companion! But dogs are much more than loyal pets. For thousands of years, these amazing animals have helped people herd sheep, hunt for food, and keep warm.
This is the new updated edition of my introduction to a human’s best friend. (Anybody know the name of the breed of dog shown here on the jacket? Hint: The owners of this kind of dog make news all the time and have a dog just like this named BO.)
Posted by: Seymour Simon
July 30, 2009
I was excited to receive a package in the mail the other day from my publisher HarperCollins. It contained three new books of mine: DOGS, CATS, and GLOBAL WARMING. The first two are reissues and updates of my books in their new uniform editions from Smithsonian/Collins. GLOBAL WARMING is not really a book yet, but printed sheets which are not yet bound. (Publishers call them f&g’s, which stands for "folded and gathered sheets.") I’ll post photos of the covers soon.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
July 21, 2009
I’ve been reading your comments this morning, and I see a number of classes are wondering how they can get me to come to their school.
Your teacher (or PTO) can write to my publisher to request a school visit. Or you can just write to me: seymour@seymoursimon.com. I hope to see you soon!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
July 21, 2009
I have had a number of comments recently from readers who want to know what my next book is about. My next new book to be published is GLOBAL WARMING (Collins/Smithsonian). The official publication date is February 23, 2010. Bet you didn’t know how long it takes a book to be published even after you’ve researched and written the manuscript!
Even before this book is published, two books of mine are being republished in updated editions. They are DOGS and CATS (Collins/Smithsonian), September 29th, 2009. Catch the new cover photograph of the Portuguese Water Dog!
(Have you ever seen President Obama’s new dog? He’s a Portuguese Water Dog and his name is Bo. Here he is running around the White House with the President.)
Posted by: Seymour Simon
July 21, 2009
Comet may have hit Jupiter - Rare Photographs
There are news reports today that a comet slammed into the planet Jupiter on Monday. Scientists have drawn this conclusion based on images captured by NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility on Hawaii.This is not the first time this has happened. In my book, DESTINATION JUPITER,
Posted by: Seymour Simon
July 15, 2009
Climate change, the energy crisis, global pandemics, nuclear proliferation-many of the most urgent problems of the twenty-first century require science-based solutions. Yet Americans are paying less and less attention to scientists. For every five hours of cable news, less than a minute is devoted to science; the number of newspapers with weekly science sections has shrunken by two-thirds over the past several decades. Just 18 percent of Americans personally know a scientist to begin with, and exceedingly few can name a living scientist role model.
This is excerpted from the new book UNSCIENTIFIC AMERICA, written by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum.
The disconnect between the scientific community and mainstream American culture grows wider every day.
We all need to think about our own attitudes toward science and what we’re teaching our children.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
July 14, 2009
In this article from the latest issue of Wired Magazine, researchers describe how some humans are learning to move around by using their ears, rather than their eyes, to know where they are going.
Make Like a Dolphin: Learn Echolocation | Wired Science | Wired.com
Do you think YOU could move around in your world the way a dolphin does in water?
Posted by: Seymour Simon
June 1, 2009
Doing an experiment with a child helps them learn about science. To learn new things, you have to build upon what you already know. In everyday interactions with children, there are many things you can try without lecturing or applying pressures to help them learn science. Of course, you can’t experiment with a dolphin but here are a few ideas that will help you learn about how dolphins survive in the sea.
1. How long can you hold your breath? Compare that to how long a dolphin can hold its breath underwater.
2. Do sounds travel underwater? Can you hear sounds when you are swimming? Have you ever played a game where you and a friend make sounds and "talk" underwater, and try to understand each other?
3. Which freezes more quickly: freshwater or ocean water? Fill two plastic cups halfway, one with freshwater and the other with salty water. Put them in the freezer and check them every ten minutes to see which freezes first. How do the results help to explain why dolphins don’t live in freshwater lakes in places that get very cold in winter?
4. Dolphins dive deep under the water where the water pressure is very great. In the sea, pressure increases with water depth. Here’s how you can demonstrate that pressure increases with depth. You will need a large, empty tin can, a hammer, a large nail, water, salt, a ruler and a basin or a sink. Use the hammer and a nail to make three holes, one above the other and each two inches apart in the side of the can. Stand the can on the side of the basin or sink and fill with water. Measure the distance the water spurts out from each of the holes. Try it again with salty water.
a. Which spurts out further? Why? Remember that the weight of the water is greater over the bottom hole than over the top hole. The heavier the water above, the greater is the water pressure below. At sea level, air pressure is a bit less than 15 pounds per square inch. At 300 feet, the water pressure is about 150 pounds per square inch.
b. Could humans survive at that pressure without protection? Do research to find out how dolphins survive the pressure of deep waters.
Click on this for Dolphins FAQs
Posted by: Seymour Simon
May 31, 2009
What’s so interesting about dolphins?
A while ago, I read a science fiction story about an ocean planet populated with intelligent water mammals such as whales and dolphins. The ocean animals of this planet even explored beyond their planet in spaceships filled with ocean water. And who were the leaders and the smartest sea life on the ocean planet? Dolphins, naturally.
What makes dolphins so smart? Why their brains of course. Dolphins have very large brains in relation to their body size. In fact, bottlenose dolphins rank second only to humans in the ratio of their brain size to body size. Just how intelligent on the dolphins that live on our planet Earth? Nobody really knows the exact answer to this question (or at least no one on Earth knows), but researchers are finding out that dolphins can and do communicate with each other and that they can even solve some puzzles and problems.
All of this is interesting, but the real reason I wrote a book about dolphins is that they are beautiful and fascinating to watch at sea and even in large public aquariums. And like with most of the books I write, even after the book is published I still am finding out new things which I wish I had put in the book. Do you know things about dolphins or have you taken pictures or video of dolphins that you would like to share with readers of Seymour Science? Send an email to Seymour Science and tell me all about it so I can post your note on my site.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
