Label: Cool Photo

December 6, 2011

Sunset colors on Mars are the opposite of what we see here on earth. When the fading sunlight filters through Earth’s atmosphere, the yellow sunlight gradually appears to be various shades of red and orange. When the Martian atmosphere filters the sunlight, the sunset glows blue. The rest of the sky looks red because Mars’ atmosphere is full of powdery dust that reflects the sun’s light, giving the planet the distinctive red color that we see from here on Earth.

Isn’t this a magnificent image? It is the work of multimedia artist Michael Benson, who takes images captured in deep-space by NASA and the European Space Agency, and digitally processes them to create beautiful pictures like this one. 

He is going to publish a book of all his work next year, called PLANETFALL. I can’t wait to see it!

November 29, 2011

For today’s Cool Photo of the Week, Seymour Simon chose this photograph taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, an unmanned satellite that has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2005. The orbiter is searching for evidence that water was once present on the surface of Mars. NASA scientists also want to know whether water was present long enough to support life at some time in the past. 

Look at the deep ditches and trails criss-crossing the sand dunes in an area of Mars known as the Russell Crater. These trails were carved into the landscape by "dust devils," mini-tornadoes that whip across the Martian landscape. The ditches are formed when chunks of frozen carbon dioxide slide down the face of steep dunes.

When I speak at schools, I often tell students about an astronomer named Percival Lowell, who thought he spotted Martian "canals" through his small telescope back in the early 1900s. Do you think it’s possible that he saw these deep trails, leading him to the mistaken idea that the canals must have been dug by intelligent life, or Martians?!

November 22, 2011

I’d like to welcome our new readers to "Cool Picture of the Week"! Every Tuesday, we post a particularly striking photograph from the natural world in this space.

Today’s shot was taken on Gretna Green, in Scotland, at a place where photographers go to catch European Starlings swooping through the sky in formations that scientists still cannot explain. How does a flock of thousands of birds fly in such tight formation, all darting, turning, diving at the same moment? No one knows for sure.

I love the term for a big, swooping flock like this. It is called a "murmur of starlings." (if you are British, you probably call it a "murmuration").

The reason this was selected as this week’s photo is because of the shape of the flock. Doesn’t it look like a dolphin, escaping the jaws of a killer whale?! There you have it, the Seymour Science Cool Photo of the Week.

November 16, 2011

Today’s Cool Photo of the Week is a wonderful shot of a "volcano cake," which a parent made when I visited a school several years ago. Isn’t it wonderful?!

The photograph reminds me that I recently received a letter about volcanoes from Andrea G., a fifth grade student at Witch Hazel Elementary School in Oregon. "I love how you wrote the Volcano story.  I love how you added all those different kinds of volcanoes.  I wish you will come to my house and write a story, have an adventure, or go to a restaurant.  It’s very cool that you wrote two hundred books in thirty years.  Do you know a lot about the moon?  How do you know a lot about volcanoes? Thank you for your time."

One of the things that I love about Andrea’s letter is that she called the book my "Volcano story." 

That is exactly how I think about writing my books. Even though they are about real (nonfiction) subjects, I always try to write a story that is fun and exciting to read. It makes me very happy that Andrea sees it that way.

Over the years, both while teaching Science and writing my books, I have indeed come to know a lot about both the moon and about volcanoes. Of course, I studied science in school, both at New York’s Bronx High School of Science and continuing on into college. But it takes more than that. Being interested in science means that you are always learning. There are new discoveries being made all the time, and scientists are constantly testing theories to keep increasing our knowledge and understanding of our planet and the universe in which we live.

So, when I write a book, I have to do research and find out as much as I can, just as you would if you were writing a report for school. For VOLCANOES, I was lucky enough to be able to travel to Hawaii, where I talked to vulcanologists (scientists who specialize in volcanoes), as well as observing and photographing active volcanoes. 

In fact, the subject is so interesting to me that I’ve written TWO different books about volcanoes! I think they are one of the most awe-inspiring and beautiful sights in our natural world, don’t you?

November 15, 2011

Look at this great image from Vienna, in Austria. My stepdaughter, Jules, who is a college student studying abroad this semester, sent it with this note:

"At the Natural History museum in Vienna (a converted Hapsburg Palace) they had scientific stained glass! Of course, I thought of you." 

Thanks, Jules. I love it! Look at the replica of the sea anemone, the delicate glass sculpture with many tendrils, like a flower, hanging from the ceiling in front of the window. Isn’t it just magnificent?

I decided to learn more about this museum, and discovered that it is the third-largest natural history museum in the world, after New York’s American Museum of Natural History and London’s British Museum. I love natural history museums, probably because when I was a teenager, I was the President of the U.S. Junior Astronomy Club, which had its office in the basement of the American Museum of Natural History. I spent many hours there, wandering through the exhibits, and I’ve loved natural history museums ever since.

One of the main attractions of Vienna’s Natural History Museum is their newly just-opened, modernized dinosaur hall. And I discovered that they have made a very exciting CGI animated movie that includes a life-sized animated model of an Allosaurus and a recreation of the giant asteroid impact that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs! The film is on YouTube and I’ve put a link to it here because I think my readers will like it as much as I do. Check it out and let me know what you think.

November 1, 2011

  Today’s "Cool Photo of the Week" is a nighttime view of the Midwestern United States, captured from the International Space Station. From space, astronauts can see many different kinds of lights in the night skies.

The artificial light created by humans is easily recognizable by its yellowish tone. The burst of bright white light in the upper right hand corner of the photograph is probably lightning. And the green glow rimming the edge of the planet is the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights.

If you look closely, there is even more that you can see in this view. Look at Chicago. Just to the right of Chicago’s big patch of lights, there is a completely dark section. Why do the lights stop so suddenly? Because you are looking at one of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan.

Good Luck!

Photo courtesy of Cloud Imaging and Particle Size Experiment data processing team at the University of Colorado Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.

October 25, 2011

In today’s Cool Photo of the week, owner Steph Tuft takes duck Essy for a walk with her Staffordshire cross dogs Rachka and DD, in Bournemouth, England. Essy, a 9-month-old Cherry Valley duck, acts as if she is a dog member of the pack, and often goes for walks with the other two pets.

We humans love these stories of animal "friendships," but are they really that? An animal behaviorist and professor of psychology, John Wright, Ph.D., says that these are often real relationships. "If you get a kitten and a mouse together at an early enough age, and they’re sleepy and well-fed and they’re both a little chilly, and they cuddle up to one another, you can certainly create a bond very early on that will carry on into adulthood, as long as the needs are met for both individuals," Wright says. Most young mammals enjoy new experiences that tickle all of their senses. They particularly seek out thermo-tactile sensation, the combination of warmth and softness.

Of course, when animals are young, they are very open to new experiences. But as Wright points out, if the animals are from a species that is very social, those relationships are even more important. That was the case in this famous photograph of Owen and Mzee, the young hippo and old tortoise who bonded together. 

Owen, a baby hippo, was separated from his mother by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Owen was rescued and relocated to a wildlife sanctuary in Kenya, where he adopted Mzee, a huge tortoise, as his "mother." The similarities in size, shape and color between the hippo and the tortoise may have been part of the reason Owen attached himself to Mzee, says wildlife biologist Bill Given, a research associate at the Denver Zoo. The social nature of the hippo would have been another  important factor.

"Hippos live in social groups called ‘pods.’ It’s abnormal for a young hippo to be all on its own," he says. "That animal has a natural instinct to try and bond with another animal, and if that’s what it’s placed with, then its only choice is to try and be friends with that tortoise."

Why do humans love these photographs and animal "friendship" stories so much? Our enthusiasm for animal friendships says something about us, Given says. "We’re a very social species ourselves. We seek out friendships and approval of others, and I think when we see those things in other animals, they tie into our human emotions,"

Of course, while we recognize the relationship as something similar to what we experience, animal connections are different than the deep and complex relationships we have with our friends and family.

Photos: Chris Ison/AP, AP

October 19, 2011

Believe it or not, this is a beautiful mushroom often called a "turkey tail." It has a scientific name too, but one not nearly as easy to remember: Trametes versicolor. I took this picture of a turkey tail growing on a rotting piece of wood just off the road near my house. It’s a common mushroom found anywhere there are dead and rotting trees and stumps in woods. The colors are variable but are usually brown and reddish brown. The mushrooms have zones of color and the surface is velvety.

There are a number of other mushrooms that look very similar and are lumped together by collectors as "turkey tails."

Here’s another picture of a quite different looking mushroom called a puffball. 

There are many different kinds of puffballs, from tiny ones that grow in clusters on trees or in circles called "fairy rings" in gardens or meadows. These puffballs in my garden are about an inch or two in diameter. But a few kinds of puffball mushrooms are over a foot across.

If you slice open a puffball, it contains either flesh or, if it’s dried out, spore dust. I advise you NOT to eat any kind of mushroom that you find growing in the woods because they are hard to identify one from another and some kinds of mushrooms are poisonous. If you have touched a puffball or other wild mushroom, be sure to wash your hands well with hot water and soap.

The autumn is a great time to get out and explore. If you would like to learn more and find interesting kinds of life, click here to download a simple, fun Seymour Science project called LIFE IN A ROTTING LOG. Happy exploring!

September 27, 2011

Our Cool Photo of the Week is of a group of giant panda cubs sleeping in their nursery in the research base of the Giant Panda Breeding Centre in Chengdu, southwest China.

These babies are part of the breeding program at the Chengdu Panda Base, a non-profit organization is dedicated to saving the endangered giant panda through wildlife research, captive breeding and conservation education. The Base was established in 1987 with six giants pandas rescued from the wild, and today the breeding program has increased their captive population (who live in a huge wildlife park) to 83.

China has also just begun its panda census. Every ten years the researchers try to take a count and determine how many of the endangered animals live in the wild, check on their living conditions, and record any changes in habitats.

Students or classes who are interested in helping to save the giant panda can get involved by going to their website and joining the Giant Panda Club.

Photo: MSNBC "Animal Tracks"

September 20, 2011

Today’s Cool Photo of the Week is a detailed image of Saturn’s rings, captured by the Hubble Telescope, using ultraviolet light. The rings are made up of many small particles of ice, with some dust and small bits of rock, that have formed into clumps and orbit around Saturn. Some of the particles are as small as your fingernail; others are bigger than a car! Seen from afar, they blend together and appear to be rings around the giant planet. 

Saturn is the second biggest planet in our solar system, after Jupiter. How big is Saturn? About 75 Earths could fit inside of Saturn. Although it is not the only planet with rings (Uranus and Neptune have rings, too), Saturn’s rings are the largest and most visible.  

This image of Saturn was taken when the planet’s rings were at their maximum tilt of 27 degrees toward us. Saturn experiences seasonal tilts away from and toward the sun, much the same way Earth does, over the course of its 29.5-year orbit. That means that every 30 years, we Earth observers can catch our best glimpse of Saturn’s south pole and the southern side of the planet’s rings. 

Isn’t this a magnificent image of Saturn?

Photo: NASA and E. Karkoschka (University of Arizona)

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