Label: Science News

March 15, 2011

Today’s "Cool Photo of the Week" is a 6-week-old snow leopard cub, sitting for her weekly weigh-in at Tennessee’s Chattanooga Zoo. This cub is the only survivor of three cubs born to the mother leopard in January, and she is a success story in the zoo’s conservation effort. The zoo works with the Snow Leopard Trust  to breed these endangered big cats, raise funds for research, and help preserve the species. Though snow leopard cubs only have a 30 percent survival rate, this baby is healthy and gaining about a pound a week.

 This little cub does not have a name yet, and the zookeepers are looking for suggestions. If you have an idea, write a comment here and we will pass your suggestions on. You could be the lucky reader to name this beautiful snow leopard! The zoo’s deadline for naming the baby is April 25, so send your ideas in now.

The Snow Leopard is a large cat native to the high mountain ranges of South Asia and Central Asia. They were nearly hunted into extinction because their bones are considered powerful ingredients in traditional Asian medicine. Researchers estimate that between 3,500 and 7,000 snow leopards are left in the wild (and another 600 - 700 in zoos). These beautiful cats are hard to spot, since they are naturally secretive and their white coats act as camouflage in the snow.  So, researchers rely on other ways of detecting a snow leopard’s presence, including looking for scrapes (snow leopards scrape their back legs in loose soil, leaving a small hole with a pile of soil next to it), scent markings (they claim their territory by spraying rocks and bushes with a strong-smelling liquid from a scent gland near the tail) and scat (also known as feces, or "droppings").

Photo: Chattanooga Zoo 

March 14, 2011

So many of our readers have questions following the terrible events in Japan over the weekend. This excellent website, from the US Geological Service, separates fact from fiction, and is full of good information about earthquakes.

Parents, Teachers and Librarians: There is also a detailed Teacher Guide for my EARTHQUAKES book, which you can use with kids to use to stimulate discussion and answer questions. It is a free, downloadable resource that we provide on my website for you to use, at home or in school.

Photo: A man rides a bicycle through a debris-strewn street in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture in northeastern Japan March 12. (Kyodo/Reuters)

March 11, 2011

Japan is part of the "Ring of Fire" - the area in the Pacific Ocean that has the strongest geological activity on Earth, including many earthquakes. So, tsunamis are not new to the Japanese people. Japanese artist Katsushita Kokusai did this famous painting of a tsunami wave off the city of Kanagawa in 1829.

March 11, 2011

The terrible earthquake that hit Japan earlier today was a magnitude 8.9. That’s one of the biggest ever recorded. The devastation caused was bad enough, but the resulting tsunami is even worse.

A tsunami used to be called a tidal wave, but that’s not a correct term. Tsunamis have nothing to do with tides - those are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon (and the sun to a lesser degree). The violent shaking of the earth underneath the ocean causes tsunamis. Tsunamis can also travel across long distances on the ocean. At sea, a tsunami wave is scarcely noticeable, but when the wave comes close to shore, it builds up and up and can by many feet high. It’s too soon at this writing to know exactly what damage has been done, but it’s likely to be very great.

For readers who want to read more about earthquakes and why we seem to have had so many big ones this year, you can read my earlier blog post:  

Photograph: The tsunami crashing into homes in Natori, Japan. Courtesy Kyodo News, via Associated Press.

March 7, 2011

This morning the space shuttle Discovery undocked from the International Space Station and started its final flight back to Earth. SpaceWeather.com says that this may allow people in the US and Europe to see a double flyby - Discovery and the International Space Station traveling together through the night sky!

Click here to go to the satellite tracker website and type in your zip code. It will tell you what time to look, and in which direction. If the skies are clear, you’ll be able to see what looks like two bright lights traveling close together through the night sky.

This is also a last chance to see Discovery in flight, because the orbiter will be retired after it lands in Florida on Wednesday.

March 1, 2011

It is Tuesday, so it must be time for…........TA DA! Cool Photo of the Week!

This 6-month-old panda cub was born in captivity, and now it is being taught how to live in the wild. Researchers at the Hetaoping Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda in Wolong National Nature Reserve in China are moving the cub to the second phase of its training, where it will live at a higher altitude and encounter rugged living conditions.

So what is with the Halloween costumes, you might ask? The Chinese researchers believe that if the pandas are going to be successfully reintroduced into the wild, they must never have any contact with humans. So, they are dressed like grown up pandas! 

I wonder how they disguise their human smell?!

Photo courtesy MSNBC.com "The Week in Pictures"

February 11, 2011

Scientists have discovered that baby crustaceans - lobsters, crabs, shrimps, and barnacles - can hear, and they listen to underwater noise to protect themselves from predators.

Even though these baby shellfish are only the size of the flea, they have a hearing system that lets them hear grunts, smacks and gurgles made by fish and other larger creatures that would otherwise eat them.

Coral Reefs are the big "cities" of the ocean - teeming with fish and other marine life. "The coral reef is like a ‘wall of mouths’ to these animals, so when they hear noise, they avoid it," says Dr Steve Simpson, a marine biologist at the University of Bristol. "Otherwise, they’d always be eaten by fish."

Why does the fact that a tiny shellfish is able to hear matter to us? Humans make a lot of noise in the ocean, from boat engines to activities like dynamite fishing and deepwater drilling. If our loud noises mask the crucial natural sounds near coral reefs, vulnerable larvae will be in danger of being consumed by larger predators. Why should this matter? Humans are part of the web of life on our planet Earth. Each kind of life is like a single strand in the web. By itself, no one strand may seem so important. But all the strands make up the web and the weekness of one strand weekens the entire web.

Photo: AustralianMuseum.net

February 4, 2011

Kids all across America have had plenty of snow days this winter, with a series record-setting snowstorms that started back in December. Today, even kids from Texas to the Carolinas are having a snow day.

It sounds like a good time to settle in, make yourself a cup of cocoa, and browse Seymour’s online Science Dictionary. You can start with the entry for SNOWFLAKE!

January 21, 2011

Ever wonder how the hammerhead shark can see where it’s going when its eyes are on the sides of its head? Marine biologist Dr. Michelle McComb of Florida Atlantic University has been studying hammerheads and she found that these strange-looking creatures have incredibly good binocular vision. “Binocular vision” simply means that you use both of your eyes at the same time and see one image. We humans have good binocular vision, too, at least straight in front of us. But hammerheads, with their widely spaced eyes, have clear binocular vision above, below and even behind themselves! That is very useful when your diet depends on catching fast-moving prey, and it is probably why the species evolved in this way.

Ironically, the only place that hammerheads don’t have great vision is straight in front of them. However, they have nostrils near each of their eyes, and Dr. McComb says they use “enhanced stereo smell” to make up for that blind spot.

Image: SharkDiving.us

January 20, 2011

Reader Mary Spezzano sent a note this week to tell us how excited she and her boys are that Lily the Black Bear is due to give birth again very soon (probably within the next week). "Everyone is excited, nervous and eager to see how it will all play out since Hope (1 year old cub from last year) is in the den with her," Mary writes. "This will be a rare glimpse into a mixed age litter!!!!!" Mary and her sons Patrick, Sean and James are watching Lily and Hope on a webcam placed in their den by biologist Lynn Rogers of the Wildlife Research Institute near Ely, Minnesota.

Although Dr. Rogers’ intention was to conduct a long-term, scientific study of black bear ecology and behavior, he also ended up creating ursine Internet celebrities! More than 25,000 viewers watched live as Lily gave birth to her cub, Hope, last January. Hearts melted as Hope’s tiny paw reached out to touch Lily’s nose just after the birth.

Click here to watch the bears live on the webcam, and while you are on the website you can also read notes from Lynn Rogers, the biologist. In yesterday’s post he described what is likely to happen when the cubs are born. "With birth(s) about to happen, there are so many things to think about. What to look for? Likely 1-3 cubs, each about ¾ pound and 9 inches long, covered with sparse fur and looking light-colored because of their white skin. They will have little sucking mouths with no teeth. Is there room in the den? The den is 5-6 feet long. The cubs will mostly be under Lily.  They are too small to take up much room."

To learn more about bears and this bear research visit the North American Bear Center and read Dr. Rogers’ blog on the Wildlife Research Institute page.

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