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Open Letter to
Parents and Teachers

Written August 11, 2007

What can you teach Dragon about the differences between plants and animals? The answer lies in energy...

For a unique way of looking at this question refer to our book, StarChild Science: Teach Your Own

A wonderful artist, John Prinz, created this web site for StarChild Science. His animations have entertained chidlren all over the world. Visit his site and enjoy his animations.

"Animal School”

Click on "Animal School" and see a vivid piece of reality every homeschooling parent has chosen to avoid at all costs.

Otters holding hands video

Is this behavior important to their survival?

Bush Eyes Unprecedented Conservation Program

An array of ocean advocates — both Democrats and Republicans — are urging the White House to forge ahead with the proposals, saying it would enable President Bush to build a "blue legacy" that would make him a major figure in conservation history.

Life Cycle of bee

So many rules. So much organization

Bees learn colors?

Do you know colors as well as a bee does?

Too sticky? Lessons from the tree frog

the tree frog has served as the model for a new type of reusable adhesive

How mother moose outwits the bear

"using human infrastructure as a shield".

Nature caught in the eye of a camera

Stunning images of the animal world.

Focus with your child on these images. Talk about the things these different animals need to eat. Their habitats. Their families. See if your child can move about like any of these animals.

Remind your child that the food these animals eat gives them the energy to get around in their habitats. It gives them energy to build houses, find a safe place to sleep, have their babies, nurse their babies or hatch from an egg. Use these beautiful photographs to help your child talk about energy and where it is needed in these animals' life span.

It's not easy being a bee

But many questions remain at this early stage.

Cooking with DNA

Dr. Stephen Palumbi of the Hopkins Marine Lab in Monterey California examines the fish from the super market. Is it red snapper or not?

Sex next for rescued 'Groucho Marx' penguin

Poor little fella. Washed up on to the shore, then this!

Duckling With Rare Gene Mutation Born With 4 Legs

Can it fly? It can 'walk the walk'!

Yes, Stumpy can walk the walk quite nicely. He has everything figured out

OUCHHHHH! Crocodile severs Taiwan vet's arm

Remember, animals move about in space. They need energy to do this. Ask your child what role the arm plays in the crocodile's life. If he eats this arm, what does he do with the energy in the bones, skin, blood, fat in the arm?

Shark Fin in San Francisco with Dr.Stephen Palumbi

of The Palumbi Lab

How much a pound in China town?

Calif. squirrels yank rattlesnakes' tails

Tails are packed with extra energy in the form of heat...

Dinosaur Fossils In Utah Inspire 'Jr. Paleontologists'

"My sisters think it looks like wood, but I sort of think it looks like bone," says Sachse, who is visiting from Jupiter, Fla. "And I looked at it like this and I see very, very small holes in it. I know some bones have holes in them so it can, like, make blood and stuff."

Heat, Not Light, May Be Real Engine Driving Biodiversity

The question of what drives diversity is important to biologists who seek to uncover the basic rules governing life.

Ethanol Fallout: Health Risks for Livestock

...the corn product that they're feeding to their animals can be anticipated to carry triple the normal load of fungal toxins.

The Wild Side

Fragile City Bat Survives Country Rehab

"If I never ever see her again, then I know she did really well. That's how we feel about all of them."

Bats have habits.

Meet the bumblebee bat, the smallest bat in the world. Presented in an engaging question-and-answer format with full-page illustrations on each facing page, kids will learn all the basic facts about this recently discovered native of Thailand, including its remarkably diminutive size: "Bumblebee bat, how small are you?"

Animal Painting Experience

No, your two year old didn't paint this! Sign up for a once in a lifetime experience at the Huoston Zoo.

'Fishery Failure' Declared For West Coast Salmon Fishery

...changes in ocean conditions, including unfavorable shifts in ocean temperature and food sources for juvenile salmon, likely caused poor survival of salmon that would have comprised this year’s fishery.

Ancient Komodo Dragon Has Space-age Skull

"space-frame" skull to butcher prey with awesome efficiency

A master of disguise

What will this creature develop into?

Polar bear cub makes public debut

It's going to get real dangerous down there!

“Ice fishes – the only bony fish that now lives in Antarctic waters, because it has antifreeze in its system – will face a new threat as well,” Wilga added.

Something's fishy as Europe dines

Endangered Brazilian Ocelot Kitten Born: Birth Significant For Species

Little 'Quisto' with mommy

Ground Truthing
San Salvador Island – The Bahamas

Dr. Stephen Palumbi says, "Join a crack team of researchers as they ‘ground truth’ the innovative use of satellite imagery and underwater videography to produce a new and groundbreaking tool."

Buy Now — Save a tree..

It's an ebook! $9.95

StarChild Science: Teach Your Own

Invite a child to crawl like a turlle, to jump like a kangaroo, to hop like a bunny, to gallop like a wild pony. That child will want to keep the earth as a special place for all animals..

"This energy I can relate to. Kinetic energy is what Joshua has a lot of."

"Watch your children for the amount of kinetic energy they need." Relate this to what you feed them. The food they eat is the potential energy they must have in order to convert to kinetic energy to move their muscles for walking, soccer, gymnastics, riding lessons, swimmig, tennis, volleyball, baseball, softball, basketball, skate boarding, surfing, sailing, diving, jumping, skipping, rolling down a grassy hill, body surfing, jamming, dirt bike racing, fishing, rock climbing, golfing, figure skating, skiing, snowboarding, martial arts, hockey, cycling, disc throwing, reading, writing, dancing, trampoline jumping, tumbling, acting, table tennis, mountaineering, hunting, sky diving, ballooning, flying, ping pong, Cricket, Lacrosse, Rugby.

Polar Bear Is Made a Protected Species

...the Interior Department added stipulations, seldom used under the act, that would allow oil and gas exploration and development to proceed in areas where the bears live, as long as the companies continue to comply with existing restrictions under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Yes, he made it. Read about his return to the sea on http://www.skegnessnatureland.co.uk/news.htm

Back From The Brink

Happy news for us all! Every time I hear of this kind of success I am reminded of all the people who were involved in this story. Their efforts, their planning, their strong commitment to a cause makes humans what they are: time-binders. Time-binders bind time. They anticipate, they plan, using the past as a reference, they look into the future. This is the most valuable gift to have and nurture, especially now that we are becoming more aware of our impact on Earth. We must plan carefully, anticipate the effects on the environment from our carbon emissions, and look into the future when we can live without the threat of global warming. If we can bring the otter back from the brink of extinction, can't we also bring our own species back from the brink of extinction? It will take cooperative anticipation, cooperative planning, cooperative speculation with many nations. Are we up to this level of co-operation?

Habit? Addiction?

This happens day after day after day! He even knows the brand! He's really got this one down to a science! "Let's see," he reminds himself. "First, I walk through the door. Then, make a sharp left..."

As he walks out of the store he says to himself, "This is a no-brainer!"

Penguin Shoes Ensure "Happy" Feet

This little penguin is a spacebinder just like your favorite kitty, puppy or pig. Here, little Elvis gets around by walking and swimming. Unfortunately, he walks too much on land and doesn't swim enough in the water at the International Antarctic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand where he is staying. So his feet get sore. One thing spacebinders must take care of is their appendages they use for moving in space. In this little penguin's case it is feet. But what about a dolphin? And a bird? What do they have to take care of in order to move around? Ask your child these kinds of questions. Get them thinking in terms of spacebinding then they will understand the seriousness of this young penguin's condition.

Sea Otters in Alaska declining in number

Want to sign a petition to protect sea otters? Go to: thepetitionsite.com

Archer fish hunt?

Click image to watch on Quick Time movie

See article below

(click on image)

Mommy takes a break!

A baby boy and baby girl.Aihin and Meihin are their names.

Virgin Birth ? -- By Komodo Dragon

How does this happen?

Bee vanishing act baffles keepers

"Box after box after box are just empty. There's nobody home."
David Bradshaw, Beekeeper

Losing Bees, Butterflies And Other Pollinators

Where are the pollinators going?

Everything is moving!

Watch! No dishes!

I See Moving

“A banana slug. A banana slug. " Chance picked the slug up off a small rock with two sticks. He watched as it crawled across his palm leaving a slimy trail behind. "If we put a sock on him that would cover his whole body. He has only one foot. And it is the length of his body," he told me.

"Yeah. Banana slugs have only one foot." Nissa turned the slug over and examined it more closely. "Oh look. He has a seed on his foot. It is caught in his slimy stuff."

"A seed? He’s carrying a seed?" Jill came over and looked through the magnifying lens to see for herself. “Wow!”

"I wonder if it is a Forget-me-not," Jimmy muttered and came over to see.

"I know a lot about banana slugs. I know what they like to eat. They eat plants and leaves and animal poop. My mother has a vegetable garden and she is always sprinkling sawdust around her vegetables. The slugs can't slide through sawdust. They leave the beans and lettuce alone for us to eat.“ Nissa took the magnifying lens from Jill and continued, "My mother hates them in her garden.” She looked at the one footed slug and continued, “And you know what else I know? The banana slug can be a boy and a girl in one body. Isn't that weird?"

"Look at these slugs." Joshua yelled out from the edge of the creek. "They have holes on their sides. And they're big holes too." The children rushed over to Joshua and watched as two banana slugs slid slowly onto a green leaf.

"Look at the black things sticking out from their heads. Maybe that's their eyes." Nissa began searching for eyelashes.

"I can't see any eyes. How do they know where they are?"

Just by listening to a child express what nature is up to gives the lesson a degree of informed analysis, depth instead of shallowness and understanding instead of attitude. We at StarChild Science are commited to pursuing a vigorous presence of children's explanations and observations in science activities. We can't loose sight of this one critical ingredient... the child's input!

"The top two tentacles are the sensors for light. They can tell the slug if it is in the sun or the shade. The bottom tentacles are like the tongue and fingers on us. They taste their food and move it into their mouth." I told her.

"I'll bet those holes are for breathing," Jill took a deep breathe, flaring her nostrils wide open like a horse.

Nissa took a twig and tried to overturn one of the slugs. "How do they eat plants? I don't see any teeth."

"They have twenty-five thousand teeth. And all these tiny teeth are on their tongue." As I talked I could see Nissa stick her tongue out and hold it with her fingers for just a moment.

"Hey. Come over here. Look what I found. A millipede." Chance watched as the millipede quickly crawled across the back of his hand. "He has to be careful with all those legs.".

"Looks like a thousand legs rushing past your knuckles. Many many feet and no teeth. Just a jaw. Nature, nature nature, you have been busy."

"It took a lot of energy to make all of those legs." Serene watched the millipede move. "I have only two legs. And the slug has one. And the millipede has many many of them."

"Look what I found. A turtle. A real turtle!" Nissa picked a turtle up and began examining its shell. Then she turned it over and examined the soft shell protecting its abdomen. “It’s a boy.“ She looked up at me. “I had a boy turtle once. I named it Breadcrumbs. I think it died once.”

"How many socks could we put on this turtle?" I asked.

"Four. He has four feet. And look at them. The two front ones are shorter than the two back ones." Nissa stretched one of its back legs out from its abdomen and yelled out in surprise, "Look what I found." She tugged at something. Gently. "A seed. A seed got caught between his shell and his stomach." The other children rushed over, eager to see a seed in such an unexpected place. Chance held up a magnifying glass and began to examine the tiny grass seed. "And this seed is hairy too," he told us.

“He’s so small.” Serene looked at a miniature frog I found at the edge of the creek.

"Isn’t he cute?” Jill came in closer to look at the frog.

Stop here! What have we learned so far?Think about what we just observed. The children are watching movement. In this experience along the creek the chidren are focusing on the application of energy for movement. It's as if they are walking through the first five chapters of StarChild Science: Teach Your Own. Let's consider this more closely: These children are aware by now that everything that moves requires energy. And, they are aware that the energy has to come from somewhere. Here you must emphasize the conservation of energy which allows the animal to use the food it eats as a source of energy for movement. This is an important point because you want the child to become aware that the animals they are observing take energy from the food they eat just like we do. They turn potential energy in the food into kinetic energy for movement.

As you are watching the animals crawl, swim, jump, ask the children how did they get the energy to do that? What did the animals have for breakfast? For dinner? Do they store their food? Do they grind it up before they put it in their mouth? Do they have beaks or do they suck their food into their mouths?.

Ask the children to examine the mouths of the animals if they can with their magnifying glasses.

At this level of our science class, I always focus on the animals having the ability to move about in space. I do this because this is the first time in our science class that we see energy supplying gross movement like crawling, jumping, hopping, swimming, diviing, walking, flying. We call all the animals spacebinders. Use this term frequently while observing animals. The sooner a child focuses on energy for getting around in space, binding space, the easier it will be for him to look at the animal world as the world of the spacebinders. And, he will then see the major difference between the animals and the plants, the energybinders.

”What does he eat?” Serene asked. I was just about to answer when the tiny frog disappeared from the tip of her finger. “He jumped,” the children yelled out. “He jumped away.” When we looked at the creek all we could see was a circle of waves, growing and growing, larger and larger in diameter then disappear.

“That was astonishing. Maybe ten feet. Maybe fifteen. For such a miniature creature his jump was Olympic.“ I said.

“Whatever he eats he gets lots of energy from it. I can’t jump that far and my legs are bigger than his legs too. He must be like a lion to the beetles and the fish in this creek. He is so strong.“ Chance carefully turned small rocks over along the creek, searching for another frog.

"I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to see if I can see a stickleback fish in the creek.” Nissa walked along the creek with her specimen jar and began searching for a stickleback along its edge. “I see them. Look. Come over here. They are nibbling on small plants.“ She knelt closer to the water’s edge. “Oh no, a black beetle is trying to eat one of them. I’m going to save it.” She plunged her jar into the water and scooped up whatever she could. When she held the jar up into the light she saw a small silver colored fish swimming round and round frantically looking for some place to hide. She watched closely until the fish came to an abrupt stop, and to her surprise, stared right back at her. It was trembling like a little blob of J-ello. “I’ll bet it’s scared. It looks scared. Real scared.” She looked closer. “No eyelids. Hey, this fish has no eyelids,” she yelled out to me. Suddenly the tiny fish began swimming round and round again, pouring its energy into a circular path.

"Look what I have. Look what I have.” Jill stared into her specimen jar, watching a beetle trying to maneuver something from its rear and on up towards its mouth. She watched as its forelegs rolled a small bubble of air towards its mouth. “Wow. Look at that. It looks like it is playing with a beach ball."

“Let me see.” Chance came over to join them, thinking it was certainly to be a circus act he was about to see. ”That's a bubble or something! Under water like that?” It was real clear the beetle had a bubble full of air and had neatly tucked it under its hind legs before it dove deep into the water. It was ready at a moment’s notice to supply enough oxygen for a fast scurry down deeper and deeper in the jar.

“Is he just playing?” Jill asked.

“No. Beetles don’t play. Have you ever seen a insect play?” Joshua looked at her with contempt and laughed a hearty laugh.

“Oh, look what I have. It’s a millipede I think and it is swimming around in the water.” Chance came over to show us.

"That little creature is a beetle larva. If it is successful it will become an adult diving beetle. It’s like any teenager now. It wants out of here.”

"Teenager? I hate teenagers,” Jill told us in a firm voice. “I have a teenage brother and he is not nice. He is mean.”

“Oh, this little critter is mean too. It eats any small creatures in the creek that he can overpower. He injects a chemical into his prey that dissolves their insides and then he sucks the insides out.” I watched as Jill’s whole body quivered.

“That’s what my brother tries to do. Suck out my insides.” Jill looked up at me as if wanting to be rescued. “My mom says he’s got problems. He doesn’t like girls right now. She says he will be nicer when he gets out of this stage and becomes a adult. I can’t wait for that to happen. We all can’t wait for him to turn into a adult.”

“Between us two there is nothing between but what?” I asked the children as we examined more creek dwellers in our observation jars.

“Energy and information. That’s all there is between nature and us,” Chance watched the larva wiggle against the wall of the observation jar as if it was trying to drill a hole through it and escape.

“All that moving around. Look at that beetle run for it. And look at that worm wiggle.” Jill looked down into my jar, closely watching the small, moving, pulsing black head force itself out of what looked like a hollow skeletal body of a small fish. Black and furry toothpick legs moved slowly out of the black head. "Those eyes. Look at those eyes. They are large like balloons on his head."

“Space-binders are what some scientists call the animals,” I told her

“Space-binders?” Joshua asked. “Space is something way out there.“ He waved his arms up high into the air. “I never heard of that word before.”

"That little spacebinder has made a case for himself out of small pebbles and mud," I told Joshua as he watched the larva squirming out of its case.

"I'll bet he has iron in his case. It's in the dirt stuff in the creek. Remember?" Chance asked me. "Maybe if I put a magnet up to his case I can grab him and pull him out of the water." His grin was a little too big for my comfort.

"No. Don't do that. That is mean. That case is where he lives. How would you like it is someone came over to your house and pulled it up with a big magnet?" Serene stared at Chance as hard as she knew how to stare at anything.

Everything we find at the creek boasts of an impressive collection of spacebinders that has survived over millennia. Just the gathering of beetles with their slick armored jaws is like a collection of different types of bad guy hats in a western movie museum. None of these spacebinders is gracious. They live in the here and now and they have to survive somehow, some way each and every moment. Their angry, premeditated murders cast a wide net across the creek, destroying the more placid creatures of the lot in a bloody moment of gratification. While the most notorious larva of them all, the dragon fly larva, chase after a silvery scaled stickleback fish seeking refuge in the darkness of the creek's bank, the bold but naive toadlets with new lungs ready for air struggle through muddy water seeking a new horizon for their life just ahead.

Everyone is leaving the creek, it seems. It's like the meadow in midsummer. A Wal-Mart sized exodus has just begun. Thousands of winged seeds float into the summer air like tiny gliders, silently riding capricious breathes of summer breezes. The thousands of surviving creek youngsters of this year's eggs cozy up to air for the first time. Their new lungs expand with impunity as they wiggle, strut, and sometimes claw themselves out of the water, never to return to a life as a water creature, an aquatic spacebinder. Now, they are air spacebinders that can feed while on flowers, bask in sunlight, hide in petals and along stems. They seem to know just what to do to survive in air. Some of them flip and flop around in the air like tiny Blue Angels over their birthplace while waiting for dinner.

Spacebinding is what animals do. They bind space in myriads of ways, embracing prey and mates alike with claws, feet, arms, tails, anything to clutch, to catch, to overwhelm. Earth is the place for spacebinders because it has cliffs, and holes, and hiding places. It has banks and stems and trunks. It has ponds and oceans and rivers that meander through mountain ranges and valleys. Earth is the only place where there are spacebinders that tell us when summer is fading and autumn is near; when night is falling and daybreak is moments away. Spacebinders have Earth in their genes.

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StarChild Science: Teach Your Own

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Humans

understanding

The articles you see on this web site act as activities and explanations of smaller topics within each main idea. For example, the articles on animals you read about below act as explanations on the behavior of different animals; their personalities, their habitats, their instincts, their value to us humans.

Dinosaur Fossils In Utah Inspire 'Jr. Paleontologists'

"I didn't know anything about dinosaurs until he got interested in them when he was, like, 3," she says. "We used to read dinosaur information books at bedtime. My mom refused to read them because she couldn't pronounce the names. She's like, 'I'm not reading those!' "

Ethanol Fallout: Health Risks for Livestock

"If some distillery wastes end up linked to animal disease or deaths, the ethanol industry might even encounter a costly “shock event,”

I think one question that comes to mind immediately is "Since the pig gastrointestinal system is so similar to the human gastrointestinal system, then wouldn't our children's' growth be stunted as well if they eat pork that was fed this feed?" Ask your local health experts or nutritionists. Find out. Start asking the people who know about such things. Protect your child and yourself. No one else is going to do it for you. Put pressure where pressure has to be put in order to get answers. Judy Wilken MS

Fragile City Bat Survives Country Rehab

"All these wild animals are up against such pressure from people right now that any little thing we can do to help them live a healthy life, we feel like we kind of owe it to them."

Animal Painting Experience

Eat your heart out Paul Klee!

A master of disguise

Caterpillar camo: It's the hormones speaking!

Ancient Komodo Dragon Has Space-age Skull

...a wimpy bite and a featherweight skull.

As nectar levels in flowers change from minute-to-minute, faster learning bees are more likely to keep track of which blooms are most rewarding, and thrive as a result.

Little 'Quisto' is just over 2 months old now

What blue eyes you have!

Mr. Wing, the curator at Louisville Zoo, wrote me about Quisto today, Monday December 3, 2007. "The kitten (El Conquistador...Quisto for short) has started venturing out onto the exhibit. His mother, Miquela, doesn't let him stay out though. She runs out after him and carries him back into the den." Apparently, little Quisto has started nibbling at the carnivore diet so we should see a growth spurt soon!"

This kitten was born at the Louisville Zoo.

Shark Fin in San Francisco with Dr.Stephen Palumbi

of The Palumbi Lab

How much a pound?

KING PENGUIN ARRIVES AT SANCCOB

It is unlikely that the penguin swam on its own into South African waters, and probably came to the coast by boat. The King penguin is in excellent condition, and eats about 10 pilchard per day.

Ground Truthing
San Salvador Island – The Bahamas

Dr. Stephen Palumbi says, "Join a crack team of researchers as they ‘ground truth’ the innovative use of satellite imagery and underwater videography to produce a new and groundbreaking tool."

Dr. Palumbi - Cooking with DNA- A great Quicktime movie

She thought it was red snapper at $10.99 per pound! Was it? Click on image to watch Quicktime movie

Sea Otter, Peregrine Falcon Back From The Brink Of Extinction But Other Species At Risk In Canada

“Habitat loss and disturbance are the biggest threats facing species. This could be the result of factors as diverse as forestry, housing development, or changes to the natural flow of rivers,” says Dr. Hutchings. “Another major threat is the invasion of exotics that can have devastating effects on Canada’s native species.”

Calif. squirrels yank rattlesnakes' tails

Squirrels pack their tail with heat and hit the rattlesnake. This is a great example of energy protecting an animal. It's all about energy!

Algae Killing Birds, Sealife in Calif.

"Normally we're able to flush out the toxin with a treatment regimen … This year they're just coming in dead.

Crocodile severs Taiwan vet's arm

Believing the animal was successfully anesthetised, Mr Chang tried to remove the syringe, but the crocodile suddenly turned and bit off his left arm, holding it in its mouth.

Palumbi Lab, Hopkins Marine Laboratory

Monterey, California

The Last Fish Left sung by Dr. Stephen Palumbi, noted Oceanographer, professor and dad.

Bee vanishing act baffles keepers

"Bees are highly social insects. They don't leave their babies and the queen."

Duckling With Rare Gene Mutation Born With 4 Legs

Stumpy! What happened?

A baby boy and baby girl.Aihin and Meihin are their names.

This panda mommy is a good mommy. She pays attention to them and feeds them when they are hungry. Soon she will be playing with them.

Groucho' is about to meet the ladies!

Virgin Birth -- By Komodo Dragon

Squirrels Winning At Outwitting Trees' Survival Strategy
Science Daily —

This is a good example of how animals can communicate with a plant's strategy.

Archer fish hunt?

This fish hunts with its machine-gun water pistol

Baby Panda Crushed by Mother in China Zoo

The mother was asleep after delivering twins.

Pigeons smell their way home

"It is now as clear as can be that information about the spatial variation in atmospheric odours detected by the olfactory nerve is the primary sensory basis of the homing pigeon navigational map."

Dr. Anna Gagliardo, University of Pisa

Heat, Not Light, May Be Real Engine Driving Biodiversity

..."the Red Queen runs faster when she is hot" hypothesis.

The Wild Side

Olivia Judson, an evolutionary biologist, is the author of “Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex,” which was made into a three-part television program. Ms. Judson has been a reporter for The Economist and has written for a number of other publications, including Nature, The Financial Times, The Atlantic and Natural History. She is a research fellow in biology at Imperial College London.

Bush Eyes Unprecedented Conservation Program

Administration officials said they wanted things they could do before they left office, says Sobel. "They [also] wanted things that they could do without tremendous political blow back … [but] would have a conservation impact."

Polar Bear Is Made a Protected Species

On Wednesday, Mr. Kempthorne specifically ruled out that possibility, saying, “When the Endangered Species Act was adopted in 1973, I don’t think terms like ‘climate change’ were part of our vernacular.”

Our greatest souce of omega 3 fatty acids from the ocean

"This is far below what is needed to sustain the population and we have decided to shut down the commercial ocean salmon fishery for all of California and most of Oregon to aid their recovery,” said Jim Balsiger, NOAA’s Fisheries Service acting assistant administrator.

Life Cycle of the bee

There were Greek beekeepers and Egyptian beekeepers?

Polar bear cub makes public debut

Sharks: Potentially Disastrous Consequences

“There are few prey-crushing predators in Antarctic waters. As a result, the Antarctic seafloor has been dominated by relatively soft-bodied, slow-moving invertebrates, just as in ancient oceans prior to the evolution of shell-crushing predators.” said Wilga.

Something's fishy as Europe dines

Europe's dinner tables are increasingly supplied by global fishing fleets that are depleting the world's oceans to feed the ravenous consumers who have become fish's most effective predators.

Dolphin spectacle baffles experts

"To the dolphin alone, beyond all others, nature has given what the best philosophers seek: friendship for no advantage. Though it has no need of man yet it is the friend to all men and has often given them great aid."
Plutarch, Greek Philosopher
46-120 A.D.

Lessons from the tree frog

Tree frogs can climb trees with remarkable agility, grabbing and releasing as needed, leaving not a trace of sticky goo.

How mother moose outwits the bear

"If we're using our national parks to understand pristine conditions, the presence of humans is altering interactions in very subtle but important way."

Nature caught in the eye of a camera

It's not easy being a bee

No bacteria were linked with the collapse disorder, but the data did point a finger of suspicion at two of the seven viruses detected in the mixed-up DNA: IAPV and the related Kashmir bee virus.

In Monterey Bay, a Mollusk Strays and Stays for Dinner

the creatures, also known as jumbo squids, are settling in.

Shifting Winds Disrupt Island Birds' Feeding Habits

"It takes a lot of energy to breed, and there just wasn't enough food out there to support that effort, so they abandoned the eggs," says scientist Russ Bradley.

Losing Bees, Butterflies And Other Pollinators

“We’re losing six thousand acres of habitat a day to development, 365 days a year. One out of every three bites you eat is traceable to pollinators’ activity. But if you start losing pollinators, you start losing plants.” This statement makes me wonder if the local farmers' markets are going to be able to offer us continued abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables. What we need now is a robot bee, a mechanical robot bee that can pollinate flowers . From what we know now, we can use light frequencies to program the robot to fly from flower to flower based on the color of the flower. This idea came from a 9 year old StarChild Science student. Another StarChild Science student reasoned that would not fix the problem because he thought the bees are vanishing because there are no flowers for them. This student thinks the bees have gone to look for more flowers. Read this article to your child and talk about this problem. Ask your child what he or she would do to correct this situation. Start thinking together! The photos of the bees were taken by Alexandra Sanders at http://www.prestostore.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?ref=Alexi637&ct=34214

'Threatened' polar bear listing debated

"As a result, polar bears are starving to death, drowning, and now fewer cubs are surviving," Walker said, according to her prepared remarks.

Antarctic Warming To Reduce Animals At Base Of Ecosystem, Shift Some Penguin Populations Southward

“Researchers are seeing the movement of penguin populations southward down the peninsula as sea ice lessens along its margins,” Lyons said. “Gentoo and chinstrap penguins are shifting south into areas now populated by adelie penguins, and the adelies are being forced further south, all because of the change in sea ice.”

Lawsuit: Alaska sea otters need critical habitat

"Sea otters in southwest Alaska are in a grave situation with alarming and ongoing population declines," the lawsuit says. "The absence of critical habitat permits the degradation, modification, and destruction of habitat essential to the Alaska sea otter's survival and recovery."

Penguin Shoes Ensure "Happy" Feet

"We have seen a dramatic improvement," Benton said, "and [we] expect that they will only be wearing their pretty shoes for a very short time." Ask your child what he/she would do if he/she had a sore foot. Remember, animals move in space, and so do we. Animals are called spacebinders. And they need energy to do walk about, hunt and mate. So, this little penguin needs to heal his feet in order to hunt, to find food in the water. He doesn't have grocery stores like we do. He has to hunt in the wild, the wild ocean, or he will perish.

Cold Comfort

Hibernating little squirrel

Cold trance or transplant?

Ask your child what this little squirrel looks like while he is sleeping. His head is curled into his chest. Why? Do you sleep like that? Does your child sleep like that? Talk to your child about this thing called 'hibernation'.

Zoo Atlanta baby panda fidgets while mom is asleep