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"Ok Johnny, where would your dog Stanley fit into this puzzle? Would he be an 'apex' predator or a mesopredator?"

Loss Of Top Predators Causing Surge In Smaller Predators, Ecosystem Collapse

"We have to be more careful about taking what appears to be the easy solution." The loss of primary, or “apex” predators is causing an explosion in secondary, or “mesopredators” around the world, a new study concludes. In this image, the extermination of wolves may allow coyote populations to surge, which in turn can suppress feral cat populations, leading to more rodents, etc. These cascading effects are poorly understood but are causing ecosystem disruptions around the world, scientists say.

Where Tasty Morsels Fear to Tread

I’ve just come back from the predator capital of Europe: Romania. The forests and mountains there are home to most of Europe’s remaining bears and lynx and wolves, oh my! (I didn’t see any of them, but I did see evidence of bears — scat, and a fresh pawprint.)

Honey Bee Colony Losses In U.S. Almost 30 Percent From All Causes From September 2008 To April 2009

Honey bee pollinating an almond flower.

To read LauraSayre's work on this present catastrophe go to: http://www.metaglyfix.com/as/2colloq2.html

A Unique Pairing

 

More than a collection of witty and charming drawings, the marriage of Patrick McDonnell's art and Eckhart Tolle's words conveys a profound love of nature, of animals, of humans, of all life-forms. Guardians of Being celebrates and reminds us of not only the oneness of all life but also the wonder and joy to be found in the present moment, amid the beauty we sometimes forget to notice all around us.

 

If you have a pet, you can especially appreciate this pairing. Eckhart Tolle's profound truths about our perceptions of the present are paired up with a pet's moments of love, joy to be alive, happy to be here. This pairing is a powerful way to show how far you can go when you have your heart in living.

Another Patrick McDonnell gem!

For those of us who do not migrate, we never experience being lost and found, crossing boundaries, saying goodbye, and broadening horizons. reviews

Latest news about Elvis!

We began following Elvis in November 2006. Now, Elvis is almost completely blind after being hit by a boat in the back of the head in Auckland harbour (all of our penguins here at the Antarctic Centre are rescued from the wild). So he can't see anything but can find his way around using his beak a bit like a cane, though he still sometimes runs into things. Elvis knows his name and finds the keepers by their voices when he is hungry. He has a girlfriend called CC and has been popular with the girl penguins as he is very good at singing (which is how he got his name Elvis). He is 8 years old, which is pretty old for a little penguin (they normally live only 6 or 7 years in the wild, but in captivity much longer - our oldest penguin here is called Toto and she is 19!). We feed Elvis sliced Dutch herring and sprats, though he can be quite fussy - if the fish isn't perfect he will throw it away!

We want you to write Elvis and send him good wishes. He likes the female penguins, so maybe he will be a daddy some day. But he won't be able to see his babies. Maybe he can teach them to sing!

Write to:

International Antarctic Centre
P O Box 14088, 38 Orchard Rd
Christchurch, NZ

Attn: Joanne Rapley
Penguin Keeper
NZ Penguin Encounter at The Antarctic Attraction

Dr. Palumbi has a collection of highly regarded videos for short attention span science theatre for kids that want to know but ...

Just what is sustainability?

Dr. Palumbi explains

watch this video

Meet our new sea lion pup, Astro!

Houston Zoo writes: We couldn't be more excited about this new little guy and we know you will be too. He is going to be out in the sea lion pool at the beginning of July with Deano, Cali, and Kamia.

 

26 opportunities for your child to do something meaningful for the planet... 

 

read reviews

 

Patrick McDonnell is in agreement with Alice Waters

 

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 tilapia, or what?

Author of A Penguin Story

Antoinette Portis is the author and illustrator of the New York Times bestselling Not a Box and Not a Stick. She lives in Southern California. This is her third children’s book.

 

 

 

 

"Animal School”

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

For Fish in Coral Reefs, It’s Useful to Be Smart

These studies suggest that learning and interpreting new stimuli play important roles in the lives of reef fish.

Tumors Feel The Deadly Sting Of Nanobees

Nanotechnology has created a whole new avenue for physicians to treat tumors.

 

National Zoo Welcomes Rare Clouded Leopard Cubs

watch the video!

It's been nearly two decades since a birth at the zoo. Their parents came over from Southeat Asia and grew up together.

 

Trading Energy For Safety, Bees Extend Legs To Stay Stable In Wind

The effect of environmental turbulence on flight-- it's not just a factor to deal with in an aircraft. Bees deal with it all day long because there are no options for survival other than flying from flower to flower.

 

Smothsonian Zoological National Park

Hit camera II to see pandas.

Watch pandas on camera at your leisure.

 

Miles, a new baby boy giraffe at the Houston Zoo.

Miles

Advance Offers Revolution In Food Safety Testing

Clever ways to detect contamination. It's a win-win situation.

 

Life Cycle of bee

So many rules. So much organization

Diffraction of light is in many places in nature. One place that is quite interesting is in the animal world. Children are delighted when they investigate diffraction on the feathers of a peacock or a dove's neck, inside an abalone shell, on the back of a beetle and a butterfly's wings. Even male lizards exhibit diffraction of light on their belly. This blue belly lizard flashes his belly colors when he is courting a female. Blue seems to work for him!

Otters holding hands video

Is this behavior important to their survival?

White House Proposes New Rules For Food Safety

The women in Obama's administration have had enough.They are cleaning up the kitchen. That's what women know how to do.

 

Natural Solar Collectors On Butterfly Wings Inspire More Powerful Solar Cells

The key point for your child to understand is that we have discovered a way to make it so solar cells can absorb light more efficiently. And we got this idea by studying the scales on a butterfly's wings. Even an 8 year old can appreciate making something more efficient is a good thing.

 

Mary Lee Sunseri brings the insect world into a child's space through songs rich in images of segmented bodies and six legs. Her CD about insects is captivating and engages the child's imagination as completely as a strawberry smoothie on a hot afternoon.

 

The otters have it!

Otters and their antics

 

4 Panda Cubs Born at Chinese Breeding Center

'A pink stick of butter' is the best description of a newborn panda I have ever read.

 

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?"

Bees learn colors?

Do you know colors as well as a bee does?

Buy Now — Save a tree..

It's an ebook! $9.95

StarChild Science: Teach Your Own

SC#1111 Teach Your Own—-$9.95 in pdf, 9 MB in size-

My homeschool group of moms got your book recently and we are setting up our science lab on my property. We all loved your book,especially the animal chapter. I am more confident now about teaching science to children than I have ever been because of your organization in the book. Now I can talk about the relationships animals have with the weather, land, plants with more perspective because I know what energy is and what it is not. Great book! Thank you Jeanette, Seattle

Come Up for Air? Note These Insects, Which Carry a Bubble as a Lung

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

 

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!"

 

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.

 

Little 'Quisto' with mommy

Louisville Zoo

Too sticky? Lessons from the tree frog

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

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.

In the New York Times there is an article on just this event in the insect world. "What is even more remarkable is that the air bubbles automatically refill with oxygen, allowing the bugs to swim indefinitely without coming to the surface. Some insects even hibernate underwater all winter." Read this article to your child and discuss how this one bubble event enables this insect to do many things. Ask your child questions such as: What does this bubble of air do for the insect? Does it help him hunt for food? Does it form on his head? His back? Do you ever see bubbles of air in your bathtub when you are taking a bath? A glass of water in the morning after it has been standing all night?

By asking questions you stimulate your child to try to make sense of this event. Encourage him/her to imagine swimming in the creek, river, ocean and taking a bubble of air down under the water and using it as a source of air. Imagine his pet dog swimming in the lake or a river. Does the dog need a bubble of air to keep him underwater? When I have a science class this is one way I engage the children in science.They are curious to begin with. That is not a problem. That is what makes children such a delight for me. Their curiosity is a natural path to start questions flowing about nature's ways You will be pleasantly surprised with this method.

“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.

Where Tasty Morsels Fear to Tread

I’ve just come back from the predator capital of Europe: Romania. The forests and mountains there are home to most of Europe’s remaining bears and lynx and wolves, oh my! (I didn’t see any of them, but I did see evidence of bears — scat, and a fresh pawprint.)

 

White House Proposes New Rules For Food Safety

"We've seen too many large-scale recalls, everything from spinach to peanut products, pistachios, peppers, mushrooms, alfalfa sprouts and recently even cookie dough."

 

You mean there is a connection?

Scientists reveal the effect of fishing on cod size and question turning crops into fuel. Is ethanol the panacea it was once thought to be?

Natural Solar Collectors On Butterfly Wings Inspire More Powerful Solar Cells

...the butterfly wing solar collector absorbed light more efficiently than conventional dye-sensitized cells.

Another unusual piece by Olivia Judson

Olivia always adjusts to get a broad focus on biology. Teenagers can really learn quickly from a writer like this. Not only does Judson focus on the 'big' picture, but her writing is so to the point that you find yourself walking away with a clear understanding of a small, short episode about 'life happens'. She is a research fellow in biology at Imperial College London.

 

Poultry Nutritionists Remove Pollutants From Watersheds By Adding Enzyme To Chicken Feed

Diving, Rolling, and Floating, Alligator Style

Alligators can move their lungs all over the place. Why?

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

 

For Fish in Coral Reefs, It’s Useful to Be Smart

The damselfish exhibited what is called anticipatory behavior, in that they would tap the image and then swim quickly to the other end of their tank in anticipation of their food reward. But, the study went even

Tumors Feel The Deadly Sting Of Nanobees

Now the toxin in bee venom has been harnessed to kill tumor cells by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Trading Energy For Safety, Bees Extend Legs To Stay Stable In Wind

"much like a spinning ice skater who extends her arms to slow down."

 

Shifty-Eyed Thieving Fish Caught on Video

a thieving deep-sea fish with rotating eyes protected by a transparent shield shaped like the canopy over a fighter pilot.

Miles, a new baby boy giraffe at the Houston Zoo

 

Advance Offers Revolution In Food Safety Testing

"Rapid methods are not readily available to directly assess the toxicity of bacterial contamination in a user-friendly fashion," said Janine Trempy, professor of microbiology and associate dean of the OSU College of Science.

Baby sea turtles – off to a good start

"I hope to see you here in 15 years," she adds with a friendly smile, "when the babies we just released return to lay their eggs."

 

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.

 

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?

 

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.

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.

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.

 

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

 

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

Go to: http://www.zooatlanta.org/animals_videos.htm

If your child still sleeps with you, tell him/her that in the night you have watched him/her fidget too, just like this baby panda.

 

Test-Tube Koala Babies Debut

Shoring up vulnerable populations

 

World 'needs new wild life body'

"It'll need significant investment - we're not sure exactly how much, but certainly more than anybody has given us."

 

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

 

 

The language of science

is universal.

 

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Carmel, California

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