Archive for the ‘Science’ category

How likely is it for a spirit bear to be born?

August 4th, 2011

kermode
Picture from National Geographic

At our junior high, some of the teachers read the novel Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen with their students. In it, one of the major forces is a giant white bear.

So, how likely is it for a spirit bear to be born?

National Geographic has a great article about the Kermodism genetics that causes the white fur. The really cool part is the Punnett square visualizing how the recessive trait is passed on.

This is an excellent opportunity for science and English teachers to team up for a cross-curricular lesson.

Atlantis has landed

July 21st, 2011


Image from NASA

Now what?

The last shuttle flight

July 8th, 2011

Today marks the last shuttle flight for NASA. 135 missions is a lot, but nowhere near the 50 a year promise NASA made at the start of the program.

What’s really intriguing is NASA’s reliance on outside parties. If Atlantis‘ crew runs into trouble, the Russian space agency is on call to send a rescue mission. The climate of the Space Race has definitely changed since the 1960s.

Also, the International Space Station will now be resupplied by private contractors. Could we see a space monopoly coming in the future?

Green Lantern tie-in helps real-life science

June 1st, 2011

Green Lantern is one of my favorite superheroes, so I’m actually a little sketchy about the movie. I hope to be surprised.

One of the promotionals the studio is doing is an Alternate Reality game (kinda like what J.J. Abrams did for LOST and Cloverfield), but the game does something besides sell you plastic rings: you’re classifying actual galaxies.

Galaxy Zoo is a site I’ve known about for a while, it just has been blocked because the district web filter classified “talking with astronomers” as a chat room. Galaxy Zoo is all about the community chunking through tons of data to tag noteworthy space items.

Now it’s in a meta-story form, with scientists petitioning the fictional Dr. Waller to allow access to a telescope.

You can have that access here.

If J.J. Abrams launched a shuttle

May 17th, 2011

Endeavor is delivering a dark-matter hunter to the International Space Station.

That sentence alone sounds epic. Now check out the photo the crew posed for:

NASA did a pretty decent Photoshop to recreate this:

All Photoshopping aside, check out this amazing photo from Stefanie Gordon’s iPhone:

She was in a plane flying by the launch site and snapped a photo. It should be noted that she just gained 1,000+ followers on Twitter.

The Cuckoo’s Egg by Cliff Stoll

April 26th, 2011

Cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds’ nests and expect someone else to raise their young. In The Cuckoo’s Egg by Cliff Stoll, astronomer-turned-sysadmin Stoll discovers 75 cents worth of computer time on a spreadsheet unaccounted for in the user logs. Someone logged in, but there’s an error. Like any good scientist, Stoll picks apart the computer code and sees that it’s working just fine. As he digs deeper, he realizes that a hacker has been in Berkeley Astronomy Labs.

Stoll’s conflict between freedom and order, between his college radical roots and his admin duties, is what creates the character development and makes Stoll a relatable narrator. This is a true story of a computer crime case that happened in 1986. Stoll published the book in 1990 and has many details from his logbooks included in the story.

I can remember being online for the first time in 1994. I had a teacher who ran a bulletin board service and I dialed in my 2400 baud modem to connect directly to his computer. The Cuckoo’s Egg is great for tech nostalgia. Usually I want a tech book that is extremely current, but sometimes it is important to see our roots. The epilogue is my favorite part as Stoll recalls a new threat: a worm embedding and spreading across the Arpanet, the Internet’s grandpa.

This, kids, is a floppy disk. This particular one holds tech-deadly source code.

Even if you’re not a total computer fanatic, there are parts to enjoy about the book. I do feel, though, that having a decent knowledge of computing greatly enhances the suspense when you’re able to appreciate the nontraditional techniques the astronomer uses to capture a hacker who has ties to a high-powered government agency.

You Make Me Sick!

April 4th, 2011

The winners of the STEM video game challenge have been announced.

The professional developer prize went to Filament Games for their web-based You Make Me Sick! It’s made in Flash and is a good example of a simple game done right.

Here are the student winners.

Actress/Scientist

March 1st, 2011

The New York Times had a great article yesterday about Natalie Portman and her scientific achievements (as well as her Oscar win). The article details the accomplishments of Danica McKellar, Mayim Bialik, and even Hedy Lamarr, who all have been successful actresses as well as brilliant scientists.

It’s quite an accomplishment that takes a lot of discipline. Portman, while at Harvard, would turn in her papers early if she knew she had to make a talk show appearance the night before the due date (and, you know, learn lines for movies and stuff).

Check out the article here.

High school students set to capture rare photos of Discovery

February 24th, 2011

Students from a high school in San Diego are teaming up with Quest for Stars to take potentially rare photos of the last shuttle flight. Shuttle Discovery is set to launch this afternoon. The students have used a simple weather balloon to rig up a camera to take pictures from the top down of the shuttle leaving the atmosphere. It’s supposed to go at least 80,000 feet up (somewhere in the Mesosphere) and keep going until it pops. The camera will then parachute to safety.


A previous photo from Quest for Stars

This is such a great opportunity for the students and I can’t wait to see the amazing photos. I’d be willing to bet that more than one student goes on to pursue a career in science.

This last shuttle mission (for Discovery) has an interesting payload. The astronauts are taking a robot butler to the International Space Station.

R2 (Star Wars reference?) is supposed to work side-by-side with the astronauts, but the sci-fi fan in me is instantly suspicious that Robonaut2 will become our future mechanized overlord.

Physics rollercoasters

February 18th, 2011

image

Ms. Foley and Ms. Kulkarni have their students demonstrate Newtonian physics through building rollercoasters. Not only must the coaster work with a dropped marble, it must be cost efficient. Each piece, including the tape, has a fictional dollar value that they must defend to a board of investors. This is another great example of our staff challenging students in rigor and relevance.