Workin' Together

We're goin' old school with today's Earth Day video, circa 1990.

Quincy Jones, Fresh Prince, Tone Loc, Queen Latifah, Ice T, Kid N Play & Heavy D (R.I.P.) lay it out for ya.

Live Fast, Die Young: Evolutionary Outcomes of an Asteroid Impact

Figure 1: (A) "Dryophyllum" subfalcatum, (B) unknown nonmonocot,
(C) "Ficus" planicostata, (D) "Populus" nebrascensis

A new semester has started and with it an influx of new students into the lab has begun. Busy has become my middle name. So when I was looking around for a paper to write about I wanted something different and cool. Not exactly hard to find in science. The asteroid known as 2012 DA14 will narrowly miss Earth this Friday, the closest known asteroid flyby on record. And by close we’re talking within the orbits of many communications satellites. This got me thinking about and looking for recent papers about asteroids. It didn't take me long to come by an interesting new paper about the dino-killing Chicxulub bolide impact.

As of now, it is widely accepted that an epic asteroid collision ended the 135 million year reign of the dinosaurs. The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (KPB) extinction event is marked by the Chicxulub (CHEEK-sheh-loob) impact on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. This asteroid or comet is estimated to have been about 6 miles (10 km), releasing as much energy as 100 trillion tons of TNT that caused a crater more can 110 miles (180 km) across! This impact coincides with a mass extinction event that includes the dinosaurs. Dramatic climate swings caused by the dust kicked up into the atmosphere were likely the culprit behind many of these extinctions. Before we go further, take a second to think about what you know about this extinction event. You probably think of the mass die-off of the dinosaurs and the subsequent rise of the mammals, right? But, as I have in the past, I’ll now pose a question: What about the plants?

A new paper published yesterday in PLOS Biology asks just that question. We know that in temperate North America the Chicxulub impact resulted in the extinction of over 50 percent of the plant species. From an evolutionary and ecological stand-point, that’s a lot of competitors that were taken out of the game. However, the environment was dramatically altered as well, changing to a cold and dark “impact winter.” Combined, these factors created a unique selection scenario for certain ecological strategies. The new paper takes a close look at the functional traits associated with these strategies.

The researchers measured fossil leaf assemblages spanning a 2.2 million year interval across the KPB, assessing four differing selection scenarios for functional traits. First, wrap your head around the concept of “functional traits.” These are characteristics that define species in terms of their ecological roles. In the case of leaves, these include leaf mass per area (LMA; Do you make a big, expensive leaf or a light, cheap one?) and leaf minor vein density (VD; Do you have more veins to transport lots of water?), among many others. Because leaves are the food producers, these traits are linked to plant growth and fitness. Next, you can relate these traits to the “leaf economic spectrum” (LES) that contrasts species with inexpensive short-lived leaves with fast returns on carbon and nutrients (deciduous, angiosperm, broadleaf) to costly long-lived leaves with slow returns (coniferous, gymnosperm, evergreen). The former is typically selected for in a less resource variable environment and vice versa. From this, you can get a more global perspective on changes in species composition.

The researchers measured LMA and VD for fossil leaf assemblages spanning the KPB. To do this they digitally photographed specimens that could be measured and confidently reconstructed. Then they used Photoshop to digitally separate the leaf from its rock matrix. For LMA they used ImageJ to calculate leaf area and petiole width, and then ran these numbers through empirical scaling functions (a.k.a. equations). For VD, they used a MATLAB line-counting program to isolate the veins and then manually counted the number of vein-line intersections, computing the mean distance between veins  as the sum of all line counts divided by the sum of all distances (a.k.a. a slightly less complicated equation). They ran a few scenarios to account for site and region plant specificity as well.

They found LMA to decrease and VD to increase across this time period. Even changes just these two traits reflect large physiological and biological shifts in plant functioning over a relatively short period of time. According to their data, the Chicxulub impact led to the selective extinction of species with slow strategies. This caused a directional selection away from evergreen species along with a stabilizing selection of deciduous angiosperms. The authors pose a few hypotheses in their discussion that are worth mentioning. The higher observed VD in angiosperms, and their ensuing selection, could have been driven by declining atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), which selects for higher hydraulic capacity. This CO2 hypothesis would, of course, not really hold water (no pun intended) for nonangiosperms and shade species, but the authors suggest that the observed increase in VD is more likely to be a direct consequence of the impact selecting for specific leaf economic strategies rather than ongoing-longer term climate change.

In this case, slow and steady did not win the race.


  Blonder B, Royer DL, Johnson KR, Miller I, & Enquist BJ (2014). Plant Ecological Strategies Shift Across the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary. PLoS biology, 12 (9) PMID: 25225914




(image via above citation)

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day from your friendly, tree hugging, dirt worshiping science blogger!

Here's some Earth Day humor for you.

(images via EarthDayApril, someecards, and videobash)

Perpetual Ocean

The wind map I posted a couple of months ago was pretty popular. If you liked that then you'll love this.

NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio has created an animation called Perpetual Ocean. The visualization shows ocean surface currents around the world during the period from June 2005 through December 2007. The goal of this project was to use ocean flow data to create a simple, visceral experience. Mission accomplished.

These visualizations were "produced using model output from the joint MIT/JPL project: Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II or ECCO2. ECCO2 uses the MIT general circulation model (MITgcm) to synthesize satellite and in-situ data of the global ocean and sea-ice at resolutions that begin to resolve ocean eddies and other narrow current systems, which transport heat and carbon in the oceans. ECCO2 provides ocean flows at all depths, but only surface flows are used in this visualization. The dark patterns under the ocean represent the undersea bathymetry. Topographic land exaggeration is 20x and bathymetric exaggeration is 40x." The videos I've posted here are grabbed from YouTube. I highly recommend clicking the links below each video and going to the NASA webpages. There you will find more videos, all designed for a very wide, high resolution display.

This first Perpetual Ocean visualization is of some of the world's surface ocean currents.



Learn more at NASA's Perpetual Ocean website

This next visualization shows the Gulf Stream stretching from the Gulf of Mexico all the way over towards Western Europe. The colors indicate sea surface temperatures in degrees Celsius (blue is < or = to 0, yellow is 17, and red is > or = 33).



See more at the Gulf Stream Sea Surface Currents and Temperatures webpage.

This animation shows "ocean current flows in the Mediterranean Sea and Western Atlantic. The time period for this visualization is 16 Feb 2005 through 16 January 2006. For each second the passes in the visualization, about 2.75 days pass in the simulation. The colors of the flows represent their depths. The white flows are near the surface while deeper flows are more blue." Click the picture to be transported to the video.

These animation can be found in various video forms at the Ocean Current Flows around the Mediterranean Sea for UNESCO webpage

This animation shows sea surface current flows. The flows are colored by corresponding sea surface temperature data. The global sea surface currents have been colored by temperature in the same way as the Gulf Stream video above.



The webpage for this visualization has several videos, many of which are cropped to show only certain parts of the Earth. They can be found at the Global Sea Surface Currents and Temperature webpage and the Flat Map Ocean Current Flows with Sea Surface Temperatures (SST) webpage.

Wind Map

Click on the picture to take you to an uber-cool wind map of the United States.

The wind map is a personal art project that maps and puts into motion surface wind data from the National Digital Forecast Database. These near-term forecasts, revised once per hour, create a living portrait of the winds of the U.S.

If the link is broken, use this url: http://hint.fm/wind/index.html

A Habitable Exo-Earth?

The search for terrestrial, Earth-like planets has really been heating up over the last decade or so, since we've been able to find planets orbiting other stars. So far we have identified three types of exoplanets: gas giants, hot-super-Earths in close orbits, and ice giants. The discovery of smaller, terrestrial planets has been a challenge. NASA has been using it's Kepler mission to discover planets and planet candidates. This mission is "specifically designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover dozens of Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets." The "habitable zone," or "Goldilocks zone," is the not-too-hot, not-too-cold region around a star where water is able to stay in a liquid form (see above picture). Kepler identifies these planets using the transit method, measuring dips in the brightness of stars when a planet crosses in front of them (see the post Exoplanet Extravaganza for more on the methods of planet finding).

There has been a lot of buzz this week about NASA's report that the Kepler mission has found it's first planet in the habitable zone. The newly confirmed planet is called Kepler-22b and it orbits in the habitable zone of a star that is similar to our sun, a G-type star. Kepler-22b is 600 light years away from us, has an orbit of 290 days around it's star, and measures about 2.4 times the radius of Earth. This makes it the smallest planet yet found in the habitable zone of such a star. Previous research has suggested that such a planet is out there, but we had yet to find and confirm that one actually exists. We have found planets that orbit on the edges of the habitable zones, similar to Venus and Mars, around smaller, cooler stars. But Kepler-22b orbits right smack in the middle of it's star's habitable zone.

What's the climate like on Kepler-22b?  It hasn't been determined if the planet has a predominately rocky, gaseous or liquid composition. The planet's temperature is probably around 72 degrees Fahrenheit, but it is unknown if the planet has an atmosphere and what it is composed of. To say whether or not it is truly Earth-like this is information we need to know. At the moment, speculations are running a bit wild, from it might not even have a surface to ideas about how civilizations have evolved there. I suppose that type of thing goes along with the discovery of the first anything.

The Kepler Mission has also discovered 1,094 other new planet candidates, bringing Kepler's total planet number up to 2,326. Of these, there are 207 that are approxiamtely Earth-size, 680 that are super Earth-size, 1,181 that are Neptune-size, 203 that are Jupiter-size, and 55 that are larger than Jupiter. These planets are just waiting for follow-up observations to verify that they are actual planets. Kepler-22b is the first to receive this confirmation. In addition to Kepler-22b, there are 48 other planet candidates in their star's habitable zone. It should be exciting to find out more details about these planets too!

I don't have a paper to cite for you on this one, but one is expected to be published soon in The Astrophysical Journal. Results will also be presented at the first Kepler Science Conference this week at NASA's Ames Research Center.

Until then here are some sources to get you started...
Find out more about the NASA's Kepler Mission.
Read NASA's News Release on Kepler-22b: "NASA's Kepler Confirms Its First Planet in Habitable Zone"
McDonald Observatory Release: "NASA Mission, Texas Astronomers Collaborate to find Goldilocks Planet, Others"
Washington Post: "NASA finds new planet Kepler 22b outside solar system with temperature right for life"
ABC News: "New Planet: An Earth-Like World, 600 Light-Years Away?"
The Telegraph: "Kepler 22b: probably not home to interesting aliens"

(image c/o NASA)

What's Your Map Projection?

Consult your inner geographer. What's your favorite map projection?

(via xkcd)

Space Junk? Meet Lasers

"Back in the 60's, I had a weather changing machine that was, in essence, a sophisticated heat beam which we called a 'laser.' Using these 'lasers,' we punch a hole in the protective layer around the Earth, which we scientists call the 'Ozone Layer.' Slowly but surely, ultraviolet rays would pour in, increasing the risk of skin cancer. That is unless the world pays us a hefty ransom."

Perhaps I should have titled this post the Alan Parsons Project?

Anyway, I was looking for a specific article I had seen written up in Wired Science and my cursor would not allow me to scroll further than an article about frying space junk with lasers. Smart cursor.

As with everywhere else we've been we leave stuff behind. Space is no exception. Over the past 35 years we have created several hundred thousand pieces of space debris larger than 1cm in the 400-2000km altitude low Earth orbit (LEO) band, their density reaching a peak in the 800-1,000km altitude range. Small, untracked debris is hazardous to space vehicles, and although larger debris are less numerous and trackable they are also dangerous. Not to mention that what goes up may eventually come down. Recent events with a falling satellite have illustrated that. As someone who lives on the down area I may have cause to be concerned. But what do do about it?

A new paper published Oct. 17 on arxiv suggests a solution. First, categorize the debris into threat categories. The authors present an equation that calculates the interval between collisions because while the debris growth rate is reduced by removing large objects that, when hit, produce small objects and the small objects are a greater threat numerically.

Next, create a method to get rid of said debris. Up to now many methods have been proposed to rid LEO of space junk including grappling the objects, attaching deorbiting kits, deploying nets to capture objects, attaching an electrodynamic tether and deploying clouds of frozen mist, gas or blocks of aerogel in the debris path to slow it. The problems with these techniques are the expense (costing about 27 million dollars per large object!), the accuracy, and the difficulty.  So what do you do? Lasers!

Laser-based methods can be divided into three categories: (1) low laser intensity which doesn't destroy but instead divert the debris, (2) higher laser intensity which heats to ablation with continuous (CW) lasers, and (3) pulsed laser orbital debris removal (LODR) which uses a mirror to focus a repetitively pulsed, high intensity laser on an object. The first method is less efficient, its effects are comparable to the uncertain effects of space weather and sunlight, and it does not address the debris growth problem. The second method involves slow heating of tumbling debris which gives an ablation jet whose momentum contribution cancels itself out, and the heating causes a messy melt ejection that adds to the debris problem. Therefore the authors recommend the third method.

If you read the entire 37 page paper then you will see that the authors make a good case for the pulsed laser space junk removal system. Overall, it costs the least per object, can deal with both small and large objects, can handle tumbling objects, can prevent collisions, and the target access is at the speed of light, redundant and agile. Not to mention that it will require international cooperation to build and operate, and the authors make the point that this cooperation will "avoid concerns that it is a weapon system." So I guess it has that forcing everyone to play nice factor going for it.

Summary: Lasers disintegrating space junk = Really cool.

Here's the paper:
Phipps, Claude R. (2011) Removing orbital debris with lasers. (arxiv:1110.3835)

And here is the Wired Science Story:
Space Junk Crisis: Time to Bring in the Lasers

Also check out:
Space Junk Problem Reaches 'Tipping Point' from Discovery News

"Mini Me, stop humping the 'laser'. Honest to God! Why don't you and the giant 'laser' get a fricken room for God's sakes"

Sorry, couldn't help it; I just had to throw in one last Dr. Evil quote.

Citizen Science. Get Involved.

Citizen science is becoming more and more popular these days. And why shouldn't it? It is an opportunity for volunteers, who may or may not have specific scientific training, to contribute to ongoing scientific research. The volunteer gets the benefit of participating in a task they are interested in and the scientist gets the benefit of many people going through very large amounts of data, allowing them to accomplish their research objectives. It is just a great way to involve the individual as well as promoting public engagement in science.

Citizen science is not a new concept, it has been around for centuries. However, with advances in technology and the rise of the Internet it has become so much easier to get people involved, especially across large geographic areas. And in most cases the human brain is much better at analyzing images and other data than a computer. Add to that the number of replications you can have when multiple people classify the same image and you can see how errors can be decreased and new discoveries made.

So how does this whole thing work and how can you get involved? Well, first, think about a scientific topic that interests you: ornithology, astronomy, climate change, geology...whatever. The scope of science is so big that there is likely a project that fits your interests. Next, you need to find a project. They come in several varieties. First there is the scope: international, national, regional, or local. Next there is the type of activity you want to do: field work, image or data analysis, or just contributing some of your computer's power. And finally, how long do you want to spend working on this: years, months, or hours. That sounds like a lot but once you have figured these parameters out it will make it much easier to find a projects that suits you. Once you have found a project there is typically a short training session to get you familiar with the user interface and how the data should be analyzed/recorded. Then you are all set to do some science!

I've divided some of the most popular citizen science projects down by category, giving a short description of each. Each icon is linked to take you to the project described. At the end I've linked to a couple of general, easily searchable websites that will help you find the project you want.

ASTRONOMY

This is one of the most popular citizen science fields, and the projects that make up the Zooniverse are the most popular of these projects. There are several projects within the Zooniverse to choose from including:

• Ice Hunters
•  Help find the final target of NASA's New Horizons Mission! After passing Pluto (and pending NASA approval of an extended mission, of course) the spacecraft will retarget itself for an encounter with a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO). The target won't be selected until shortly before the Pluto encounter and there will be lots of images to go through to find out where to go next. This is where you come in. Look at pictures of never seen before objects to find out which one we should visit.
• Moon Zoo
• Explore the surface of the Moon! Look through images taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and answer questions about what you see. Identify craters, boulders (called "Boulder Wars," LOL), or any interesting or weird features you come across.
• Galaxy Zoo: Hubble
•  There are hundreds of thousands of galaxies drawn from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope archive. In this project you get to look at the gorgeous imagery from this telescope and classify the galaxies. Are they elliptical, spiral, irregular? Or is there some new type out there waiting to be discovered?
• Galaxy Zoo: Supernovae
•  This project is similar to the project above, this time contributing data from an automatic survey in California, at the world-famous Palomar Observatory. Except here you are looking for supernovae. Exploding stars!
• Galaxy Zoo: Mergers
• Here you are looking for the merging of galaxies. From images you select simulations that look similar to the targeted merger, tuning your best matches. You can even decide which simulation wins in a series of tournament-style competitions.
• Planet Hunters
• Look for extrasolar planets (planets around other stars)! This project finds planets by identifying how the brightness of a star changes over time.
• The Milky Way Project
• This projects aims to sort and measure our galaxy. Using the beautiful infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope you are asked to find and draw bubbles. These bubbles identify the life stages of the stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. 
• Old Weather
• This project works to recover worldwide weather observations made by Royal Navy ships around the time of World War I. This will contribute to climate model projections, improve a database of weather extremes, and track past ship movements and the stories of the people on board.
• Solar Stormwatch
• Help spot explosions on the Sun and track them across space to Earth! Not only will you help to identify and classify activity on the Sun but you will also contribute to early warnings if dangerous solar radiation is heading toward astronauts. 

These scientists are seeking to understand a star that has been a mystery for many years. This star is epsilon Aurigae, it is located in the constellation Auriga, and it is a variable star (it changes in brightness over time). This change in brightness is called eclipse. It takes over 600 days, and it only occurs every 27.1 years. The project scientists will guide you through the process of how to observe epsilon Aurigae, how to send them your observations, and then how to see your results, analyze them, and even publish them in a scientific journal.

SETI@home is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data. It is completely safe. All you need to do is download the program and it will run while your computer is on, not disrupting any of your other computing tasks.

CLIMATE SCIENCE

This project works to produce predictions of the Earth's climate up to 2100 and to test the accuracy of climate models. To do this, they need people around the world to give them time on their computers - time when they have their computers switched on, but are not using them to their full capacity. What do you do? Not much really. You to run a climate model on your computer. It runs automatically in the background, not affecting any other tasks for which you use your computer. It is completely safe and requires no more of your time than it takes to download the program. Read more by clicking the image link or go to download the program HERE.

Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) works to measure and map precipitation. Each time a rain, hail or snow storm crosses your area, you take measurements of precipitation from as many locations as possible and report it on the website. These data are compiled and used to provide accurate high-quality precipitation data, increasing the density of precipitation data available throughout the country, and encourage citizens to have fun participating in meteorological science while heightening their awareness about weather.

This project aims to accurately record and analyze "ice on" and "ice off" events as well as snow depth, air temperature, and wildlife observations to learn how climate change affects our environment. You will receive instructions on how to properly IceWatch (even if you live in a warmer climate), you pick your location to observe over the winter (like a nearby lake, bay, or river), record your observations, and submit them online.



GENETICS AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

This project is great for gamers!

Genetic sequences are difficult to understand and decipher their structure, and this project aims to compare them to detect any similar regions they may have. So they have put together a website that abstracts the multiple alignment problem to a game where the goal will be to align words made by pieces of different color instead of letters representing the genetic code (A,C,G,T). You create columns of the same color and create gaps, ultimately finding the best tradeoff between aligning color and creating gaps. You can even choose a puzzle to solve from the disease you want to treat.

Another project that is great for gamers. This project is all about protein folding. Proteins are built from individual amino acids but they don't stay all stretched out in a strand, they fold into very specific shapes. Finding the shapes and the optimal folding is the hard part though and is what this project aims to do. Knowing the structures is important to things like drug development and disease research. The problem has been put into game form. You, as the player, solve a series of puzzles to optimally pack you protein, hide the hydrophobic bits, and clear any clashes. You can play individually or form teams, competing with other protein folders around the world.

OCEANOGRAPHY

The whale shark photo-ID library...its cool just saying it. This project uses photographs of the skin patterning behind the gills of each shark and any scars to distinguish between individual animals. This helps scientists to see where individual animals are going, the abundance of whale sharks, and their distribution. If you see a whale shark while out diving you can report all kinds of information about the encounter by filling out their online form, and you can submit pictures to the library.

Do you love whales? All kinds? This project is working to classify the sounds that whales make into distinct regions. "For example, in Orcas (Killer Whales) there are over 150 identified types of call. Every time you match a pair of Orca calls, you're casting a vote for those two calls to be considered 'similar'." The more this is done the better map the researchers get of calls that are alike. This allows them to identify patterns, groups of whales, and eventually get a better understanding of how whales communicate with each other. All you do is look at a spectrogram and listen to a call and then find a matching call. Simple.

This is a project for reporting jellyfish and other marine organisms. If you have seen jellyfish, red tide, or any other unusual marine life you just go online and fill out their form and submit it. They even have a list of similar projects around the world that you can participate in.

FishWatchers is a project out of the International Game Fish Association. This website allows you to  upload your fish observations and photos through the Internet. Any fish any time. This information will then be used to create current distribution maps to assist in monitoring trends in biodiversity

TERRESTRIAL PLANTS AND ANIMALS

This is a great project from a Dutch entomologist that lets motorists report the date, time, and location of their latest outing and the number of insects that get hit (and probably smushed) by their vehicle. Not only does it give an idea about how many bugs are killed by vehicles it provides insect presence in certain locations and information about their flight patterns.

This is a network of people across the United States who monitor plants as the seasons change. It is a national field campaign designed to engage the public in the collection of important ecological data based on the timing of leafing, flowering, and fruiting of plants (plant phenophases). You can send in regular observations or just a single report. Everything is usefull. They provide good identification keys and other tools you will need to start. Not in the U.S.? I'm sure there is is similar project near you.

This is a U.S. based citizen science project that is a national animal and plant phenology observation program. You find out the plants and animals near you on a provided list, learn to select a site and observe and record what is there, and submit your results.

 eBird is a real-time, online checklist program that reports and accesses information about birds. It provides information on bird abundance and distribution at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. It is amassing one of the largest and fastest growing biodiversity data resources in existence. You enter when, where, and how you went birding, fill out a checklist of all the birds seen and heard during the outing, and submit your observations into the eBird database. They even provide tools so you can maintain your personal bird records and even visualize your personal data with interactive maps, graphs, and bar charts.

Neighborhood Nestwatch is a project out of the Smithsonian National Zoological Park and the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. The idea is to find and monitor bird nests so scientists can compare how successful nests are in urban, suburban, and rural areas. All you have to do is keep a watchful eye out throughout the year and report your results.

 I know several people that participate in the Christmas Bird Count each year and have a really great time. From December 14 - January 5 volunteers brave the cold weather to do a little bit of bird counting. Anything from feeder-watching to active birding counts. It provides valuable information on migrating birds, bird abundances and distributions, and much more. There are many groups out there too that participate in the count and would love to have another person to help, regardless of your skillset.

 NestWatch, as you might gather from the name, is a nest-monitoring project. It aims to compile large, continent-wide databases tracking survival and reproductive success of a wide range of species and provide a unified nest-monitoring scheme to track reproductive success for all North American breeding birds. You "get certified" (meaning you learn how to properly observe a nest without jeopardizing the nest), look for active nests, monitor the nests and collect data, and enter the data online. The fact that you get to see baby birds should be a big selling point *wink*

The Backyard Bird Count is similar to the Christmas Bird Count in that it is an annual event that provides a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the North America. The Count occurs from February 17 - February 20 and takes as little as 15 minutes on one day, or you can count for as long as you like each day of the event. When you are finished you enter your results on their webpage.

When it comes to doing science, watching the visitors to your bird feeder sure ain't bad. Project FeederWatch is a winter-long project of birds that visit feeders in backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales in North America. By counting birds at your feeder you help scientists to broadscale movements of winter-bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance. You count birds at your count site that are there because of something you have provided (plantings, food, or water) and only report the highest number of individuals you see in view at one time, and then you report it online. Simple.

OTHER

 The Quake-Catcher Network (QCN )is a collaborative initiative for developing the world's largest, low-cost strong-motion seismic network by utilizing sensors in and attached to Internet-connected computers. The QCN obtains information about earthquake waves (seismic waves) by using computers that are connected to the Internet. Many laptop computers have built in sensors and desktop computers can utilize small USB sensors to collect the data. The data from these sensors are collected only when the computer is turned on and idle and is sent over the Internet. It is safe and easy. All you need to do is download the program.

 I used to take my ecology lab students out to cemeteries so we could collect data to make life tables. They were always a little squeemish at first but ended up loving the work. The Gravestone Project aims to map the location of a graveyards around the globe and then use marble gravestones in those graveyards to measure the weathering rate of marble at that location. The weathering rates of gravestones are an indication of changes in the acidity of rainfall between locations and over time and could be used as a measure of changes in climate and pollution levels. You go to your local graveyard and take a few measurements such as the lead lettering or headstone thickness.

The bodyLab is a project that researches the evolution of human body shapes and our ideas of attractiveness. All you have to do is go to the website and rate the silhouettes of women and/or men based on if you find that body shape attractive. It is so easy to do you don't even need to create an account.

The Sound Around You is building a sound map of the world as part of a new study into how sounds in our everyday environment make us feel. All you do is use your mobile phones (or another audio recording device if your phone is not compatible) to record 10-15 second clips from different sound environments, or ‘soundscapes’ from a family car journey to a busy shopping center, and to upload them to the virtual map, along with your opinions of them and why you chose to record it.

Dognition is a site that offers dog owners a series of science-based games that determine their dog's unique abilities and their relative strengths and weaknesses in various thinking skills. These skills range from empathy to cunning to memorization. As a user, you enter the results of your dog's behaviors, contributing to a data set that can be used by researchers studying dog cognition. It also offers the owners a "window into [their] dog's mind, offering a first step on the path toward improved behavior." You can tell how your dog sees the world and how they respond in different situations while at the same time contributing to science. Note: As of now this site/service has a fee.

WEBSITES FOR FINDING CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECTS

This is the best website I have found for finding a project that suits you. It has a great search engine and describes the projects very well. It also includes many local projects as well as great projects for kids.

This site is less detailed and contains fewer projects but is still a good source for citizen science.


(top image from thisgreenblog.com)

'Like' The Big Bang

(comic via CollegeHumor)

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day, ya'll!

Today, April 22, marks the birth of the environmental movement in 1970 in the U.S. During the early 1960's the attitudes of many Americans concerning the environment began to change. No longer were they thinking of the Earth's natural resources as limitless and using them as without consequences. This was particularly evident with the controversy that erupted after the publishing of marine biologist Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962. When the Apollo astronauts photographed the Earth from space in 1968 the image brought home the fragile nature of the planet. Close on the heals of this event was the 1969 industrial accident in Ohio Cuyahoga River, where the industrial runoff caught fire and spurred many to action. This action resulted in the U.S. Congress passing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that established a national policy that encouraged harmony between man and nature. The U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam added yet another layer, no so much to the environment itself but instead challenging the status quo on public policy and human rights. When you boil it down, the environmental movement includes conservation and green politics and actions. It advocates for sustainable management through public policy and individual behavior. And while there is no central organizing force behind it there are various organizations, in a range of sizes, that promote awareness, work with local and national figures, and educate the public through events.

Earth Day started with Gaylord Nelson, a U.S., senator from Wisconsin. Nelson was a conversationalist who had witnessed the ravages of the massive 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara, California, and was someone who knew how to inspire the youth of America into action. In late 1969, he announced there would be a national "environmental teach-in," which resulted in 20 million Americans taking to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to protest against oil spills, industrial pollution, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, habitat loss, and other environmental degradation. It was the first Earth Day event. It was a nationwide demonstration for concern for the environment involving thousands of schools and communities. It was followed by the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970, then the Clean Air Act, then the Clean Water Act in 1972, and the Endangered Species Act in 1973. During this time new groups such as Greenpeace, formed in Canada in 1971, and existing organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, formed in 1951, the Sierra Club, and the National Audubon Society adopted and/or promoted these principles as well as bringing legal action against companies that destroyed the land and resources. By the late 1980's, individuals had gotten into the movement by living greener and establishing things like local recycling programs. Earth Day had a resurgence in the 1990's, this time it was global, with the participation of 200 million people and 141 countries. In 1992, at the United Nations Conference on Environmental Development (UNCED), or Earth Summit, an unprecedented number of governments and NGO's agreed on a program to promote sustainable development, and then U.S. President Bill Clinton was prompted to award the Medal of Freedom (the highest honor given to civilians in the U.S.) to Gaylord Nelson. In the early 2000's the environmental movement focused on global warming and clean energy, using the Internet or organize activists. Today we find ourselves embroiled in controversy once again with climate change deniers, lobbyists, reticent politicians, and a disinterested public. But concern by many for the environment and especially interest in green energy is keeping the movement alive.

Want to know more about Earth Day events near you, no matter what part of the world you live in? Check out the EPA's Earth Day page:
http://www.epa.gov/earthday/

Here are a few more Earth Day websites I recommend checking out:
http://act.earthday.org/
http://www.earthday.org/
http://earthday.envirolink.org/history.html

Learn more of the history behind Earth Day here:
http://www.earthday.org/earth-day-history-movement
http://www.wten.com/Global/story.asp?S=5963519

(image from healing.about.com)

Earth as Art

MSNBC has put up some wonderful pictures on their Earth as Art 2010 page. As you can see, these pictures are gorgeous! Look at lots more at the link below.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40200848/ns/technology_and_science-picture_stories/