BP Oil Spill: It's still not over

Two Louisiana scientists reflect on the event and how its lingering effects are continuing to change the Gulf Coast



http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/gulf-oil-spill-isnt-really-over-even-five-years-later-180955034/?utm_source=facebook.com&no-ist

Secret To How Chameleons Change Color

http://www.wired.com/2015/03/secret-chameleons-change-color-nanocrystals/

TECH: TINY FLYING MACHINES TAKE A LESSON FROM HONEYBEES

http://www.futurity.org/flying-lessons-may-lead-robotbee-swarm/

To develop insect-sized robot aircraft, researchers are harnessing secrets of how honeybees fly.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE AT THE LINK ABOVE.

Nature: Insect leg cogs a first in animal kingdom

http://www.nature.com/news/insect-leg-cogs-a-first-in-animal-kingdom-1.13723

Toothed gears enable young plant hoppers to synchronize limbs for jumping.

• Philip Ball

12 September 2013

If you are a young plant hopper, leaping one metre in a single bound, you need to push off with both hind legs in perfect unison or you might end up in a spin. Researchers have discovered that this synchrony is made possible by toothed gears that connect the two legs when the insects jump.

Zoologists Malcolm Burrows and Gregory Sutton at the University of Cambridge, UK, say that this seems to be the first example in nature of rotary motion with toothed gears. They describe their findings today in Science¹.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICE AT THE LINK ABOVE.

STEM: Ecosystems Games and Videos

The Unknown Micro World : Dust Mites

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47CIdUld8eQ

There are as many creatures on your body as there are people on Earth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrmashOX5EU

Deep Sea Ecosystems

Deep Sea Ecosystems Darkness - New Scientific Mira (4:15)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy0_kCBw7Fs

Discovering Hidden Habitats: Monterey Bay Aquarium & NOAA (6:10)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVrugjn79XY

Creatures of the Deep Ocean National Geographic (44 mins) - Excellent!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQZ3niWcyCE

Games

Create Your Own Pond
http://www.msnucleus.org/membership/activities/pond2.html

Interactive Learning Game About Life Cycles
Hams Hall Pond
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks1/science/hamshall/index.htm

Pond Food Chain interactive game
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/food/pond_activity.html

STEM: Ecosystems, Amazon Rainforest

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130226-amazon-lungs-of-the-planet

Deforestation is a big problem in the Amazon. The Amazon rainforest regulates the atmosphere by storing carbon and creating oxygen. Half of the world's wildlife lives there. This 4 minute video explains the crucial role that the Amazon plays in the health of the earth.

STEM: Ecosystems Coral Reefs

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130219-coral-reefs-the-oceans-larder

Corals are more like plants than animals. Every species is food for another in the food web. Coral reefs are ocean nurseries. One fourth of all ocean species live in coral reefs. Many costal communities only access to protein is the coral reef. Catching fish is essential for the health and nutrition for fishing communities. Coral reefs are under stress from international fishing industries.

STEM: Ecosystems, Antarctic Ocean

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130305-antarctica-engine-of-ocean-life

This is a 4 minute film about the oceans surrounding Antarctica. That southern ocean around the earth's remotest, coldest, windiest, loneliest place is essential to all of the world's ocean life.

Even though it is a cold and desolate place, it supports an amazing number of animals. All of that life relies on the sea for food. The sea around Antarctica is full of plankton. Nutrient rich waters of Antarctica is key to the global ocean system. This is the point where the world's oceans connect.

This system generates a huge amount of nutrient cycling, where the world's largest mammal, the whale, can feed.

STEM: Prehistory: Exctinct Lizard Named After Jim Morrison

Excerpt:

A newly described 6ft lizard that roamed South East Asia from 36-40 million years ago has been named after The Doors singer Jim Morrison.

The choice of name Barbaturex morrisoni is a play on the late frontman's epithet "The Lizard King".

Read the whole article below

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22764946

STEM: Prehistory: Wooly Mammoth De-Exctinction

Excerpt:

Q: Could extinct species be brought back to life?

That was the fantasy of the classic film, Jurassic Park, but a Hamilton researcher thinks it can actually be done. Hendrik Poinar, professor of evolutionary genetics at McMaster University, is working on a process called "de-extinction." He's mapped the genome of the woolly mammoth.

Friday morning he spoke with CBC Radio's Matt Galloway before his appearance at a Toronto festival called Subtle Technologies. Here's an edited and abbreviated transcript of that interview

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/06/07/hamilton-poinar-wooly-mammoth.html

STEM: Ecosystems: Jellyfish on the Rise

Excerpt:

The rise of jellyfish populations in many of the world's oceans may be more than just an inconvenience for swimmers who want to take a dip.

The rapid growth over the last few decades of these creatures is a sign of the planet's deteriorating marine health, according to expert Lisa-ann Gershwin.

In her new book Stung! On Jellyfish Blooms and the Future of the Ocean, Gershwin says that these "enchanting and lovely" invertebrates are in fact harbingers of the health of the oceans.

"They're an indicator that something is out of balance,” she told Bob McDonald, host of CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks. “So they’re kind of the canaries in the coal mine, if you will. Except whereas a canary dies when something’s wrong, jellyfish flourish when something’s wrong.”

Read the whole article about the ocean's ecosystem being unbalanced by following the link below

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/06/07/tech-jellyfish-bloom-quirks.html