Wind Turbines Make Bats’ Lungs Explode
I thought this was a hoax when I first read it, but it’s serious – and even though I’m all up for renewable energy sources (including wind-power), this is a little worrying.
Many people know that if you’ve been SCUBA diving or snorkelling deep down, you need to exhale as you surface – and not rise too quickly. This is because a rapid decrease in pressure as you surface can cause bubbles of nitrogen to form in the blood, leading to potentially fatal bends.
Well it seems a similar pressure-related phenomenon has been causing bats to drop dead near wind turbines – although instead of nitrogen bubbles forming, their lungs have been violently haemmoraging. Simply put, the high air speed around the tips of the blades cause a dramatic drop in air pressure. Bats can’t detect changes in air pressure with their echolocation, so fly through this areas. When the air pressure drops, their lungs expand and then pop.
For a great article about this, head on over to Ed Yong’s award-winning Not Exactly Rocket Science.
Here’s NewScientist’s video on the same subject:
One simple solution posted on Ed’s comments section suggest that a high-frequency noise might keep the bats at a safe distance. That would have the added benefit of keeping away the teenagers!
Here’s the link to an old post about an exploding wind turbine.
Einstein the Parrot: Talking and Squawking
This is five minutes of entertainment from TED Talks:
Einstein the Parrot is an African Grey, a species known for their intelligence and ability to build a large vocabulary. As research into animal intelligence develops, it raises questions on how we measure intelligence – are we really that much more ‘intelligent’ than our philosophising cousins?
How do we discern the difference between a well-trained animal putting on a show and one which is making considered decisions on its behaviour?
For an interesting overview of animal cognition, check out this wikipedia article and do some further reading around the sources listed in the references section.
The Periodic Table of Videos
Thanks to Danny from the Whiteboard Blog for posting this.
The Chemistry department at the University of Nottingham evidently got a new video camera last Christmas and have been making videos about all of the elements on the periodic table. This impressive and mammoth project is a collection of videos about each of the elements in the periodic table – and it rocks. The best way to find out more is to go on over and have a look…
Helpfully for those who’ve been blocked from YouTube (who host all the videos), they’ve posted a link to watch themon another server.
Here’s one of their top recommended videos, Phosphorous:
This is now one of my favourite YouTube channels.
New resources at Learn.Genetics
This is via the Learn.Genetics mailing list. Why not join – they only send mails out when there’s something worth reading.
Coming soon, Amazing Cells:activities and animations on cell processes and communication.
Also, a new interactive lab activity: Polymerase Chain Reaction Biotechniques lab.
The 11th Hour – Leo Dicaprio gets his Gore on…
Following on from Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, Leonardo DiCaprio last year released his environmental call-to-arms, The 11h Hour. And it’s very good. It really knocks home the old proverb that we are not inheriting the Earth from our ancestors, but borrowing it from our children.
Here’s the trailer:
The movie contains contributions from the likes of Stephen Hawking, Nobel-winner Wangari Maathai and David Suzuki. Particularly useful is Gloria Flora‘s sentiment that we all vote, every day – even those who are too young to cast a ballott – by making informed choices about what we consume, spend our money on and throw away.
The first half of the movie is a talking-heads and imagery look at our impacts on the Earth, with plenty of soundbites and starting-points for further discussion. There’s a poitical section in the middle that’s probably worth skipping, but the last section outlining some of the achievable solutions to our problems is excellent.
Now here’s Leo’s video message (including the ‘vote’ quote from Gloria Flora):
For some further reading, go to the 11th hour Action website, or check out An Inconvenient Blog.
For good measure, here’s Linkin Park’s accompanying music video, What I’ve Done (which was also used for Transformers):
On the Cutting Edge – Visualising Geosciences
On the Cutting Edge is an impressive collection of animations and teaching/learning resources for the
geosciences, including Climate Change, Early Earth and Oceanography.
It is a site designed for professional development in geosciences faculties, but there is a lot of useful material for middle-high school Science and Geography.
One really interesting resource is their map showing the changes in land use over the last few hundred years:
Meet The Greens
Meet The Greens is a collection of animated webisodes featuring the Green family dealing with environmental Issues. Granny Green says blog it, so here we are! Go have a look.
Here’s their official blurb:
“MeetTheGreens.org is a new kids’ guide to looking after the planet. Kids can watch The GREENS’ cartoon adventures and discover related green games, news, downloads, a blog, action tips, links, and much more. This innovative, Web-only project comes from WGBH in Boston, the producer of shows like ZOOM, ARTHUR, Frontline & NOVA.“
ReefCheck – International Year of the Reef
2008 is International Year of the Reef (IYOR) and ReefCheck is an organisation devoted to monitoring and protecting the health of reefs around the world. As part of the IYOR activities, ReefCheck have released their Year of the Reef song, and you can see it on their site or on YouTube:
If you head over the to the ReefCheck.org website, you’ll find a wealth of great resources for education and action regarding the reefs. Particularly useful for students may be the WRAS (web reef advisory system), which is a collection of fact sheets on factors impacting reef ecology.
For people with a more active interest in the reefs (and for IB students interested in racking up some CAS credits), check out the EcoAction pages and see what is available there. You might want to get involved in the EcoMonitoring Program and take part in global reef research.
Also, if you hurry, you could get in on the action for the photo contest (closes 31st August).
One of the coolest things (for me, anyway) about ReefCheck is their presence on the Indies Trader, the vessel of the Quiksilver Crossing which is carrying world-class surfers around the globe searching for the best unsurfed waves on the planet. They also get to check out ‘untouched’ reefs in order to create a baseline against which they can compare the order of damage sustained by other reefs. To see some of their highlights, click here.
ActionFiguresTV has a tour of the Indies Trader here:
Now here’s Sebastian from the Little Mermaid singing the best Disney song ever:
Total Eclipse of the Sun – 1st August 2008
Viewers in Chine were treated to a cracking eclipse of the Sun last Friday and NewScientist were on hand to film it:
There is a great explanation and animation of how solar eclipses happen on the BBC website.
Exploratorium have a full-length clip on their webcast page, as well as a nice animation of how eclipses occur. (I’ll give Exploratorium its own post very soon).
i-Biology 