So much happens in the world of science
each day. It would be difficult to sum up a year of scientific
discoveries in one blog post, however I will attempt to share some of
the stories I have found interesting this year. I have been writing
about science in the news since September and I appreciate all of you
who have read my posts. I hope that you have found the news
interesting and have been able to use the resources and activities
with your children or in your classrooms. For those of you who have
been with me since day one, and those of you who haven't, here is the
year end science news round-up. See something that interests you?
Click on the links to see my posts on those topics.
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| (photo source) |
I love wildlife, so often animal
science catches my eye. From fish that "spit fireworks" to
investigating how the shape of rhinoceros beetles' horns
help them beat their opponents, scientists have been busy
investigating animal adaptations. Who knew that bats could jam the echolocation of other bats to secure their food, or that fish exhibit play behaviors? Long-standing beliefs about animals changed when we discovered that
giant
father salamanders take care of their young,
and new genetic mapping completely changed our classification system of birds! We also learned not to swim too close to electric eels, particularly
if you happen to be a fish, unless you want to lose control of your nervous system!
It has been a great year for astronomy
and space exploration. Just in the past few months NASA has launched
the MAVEN spacecraft to study atmospheric conditions on Mars,
and had an incredibly successful trial launch of the Orion spacecraft. History was made when the European
Space Agency's Rosetta Mission put the Philae lander on a comet. The second of four lunar eclipses to
occur in 2014 and 2015 occurred in October
and the Geminid meteor shower lit up the sky in December.
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| © ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA |
Exciting advances in innovation
including 3-D printing and the eruption of the "maker"
revolution have kept me in awe throughout the fall. I have been
inspired by the inventions by students like Ann Makosinksi's flashlight powered by your own hand.
Not to mention the incredible medical advances 3-D printing has
allowed for, especially in prosthetics for children and human organ growth.
It even turns out someday we might all be printing out our meals on 3-D food printers. Robotics
like "robochick" and "flipperbot"are being used in wildlife biology particularly with penguin and turtle monitoring. Technology is moving along at lightning speed!
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| Photo credit: VanessaO |
Weather is often a topic of
conversation and we've made some discoveries there, too. Our previous
understanding of rain drops was blown out of the water when
scientists found that some droplets travel faster than their terminal velocity! Students are designing their own weather balloons and participating in citizen science programs to help propel our understanding of
weather patterns.
Even birds and cows might help us to make predictions about storms and weather now that we understand more about them!
Children's language development and their exposure to musical training programs is linked?
Scientists finally named Earth's most abundant mineral after half a
century?
Average citizens just like you are participating in citizen science projects like PenguinWatch?
Dreadnoughtus, the largest dinosaur to ever be discovered, was named
this year? Not to mention an over-abundance of acorns and
pristine fossilized remains of carnivorous plants!
Who knew?!
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| photo credit: Jackie, Flick.com |
I probably was hungry when I decided to
write about the trend of eating invasive species
and how artificial sweeteners interfere with the beneficial microbes
in our guts! Then the holiday
season got me researching about pumpkins, Turkey genome sequencing
and science experiments for Hanukkah
and Christmas.
I have shared my observations and
resources for studying snow crystals, animal tracks,
oak ball galls, meteors
and feeder birds. If you are still hankering for a science
experiment to try at home after reading about all of this science, perhaps something with bubbles, milk, eggs and toilet paper rolls,
driedels and spinning tops
or poinsettias and candy canes will feed the need!
That just scratches the surface of all
the science discoveries in the past four months. If you still have
some space in your brain, hop on over to my "Extra, Extra! Read all about it!" page to see some interesting articles that I didn't have a chance to
write about.
I hope that you all have a great New
Year! Thanks for reading my blog! I'd love to hear from you- comment
below or send me an e-mail at: shareitscience@gmail.com
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