Learning Science Through Technology
Newsletter for November 2001
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WEB SITE NEWS
Time Change
Most of the United States set their clocks back this week and thankfully got an extra hour of sleep. In exchange we have shorter, cooler days and longer nights, and less time to enjoy the outdoors. We're well into autumn now in the Northern Hemisphere. It's a good time of the year for study, exploring and learning from the warmth and comfort of our homes.
At ScienceMaster we have been busy as always updating our pages, adding resources and cool science pages. Need some pictures for a school exhibit, a bit more information for a report or some homework help? We're here to assist you in all your science and education needs. More coming soon, so stay tuned.
Resources From The Mineral Information Institute
Visit our new Earth Science page on the great free resources for teachers and students from the Mineral Information institute, dedicated to educating youth about the science of minerals and other natural resources, and about their importance in our every day lives. --> http://www.ScienceMaster.com/earth/item/mmi.php
Columns/Articles
Check out the November column on the Human Brain by David Gamon to keep informed on the latest brain research --> http://www.ScienceMaster.com/columns/gamon/gamon_current.php
We've also posted the latest article on the Human Brain by our associate Ken Wesson. --> http://www.ScienceMaster.com/columns/wesson/wesson_current.php
Learning Galleries
We have two new Learning Galleries this month. Take a long cold look at snow crystals in our Snowflake Gallery. Then learn about the Northern Lights in our Aurora Photography Gallery. Great pictures with text. See more on Auroras below.
We noticed a lot of activity in our Learning Galleries this last month. Taking a look at the server logs we discovered that people were checking out one of Dennis Kunkel's micrographic images of anthrax. When we put up the gallery the image didn't cause any special notice on our part. Even we realize that there's always a good reason to revisit a resource like ScienceMaster.
Learning Galleries --> http://www.monkeytime.com/sciencemaster/galleries/galleries.php
Update on Dr. Aprille Joy Ericsson
Last year we created a very popular series of pages on the life and work of NASA's Dr. Ericsson, the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate in mechanical engineering, at Howard University. Dr. Ericsson recently worked on the MAP-Microwave Anisotropy Probe. MAP measures temperature differences ("anisotropy") in the cosmic microwave background radiation. We caught up with Dr. Ericsson recently and have updated our Feature. --> http://www.sciencemaster.com/space/item/jackson/jackson.php
SCIENCE NEWS AND LINKS
Access Excellence
Access Excellence, launched in 1993, is a national educational program that provides high school biology and life science teachers access to their colleagues, scientists, and critical sources of new scientific information via the World Wide Web. The program was originally developed and launched by Genentech Inc., a leading biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets human pharmaceuticals for significant unmet medical needs. -->
http://www.accessexcellence.org/
Visit Our Friends
If you need to brush up on your multiplication tables and flash cards visit the best flash card site on the Internet. Flashcards For Kids has it all, and you control the level, time and functions. --> http://edu4kids.com/math/
Learning Library
The Environmental Response Team Video (ERTV) Learning Library is a pilot educational program offering video-based modules to biology and environmental science teachers at the high school and college levels. These FREE environmental response modules include videos that document real-world environmental cleanup efforts and supplementary curricula that explore the video subject matter through narratives, study questions, and suggested lab, field, or classroom activities.
* Image courtesy EPA Region 4 Web Site
Autumn is Aurora Season
Autumn is a good time to spot Northern Lights, but scientists would like to know why. Sunday, Oct. 21st, a cloud of magnetized gas from the Sun (a "coronal mass ejection") swept past Earth and rocked our planet's magnetic field. Northern sky watchers were delighted as red and green lights rippled across the sky. It was the aurora borealis -- breaking out for the third time in October. Autumn nights are long and dark, but not yet wintry-cold -- a good combination for sky watching. But there's more to it than that, say researchers. Geomagnetic storms that ignite auroras actually happen more often during the months around the equinoxes -- that is, early Autumn and Spring. It's a bit puzzling since solar activity does not depend on Earth's seasons. [Full Story]
The Northern Lights: The True Story of the Man Who Unlocked the Secrets of the Aurora Borealis
by Lucy Jago, is a biography of the almost forgotten Norwegian physicist Kristian Birkeland (1873-1917) and his discovery of the forces that cause the aurora borealis. Set in the early days of the 20th century, in the cold Arctic reaches, Birkeland also had a hand in many other experiments and discoveries.
Hardcover - 297 pages (September 25, 2001)
Buy It Now.
Spinach Protein Could Offer New Hope For The Blind
Spinach, touted in the Popeye cartoon for its ability to strengthen the body, may prove even more valuable for restoring vision to people who are legally blind.
Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Southern California hope to learn whether a protein from spinach could replace a non-functioning light receptor in the eye. People who suffer from age-related macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa, diseases that are leading causes of blindness worldwide, may find hope in this research.
Odyssey Healthy and in Orbit Around Mars
Flight controllers for NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey mission report the spacecraft is in excellent health and is in a looping orbit around Mars of 18 hours and 36 minutes. The spacecraft entered Mars orbit flawlessly, within one kilometer of the planned orbit insertion point. In the weeks and months ahead, the spacecraft will be literally surfing the waves of the martian atmosphere, in a process called aerobraking, which will reduce the long elliptical orbit into a shorter, 2-hour circular orbit of approximately 400 kilometers (about 250 miles) altitude. The team has already turned on some gamma ray and neutron spectrometry instruments that may help scientists locate water near the surface of Mars, if it exists. The primary science mission will begin in January 2002. [Full Story]
Quote of the Month
"Why are things as they are and not otherwise?"
Johannes Kepler - Astronomer (1571-1630) dam Smith - Scottish economist.
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