The Frog Blog - St. Columba's College Science Department

Exodus Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0000

Later this morning the pupils will complete their Hilary Term exams and head home for the St. Patrick's Day exodus weekend. The teaching staff will also head home for a break, finishing our marking and getting ready to write pupil reports. So may I wish you all a very happy St. Patrick's Day and see you all later next week!

YouTube Saturday - Anaconda

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Here is a great little video showing a female Venezuelan anaconda stalking and attacking its prey. One of National Geographic's "Best of 2009" videos.

Farm Visit Photo Album

sccscience@gmail.com (St. Columba's Science Department) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:12:00 +0000

The members of Mr. Jones' Form V Agricultural Science class recently visiting two farms in Kells, Co. Meath. The farms were owned by George Armstrong, who specialises in spring barley with some beef animals and Peter Strong, who specialises in Sheep but has some areas of forestry as well. Visits like these are extremely important to these pupils as they get a chance to see the theory they learn in the classroom transferred in practical terms on the farm. Each pupil will produce a project on each of the visiting farms which goes into their portfolio of practical experience, which in turn accounts for up to 25% of their overall leaving cert grade. We would like to thank the owners of the farms for facilitating our visits and also Nichola Armstrong for providing us with a wonderful meal and welcome. Here are some photos from the visit.

Don't Downgrade Elephant Status

sccscience@gmail.com (St. Columba's Science Department) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:38:00 +0000

The trade of elephant ivory has been restricted since 1989, after countries attending the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted to end the slaughter of the gentle giants for their "white gold". It is estimated that between 700,000 and 1 million elephants were slaughtered during the 1980's for the sale of ivory, including many young immature animals. Since the ban was introduced the number of poachers have declined and the numbers of elephants have increased again. But today, the African nations of Tanzania and Zambia are petitioning CITES to "downlist" the elephants' conservation status and allow for the sale of stockpiled ivory (they claim this ivory was collected from elephants that died of natural causes). However, fears are that removing the ban would allow for an increase in poaching once again. CITES are planning to meet in Doha tomorrow. Let's hope they see sense and not allow the status of the African Elephant, one of the world's most beautiful creatures, to remain as a protected species. To read more about this intriguing story click here.

50 Science Facts Everyone Should Know

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:30:00 +0000

The X-Ray Vision-aries Blog just published their "50 Simple Science Facts Everyone Should Know (But Doesn't)" on their fun informative blog. It is definitely worth checking out. Here are number one and two.

1. Water is an excellent conductor of electricity. While data on deaths and injuries resulting from the potentially fatal combination of water and electricity is extremely difficult to find, it remains a sadly common accident.

2. Do not mix ammonia and bleach together. While death does not generally factor into the equation, blending ammonia and bleach together releases extremely harmful chlorine and other noxious gases that can cause serious damages to the lungs and brain – if not actually killing you.

Click here to read them all. They are not all that morbid.

Colour Changing Frog

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:30:00 +0000

Scientists have found a new frog species in Papua New Guinea, which undergoes an amazing colour change from a black, yellow-spotted youngster to a peach-coloured, blue-eyed adult. According to a report in National Geographic News, the frog, known as Oreophryne ezra, was recently discovered in a tiny, mountaintop cloud forest in southeastern Papua New Guinea. Though a few other frogs are known to switch colours as they mature this seems to be the most striking change ever discovered. But why the amphibian undergoes such a drastic transition is far from black and white (see what I did there?). The juveniles look like poison dart frogs, possibly in some way mimicking their poisonous cousins, but why they lose this advantageous colour is a bit of a mystery.

Family Genome Mapped

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:04:00 +0000

American scientists have for the first time unlocked the genetic code of an entire family, and made a startling discovery -- that parents pass on fewer mutations than previously thought. Scanning the genomes of the four member family enabled the research team to pinpoint the mutations that caused two rare diseases in the two children in the family. By comparing the DNA sequences of all four family members, the authors found that the parents gave 30 mutations each, for a total of 60, to their children. Previous studies had estimated that parents pass 75 gene mutations each to their children, with many of those changes not having any consequence. Understanding how parents pass mutations to their children may help narrow the search for genetic causes of diseases, said the research team at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Washington. The research team even managed to pinpoint with astonishing accuracy where parental chromosomes crossed with their children's to create a new genetic trait.

The family whose genetic sequencing was unlocked was chosen because their children both suffer from an extremely rare combination of diseases. Although the parents have no genetic abnormalities, they each carry recessive genes that led to their son and daughter being born with both Miller syndrome and Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (PCD). Only two families in the world have been diagnosed with Miller's syndrome, a disorder which leads to face and limb malformations. It is thought to occur in perhaps one in one million people. And PCD is a disease in which the tiny hair-like structures in the lungs that are supposed to move mucus out of airways fail to function. The chances of having PCD are estimated at one in 10,000. The odds of developing both PCD and Miller's syndrome are less than one in 10 billion.

By comparing the genetic mutations in the two children with the Human Genome Project the researchers confirmed that four mutant genes are responsible for each illness. Human beings have about 22,000 genes containing the genetic blueprint for human life. This blueprint, called DNA, comprises more than three billion "base pairs" that determine genetic makeup. Scientists first sequenced the human genome in 2003.

Alexander Fleming

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0000

Sir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish bacteriologist, born in Darvel, Strathclyde, who is most famous for discovering penicillin. In 1928, while working on influenza virus, he observed that mould had developed accidently on a staphylococcus culture plate and that the mould had created a bacteria-free circle around itself. He experimented further and he found that a mould culture prevented growth of staphylococci, even when diluted 800 times. The active substance, which he named penicillin, initiated the highly effective practice of antibiotic therapy for infectious diseases. Fleming shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Ernst Boris Chain and Howard Walter Florey, who both (from 1939) continued Fleming's work. He died on the 11th March, this day, in 1955. Click here for a full biography.

iPhone App - My Homework

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:27:00 +0000

This excellent, easy to use, iPhone application is useful for everyone, pupils and teachers alike and at all levels, from primary to third level. It is a simple yet effective way of keeping track of your homework, projects or study (or in the case of teachers, what homework you have given to a particular class). It’s extremely easy to use and requires little set up. You can keep track of your homework by class or by due date. It is presented in a fun and interactive way. It is also free and I have no hesitation recommending this to anyone. A brilliant piece of software and another great example of how iPhone apps can benefit educators and pupils alike.

Science Fact of the Week 46 - Volcanoes

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:51:00 +0000

Volcanoes can be mountains. But unlike most mountains in the world, formed from folding continental plates, uplift and erosion, volcanoes are created when material from inside the Earth escapes to the surface. A volcano can also be described as a place on the Earth's surface (or any other planet's or moon's surface) where molten rock, gases and pyroclastic debris erupt through the crust. Volcanoes vary quite a bit in their structure - some are cracks in the earth's crust where lava erupts, and some are domes, shields, or cone-like structures with a crater at the summit.

Magma is molten rock within the Earth's crust. When magma erupts through the earth's surface it is called lava. Lava can be thick and slow-moving or thin and fast-moving. Rock also comes from volcanoes in other forms, including ash (finely powdered rock that looks like dark smoke coming from the volcano), cinders (bits of fragmented lava), and pumice (light-weight rock that is full of air bubbles and is formed in explosive volcanic eruptions - this type of rock can float on water).

The word volcano comes from the Roman god of fire, Vulcan. Vulcan was said to have had a forge (a place to melt and shape iron) on Vulcano, an active volcano on the Lipari Islands in Italy. The largest volcano on Earth is Hawaii's Mauna Loa. Mauna Loa is about 10 km tall from the sea floor to its summit (it rises about 4 km above sea level). It also has the greatest volume of any volcano, 42,500 cubic kilometers. The largest volcano in our Solar System is perhaps Olympus Mons on the planet Mars. This enormous volcano is 27 km tall and over 520 km across. To find out more about volcanoes, click here.

National Tree Week

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:10:00 +0000

To celebrate National Tree Week Form III b has planted a mountain ash on the college grounds as part of their Junior Cert. CSPE Action Project. Every year, at this time, the Tree Coucil of Ireland raises awareness around the country of the importance of trees to our environment and the addition they make to our quality of life. There are hundreds of events and thousands of trees planted during this week, country-wide. Last Wednesday Kezia Wright and Josh Kenny spoke to chapel about the aims of tree week. Other members of the set have made awareness raising fliers and posters while Mark Agar and Ilya Zyzlaev quite literally did the spade work! The slogan for this week's celebrations is 2010 - Plant Again. Hear, hear. For more information on National Tree Week, click here.

Biology Prize 2010 - Winner Annouced

sccscience@gmail.com (St. Columba's Science Department) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 08:35:00 +0000

The winner of this year's Crofton Prize for Biology is Rebecca Kuelby, Form VI. Rebecca produced and excellent project on porocarcinoma (cancer of the sweat glands), delivering a brave, powerful, informative and personal presentation. Rebecca used PowerPoint to highlight the main points of the topic but was clearly confident in her knowledge to sustain the attention of all in attendance. Credit must be given to all five finalists, who delivered excellent presentations and captivated the audience. Distinctions will be awarded to two runners - up, Chris Faerber and Dalton Tice for their projects on ACT Cartilage Transplantation and the effect of sea lice on Irish salmon respectively.

"Extinct" Frog Returns

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0000

We normally don't have two frog related stories in one day (the Frog Blog isn't really about frogs) but when a story surfaces we must go with it.

A species of frog once presumed extinct for nearly 30 years has turned up in the Southern Tablelands in Australia. The Yellow Spotted Bell Frog was thought to have been wiped out in the 1970's after the chytrid fungus arrived from Africa and started to affect the species negatively. But all is well as more than 100 adult frogs were discovered and a breeding programme in Taronga Zoo is now underway. For more information on this story click here to visit the BBC website.

Science & Art Meet in New Book

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:43:00 +0000

A new book, Art + Science Now tries to amalgamate the sciences and the arts by featuring the work of more than 250 artists from around the world who have used using themes in science, kenetics and robotics in their work. Our favourite piece is DFA 18, Triton (shown above) and features a deformed frog (with eight legs, caused by pollution) and is the creation of Brandon Ballengée, an environmental artist who says his work "attempts to blur the already ambiguous boundaries between environmental art and ecological research". It's eye-catching stuff. The artist, Ballengée used a chemical process to make the skin and tissues of the frog transparent, while staining the bones. Brilliant.

How to Fossilise Your Hamster

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:13:00 +0000

How to Fossilise Your Hamster (and other amazing experiments for the armchair scientist, to give it its full title) is another gem from the people that brought you "Why Don't Penguins Feet Freeze"?, "Do Polar Bears Get Lonely?" and "Does Anything Eat Wasps?". If you are looking for a light read but want to learn something too, then check this out of the library today. If you want to buy your copy, click here to visit amazon.

Forth Railway Bridge

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:59:00 +0000

Today, in 1890, the Forth Railway Bridge was opened, spanning the Forth river between Edinburgh and Dundee, Scotland. It remains the main railway link over the "Forth", crossed by about 200 trains a day. It was built between 1882 and 1890 for the Forth Bridge Railway Company, a consortium set up by the North British, North Eastern, Great Northern and Midland Railways. Pioneering the use of mild steel (in place of wrought iron) in large structures, it was designed by John Fowler and Benjamin Baker and built by Tancred Arrol and Co. Its total length being 8300-ft is comprised of 3 double cantilevers and high approach girders. It is currently being painted, a job that takes over four years. To find out more about this amazing bridge, click here.

Trials of a Tadpole

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:45:00 +0000

Here is a great video from National Geographic with some excellent shots of developing tadpoles. Just a little bit of extra froggage for ya!

New Photo of Earth Unveiled

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:26:00 +0000

As humans debate the science and politics of the environmental impact on our planet, we may sometimes forget to stand back - say, from about 700 kilometres away - and admire the neighbourhood we live in. Scientists at NASA have released these photos of Earth, showing what they say are the truest colour images of our glorious globe ever captured. Using the Terra satellite, circling high above us, astronomers assembled thousands of images shot over months by the remote sensing device MODIS. Every patch of earth and splash of water was photographed for the mosaic, dubbed the Blue Marble series. Even global city lights were superimposed on the land surface. And if you look very closely, it looks like you left an upstairs window open in your place. For more from the series click here.

Earthquake Shortens Day

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Here is an extract from an article in Today's Guardian Newspaper.

The earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday may have shifted the Earth's axis and created shorter days, according to scientists at Nasa. Richard Gross, a geophysicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said the 8.8 magnitude quake could have moved the Earth's axis by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8cm) – enough to shorten a day by about 1.26 microseconds.

A large quake can shift huge amounts of rock and alter the distribution of mass on the planet. When that distribution changes, it changes the rate at which the planet rotates, which determines the length of a day. "The length of the day should have got shorter by 1.26 microseconds," Gross told the Bloomberg news agency. "The axis about which the Earth's mass is balanced should have moved by 2.7 milliarcseconds."

Click here to read the full article.

Frog Blog 500th Post

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:05:00 +0000

In the 15 months since we began posting on the Frog Blog we now celebrate our 500th post. And, wow, what a journey this has been. The Frog Blog started out with a simple aim, to enthuse the pupils of St. Columba's College about science. Aided in its inception by Julian Girdham, our English Department colleague, we quickly became aware that this would be more work than we originally thought. However, it has proved far more rewarding than we could ever imagined. The blog has grown into a "monster", with daily posts, a Twitter page (over 270 tweets so far), a Facebook profile, a NetVibes page and even podcasts (or frogcasts as we so call them - new one coming soon!). We now reaches a much larger audience than originally envisaged, from the US to Australia. One might question how we find the time to do all this AND teach a full allocation of lessons? But we manage, just! But little things keep you going, a positive comment here, a nice little tweet there and even the odd accolade now and again (most recently we were nominated for an Irish Blog Award and earlier this year we were shortlisted for a Golden Spider Award - even got to don the ol' tuxedo!).

So thank you all for your support, especially our colleagues and friends (A massive thank you to Julian Girdham, who not only inspired us to start the journey, but was also the provider of much needed advice and technical support). Thank you for reading and I hope you continue to log in now and again. To mark this important stage in our development as a blog, we would like to give you a little extra froggage, a frog themed wallpaper containing many of the frogs we feature in our headers. So, hop to it and click on the image above to download! Thanks again!

Frog Bloggers, Humphrey Jones & Jeremy Stone.

Fears for Golden Eagle Survival

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:01:00 +0000

Last night I was watching Duncan Stewart on RTÉ's new series of Eco Eye. In this episode he was talking to members of the Golden Eagle Trust about the successful reintroduction of birds of prey into Ireland, including Golden Eagles and White Tailed Eagles (Click for a previous post). I was reflecting on the beauty of these animals yet how delicate their habitat is now, mainly due to the persistent practice of placing poisoned carcasses to kill foxes and crows in land where these majestic animals nest and prey. Sadly, however, many of the national newspapers report today that another golden eagle has been found dead in Sligo, poisoned by nitroxnil poured over a dead or aborted lamb carcase. This brings the total number of poisoned birds of prey – comprising White tailed eagles, golden eagles and kites –in Ireland to nine over the past two and a half years. It is no coincidence that we are right in the middle of the lambing season. This is not practiced by all farmers, only around 3%, but has an enormous effect on the work of the Golden Eagle Trust. Unfortunately, this practice is not illegal, and the Golden Eagle Trust believe the government must act. In fact, late last year, the Golden Eagle Trust lodged a formal complaint with the European Union concerning the failure of the Irish Government to implement legislation protecting Ireland's rare scavenging birds of prey. We must stop this now, before we lose these majestic animals for ever. Click here to read more about this story.

We have a series of posts on Ireland's Birds of Prey. Click here to see these posts.

Taking Schoolbooks Out of The Bag

sccscience@gmail.com (St. Columba's Science Department) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:53:00 +0000

Kudos Shane Hogan, a teacher in CSB Secondary School, Charleville, Co. Cork. Mr. Hogan's letter to the editor was posted in yesterday's Irish Times and featured a huge amount of "good sense". He writes of the need to encourage pupils to walk or cycle to school and of the major barricade to the problem - heavy schoolbags. What he proposes is simple: "when a student buys a schoolbook they should be provided with an electronic copy of that same book, whether on disc, memory card or download key. The book can then be left in the school locker, and homework or study done using the electronic copy on a home computer. The schoolbag need only contain copies, pens, pencils, etc". Makes sense to me! Unfortunately, just because something makes good sense doesn't mean Minister Batt O'Keeffe will do anything about it. In fact, he is more likely to implement a proposal that makes no sense at all. To read Mr. Hogan's full letter, click here.

Leaving Cert Biology Revision Exercises - Ecology Crossword

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:42:00 +0000

The second of our Leaving Cert Biology Revision Exercises is a crossword on ecological terms and phrases. The quiz can be completed online, just click the number on the crossword, revealing the clue, and input your answer. When you are finished, click "check". Click here to start.

Icons of Irish Science - RTÉ Podcasts

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:30:00 +0000

RTÉ Radio 1 broadcast a series of radio programmes, called Icons of Irish Science, way back in 2008. Science.ie now reports that these programmes are available as podcasts on the RTÉ website (click here). Presented by Pauric Dempsey of the Royal Irish Academy, the programmes feature some of Ireland's most famous scientists and explore how their discoveries impacted on the entire world. Click here to view episode details and listen to the podcasts. Episodes from the 2005 series are also available by clicking here.

Our Recent Twitter Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Humphrey Jones) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Here is selection of our tweets from last week. You can follow us on twitter by clicking here.

TEDxDublin Tickets avail In 5 minutes at http://www.sciencegallery.com/events/ Happening Fri March 12th, 7pm @ScienceGallery
Follow @DickAhlstrom, science editor of the Irish Times as he travels into Arctic circle! Good reading!
This week's science fact - Poison Dart Frogs (New Post): http://bit.ly/aCDRyV
RT @guardianscience: Video: Professor Robert Winston on scientific innovation http://bit.ly/bAE64A
An earthquake with an initial magnitude of 8.8 has struck central Chile, about 100km (60 miles) from Concepcion .. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news
New RTÉ Science Challenge Show for kids announced: http://bit.ly/9MDzbs
Junior Inventors Competition 2010 - Irish Patents Office - 2 Categories: 1st class to 3rd class, 4th class to 6th class http://ow.ly/1bwrG
New series of Frog Blog online biology revision quizzes: http://blog.sccscience.com/2010/02/leaving-cert-biology-revision-exercises.html
RT @TimesScience: Richard Dawkins unleashes tirade against fans http://bit.ly/b15yz1
Attended an inservice on genetics and animal breeding yesterday evening. Excellent. Well done all in SLSS and NCE-MSTL : http://nce-mstl.ie/
RT @theteachershub: A Twitter Handbook for Teachers - http://bit.ly/16Nsa
NASA apps for iPhone and iPod Touch: See Space Images, Get the Latest News, See the Sun in 3D, and more - http://bit.ly/ccg79T
RT @ScienceGallery: Can Science Predict Love? Laugh, love and learn at Leviathan Science this Friday: http://ow.ly/1aGNN