Born to Do Science

Heart Health, Explosive Gas, and Mexican Mollies (2/8/15)

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 11:17:00 -0600

Last Sunday's program with Dr. Jennifer Shaw from the OSU Department of Integrative Biology, was about how we might learn something about our own body chemistry by studying some amazing fish from Mexico.

I kicked us off with a new song called "Team Science." This is a topic I've wanted to work into a song for a while - how scientists always work as part of an enormous team. Since Jennifer made an unexpected connection with another researcher, using Dr. Michi Tobler's fish evolution studies to further her investigation of how we humans regulate hydrogen sulfide, it seemed like a great way to illustrate the point that scientists do not work alone.

Brand new song, "Team Science"

Hydrogen sulfide is an important signaling molecule that helps our bodies know when to grow new blood vessels, among other things. On it's own, it's a poisonous gas, and it stinks. So of course we wanted to smell it!

Jennifer prepares to release some hydrogen sulfide gas.

Adding powder to water to release the gas.

Jennifer wafts the gas gently so I won't get a harmful dose. I take a whiff - whew! Smells like rotten eggs!

Dr. Tobler's fish are nearly identical except that one group evolved the ability to live in hydrogen sulfide springs. Since the two fish are so similar we can assume that any genetic differences probably have something to do with processing hydrogen sulfide. This can help us figure out which genes are most involved, by comparing how genes are expressed between the two types of fish, when they live with and without hydrogen sulfide in their water.

And guess what, we humans have a lot in common with fish! The same mechanisms are at work in our own bodies.

Amazing Mexican Mollies that live just fine in pools poisoned by hydrogen sulfide.

Nearly identical mollies collected from nearby pools without hydrogen sulfide. These fish can't survive in the sulfide pools.

Jennifer's lab setup - this is how she delivers hydrogen sulfide to the fish in her experiments.

Hydrogen sulfide is something our bodies need, in small amounts. Too much is poison. There are human diseases related to both having too much and having too little hydrogen sulfide available in our bodies. Understanding how these sulfide tolerant fish can manage will help us figure out how to correct the balance when it goes wrong for us!

Higgs Boson Found! Now What? (1/25/15)

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Tue, 3 Feb 2015 20:39:00 -0600

Last Sunday's program was a doozie! My guest was Dr. Flera Rizatdinova from the physics department at OSU. Flera analyzes data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

So we were talking about particle physics and it went long - very long. It's good though, because there were lots of questions. I think particle physics is really fun to think about.

When you hear an explanation in particle physics and it feels like you don't understand it, that's probably because it's very weird how things work on the smallest scales. Fundamental particles don't behave like things we're used to. Particle physicists understand all the mathematical models that describe particle behaviors. Yet even they seem to have trouble describing what's "really" going on.

So with that in mind, I'll take a stab at summarizing the program. We started with a sneak peek at my new song and video "Quarks and Electrons." Then I tried to give a quick summary of the Standard Model of Particle Physics.

I tried to give a quick overview of the Standard Model of particle physics. There were lots of questions!

Basically Quarks (up and down, held together by gluons) and Electrons are the fundamental particles that make up regular matter - all the stuff you and I can touch or see. The Quarks and Leptons have mass. The Gauge Bosons, including Photons and Gluons, cary forces. The Higgs Boson gives other particles their masses.

Here's a chart. It's something like the periodic table of elements, only everything here is a fundamental particle, which means that as far as we know it can't be broken down into smaller parts:

Standard Model of Particle Physics

And that's it. If the universe is a giant Lego playset, then these are all the types of Lego bricks we know about.

However, we also know the Standard Model is missing pieces!

Until recently we didn't have the Higgs Boson on the chart. We thought it might exist but until we gathered good evidence for it from the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) we didn't know for sure. Now we do.

Other particles are probably missing as well, and we're looking for them next.

For one thing, there's dark matter. We know it exists because we can observe its effects on galaxies. But from its properties we can tell it isn't made out of anything on the list.

Another problem is gravity. The other fundamental forces have their particles - for example electromagnetic force is carried by photons - but gravity is not accounted for.

And we don't understand a whole lot about exactly how the Higgs Boson gives particles their masses. It's possible there are several different kinds of Higgs Bosons yet to be found.

Physicists have guessed at many ways of extending the Standard Model. (One example is "Super Symmetry.") These hypotheses all include the model as we know it, and add additional particles of different sorts. All of the extended models make mathematical sense, but which one is right? Which one represents the way the world actually is? The only way to tell is to run an experiment. That's where the LHC comes in.

We took a break at this point to remind ourselves that fundamental particles are real. We had a cloud chamber set up to detect them. The chamber is filled with evaporated alcohol. Whenever a particle zips through it leaves a trail of droplets that you can see. We could see lines appear that let us know muons were zipping through. Muons are generated by particles from outer space slamming into our atmosphere - we call those "cosmic rays."

Looking for particle trails in the cloud chamber!

Whew - we are about halfway through the program now! We talked about how the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at CERN works by slamming protons together at very high energies. The protons plus energy create a whole bunch of new particles. These decay, or fall apart into smaller pieces.

The particles we're looking for, the unfamiliar ones, do not exist long enough for the detector to detect them. Instead we detect the pieces they generate. From those pieces, we have to work backwards to see if we have evidence that one of the new particles was there.

I demonstrated my "photon detector" by taking this photo. The ATLAS detector at the LHC works in a similar way, only it records lots of different types of particles in addition to photons.

This is a very hard problem to solve. The ATLAS detector collects information from millions of particles per second. All those signals are mixed up together. It's difficult to tell one particle from another.

Flera uses computer programs to help her sort through the data. She's part of a large team that includes scientists from all over the world. They each tackle a different piece of that hard problem. Together they can decipher the signals from the ATLAS detector to find out if any exotic particles were created in the proton collisions.

Scientists are still working on the data generated last time the LHC was running. Next time they turn it on it will run at a higher energy. This increases the chances that exotic particles will be formed. It's exciting to think that the new data set may add to our fundamental model of the universe!

Coming up next:

February 8, 2015
Heart Health, Explosive Gas, and Mexican Mollies
With Jennifer H. Shaw, Ph.D., Department of Zoology, OSU
Regulation of hydrogen sulfide in our bodies is important to our health, but how do our cells know exactly how much to make? Find out how some special fish from Mexico can help us understand our own body chemistry!

Teaching Computers to Predict (1/11/2015)

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 17:26:00 -0600

Last Sunday we presented the first of the current series of four Born To Do Science programs a the Stillwater Public Library. My guest was Allan Axelrod, who studies machine learning.

Allan has developed an algorithm (or set of computer instructions) he calls EIEIO, which helps computers get clever about how they collect and analyze data in situations where numbers are collected continuously, but the entire set cannot be seen at once.

The situation that brought about the need for this algorithm is this: How do we monitor carbon sequestration sites for potentially dangerous leaks of CO2 back into the atmosphere?

We began with a song inspired by Allan's whimsical EIEIO acronym.

Introducing the topic with a song.

We had some discussion about whether carbon sequestration (storing waste carbon dioxide under ground) is a good idea in the first place. I know it's a controversial topic! But we needed to put a pin in that, in order to get to Allan's algorithm. Given that CO2 is already being sequestered under ground, it's good that people like Allan are coming up with ways to monitor it!

We set up a game to mimic the situation Allan has to deal with. There are monitoring stations on the ground spread over a large and hard-to-get-to area of land. Each one takes CO2 measurements every hour. The computer can use this information to model the system and attempts to predict leaks before they occur.

The problem is that all the current CO2 data is not available instantly. Drones are used to fly by each station and pick up the data. The question is - should the drones visit every station once, then every station again, etc.? Or is there a more useful way of gathering the data?

One of our sampling stations "collecting" data.

For the game, we set up seven sampling stations around the room. Two volunteers became drones, and two others were the computer. The computer sent drones from station to station collecting data. The computer then tried to make good decisions about where to send them next based on the numbers collected.

(If you're wondering - I created a set of measurements for each station ahead of time. The station-masters flipped through a stack of cards slowly, one every ten seconds. Each card they put down represented taking a measurement. At each station, the drones collected all the measurements taken since the last visit.)

The object of the game was to find a leak (if the numbers went high enough, they turned red on the page representing a leak) as quickly as possible.

A "drone" picks up data from a sampling station.

The "computer" analyzes data, trying to decide where to send the drones next.

Processing...

The kids tried a couple of basic strategies. One was to send drones randomly to different stations and hope to find the leak. Another was to notice if the numbers were going up from a given station and send drones back there, or to a nearby station. It was challenging to process all those numbers during the game. But sending drones to a station where the numbers were rising is very similar to Allan's actual strategy!

If I'd had the chance to test the game out first, I would have changed a few things about how we did it to make it easier and clearer for the kids to think about strategy. But we did successfully get a handle on the basics of how the station, drones, and computers work together in real life.

Allan answers questions.

Allan's strategy with the EIEIO algorithm is to compare data collected from each station to the numbers the computer would have predicted. A "metric" - a measure of how close the numbers are to the predicted value - is calculated for each station. The stations that are the farthest off get the next drone visits.

This way the computer can collect the numbers it most needs next at any given time.

Allan has tried several versions of his algorithm on several sample data sets and compared the results of his EIEIO strategy to the strategy of sending drones methodically or randomly to all the stations every time. His EIEIO results are much better!

Taking info on Allan's computer class at the library.

Allan teaches a computer class on designing videos and video games at the Stillwater Public Library.

Looks like I forgot something but I can't remember what.

Can I get witness for science!

Sunday January 25 - Particle physics with Dr. Flera Rizatdinova! We've found the Higgs Boson, so what's next for the ATLAS detector at CERN?

Loser Lizards and Motherly Winners (March 23, 2014)

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 22:00:00 -0500

Our most recent program was on the Sunday after Spring Break. In hindsight, not the best date for a program! We had two kids show up, and their parents. So, a small group, but we had a great time anyway, and asked lots of good questions.

In preparation for this program I visited my guest, Jess Magaña, at the OSU Zoology Department where she does her research. I took some pretty good photos of lizards in their cages...

Brown anole lizards in their cages at the OSU Zoology Department

Jess holding one of her subjects.

This is just one section of one wall of the lizard room!

I kicked the program off with a new song, "My Lizard Brain," which is basically about how mysterious it is the way we humans make decisions, and maybe that it has a lot to do with the way other animals make decisions, since we've retained a lot of ancient circuitry in our brains through the process of evolution. I expressed all that in the form of a love song, which my wife, Lisa, finds intriguing - it's the second lizard love song I've written. I don't know if that's a coincidence or a "thing." Maybe a lizard love CD is in the works.

I kicked us off with a brand new song.

Jess's research was inspired by thinking about how lizards make decisions about allocating their energy. In particular, how does a female lizard decide (and we use the word "decide" loosely here, since it probably isn't a conscious decision being made) how much energy to put into making eggs and babies? I asked everyone to think like a lizard and allocate some energy to various lizard activities such as finding food, defending territory, and reproduction.

Giving some thought to how much energy a lizard should allocate to various lizard activities such as finding food, defending territory, and reproduction.

Collecting data from our imaginary lizards.

Just like in real life, we got lots of different answers for our imaginary lizards. We talked about different kinds of things that might effect a lizard's choices. The thing that Jess was most interested in is what's called "the experience effect." Lots of animals' behaviors are known to be effected by things they've experienced in the past. Jess wanted to know whether a female lizard would put more or less energy into her eggs and offspring according to whether she has won or lost fights for territory in the past.

Answering questions.

To find out, she paired female lizards in conflict situations by putting one lizard into another's territory. After ten minutes she removed the interloping lizard, effectively making it the loser. Then she followed the winners and losers over time to see how they did with their eggs and offspring.

During our program tried putting two males together in a cage, so we could observe some of the aggressive behaviors. We saw the lizards move toward one another and bob their heads. We didn't see them display their dewlaps, though, as they often will.

Lizard fight! We introduced the light brown lizard on the right into the cage to see if the darker lizard on the left would defend his territory.

The lighter lizard made aggressive moves up the stick.

The darker lizard finally turned to face the interloper. They never got too energetic about the confrontation, though. Maybe they felt too cold or too "on display" for an energetic fight.

Jess found in her study that the lizards who lost territorial fights put less energy into their offspring and more energy into their own upkeep. Those who had won the fights gained less weight and hatched heavier babies. Moreover, the effect was increased with the number of fights. The heaviest babies came from the lizards who had won two or three fights instead of just one.

One of our attendees suggested that the lizards who win fights can get the best territory with the most food, and therefore it makes sense that they would spawn larger offspring. That's probably true of lizards in the wild.

However, Jess went to a lot of trouble to make sure the lizards in her study got the same amount of food, and lived in very similar "territories." The only difference between the winning group and the losing group was that the winning group won their fight and the losing group lost theirs. I think it's really interesting that just losing a fight or two triggers the lizard to put less energy into her eggs.

Next time we'll be delving into the teeny tiny world of proteins and trying to figure out how those micro-machines that run our bodies do what they do!

April 13, 2:00 at the library. I hope to see you then!!

Imperiled Bats of Tar Creek (March 9, 2014)

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Sat, 22 Mar 2014 23:45:00 -0500

Whew, it's been a while, but we did it - another Born to Do Science program for the books!

My guests were Dr. Karen McBee and her student, Rachel Eguren, whose study we talked about.

Rachel, who did the bat study, Karen, her advisor, Monty (me) the host, Elizabeth the children's librarian

I performed a brand new song based on Rachel's research. She wanted to find out whether the bats at the Tar Creek superfund site are affected by toxins in the area. She had to come up with a really clever way to answer that question, since you can't just ask a bat how it's feeling. The song, "Figure It Out" takes the form of a few journal entries where the researcher is trying to feel her way through the process. Scientists don't get to follow directions in a lab book - they're figuring out how to do things as they go!

Me singing a brand new song, "Figure It Out," inspired by Rachel's research project.

What Rachel ended up doing is flying bats through an obstacle course made of strings that would drop when hit by a bat's wing. She charted the time each bat spent in the air against the number of strings dropped. As you would expect, for the control group (bats from a healthy habitat), the longer the bats flew the more strings they knocked down. However the Tar Creek bats showed almost no such correlation!

To get us in the question asking mood, we ran the kids through their own obstacle course, made from sections of carpet tubes. In hindsight, we should have placed the tubes closer together, or maybe had the kids stick their elbows out like bat wings, because even when we spun them with their eyes closed to simulate bats whose brains are addled with lead, hardly a tube got knocked over. Rachel had more time than we did to design her obstacle course. She made sure the strings were placed so that the bats could get through without knocking strings, but it was a challenging for them.

We timed each kid's run through the obstacle course, just like Rachel did with the bats.

After our activity we discussed lots of details about Rachel's study, including how she video taped the bats using a night-vision (infra-red) camera. She needed a marker in the bat cage to show depth so she could tell on the video whether the bats were flying through the obstacles. The marker had to be warm, to show up on camera, it had to stay warm for a long time, it couldn't require an electric outlet since she did her trials outdoors where the bats live, and it had to be relatively inexpensive. See the photo caption to find out what she used...

Karen passing around a "hot hands" - this is what Rachel used as a marker in her night vision (infra-red) video.

Rachel is still compiling results from the lab so she can correlate each bat's performance in the obstacle course with the levels of toxins found in their body tissues. But judging from the bats' performance in the obstacle course, the is definitely something different going on with the Tar Creek bats. The heavy metals in the area, including lead, may be affecting the bats' brain function, which could interfere with their ability to maneuver. This would make it more difficult for them to hunt at night.

The heavy metals in the soil and water around Tar Creek were left there by mining operations started over 100 years ago. In 2009 the town of Pitcher was completely evacuated due to the toxins. Dr. McBee and her students are studying many different aspects of how wildlife in the Tar Creek area has been affected.

Bats from the OSU Zoology Department collection.

Looking through the night vision camera!

Bat skeleton.

Thanks to Rachel, Karen, and the Stillwater Public Library for making this program possible, and for support from the National Science Foundation.

See you next time for "Loser Lizards and Motherly Winners!"

Lizards Protons, Bats, and Ions, Oh My!!

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 14:58:00 -0600

New Programs are On the Calendar!

March 9, 2014

Imperiled Bats of Tar Creek

With Dr. Karen McBee and Rachel Eguren, OSU Zoology Department

Are toxins knocking these critters off course?
The Tar Creek superfund site in Northeast Oklahoma is one of the most toxic areas in the United States. How is the wildlife coping? Dr. McBee and her students shoot night vision video of bats flying obstacle courses to help find out!

March 23, 2014

Loser Lizards and Motherly Winners

With Jess Magaña, OSU Zoology Department

Can losing a fight make you less of a mother?
Mother reptiles have only so much energy. How do their bodies decide how much to invest in their offspring? Can winning or losing a fight make a difference for future babies? Jess Magaña finds out by pitting female against female!

April 13, 2014

Probing Proteins’ Secret Tricks

With Drs. Wouter Hoff and Aihua Xie, OSU Microbiology & Physics Departments

Infrared spectroscopy gives us the clues!
Proteins that can move protons from here to there enable our sight and power our cells, but how do they do it? Nobody knows! Drs. Hoff and Xie use infrared spectroscopy to peek at the inner workings of these mysterious biological nano-machines!

April 27, 2014

Battling Bacterial Biofilms

With Dr. Marianna Patrauchan, OSU Microbiology Department

Decoding chemical conversations could save lives!
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common bacterium, usually harmless to humans. But in the lungs of people with Cystic Fibrosis, it forms a deadly biofilm. Why? How? Dr. Patrauchan uses a variety of approaches to help figure it out!

Can you help spread the word by printing this flyer and sharing with friends? Thanks!

More details are here: click the schedule tab.

Digesting Sunshine - How Mother Nature Turns Light Into Chemical Energy

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 01:11:00 -0500

Howdy, Science Fans!

I've been on hiatus from BTDS, but I'm back, and gearing up for some new programs soon. More about that later. First order of business - the last few programs in 2012 never got write-ups, so I'm posting them now!

---

In February 2012 our speaker was Dr. Rob Burnap from the Department of Microbiology at OSU. Dr. Burnap is trying to work out a very important and very difficult puzzle - how exactly do plants accomplish photosynthesis?

Photosynthesis is that trick we all know plants like to do. They turn carbon dioxide, water and sunshine into oxygen (good for us!) and chemical energy that they use to grow.

This is an important trick to understand. Part of the process involves splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. If we knew how to do that as efficiently as plants, we'd have have our energy problems solved! That's because the reverse process, putting oxygen and hydrogen together to form water, releases a lot of energy quickly.

We CAN split water using a process called electrolysis. Dr. Burnap brought a special electrolysis set-up that allowed us to see (using a ph indicator that changed colors) how it works. We connected electrodes to a battery, put them in the water, and watched the bubbles of hydrogen forming on one end and oxygen on the other.

We used a nine volt battery to supply the power needed to pull those water molecules apart, and the bubbles came out pretty slowly. A plant could do the same thing with just one volt's worth of sunshine! We tried using a one volt battery, but nothing happened.

Electrolysis in action!

Unfortunately electrolysis uses up way more energy than you can ever get back by burning the hydrogen it releases. But if we knew exactly how plants use sunlight to split water, maybe we could do it that way. Then it wouldn't cost much at all to produce lots of hydrogen (or possibly hydrocarbons, similar to gasoline).

At this point in the program, I shared the song I wrote, inspired by Dr. Burnap's research. It's called "Photosynthesis Machine."

You've probably heard of chloroplasts and chlorophyll. Chloroplasts are the structures inside plant cells where photosynthesis happens, and chlorophyll is the chemical in the chloroplasts that makes plants look green and allows photosynthesis to happen.

Dr. Burnap uses green algae in the lab as a stand-in for plants. Its photosynthesis machine is pretty much the same, but the algae is easier to work with.

But if you're like me you probably never realized that chlorophyll doesn't do the job alone. Dr. Burnap studies the protein structure that contains the chlorophyll. It's called the "reaction center," and it's a molecular machine that brings all the ingredients for photosynthesis together, recombines them, and moves the resulting products apart.

It's a photosynthesis machine!

That blobby shape on the screen behind Dr. Burnap is a computer model of part of the reaction site.

How exactly does the photosynthesis machine work? We know a lot about it already, but there are still many details to figure out. The challenge is: how do you study a machine so small you can't even see it with a microscope?

One way Dr. Burnap studies the molecular machine is by measuring how fast it works, then messing with it to see if he can slow it down. He uses a strobe light and an oxygen detector as a speedometer. The light flashes; the plant makes oxygen; the detector measures how much and how fast. We're talking super-fast speeds here. The video below shows how quickly the strobe light flashes on and off.

Some questions Dr. Burnap was working on were: Why don't the hydrogen and oxygen just bond back together right after the photosynthesis machine pulls them apart? How exactly does the photosynthesis machine move hydrogen away from the reaction site so that doesn't happen?

To slow down the machine, Dr. Burnap gave his algae heavy water instead of regular water. Heavy water is made with deuterium instead of hydrogen. Deuterium is a hydrogen isotope, containing one proton AND one neutron, so it weighs about twice as much as regular hydrogen. Heavier things are harder to move, so...

Would the machine have a harder time moving these heavy hydrogens out of the way? If so, would that also slow down the rate the oxygen gets released? It turns out: yes, and yes!

We made a human photosynthesis machine, using balloons to represent hydrogens and oxygens.

Dr. Burnap suspects that certain parts of the photosynthesis machine act like a bucket brigade. A series of proteins pass each hydrogen atom down the line in order to move it out of the way once it's been freed. One way to test this hypothesis is to change the machine and see what happens. Dr. Burnap was able to grow a special algae by "knocking out" one of the proteins in the bucket brigade. With this protein missing, would the hydrogen pile up? Would that slow down or stop the photosynthesis process?

Next we put our bucket brigade behind the screen, since Dr. Burnap can't see directly what's happening in real life either, and we took one of the proteins (people) out. Did the hydrogens (black balloons) still make it across to the other side? Surprise surprise - they did! How did they do that?

Using the strobe light and oxygen detector speedometer, Dr. Burnap discovered that even with one of the proteins missing, the machine worked just fine! This suggested to him that the proteins are not arranged in a straight line, but are interconnected so that the hydrogen has more than one path out.

We had a blast during the program re-creating Dr. Burnap's bucket-brigade experiment with people standing in for proteins and balloons representing hydrogen and oxygen molecules!

It's pretty amazing what we can figure out about how a machine is put together, even if it's too small to observe directly! If we keep piecing together details, one day maybe we'll be able to build our own photosynthesis machines to convert sunlight into chemical energy that we can use!

Playing with the electrolysis after the program.

Me on the left, Dr. Burnap on the right.

Fungus Among Us! Saturday May 19!

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:53:00 -0500

Yes, our last scheduled Born to Do Science is tomorrow!!

May 19, 2012

The Fungus Among Us!

When Fungi Attack, Science Fights Back

Stephen M. Marek PhD from the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at Oklahoma State University will speak about his use of molecular tools to investigate "who done it" and how to stop it when important crops suffer damage from pathogenic fungi.

We will have microscopes on hand with lots of fungi to observe!

10:00 AM at the Stillwater Public Library. I hope to see you there!

Predators and Prey this Saturday!

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:20:00 -0500

Yes, we are having a Born to Do Science tomorrow!!

April 21, 2012

Predators, Prey, and the Games They Play!

Computer Models Reflect Real-World Animal Behavior

Dr. Barney Luttbeg from the Oklahoma State University Department of Zoology will speak about his research using tadpoles, dragonfly larvae, and computer simulations to understand the complex interactions between predators and their prey.

If you can, please bring a chess board, chess pieces (or any game pieces you like), checkers (or any flat tokens with two colors), and a coin to flip or dice to role.

We will also have live tadpoles and dragonfly nymphs to observe!

New Music Video - Science Frontier!

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Sun, 1 Apr 2012 13:24:00 -0500

I'll get caught up soon with photos from the last to BTDS events. In the meantime, please enjoy this brand new video for my song "Science Frontier!" Many thanks to Brian Collins, who wrote, produced, and directed it!!

This Saturday - My One and Only Vole!

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Thu, 8 Mar 2012 21:21:00 -0600

Don't forget we're meeting a week early this month! Saturday March 10. I hope to see you there! We're working on setting up a live vole-cam in the lab! Here's what the program is about:

--

Vole pups! I borrowed this photo from a Mother Nature
Network article, 11 Animals that Mate For Life.

Zoology student Tomica Blocker will share the science of "voles in love" in a program for children Saturday at the Stillwater Public Library.

Blocker, a master's student in zoology at Oklahoma State University, will present "My One and Only Vole" at Monty Harper's "Born to Do Science." "Born to Do Science" is a monthly program that gives students a chance to meet scientists and learn about their research. The series is hosted by Monty Harper, a local children's musician who composes a song for each program inspired by his guest scientist's work.

Three brother voles moved nesting material
one mouthful at a time from one end of
their tub to the other while I interviewed
Tomica about her research.

"Prairie voles are a fascinating species to study," said Harper. "It's a rare mammal that sticks with a single mate for life. It's even rarer to find a mammal species where mothers and fathers both care for their young. That's why certain types of prairie voles are useful model species for investigating human behavior and physiology; they are rodents with family values. We can learn a lot about ourselves by studying these cute little monogamous mammals."

The presentation will include hands-on activities for the participants. "This one will be a lot of fun," said Harper. "We'll have kids up acting out vole social recognition using olfactory cues, analyzing vole behaviors in videos from the lab, and even designing their own vole research!"

One of the voles gets a sunflower seed treat.

"Born to Do Science" is free and open to students in at least third grade. Parents are encouraged to attend, participate, and learn along with their children. It will begin at 10:00 a.m. in Room 119 of the library. Registration is requested at (405) 377-3633 or askalibrarian@stillwater.org.

For more information about "Born to Do Science" or to listen to podcast interviews with past guest scientists, visit www.BornToDoScience.com. Stillwater Public Library is at 1107 S. Duck St.

BTDS Podcast Episode 3: "Stargazer"

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:05:00 -0600

This is a double-wide episode with two NASA astrobiologists! Kid host Aaron and I speak with Dr. Nader Haghighipour about his work finding extrasolar planets (including Gliese 581 c!) and we speak with Dr. Vikki Meadows about how we might detect signs of life on extrasolar planets. Featuring a new song, "Stargazer"!

Listen / Download the Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes

Aaron's World!
My co-host this week is Aaron from Aaron's World, a fantastic science podcast for kids which I highly recommend you check out now! The "Stargazer" song is also featured in Aaron's World episode 28, "Plesiadapis."

Feedback, please!
Please post comments below or write to btds at montyharper.com - What worked for you? What didn't?
I will incorporate your feedback as I tweak the format over the next few episodes.

Also, please post your questions about the science!! They will be answered!

Get the song: &amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://montyharper.bandcamp.com/track/stargazer"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Stargazer by Monty Harper&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;

Digesting Sunshine

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:13:00 -0600

This Saturday morning at 10:00am, Born to Do Science presents... Dr. Rob Burnap, a microbiologist at Oklahoma State University, who will share with us his research on photosynthesis.

So you think you know photosynthesis? We all learn about it in grade school, right? It's easy to get the impression that photosynthesis is all figured out. If that's the case, why aren't we efficiently using the sun's energy to run our world, just like plants do? It turns out there's a lot more to know and Dr. Burnap is one of the many scientists around the world who research this important topic!

We are planning wall-to-wall demonstrations and activities on Saturday to help you understand why photosynthesis is so complex, amazing, and tough to untangle. Please join us at the Stillwater Public Library! The program is designed for kids in 3rd-7th grade and their adults to enjoy together. See you there!!

Photos from the lab:

Green algae are a convenient species to use to study photosynthesis. It is also hoped that we can eventually use algae to produce clean fuel for transportation on a commercial scale.

This equipment measures the Oxygen output from photosynthesis to an incredible degree of accuracy. Such data can be used to better understand how photosynthesis works.

Here is Dr. Burnap, looking a bit green. He often has to work under green lighting in the lab. Can you think why that would be? Be sure and ask on Saturday!

Here is a short video showing the strobe light. Each strobe triggers a photosynthetic reaction which can be measured by the oxygen detectors.

BTDS Podcast Episode 2: "It's Not Fair"

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Mon, 6 Feb 2012 21:43:00 -0600

Dr. Jennifer Byrd-Craven shares her research into whether teenagers who co-ruminate increase their stress, with kid host Evalyn, featuring the song "It's Not Fair (When Your Mother is a Scientist)."

Listen / Download the Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes

Feedback, please!
Please post comments below or write to btds at montyharper.com - What worked for you? What didn't?
I will incorporate your feedback as I tweak the format over the next few episodes.

Also, please post your questions about the science!! They will be answered!

Get the song:
&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://montyharper.bandcamp.com/track/its-not-fair"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;It's Not Fair by Monty Harper&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;

Left Brain, Meet the Right Brain!

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:20:00 -0600

Our first program of the new year was Dr. Shelia Kennison, "This is Your Brain on Words!"

If you really think about it, it's an amazing thing that we can get lost in a book the way we humans often do. I mean, look at a page and what do you see? Black squiggles on a white background. Somehow we turn those squiggles into words and those words into sentences and those sentences into stories that envelop us like waking dreams. What exactly are our brains doing to make that happen?

I performed a new song called "Left Brain" in which Left Brian thinks he can read on his own but in the end he has to admit that Right Brain helps.

Lisa and Evalyn joined me on the stage for the ending which involves three overlapping musical parts for the left brain, right brain, and corpus callosum. Thanks to Dr. Kennison for sending this photo!!

If brain scanners were faster, we might be able to just watch a person's brain light up as they read. But we decode words way too quickly for any current brain scanning technology to record the process. Dr. Kennison uses an ingenious method that brings us baby-steps closer to understanding what goes on inside when we read. She peeks into the workings of our brains - with grammar.

When we see a singular noun that might not make sense in a sentence, this doesn't bother us much because singular nouns are often used as adjectives.

For example, "Sally married the computer..." might not seem so weird once you read the entire sentence: "Sally married the computer repairman."

However, if we make the noun a plural, that's different!

"Sally married the computers..."

There's really no way to finish that sentence so that it makes good sense.

Dr. Kennison investigates whether these types of grammar glitches can tell us anything about how the brain is working, and she has uncovered some very intriguing patterns.

Dr. Kennison

To understand what Dr. Kennison discovered we need to know about the corpus callosum. This is the part of the brain that connects the left and right sides together. It's the only pathway by which the left side of the brain can "talk to" the right side, and visa versa.

Just like an internet connection has a particular data transfer rate (or speed), so does a corpus callosum. We call that speed the interhemispheric transfer time, or IHTT. We can measure a person's IHTT at a given moment by having them respond to flashes on a computer screen.

Here our first volunteer measures the speed of his corpus callosum.

For a long time we've known that various different language functions are handled by the left brain. However over the past ten years or so the role of the right brain in language has become more apparent. Dr. Kennison believes that the two halves of our brains are probably always working together to decode language.

She gave her subjects a whole bunch of sentences to read. Some of them had trick plural nouns in them that didn't make sense. Others had weird singular nouns. Others were just regular sentences. She measured if and when each reader slowed down, and by how much. (We're talking about milliseconds here - very small differences in time!)

Here our second volunteer measures his reading speed. He was a quick - I couldn't keep up!

This is what the reading software looks like (projected on our screen). We only get to see one or two words at a time as we move through a sentence. This way the computer can measure our reading speed at each word, and can tell exactly where we might slow down. The software is less detailed than tracking eye movements, but much easier, and gives essentially the same results for the purpose of this experiment.

Then Dr. Kennison measured each of her subject's interhemispheric transfer time. Remember, that's the speed of their corpus collasum. And guess what she found?

The speed of a person's corpus callosum corresponds to the amount they slowed down when reading weird singular nouns.

What this might suggest is that when we come to an unexpected singular noun in a sentence, the left brain consults with the right brain (via the corpus callosum) to try to make meaning out of the strange word combination. Maybe the right brain is telling the left brain to go ahead and consider the next word because this unexpected noun might make sense as an adjective.

Of course as with any new study, the results are tentative. Dr. Kennison plans to run many more experiments to see if she will continue to observe this interesting effect! And hopefully many more similar experiments will help us better understand how we make meaning out of all those squiggles on a page!

Brain Science This Saturday!!

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:37:00 -0600

Howdy, Science Fans!

Our next BTDS program is about studying the brain! How does your brain work?? You might know that it's separated into two halves - the left brain and the right brain, and that the two halves generally specialize in different types of thinking. The two halves are connected by a thick cord of neurons called the corpus callosum.

Most of what we know about which half does what we've figured out from brains that aren't functioning normally. For example if a person's brain is injured and they lose the ability to speak, then we know that the part of the brain that was injured must have something to do with speaking. Studies on people whose corpa callosa has been severed (for other reasons) can tell us a lot about how the left brain functions without the right and how the right brain functions without the left.

But it's a lot harder to find out anything about how the brain works when it's whole and healthy and functioning properly. We can't just watch it do its thing! How and when and why do the two halves "talk" to one another? What does each half contribute when they are working properly together?

Our guest scientist this month has an ingenious way of studying these aspects of our brains!

Dr. Shelia Kennison is a psychologist who uses glitches in language as windows into how our brains function. By carefully studying how people make meaning out of written words, she can reveal communication between the two sides of the brain!

We will get to experience what it's like to be one of Dr. Kennison's subjects, and as always we'll get to "think like a scientist" and explore other ways the mysterious workings of the brain might be understood.

The program starts Saturday morning at 10:00 at the Stillwater Public Library, room 119.
I hope to see you there!!

In the meantime, check out these related websites!

- For a quick overview of left and right brain functions check out this chart from funderstanding.com

- The Split Brian Game - you become a researcher studying "Mr. Split Brainy." See if you can figure out what's going on in his head!

- To find out how left or right brained you are, take this test!

Here are my results - please post yours!

Thank you for taking the Creativity Test. The results show your brain dominance as being:

Left Brain	Right Brain
53%	47%

Popular Teens, Friendly or Mean?

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:08:00 -0600

This past Saturday Dr. Lara Mayeau, a developmental psychologist, came in from Norman to speak to us about her research on teenage popularity.

Dr. Mayeau explains that being popular is not the same thing as being well-liked.

We had a smaller than usual group - maybe the last weekend before Christmas Break people are busy? - BUT, it was a great group of kids and parents, full of really good questions and insights, as usual!

Dr. Mayeau's research has verified what many of us observed in school - that the popular kids are not necessarily well-liked. She also uses the mathematics of statistics to uncover some unexpected patterns, or correlations in teen popularity.

For example, popular boys have an easier time staying well-liked than popular girls. Also, popular kids sometimes use physical or social aggression against other kids. These behaviors seem mostly to come about after popularity is achieved. Perhaps it's part of how they stay popular - or perhaps being popular, they can just get away with it more than other kids. (More studies are needed to really understand this!)

Yours truly, pontificating about something.

How does Dr. Mayeau uncover these patterns of teenage life? By asking! We all got to fill out a survey similar to the one she used in a longitudinal study of kids as they went from fifth grade through 9th. The survey includes a roster of names attached to codes. For each question we listed the codes of the kids who fit. The questions included: Who do you like? Who is popular? Who do you not like? Who pushes other kids? Who excludes other kids?

The difference with our survey was that the names on our roster were not fellow students, but famous actors, characters, athletes, musicians, etc - just for fun. Guess who was most often selected as popular but not well-liked? Justin Bieber. Ouch.

My usual photographer and lovely wife Lisa couldn't be with us on Saturday, so my daughter Evalyn stepped into the role. Thank you Evalyn, for taking photos!!

Really, Evalyn? Really?

Popular Teens This Saturday

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:52:00 -0600

Dr. Lara Mayeux

Howdy Friends!

You do not want to miss our next Born to Do Science program, because it's all about you! This Saturday the 17th, 10:00 am at the Stillwater Public Library: "Popular Teens, Friendly or Mean?"

Our guest scientist is coming all the way from Norman. She is Dr. Lara Mayeux, a developmental psychologist from the department of psychology at OU.

Dr. Mayeux will speak about her research on social status among teens. We'll discuss a study she ran following students from 5th through 9th grades to determine what kinds of kids become popular.

Her research explores many questions, including: Is there a difference between being popular and being well-liked? What are the benefits and risks to being popular? How do teens' social status change over time? What role does aggression play in gaining and keeping popularity? Does all this work differently for boys than it does for girls?

We'll be asking what methods Dr. Mayeux uses to study teens, and what further questions might she explore. We'll take a survey similar to the kind used in actual research, and with Dr. Mayeux's guidance we'll design our own research on teenage popularity.

As always, I'll kick things off with a brand new song, and I've been having a lot of fun writing this one. It's called "I Wanna Be Popular!"

Please register with the library if you plan to come. Even if you've registered before - they want to know how many to expect. The program is open to kids in 3rd-7th grade and their adults. It's a rare opportunity to enjoy something with your tween-ager! We hope to see you there!

For more information about Dr. Mayeux you can check out her blog: Mayeux Research: Conversations about Peer Relations, Popularity, Developmental Psychology, and Aggression.

Second Podcast Episode Recorded

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:40:00 -0600

Many thanks to everyone who has downloaded BTDS Podcast Episode One - more than twelve hundred so far! And extra thanks to those who let me know they liked it! We are off to a great start!

I recorded Episode Two on Saturday with kid host, Evalyn, and guest scientist, Dr. Jennifer Byrd Craven, a developmental psychologist. I'm editing now and I will post the new episode here sometime this week! Please tell your friends!

Kid Host, Evalyn

Dr. Jennifer Byrd-Craven

Evalyn, Monty, Jennifer - photo by Eli

Podcast Episode 1: "My Molecular Eye"

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 12:22:00 -0600

Dr. Wouter Hoff shares his research into how bacteria sense light, with kid host Liza, featuring the song "My Molecular Eye."

Listen / Download the Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes

Feedback, please!
Please post comments below or write to btds at montyharper.com - What worked for you? What didn't?
I will incorporate your feedback as I tweak the format over the next few episodes.

Also, please post your questions about the science!! They will be answered!

Get the song:
<a href="http://montyharper.bandcamp.com/track/my-molecular-eye">My Molecular Eye by Monty Harper</a>

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:37:00 -0600

Podcast Launch - 11/28!
The first episode of the Born to Do Science Podcast has been recorded!

I will post it here on Monday, November 28, for free download.

I want to gather the biggest audience possible for Episode 1.

Please Help!

These are my goals for November 28, updated every day:

- 100 supporters on Causes.com (need 46 more!)

- 52 subscribers to the podcast email list (need 43 more!)

- 100 likes on the BTDS facebook page (need 59 more!)

- 75 followers on Twitter (need 54 more!)

Please share with your friends:

Rewards For All!

If we reach any of the above goals by November 28, then along with the podcast I will also post the featured song, "My Molecular Eye," as a FREE download for one day!

But wait there's more! If we double any one of these goals, OR if we reach all four goals - I will post the entire Songs From the Science Frontier CD as a free download for one day!!!

Please tell your friends! Thanks!!

Guest Scientist, Dr. Wouter Hoff, Host Monty Harper, Kid Host Liza

Discussing the "script."

Setting up microphones.

Muons, Electrons, and Quarks, Oh My!!

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 21:54:00 -0600

We had a great program Saturday! (I always say that, but it's true.)

My song was called "Quarks and Electrons." Everything we can touch or see in the universe is made of quarks and electrons. Yet that represents only 4% of what we know is out there!

For the first hour Dr. Flera Rizatdinova spoke with us about the Large Hadron Collider - the world's largest machine! - and the Atlas Detector. We also explored the Standard Model of particle physics and learned about some mysteries of the universe such as: What is dark matter? and How do particles get their mass? These are questions the LHC was designed to help answer.

Dr. Rizatdinova describes the superconducting magnets inside the ATLAS detector.

Then we took a break to look for muons! Muons are elementary particles similar to electrons, but heavier. They are formed when high energy protons (cosmic rays) smash into the Earth's upper atmosphere. A shower of particles are created. This is basically the same thing that happens inside the ATLAS detector! Muons happen to live a relatively long time, so they are the ones that make it all the way down to the Earth's surface. There are thousands of muons passing through your body every second. They are way to small for us to see or feel them.

Peering into the cloud chamber looking for muon trails!

So if they are too small to see, how were we looking for them? With a detector of our own - a cloud chamber. This is a tank filled with alcohol vapor. The vapor is cooled at the bottom of the tank by dry ice until it's almost ready to condense. The cooled vapor is so unstable that a muon passing through it triggers the condensation. What you see then is a cloud of alcohol droplets. Each cloud appears spontaneously, taking the shape of the path of the muon that triggered it - usually a straight line - then drifting to the bottom of the tank.

It takes a while for your eyes to adjust their focus to the right area of the tank, near the bottom.

We could see two or three events happening every second or so!

It isn't hard to make your own cloud chamber. You can find instructions on YouTube.

After our break, for those who were interested in learning more, Dr. Rizatdinova spoke about her particular role in the LHC and the research that's being done there. The ATLAS detector is like a giant camera that records each proton collision, tracking all the hundreds of particles that fly out. There are about six hundred million collisions per second to record, and the data fills 15 million gigs of hard drive space every year!

Dr. Rizatdinova's team designed a piece of electronics that converts electric signals from passing particles into light, which is piped out of the detector in fiber optic cables and then converted back to electric signals. Why is this necessary? There are 80 million channels of data coming out of each pixel module! If these were each carried out by wire, well you can imagine the mess - there isn't room for it!

Dr. Rizatdinova's team also wrote the software to interpret these signals, determining whether top quarks are present. Top quarks are heavy particles that might indicate the presence of a Higg's Boson.

The Higg's Boson is one of the reasons the LHC was built. It's the last of the fundamental particles in our Standard Model of the universe that hasn't actually been observed yet. If it really exists, as we think it does, the LHC will find it. The Higg's is important because it is thought to explain how particles get their particular masses.

Here's how the searching works. The LHC accelerates protons to very close to the speed of light and then smashes the together and records all the particles that come out. Even though protons are relatively lightweight, much heavier particles can pop out when you collide them at such high energies. This is due to the conversion of that energy into mass.

The heavy particles that are formed don't stay around very long at all - nearly instantly they decay into a shower of smaller particles, which also decay into showers and on down the line. The detector isn't fast enough to actually "see" a Higg's Boson before it decays, but it can see the top quarks and other particles that it decays into. If the right pattern is detected, we'll know the Higg's was there!

As I said, it was a great program! Everybody's head got stretched a bit, and many great questions were asked. As I reminded the audience several times, it's natural to have trouble picturing all this! Sub-atomic particles are unlike anything in our human-scale experience. Even particle physicists have trouble visualizing what's going on down there in the quantum world! I sure enjoy trying, though, and I think the kids yesterday did as well.

Our next program is about something almost as difficult to fathom: Teenager Psychology!! Please join us December 17!

Pieces of Protons - Coming Saturday 11/19/11

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:38:00 -0600

The proton-accelerating tube underground
at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

Howdy friends! I've been looking forward to this coming Saturday's program for a long time! Here is the official description, then I'll tell you more about why I'm so excited...

Ramping Up the World's Greatest Physics Experiment

Dr. Flera Rizatdinova from the Oklahoma State University Department of Physics will speak about her work on the ATLAS detector at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The ATLAS is a marvel of technology built to explore dark matter, gravity, the standard model, and other deep mysteries of the universe!

We will be talking about the fundamental building blocks of the universe! Did you know that everything you see and feel around you is basically made out of super tiny particles called quarks and electrons? Those are two of the fundamental particles that make up our Standard Model of the universe.

Dr. Rizatdinova was kind enough to drive all the way to Texas and back to pick up a piece of equipment called a cloud chamber that detects other fundamental particles called muons. Muons are similar to electrons. They are generated by cosmic rays and they are zipping around us all the time - we just can't see them.

But when they zip through the cloud chamber - we will see their trails!

That's one reason I'm so excited. Another is that the ATLAS detector and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are FAMOUS!! If you listen to any science news then you will hear them mentioned a lot.

The ATLAS is like a gigantic microscope, for looking at the tiniest things! And it's the world's largest physics experiment!

There are several new things physicists might discover with the ATLAS. One of them is the famed Higg's Boson, which is the last missing piece in our Standard Model of the universe. If they find it, we'll have a complete understanding of how the universe is put together. If they don't, then our Standard Model is wrong, and we'll have to come up with a new one to explain how things work.

Either way is exciting! And the Higg's could literally be discovered any day now. So we are witnessing history in the making!

I've been studying particle physics to get ready for this program, and let me tell you, it's weird! If you don't understand everything on Saturday, don't feel bad. Even the physicists who study this stuff don't really quite understand it. But that's what makes it so much fun!

If you want to prepare for Saturday, here are some websites to visit. In fact PLEASE visit these sites and learn all you can! I think you'll enjoy them...

CERN

The Particle Adventure

Have fun exploring and I'll see you Saturday, 10:00 AM at the Stillwater Public Library!

The Intrepid White-Footed Mouse

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 23:05:00 -0600

Dr. Karen McBee is an environmental toxicologist at OSU. She and her students study the area of Northeast Oklahoma known as Tar Creek, a superfund site where 100 years or so of mining left huge piles of chat everywhere. (See the previous post!)

The basic question she asks is, how does this affect the wildlife?

We began the program with a new song, as usual - "What Goes On?" which asks:

What goes on - after we’ve left such a mess?

What goes on - how does nature handle stress?

Humans come to alter every corner of the land

Yet we rarely come to understand

Once we're gone, what goes on?

Then we learned some background about the Tar Creek site and the animals that live there, and animals that live in nearby less altered habitats. We talked about different tools and methods scientists use to study populations in the wild. Then I asked the kids to think about what kind of research questions they might ask.

We had so many great questions and ideas that the conversation went long beyond our usual ending time. I think everyone enjoyed speculating about why the white-footed mouse is so adept at living in the affected area, while other small rodents have disappeared, and thinking of ways to try to figure it out.

Photos below...

Dr. Karen McBee, Curator of Vertebrates with the Department of Zoology at Oklahoma State University.

Voucher specimens from the collection.

Thinking!

Gathering round to see the mice!

Hands on!

The Intrepid White-Footed Mouse

btds@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:16:00 -0500

Coming this Saturday, October 15!

The Intrepid White-footed Mouse

How Toxic Waste Affects Animal Populations and Diversity

Dr. Karen McBee, Curator of Vertebrates with the Department of Zoology at Oklahoma State University, will speak about her research into what makes some animal species more resilient than others at the Tar Creek Superfund Site.

Here's a view of Picher, OK from the air - all those white blotches are mounds of chat left over from 100 years of lead and zinc mining! During our program you'll get to think like a scientist and help design a study to try and understand how area wildlife is affected by this.

See you Saturday!

Dr. Karen McBee

The White-Footed Mouse

These voucher specimens are a research tool that allows biologists to compare populations in the wild with animals from different times and places.

The mammal collection is getting a new home! The mice were still packed away when I visited, but Dr. McBee will bring some samples for us to look at on Saturday.

This was one huge armadillo - see the pen by its tail? That gives you an idea of its size!