Seymour Simon's Blog, page 51
June 10, 2011
Video : Magnificent Eruption
The best video of the week has to be the massive solar flare that erupted from the sun on Tuesday morning. Our friends at SpaceWeather.com wrote that "this recording of the blast by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory ranks as one of its most beautiful and dramatic movies (ever)." Click here to see the video. "It looks like someone kicked a clod of dirt in the air," said solar physicist C. Alex Young of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in aYouTube video interview. "I've never seen material released in this way before - an amazing, amazing event." People who live in the northern latitudes may see particularly beautiful auroras (northern lights) this week, as the CME (coronal mass ejection- a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields released into space) makes its way toward Earth. Video:NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory
June 8, 2011
More Wild Animal Spotting
When I saw a wild turkey crossing over the dirt road leading up to my house in the country the other day, I thought of Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States. Why? Because when it came to choosing a symbol of the United States, Ben Franklin thought the wild turkey was a more dignified bird than the bald eagle. I'm not sure if I agree; the bald eagle is magnificent soaring in the sky and I think the turkey looked a bit pompous and stuck-up strutting across my road. But the turkey is a pretty interesting bird. It would rather walk than fly (though it can fly, at least for a minute or two). Seeing a single turkey is rare around here; I usually seem them in flocks of a dozen or more birds. Not to be outdone by a wild turkey, a large snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina)came walking across the same dirt road. I stopped the car to take a picture of the snapper. When I came close, the turtle turned around to face me, snapped and hissed. "OK," I thought. "I'm just looking. Let's part friends!"And I got back in my car and watched the snapper disappear into the undergrowth. There's a stream just nearby the road and I guess that's where the turtle was headed. A snapping turtle has a large head with strong jaws. This one was quite large - I would estimate about 14 inches from its head to the tip of its armored tail.That's about the distance from your fingertips to your elbow. Unlike many other kinds of turtles, the snapper can't withdraw its head into its shell. It relies on its jaws for defense and can bite hard enough to take your finger off. I wouldn't try to pet a snapping turtle, and neither should you! Thinking it over, petting a wild animal is a "no, no" in every case, no matter what. Wild animals are not pets and should not be touched, for your own safety as well as theirs.
June 7, 2011
Lightning Tears the Sky above Chilean Volcano
Today's Cool Photo of the Week is simply incredible. A volcano in Chile erupted this week for the first time in 50 years, and the friction caused between the rising cloud of dust and the air above the volcano created this astounding cloud-to-cloud lightning. This is a massive eruption. Ash has been blown six miles into the sky, 3500 people have been evacuated, airports are closed, and cities in Chile and nearby Argentina are covered with so much ash that it looks as if there has been a snowstorm. Officials say that they can't even tell which one of four volcanoes in the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic chain has erupted, because of all the ash clouding the sky. Chile's chain of about 2,000 volcanoes is the world's second largest after Indonesia. Like Indonesia, Chile is situated on the "Ring of Fire" - the area in the Pacific Ocean that has the strongest geological activity on Earth, including many earthquakes and volcanoes.
June 6, 2011
Guess What? Dogs Drink Just LIke Cats!
One of the most popular posts on the Seymour Science blog this past year was called: DOGS vs CATS: An Experiment. We reported on a study that showed that unlike dogs, who slurp their water and make a mess when they drink, cats drink daintily, using their curled tongue to pull liquid into their mouths in a neat stream. Two scientists at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology decided to study dog drinking habits and see if this is actually true. They found that the way dogs get liquids into their mouths is very similar to what a cat does. And they have an x-ray to prove it! Click here to see an x-ray of a dog drinking.It turns out that dogs, just like cats, form their tongues into a "scoop" to pick up liquids. And also like cats, the liquid sticks to the tongue, forming a stream that is trapped when the animal closes its mouth.So dogs and cats are very much alike, at least when it comes to drinking!To read more about puppies and why they do what they do, download my new eBook, WHY DO PUPPIES DO THAT? You can buy an iPad version in the iTunes store, and it is now also available for the Nook Color. Happy reading!
Guess What? Dogs Drink Just Like Cats!
One of the most popular posts on the Seymour Science blog this past year was called: DOGS vs CATS: An Experiment. We reported on a study that showed that unlike dogs, who slurp their water and make a mess when they drink, cats drink daintily, using their curled tongue to pull liquid into their mouths in a neat stream. Two scientists at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology decided to study dog drinking habits and see if this is actually true. They found that the way dogs get liquids into their mouths is very similar to what a cat does. And they have an x-ray to prove it! Click here to see an x-ray of a dog drinking.It turns out that dogs, just like cats, form their tongues into a "scoop" to pick up liquids. And also like cats, the liquid sticks to the tongue, forming a stream that is trapped when the animal closes its mouth.So dogs and cats are very much alike, at least when it comes to drinking!To read more about puppies and why they do what they do, download my new eBook, WHY DO PUPPIES DO THAT? You can buy an iPad version in the iTunes store, and it is now also available for the Nook Color. Happy reading!
June 4, 2011
Spotting a Tiger in Your Own Home
Well, not exactly a REAL tiger! This beautiful moth that Liz spotted is a member of a large group of moths calledTIGER MOTHS. Tiger moths (their common name) belong to a group of moths namedGrammia,which have dark wings with white stripes and beautiful geometric patterns. Most of these moths have thick furry bodes. When these moths are not flying around, their wings are folded roof-like over their bodies, just as in this photo, which Liz took of a tiger moth on the deck of our country place. The larva (caterpillars) of these moths are calledWooly Bears.Any of my readers have photos of butterflies or moths that YOU took? Send them to me in an email and I'll publish them on my blog for all your friends to see! And the best photos I get may receive a surprise in your mail this summer (I'll notify you about that if you're gonna get one). Be sure to watch for my new book about BUTTERFLIES! It is being published at the end of August.
June 2, 2011
Why Do Puppies…..?
Seymour Simon's new eBook, WHY DO PUPPIES DO THAT?, is now available as an app for the iPad. This "read to me" book is full of fascinating, real information about puppies, and you will also see some of the cutest puppy photographs we could find! It is on sale for $3.99 for this first week in the iTunes app store (through Saturday, June 4). Try it and let us know what you think!
May 31, 2011
Cool Photo : Tadpoles
Seymour was out at the pond this weekend, collecting tadpoles in a jar for our first SUMMER VACATION SCIENCE 2011 project! Watch this space for more on how you can also collect these "pets in a jar" - little swimmer, who are soon to grow legs and turn into frogs!
May 27, 2011
Tears in Space
Did you ever get soap in your eye? It stings like crazy, and all you want to do is rub your eye and wash it out with clear water as quickly as you can.So what happens if you are in the middle of a spacewalk, wearing a helmet that you cannot take off, and you get soap in your eye? Astronaut Andrew Feustel, a mission specialist on the Endeavour crew working at the International Space Station, ran into just that problem yesterday. "My right eye is stinging like crazy now," he radioed. "It's watering a lot." It turned out that the soap-like anti-fogging solution that they spray onto inside of the astronauts' helmets had gotten into his eye. Ouch. No way to reach up and rub your eye if you are floating in deep space! For a few minutes, they thought that they would have to cut the spacewalk short and let him come back inside. Finally, he managed to rub his eye against a foam block in his helmet - normally used for clearing ears - and said that helped. He also noted that tears in space "don't fall off of your eye ... they kind of stay there." Kids (and adults) often wonder about how astronauts take care of simple things like having a drink when liquids float away. Same problem with brushing your teeth, or going to the bathroom. NASA had to figure out how astronauts would accomplish all of these things before we were ever able to send men and women into space. Yesterday's incident was just one more example of things that we handle so easily here on Earth, but can become a real pain (in the eye) in space!Photo: NASA
Happy Summer!
Memorial Day Weekend marks the unofficial beginning of summer here in the U.S. The days are getting longer, school is almost over, and we're all looking forward to swimming, fishing, playing ball, reading for fun and picnics!You can't avoid insects at a Memorial Day picnic, so we've found a Silly Animal Insect Joke just for today. Can you guess the answer? Click here to find out!Have a Silly Summer, everybody!
