Seymour Simon's Blog, page 71

Teaching the first week of school

In many ways, my year begins with the school year which for me as a student and then a teacher began the first week in September. All the rhythms of my year are tied in with school. I recall how excited I was to meet with the students in my new classes (I usually taught science to either 9th or 7th graders and also had a class with seniors in what the school called “creative writing.”) I remember that by the end of the first week, my voice was hoarse and it would take the weekend to recover. ...

Exciting Discovery in Today's Science News!

A very exciting discovery was announced today at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence, France. Astronomers have detected a planetary system containing at least five - and maybe seven - planets that orbit a star called HD 10180, which is much like our own Sun. They say this is the "richest" system of exoplanets - planets outside our own Solar System - ever found. Up until now, astronomers had known of fifteen systems with at least three planets, but never one that was this similar to ours in...

Follow Your Heart

Happy 90th birthday to Dr. Denton A. Cooley, who was born on August 22, 1920. Dr. Cooley is the heart-transplant pioneer who was also the first surgeon to implant an artificial heart in a human. On April 4, 1969, because no donor heart was available for a dying 47-year-old patient with diseased heart muscle, he implanted a mechanical heart made of silicone as a temporary measure. The experimental artificial heart was usedfor 65 hours, and was removed when a human heart became available. I lo...

Northern Lights Possible This Week

This just in from one of my favorite sites, SpaceWeather.com. A coronal hole on the sun is turning to face Earth. Coronal holes are places in the sun's atmosphere where the magnetic field opens up and allows solar wind to escape. Here is a magnetic map of the hole from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory: The magnetic field lines are color-coded in this very cool image. White lines are closed; they are holding the solar wind in. Golden lines are open; they allow the solar wind out. A stream o...

Meteor Shower - Time Lapse Video

I don't know about you, but many of us here on the East Coast of the U.S. never caught a glimpse of last week's Perseid meteor shower. After all the excitement about what a great year it was going to be for viewing because of the new moon keeping the sky very dark, the weather here was cloudy, and we didn't see a thing. Do not despair! Henry Jun Wah Lee shot this incredible time lapse video from California's Joshua Tree National Park, editing several segments together into a montaged view of...

KIDS TODAY Do a Big Clean Up

Hello fellow Shipmates, Wow! It is mid August already…where has time gone? I never expected this summer to pass by so quickly but at least it has been a summer I will never forget. So what have you guys been up to? Has your summer been a summer you won't forget too? Have you had a chance to do any outdoor activities, like camping or hiking yet? I'd love to hear about it. Or maybe you have gone to a museum, hung out with your Girl Scout or Boy Scout troops or attended a summer camp. If you h...

Watch the Trailer for "Tropical Rainforests"

Seymour Simon's new Collins/Smithsonian book, TROPICAL RAINFORESTS, will be in store on August 24th. And we now have a 90-second video trailer so that you can preview this breathtaking photo essay book. Click here to view and enjoy!Note to Teachers: We are aware that most of you cannot access YouTube in school. We are upgrading the website and within a week we will be capable of hosting Seymour's videos right here so that you can use them with your students. Please bear with us, and we will l...

When Sea Lions Play Tag…..

Our friends David Kleeman and Leslie Hornig recently took a trip to the Galapagos Islands, known for their vast number of wildlife species. Charles Darwin traveled to the Galapagos on the H.M.S. Beagle in 1831, and his field work during that five-year long journey led to his breakthrough thinking on the Theory of Evolution. In fact, it is such a unique place that in 1978 the Galapagos were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, which called the 19 islands and the surrounding marine reserve...

More Evidence of Global Warming

Last week Greenland's Petermann Glacier shed a 100-square-mile chunk of ice, releasing a huge iceberg. Although the glacier has been regularly shedding smaller chunks, this was nearly one-quarter of the entire ice shelf of the glacier. It is the largest piece of ice to detach from an Arctic glacier since 1962 and follows the six warmest months on record. The chunk of ice is four times the size of Manhattan island, and is a possible danger to ships as it drifts into North Atlantic shipping lan...

Plan a Perseid Midnight Brunch!

We keep talking about this week's Perseid meteor shower because this is a particularly good year to see it. There is only a sliver of a moon, so the meteors will really pop against the dark sky. The best time for viewing the show will be the darkest hours before dawn on Friday morning (or very late Thursday night, depending on how you think about it). If the skies are clear where you live, you will be able to see dozens of meteors per hour. It's about the most satisfying amateur astronomy exp...