A custom-crafted wetsuit may have helped Pierre the African penguin, seen here, recover from a bout of baldness.
Biologists at the California Academy of Sciences commissioned the gear after Pierre began shedding his insulating, waterproof feathers, leaving him with an embarrassingly exposed behind.
Unwilling to plunge into the academy's penguin tank, Pierre ended up shivering on the sidelines while his 19 peers played in the water.
"He was cold; he would shake," said Pam Schaller, a senior aquatic biologist at the academy.
When a heat lamp failed to help, Schaller turned to Oceanic Worldwide, a supplier of dive gear based in San Leandro, California.
"We were really excited to do it," said Teo Tertel, company marketing specialist. "We heard most of these penguins only live to 20, and our little buddy there was already 25. Anything we could do to help them, we were all for it."
One concern was that the other penguins would reject Pierre in his new duds, which fastens with Velcro at the back, covers Pierre's torso, and has small openings for his flippers. But in fact, they accepted his sleek new look.
In the six weeks he has been using the suit, Pierre has gained weight, grown back feathers on his hind parts, and is again acting like his feisty, alpha-male self.
Schaller can't say for sure whether the wetsuit allowed Pierre to recover, but "certainly we were able to keep him comfortable during a period of time that would have been very difficult for him to stay comfortable."
With his plumage restored, Pierre is being now weaned off the suit.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Friday, May 9, 2008
News; Flowers' "Wave" At Passing Insects
Flowers "wave" at insects to get their attention, scientists have discovered.
The finding helps explain why many flowers waft in the breeze, and reveals a hitherto unknown trick used to attract pollinators.
Scientists made the discovery while studying common wildflowers known as sea campion on the Welsh coast.
Mobile flowers are visited more often by insects and also produce more seeds, they report in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
Moving flowers also attract a wider variety of insect species than more static blooms.
For years, biologists have known that flowers use striking colours, fragrances, elaborately shaped petals and nectar to attract pollinating insects such as bees and flies.
Yet no-one had ever seriously considered whether wafting in the wind acted as a similar signal.
Beachside inspiration
"I was lying on the beach watching flowers wave in the wind at my daughter's birthday party, and I wondered why they have stalks and risked getting damaged in such an exposed habitat," recounted John Warren from the University of Aberystwyth.
Only flowers that wobble the right amount are successful in setting seeds
John Warren
So he looked at what research had previously been done, and found very few answers.
"The only reference I found to motion in attracting pollinators says it's unlikely to be important, because insects are not good at detecting movement; which is clearly rubbish."
To find out more, Dr Warren and colleague Penri James experimented with sea campion (Silene maritima) growing on an exposed coast within a Site of Special Scientific Interest in Cardigan Bay in west Wales.
They observed 300 specially grown flowers of varying stem lengths, recording how much each flower moved in the wind, how often it was visited by insects and for how long, and how many seeds it went on to produce.
Their experiments reveal that flowers mounted on long, thin stalks move around more in the wind.
This acts as a powerful signal to passing pollinators, allowing the plant to attract more insects than less mobile flowers growing atop short, thick stems.
"We found wavy flowers are more visible to insects, and thus attract more pollinators and set more seeds," said John Warren.
But flowers ultimately face an evolutionary trade-off, he believes.
"Short, fat-stalked flowers don't wobble enough and are less attractive to pollinators; yet very wobbly flowers are just too wobbly for the insects to handle, as the insects cannot land on them.
"Only flowers that wobble the right amount are successful in setting seeds."
The finding helps explain why many flowers waft in the breeze, and reveals a hitherto unknown trick used to attract pollinators.
Scientists made the discovery while studying common wildflowers known as sea campion on the Welsh coast.
Mobile flowers are visited more often by insects and also produce more seeds, they report in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
Moving flowers also attract a wider variety of insect species than more static blooms.
For years, biologists have known that flowers use striking colours, fragrances, elaborately shaped petals and nectar to attract pollinating insects such as bees and flies.
Yet no-one had ever seriously considered whether wafting in the wind acted as a similar signal.
Beachside inspiration
"I was lying on the beach watching flowers wave in the wind at my daughter's birthday party, and I wondered why they have stalks and risked getting damaged in such an exposed habitat," recounted John Warren from the University of Aberystwyth.
Only flowers that wobble the right amount are successful in setting seeds
John Warren
So he looked at what research had previously been done, and found very few answers.
"The only reference I found to motion in attracting pollinators says it's unlikely to be important, because insects are not good at detecting movement; which is clearly rubbish."
To find out more, Dr Warren and colleague Penri James experimented with sea campion (Silene maritima) growing on an exposed coast within a Site of Special Scientific Interest in Cardigan Bay in west Wales.
They observed 300 specially grown flowers of varying stem lengths, recording how much each flower moved in the wind, how often it was visited by insects and for how long, and how many seeds it went on to produce.
Their experiments reveal that flowers mounted on long, thin stalks move around more in the wind.
This acts as a powerful signal to passing pollinators, allowing the plant to attract more insects than less mobile flowers growing atop short, thick stems.
"We found wavy flowers are more visible to insects, and thus attract more pollinators and set more seeds," said John Warren.
But flowers ultimately face an evolutionary trade-off, he believes.
"Short, fat-stalked flowers don't wobble enough and are less attractive to pollinators; yet very wobbly flowers are just too wobbly for the insects to handle, as the insects cannot land on them.
"Only flowers that wobble the right amount are successful in setting seeds."
Today In History; First flight of The Hindenburg
1936: A German zeppelin called the Hindenburg made its first transatlantic flight between Europe and the United States in 1936. Named after the late German president, Paul von Hindenburg, the airship was the largest ever made. Built by the Zeppelin Company and filled with hydrogen, it was luxurious indeed, with two decks spanning the entire width of the ship. Ironically, after at least ten crossings in 1936, its first trip of the 1937 season ended in disaster when the Hindenburg burst into flames as it landed in Lakehurst, New Jersey, on May 6, 1937 - just three days before the first anniversary of its maiden flight. Of the ninety-seven passengers on board, sixty-two lived to tell the tale.
Word of The Day
Chockablock: Brought close together; very full.
Sentence:
When we got to the destination, our briefcae was chockablock.
Sentence:
When we got to the destination, our briefcae was chockablock.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
News; Letterboxing
Dorrie McQuaid, 16, walks along a hiking trail on St. John, an island in the U.S. Virgin Islands where her family is on vacation. She asks her mom to give her the next clue.
Looking carefully at the piece of paper in her hand, her mother reads out loud: “Shiver me timbers and pieces of eight, continue the trail and speed up the rate! Pass the mammee apple tree on your right, get to the high ground and keep the cacao tree in sight.”
“What’s a mammee apple tree?” Dorrie wonders out loud, before spotting a small sign that identifies it. After a few minutes more they’re in front of yet another tree and reading the last of the directions: “Keep your back to the tree and take four paces off the trail.”
After taking four steps, Dorrie looks down at a pile of stones. Digging in carefully, she calls out, “There it is!” It is a plastic box, carefully wrapped in plastic bags to keep rain and bugs out.
The McQuaids are letterboxing, a fun outdoor activity that sends people peering into all kinds of places in search of letterboxes. “Letterbox” is the term used for a mail box in England. Modern letterboxing probably has roots in the 1850s, when an English man left cards in a bottle with a note inviting others to do the same. Pretty soon people began leaving messages or letters for other folks passing by to find.
Modern letterboxes are plastic boxes instead of a bottle. Here’s how it works: Someone hides a box, maybe under a log in the forest or tucked into a crack in an old stone wall. Inside the box, the hider places a rubber stamp and a notebook. Letterboxers post clues about how to find the box on websites like www.letterboxing.org/kids.
When you are ready to go letterboxing, have an adult go online and search for boxes by location—in your neighborhood or home town, or in a place you are going to visit. The boxes are all across the U.S. and in many other countries.
As you head out to find the letterbox, take along the clues you printed out from the Internet, a pen or pencil, a notebook, and a rubber stamp. Don’t forget the usual hiking supplies: water, bug spray, and sunscreen!
When you find a box, open the notebook you find inside. Dorrie says it is fun to see who has been there before you and where they live. (Remember to be secretive if other people are nearby; if they don’t know about letterboxing, they might take the box away).
Write your name, hometown, the date, and a short note in the log book. Don’t forget to make your mark with your own rubber stamp. (Look for a library book that explains how to design and make your own stamp!)
Then take the special stamp from inside the box and make a print it in your own notebook. Collecting as many stamps in your notebook as possible is a big part of the fun. Then wrap the box up carefully and return it to its hiding place for the next letterboxer to find.
Dorrie, who found another box on St. John hidden in an old stone wall, says, “I would definitely do it again. I’m a big mystery solver—I love reading mysteries and solving problems. Letterboxing is—and it’s not like your basic tourist thing. I always like the chance to do something different!”
Looking carefully at the piece of paper in her hand, her mother reads out loud: “Shiver me timbers and pieces of eight, continue the trail and speed up the rate! Pass the mammee apple tree on your right, get to the high ground and keep the cacao tree in sight.”
“What’s a mammee apple tree?” Dorrie wonders out loud, before spotting a small sign that identifies it. After a few minutes more they’re in front of yet another tree and reading the last of the directions: “Keep your back to the tree and take four paces off the trail.”
After taking four steps, Dorrie looks down at a pile of stones. Digging in carefully, she calls out, “There it is!” It is a plastic box, carefully wrapped in plastic bags to keep rain and bugs out.
The McQuaids are letterboxing, a fun outdoor activity that sends people peering into all kinds of places in search of letterboxes. “Letterbox” is the term used for a mail box in England. Modern letterboxing probably has roots in the 1850s, when an English man left cards in a bottle with a note inviting others to do the same. Pretty soon people began leaving messages or letters for other folks passing by to find.
Modern letterboxes are plastic boxes instead of a bottle. Here’s how it works: Someone hides a box, maybe under a log in the forest or tucked into a crack in an old stone wall. Inside the box, the hider places a rubber stamp and a notebook. Letterboxers post clues about how to find the box on websites like www.letterboxing.org/kids.
When you are ready to go letterboxing, have an adult go online and search for boxes by location—in your neighborhood or home town, or in a place you are going to visit. The boxes are all across the U.S. and in many other countries.
As you head out to find the letterbox, take along the clues you printed out from the Internet, a pen or pencil, a notebook, and a rubber stamp. Don’t forget the usual hiking supplies: water, bug spray, and sunscreen!
When you find a box, open the notebook you find inside. Dorrie says it is fun to see who has been there before you and where they live. (Remember to be secretive if other people are nearby; if they don’t know about letterboxing, they might take the box away).
Write your name, hometown, the date, and a short note in the log book. Don’t forget to make your mark with your own rubber stamp. (Look for a library book that explains how to design and make your own stamp!)
Then take the special stamp from inside the box and make a print it in your own notebook. Collecting as many stamps in your notebook as possible is a big part of the fun. Then wrap the box up carefully and return it to its hiding place for the next letterboxer to find.
Dorrie, who found another box on St. John hidden in an old stone wall, says, “I would definitely do it again. I’m a big mystery solver—I love reading mysteries and solving problems. Letterboxing is—and it’s not like your basic tourist thing. I always like the chance to do something different!”
Today In History; China Cedes Formosa (Taiwan) To The Japanese
1895: Although the question of who owns Taiwan, the island off the southeast coast of China, remains current to this day, it is not a modern problem. Foreign nations seeking empires, trade, and strategic military location have been wrangling over its possession for years. Ruled by the Dutch throughout most of the 1600s, in 1683 the Manchu dynasty regained control of the territory they called "land of rebellion and unrest" for its fiercely independent attitude. After a war with the Japanese, China conceded the island to their enemy "in perpetuity" in 1895. Perpetuity, however, did not last very long. With the defeat of the Japanese at the end of World War II, Taiwan was again made the property of China - that is, of Nationalist leader President Chiang Kai-shek. With the Communist Revolution of 1949 on mainland China the fate of Taiwan remained up in the air as it does to this day. Mainland China has threatened military action against the territory it considers its own, while the independent Taiwanese continue to thrive economically.
Word of The Day
Scavenger: One who collects or salvages garbage or junk. An organism that typically feeds on refuse or carrion.
Sentence:
They once volunteered as a scavenger for Earth Day.
Sentence:
They once volunteered as a scavenger for Earth Day.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
News; Having Down Syndrome: What's It Like?
Text By Melissa Riggio, a teenage girl with Down Syndrome.
When I first started to work on this story, I thought maybe I shouldn’t do it. I thought you might see that I have Down syndrome, and that you wouldn’t like me.
My mom thinks that’s silly. “Have you ever met anyone who didn’t like you because you have Down syndrome?” she asks me. She’s right, of course. (She usually is!)
When people ask me what Down syndrome is, I tell them it’s an extra chromosome. A doctor would tell you the extra chromosome causes an intellectual disability that makes it harder for me to learn things. (For instance, some of my classes are in a “resource room,” where kids with many kinds of learning disabilities are taught at a different pace.)
When my mom first told me I had Down syndrome, I worried that people might think I wasn’t as smart as they were, or that I talked or looked different.
I just want to be like everyone else, so sometimes I wish I could give back the extra chromosome. But having Down syndrome is what makes me “me.” And I’m proud of who I am. I’m a hard worker, a good person, and I care about my friends.
A Lot Like You
Even though I have Down syndrome, my life is a lot like yours. I read books and watch TV. I listen to music with my friends. I’m on the swim team and in chorus at school. I think about the future, like who I’ll marry. And I get along with my sisters—except when they take my CDs without asking!
Some of my classes are with typical kids, and some are with kids with learning disabilities. I have an aide who goes with me to my harder classes, like math and biology. She helps me take notes and gives me tips on how I should study for tests. It really helps, but I also challenge myself to do well. For instance, my goal was to be in a typical English class by 12th grade. That’s exactly what happened this year!
But sometimes it’s hard being with typical kids. For instance, I don’t drive, but a lot of kids in my school do. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to, and that’s hard to accept.
Dream Job: Singer
I try not to let things like that upset me and just think of all the good things in my life. Like that I’ve published two songs. One of my favorite things to do is write poetry, and this singer my dad knows recorded some of my poems as singles.
Right now someone else is singing my songs, but someday, I want to be the one singing. I know it’s going to happen, because I’ve seen it. One day I looked in the mirror, and I saw someone in my head, a famous person or someone who was somebody, and I just knew: I will be a singer.
It’s true that I don’t learn some things as fast as other people. But that won’t stop me from trying. I just know that if I work really hard and be myself, I can do almost anything.
See Me
But I still have to remind myself all the time that it really is OK to just be myself. Sometimes all I see—all I think other people see—is the outside of me, not the inside. And I really want people to go in there and see what I’m all about.
Maybe that’s why I write poetry—so people can find out who I really am. My poems are all about my feelings: when I hope, when I hurt. I’m not sure where the ideas come from—I just look them up in my head. It’s like I have this gut feeling that comes out of me and onto the paper.
I can’t change that I have Down syndrome, but one thing I would change is how people think of me. I’d tell them: Judge me as a whole person, not just the person you see. Treat me with respect, and accept me for who I am. Most important, just be my friend.
After all, I would do the same for you.
What is Down Syndrome?
Down syndrome is an intellectual disability that about 5,000 babies in the United States are born with each year. A person with Down syndrome has 47 chromosomes, microscopic structures that carry genetic information to determine almost everything about a person. Most people have only 46 chromosomes. It’s the extra chromosome that can cause certain physical characteristics (such as short stature and an upward slant to the eyes) and speech and developmental delays. Still, people with Down syndrome are a lot like you: They are unique people with strengths and talents.
Would you like to listen to "The Ring," by Melissa? Go to:
http://www1.ndss.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1139&Itemid=233
When I first started to work on this story, I thought maybe I shouldn’t do it. I thought you might see that I have Down syndrome, and that you wouldn’t like me.
My mom thinks that’s silly. “Have you ever met anyone who didn’t like you because you have Down syndrome?” she asks me. She’s right, of course. (She usually is!)
When people ask me what Down syndrome is, I tell them it’s an extra chromosome. A doctor would tell you the extra chromosome causes an intellectual disability that makes it harder for me to learn things. (For instance, some of my classes are in a “resource room,” where kids with many kinds of learning disabilities are taught at a different pace.)
When my mom first told me I had Down syndrome, I worried that people might think I wasn’t as smart as they were, or that I talked or looked different.
I just want to be like everyone else, so sometimes I wish I could give back the extra chromosome. But having Down syndrome is what makes me “me.” And I’m proud of who I am. I’m a hard worker, a good person, and I care about my friends.
A Lot Like You
Even though I have Down syndrome, my life is a lot like yours. I read books and watch TV. I listen to music with my friends. I’m on the swim team and in chorus at school. I think about the future, like who I’ll marry. And I get along with my sisters—except when they take my CDs without asking!
Some of my classes are with typical kids, and some are with kids with learning disabilities. I have an aide who goes with me to my harder classes, like math and biology. She helps me take notes and gives me tips on how I should study for tests. It really helps, but I also challenge myself to do well. For instance, my goal was to be in a typical English class by 12th grade. That’s exactly what happened this year!
But sometimes it’s hard being with typical kids. For instance, I don’t drive, but a lot of kids in my school do. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to, and that’s hard to accept.
Dream Job: Singer
I try not to let things like that upset me and just think of all the good things in my life. Like that I’ve published two songs. One of my favorite things to do is write poetry, and this singer my dad knows recorded some of my poems as singles.
Right now someone else is singing my songs, but someday, I want to be the one singing. I know it’s going to happen, because I’ve seen it. One day I looked in the mirror, and I saw someone in my head, a famous person or someone who was somebody, and I just knew: I will be a singer.
It’s true that I don’t learn some things as fast as other people. But that won’t stop me from trying. I just know that if I work really hard and be myself, I can do almost anything.
See Me
But I still have to remind myself all the time that it really is OK to just be myself. Sometimes all I see—all I think other people see—is the outside of me, not the inside. And I really want people to go in there and see what I’m all about.
Maybe that’s why I write poetry—so people can find out who I really am. My poems are all about my feelings: when I hope, when I hurt. I’m not sure where the ideas come from—I just look them up in my head. It’s like I have this gut feeling that comes out of me and onto the paper.
I can’t change that I have Down syndrome, but one thing I would change is how people think of me. I’d tell them: Judge me as a whole person, not just the person you see. Treat me with respect, and accept me for who I am. Most important, just be my friend.
After all, I would do the same for you.
What is Down Syndrome?
Down syndrome is an intellectual disability that about 5,000 babies in the United States are born with each year. A person with Down syndrome has 47 chromosomes, microscopic structures that carry genetic information to determine almost everything about a person. Most people have only 46 chromosomes. It’s the extra chromosome that can cause certain physical characteristics (such as short stature and an upward slant to the eyes) and speech and developmental delays. Still, people with Down syndrome are a lot like you: They are unique people with strengths and talents.
Would you like to listen to "The Ring," by Melissa? Go to:
http://www1.ndss.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1139&Itemid=233
Today In History; Twenty-Seventh Amendment Ratified
1992: On this day in 1992, Michigan ratified the 27th Amendment to the Constitution. The proposed amendment was 203 years old, having been first proposed as part of the original Bill of Rights. At that time, only six states ratified the amendment while five rejected it. Eighty years later, Ohio dusted it off and ratified it to protest Congressional pay hikes. But again, the other states let it lie for another hundred years, until 1978, when Wyoming, too, made a political statement through ratification. Then, in the early 1980s, a political aide began championing the amendment. In under ten years, it became law with Michigan the final state to ratify. The 27th Amendment prohibits Congress from making changes in Congressional salaries until after the general election.
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