We also started making some decorations today. Rather than spending a small fortune on official flags or banners, we decided to do some crafting. We used white, blue and green butcher paper, and a small projector hooked up to a laptop to get the rather complicated Seahawks' logo right.
In the end, we had three nice 3-by-5 foot or so logo posters! They're not perfect, but they'll do for our purposes. :)
JUMPING RIGHT IN: We are starting a new Coursera class next week, and I was going to do a bit of reading up on it when I noticed a listing for a course already underway, "Introduction to Genetics and Evolution."
My immediate reaction was, "Yessssssss!!!!!!!!" because for the past month or so CJ has been asking about 200 questions about genetics a day. I was still laying in bed this morning and he was asking me about canine characteristics and what you get if you mix this and that.
I was a bit worries when I saw the class started a week ago, wondering if we were already too late to jump on board. Lucky for us, the first homework isn't due until this coming Monday, so if we cram hard, I think we can manage to catch up.
The class is through Duke University, and Prof. Mohamed Noor is our instructor. We watched about an hour's worth of educational and engaging videos today, and CJ has already had a BUNCH of his questions answered. Hooray!
One of the things Prof. Noor shared with us today was a 2005 Science magazine survey revealing the USA has one of the highest rates of “disbelief” in evolution, and one of the lowest rates of “belief” that
evolution in a survey of 35 nations. In fact, we ranked 34th out of the 35 when it came to public acceptance of evolution. (About 40 percent of Americans believe in evolution, 40 percent say they don't, and 20 percent aren't sure).
Only Turkey was less accepting of evolution. Iceland, Finland and Sweden were the most accepting of evolution. (More than 80 percent of Icelanders accept evolution as fact.)
As part of the support for evolution, Noor used a quote from Jerry Coyne's "Why Evolution is True." Coyne pointed out that species “seem intricately and almost perfectly designed for living their lives.”
As an example of this, Noor used the story of Lampsilis muscles which live in a Missouri stream grow appendages that look like tiny fish, which attract bass, who want to eat the little 'fish.' The attraction is important because in order to reproduce, the muscles need to spray their young into the bass' mouth, where they live in parasitic fashion. Amazing. You can watch it in action here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0YTBj0WHkU
Clearly, so far, so good on the class. Wish us luck trying to cram two weeks' worth of lectures into the weekend.
In a tangentially related note, we learned about a new-to-us job today - a paleo-artist. Christian found an interview with John Gurche, of the Smithsonian. SUPER interesting! Three minutes well spent, that's for sure. You can watch on National Geographic's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFrRHbgBitI
FROM A DISTANCE: Super cool shot from NASA this week. We've seen hundreds of photos taken by the Mars Science Laboratory since it landed on Mars. But now NASA shares with us a photo taken on Dec. 11, 2013, that is *of* MSL on Mars!
Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
It was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resoluation Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera.
Spot the rover? It's the squarish shape in the lower lefthand corner of the photo. And when you look at Mars' surface, you can see Curiosity's tracks, too! They're about 10 feet (3 meters) apart.
As part of the support for evolution, Noor used a quote from Jerry Coyne's "Why Evolution is True." Coyne pointed out that species “seem intricately and almost perfectly designed for living their lives.”
As an example of this, Noor used the story of Lampsilis muscles which live in a Missouri stream grow appendages that look like tiny fish, which attract bass, who want to eat the little 'fish.' The attraction is important because in order to reproduce, the muscles need to spray their young into the bass' mouth, where they live in parasitic fashion. Amazing. You can watch it in action here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0YTBj0WHkU
Clearly, so far, so good on the class. Wish us luck trying to cram two weeks' worth of lectures into the weekend.
In a tangentially related note, we learned about a new-to-us job today - a paleo-artist. Christian found an interview with John Gurche, of the Smithsonian. SUPER interesting! Three minutes well spent, that's for sure. You can watch on National Geographic's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFrRHbgBitI
FROM A DISTANCE: Super cool shot from NASA this week. We've seen hundreds of photos taken by the Mars Science Laboratory since it landed on Mars. But now NASA shares with us a photo taken on Dec. 11, 2013, that is *of* MSL on Mars!
It was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resoluation Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera.
Spot the rover? It's the squarish shape in the lower lefthand corner of the photo. And when you look at Mars' surface, you can see Curiosity's tracks, too! They're about 10 feet (3 meters) apart.
SPEAKING OF SPACE: This morning we watched a launch. Orbital Sciences' Cygnus capsule was sent soaring on an Antares rocket, destination ISS.
It was a pretty launch, but we noticed the rocket got off the pad relatively slowly. That's because it doesn't have solid rocket boosters, like many of the other rockets/shuttles we have watched launch.
You can see a replay here: http://youtu.be/_ksLbFhO-jc
Cygnus has around 2,500 pounds of cargo on board, including a number of science experiments, one being a crew of "antronauts." Some students on Earth will be studying the behavior of ants by comparing groups living on Earth to those in space.
Love that photo of MSL on Mars. Too cool. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteQ: Will the ants on the ISS age at the same rate as the control group on Earth?