Recently in Science and Reality Category

The Big Picture has a series of 17 photos from around the world taken before and during Earth Hour on this past Saturday. It is really cool because when you click on the "before" photo, it fades to the "after" version. Pretty impressive stuff!

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Today is, of course, Earth Hour, so I do hope you plan to participate and turn off those lights for an hour beginning at 8:30. Over 300 U.S cities, including Salt Lake, are pledged to participate, four states have now signed on (Arkansas, California, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania), plus buildings and landmarks across the country (Empire State Building, National Cathedral, Sears, Salt Lake Temple, Gateway Arch, the Golden Gate Bridge, and many more). Though there is nothing formal planned, here at the park we have an astronomy night planned and the topic of the preceding program will be on climate change. I'll be at home listening to an audio book by candlelight, just as I did last year.

If you're in a bigger city that is participating and the lights go down in your neighborhood you should check and see if maybe you can't see a few more stars out. Of course, part of the motivation behind Earth Hour is to raise awareness on the issue of Global Climate Change, a topic which, just this week, I found some additional news feeds that deal with this very topic. We can use that information to contribute to our discussions on matters of science and today is a good day to get started. A couple of these news items on climate change are from several weeks ago, but still pertinent and just may be "news" to you. In "celebration" I've also added a new widget near the bottom of the far right column that will show an interesting climate related fact every time you visit (or refresh the page).

The first is about a report from Audubon released back in February summarizing some of the data from Christmas Bird Counts over the past 40 years. The data shows a rather dramatic shift with some 305 species wintering farther to the north an average of 35 miles/56 km. At over 300 mi/500 km, Red-breasted Mergansers and Purple Finches have moved the most. In the case of the merganser, of course, they can't remain farther north if there isn't open water . . .

Butcher and his colleagues drew on data from the Christmas Bird Counts, a 109-year-old tradition in which birders brave whatever winter throws at them to visit predetermined sites where they record all the species they can find during a 24-hour period. In recent years, more than 50,000 volunteers have turned out for the count at some 2,000 locations across the continent. Such citizen science efforts offer a way to grasp broad trends, says conservation biologist Stuart Butchart of BirdLife International, headquartered in Cambridge, England. "The strength of this study is that it's looking at a broad range of species across a large geographic area," he says. "It's the overall pattern that's important and should be raising alarm bells."

I mentioned Science News' regular feature Science for Kids in the first in this series of posts and they have one on eating a greener diet that may be of interest to adults, too (the "adult" version of this article is online, too). Of the different kinds of meat we consume, beef contributes - by far - more in the way of greenhouse gases that either chicken or pork. The cows themselves produce copious amounts of methane, one of the worst greenshouse gases, as they digest the food they eat. Ulf Sonesson of the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology in Goteborg, Sweden points out that a single half-pound burger contributes more that 19 times its weight in carbon dioxide to the atmosphere in the process of raising the animal, transporting it to be slaughtered, ground up for consumption, and shipped to you to eat. Chicken and pork production contribute less bad stuff to the atmosphere - in fact, a Canadian scientist is quoted in the article says that if we switched away from beef completely the amount of CO2 would be cut in half. As for me, the main meat in my diet has been chicken for many years, though would I probably be inclined to eat a little more pork but for the other environmental impacts associated with those factory farms, not that there aren't similar bad things with giant chicken farms, too. (I only buy two or three pounds of beef per month and it comes from the store in Panguitch that buys and butchers locally raised cattle.)

Just a reminder that this Saturday is Earth Hour. Click on the banner at right for more information, but the idea is for as many individuals, communities, and businesses to turn off their lights for one hour beginning at 8:30 p.m. In addition to countless individuals, as of this morning over 2,700 cities and towns in 83 countries are participating, including London, Paris, Hong Kong, Sydney, Chicago - even Las Vegas! So join in - you can go dark for an hour!

This biggest news in science this week still has to be the U.S. State of the Birds report I mentioned the other day. One of the interesting aspects of this report is the fact that a lot of the data has come from "citizen science" programs like the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, Cornell's eBird, Great Backyard Bird Count, and Project Feederwatch (Cornell has even more options here), and HawkCount.

Yet another way we can help ornithologists is a new project from the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center's North American Bird Phenology Program. Begun in 1881, the NABPP houses some 6 million data cards on migration patterns and populations of birds. They are currently seeking volunteers to, first, help scan the cards (for those who live in the Baltimore & Washington area) and, second, enter the data into their computer to create a computer database (you can live anywhere). If you are interested in assisting with this project, you can sign up here.

There's so much more we can do as well. Put up feeders, bird baths, and nesting boxes to support the birds in your neighborhood. To help protect forest birds use recycled paper for copiers and printers, then be sure to switch to "green" paper towels and toilet tissue. For the aridland species do I like I did and cut down on the beef, since so much of that habitat is being destroyed by cattle (besides, there's nothing like going for a walk out in the wilderness to look for birds and encountering giant piles of excrement they've left behind).

I may make this a semi-regular feature about some of the interesting, exciting, and sometimes scary or disappointing news and information from the world of science. So much of what I read  deals with science-related stuff that I get from books, news sites, and blogs. I have long been fascinated by our expanding knowledge, and it is one of the reasons I avoid network television and primarily watch things like Richard Attenborough's Life in the Undergrowth on Science Channel a couple of nights ago (Cool! All about insects and spiders!) .

So here we are, February 12, 2009, and the bicentennial of the births of two of history's more significant people, Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. When I was growing up, Abe had his own day - we got the day off from school - until they decided to lump all of the president's together in one holiday. Mr. Lincoln would certainly near the top, if not at the top, of virtually any list of "greatest U.S. President's" for his achievements. But to be honest, I would expect that on a trip around the internet, and especially the "blogoshpere", you will probably find more written today about Mr. Darwin.

You could start with today's Google logo.

Charles Darwin is being celebrated around the globe for his contributions to biology, the Darwin Day website lists over 650 events in 44 countries. There have been countless newspaper and magazine articles, several TV specials (3 on Science Channel tonight), some podcasts (here and here, for example), and there will be, I'm sure, thousands of blog posts (not unlike this one).

Why celebrate Darwin? I think, at least in part, it has to do with the fact that he has become the "whipping boy" of choice for the "creationist" crowd. Why not revile Charles Lyell, the geologist who told the world in the 1830's that our planet was more than 6,000 years old (a folly based on nothing more that the OT "begats" tallied up by a 17th Century bishop). It really is probably because evolutionary theory takes away the conceited view that we humans are special in the universe, something that geology really doesn't do.

Darwin didn't have everything right, but his work inspired thousands of biologists over the past 150 years (this year is also the sesquicentennial of the publication of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection). Darwin knew nothing of DNA, yet the science of genetics expands and improves upon his original ideas. Paleontologists, despite the rants and raves of creationists, have found numerous transitional fossils (extensive discussion here).

Remember: "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution" (Dobzhansky, 1973).

For the rest of the day I am personally going to celebrate the wonder and awe of this world, and, in fact, the entire universe, made all the more amazing to me by the work of people like Charles Darwin. (I'd celebrate by going birding if I could, but work and the heavy snow falling right now are getting in the way.)

Happy Darwin Day!

(My rant is below the fold, if you dare)

I took this photo about 10 minutes ago, from inside my trailer. It has been snowing steadily since early this morning and, while putting the finishing touches to a new evening program in the works, it got really dark. And the wind started blowing. I grabbed my camera and took a shot.

How's that song start? Something like "The weather outside is frightful"? (Wrong season, I know . . .)

While I was out shoveling earlier - trying to stay ahead a little - I did see a Pygmy Nuthatch flitting around. Only bird I'll see today, probably  Nope, just saw a Bald Eagle fly right over my place.

In other stuff, there's a Facebook group working toward getting 200,000 "Happy Birthday" wishes to Charles Darwin. They're up over 135,000 now with three days to go, so if you do the Facebook thing and haven't already, head on over and sign on. (I actually just joined FB last week; don't know why, really, but I'm there - late to the party, as usual.)