From the Field

“From the Field”

Summer Science

Hemlock Hayden, High Touch High Tech of WNC

As a new Scientist to High Touch High Tech, having the opportunity of engaging and inspiring young minds to think about and get excited about science has been a very new, yet extremely rewarding experience. Not just doing fun experiments themselves but seeing the faces of the students light up just when seeing us enter the building gets me excited to teach even more!

In one particular case this summer, I had the opportunity to go to Emmanuel Lutheran’s Summer Rocks! Camp every day for a full week. Starting off, the kids seemed disheartened that they were going to have to learn more outside of school and during a summer camp, but once we started off with explaining all the cool things scientists do and performing a WOW! experiment, they instantly became engaged and wanted to learn more. After that first visit, the students lit up with excitement, yelling “Yay! Science time!” when I would walk through the door.

 From doing actual chemical reactions to make chalk and slime in programs like “Mystery Science”, to physics and engineering programs dealing with robots and rocket flight in programs like “Flight Command”, each experiment engaged the students more and more and pushed them to think harder about how each experiment worked on a scientific level. After each day, a new student would walk up to me, explaining how the experiments of that day were so fun and interesting to them, and that it made them want to pursue that respective branch of science when they were older.

Moments like these are truly the moments that make me love working as a Scientist for High Touch High Tech. Inspiring the next generation to even be just A LITTLE more interested in general science than they would have been, to me, is extremely important in an ever-changing world. Science doesn’t have to be hard, or scary. As long as you have an interest in it, then science is FUN!

High Touch High Tech is…..Science Made FUN!

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The History Of Sewing Machines

 

Sewing Machines

 

You can trace the origins of sewing all the way back to Central Asia to approximately the year 45,000 BCE. Before sewing, people used strips of furs or animal skins to tie their clothes together, but harsh weather in colder regions caused a search for a better way to keep clothing on. These desperate individuals started by using a sharp stone to pierce a hole in the animal hides, then used their fingers to push thin strips of animal hide through that hole. About 5,000 years after, someone had the idea to put a hole in the tip of this elementary awl so the string could be pulled through with the same motion! Later the first modern needle was invented, most likely carved from bone or ivory, then adapted to cast iron, and finally to sharpened steel needles!

Clothing continued to develop; people began wearing cloth made of yarn instead of animal skins. People began to hand spin yarn using plant, animal, and synthetic fibers into thread, then use this thread to make cloth! After many years of hand spinning yarn, the very first spinning wheel appeared in the 11th century! The spinning wheel was a much more efficient way to spin yarn and became widespread!

Even after the invention of the spinning wheel, making clothing was a lengthy process. It still took a long time to spin the thread, weave the cloth, dye it, and then sew the material into wearable clothing! Each piece of clothing was fitted for a specific person. The women of the family were left the task sewing and mending clothing for their families. When clothing became faded and worn, the cloth would then be re-purposed into quits or other household fabrics!

Making beautiful clothing and fabric became a form of art. Decorative needlework such as embroidery was a highly valued skill, and young women from wealthy families had time to practice and become adept at this delicate task! These women made beautiful tapestries, or a thick fabric decorated with intricate pictures or designs, and they were hung on walls as artwork. Tapestries also served the purpose of keeping the stone floors and walls warmer in the cold winter. Even small tapestries would take several months design and weave, and the larger tapestries could take longer than a year! At the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, there are many tapestries hanging on the walls and decorative sewn carpets on the floors. The home was built back in 1895, and these tapestries and carpets are still on display today!

In the year 1790, Thomas Saint invented the world’s first sewing machine. With the invention of the sewing machine aided by the Industrial Revolution production of textiles left the home and went into factory mills. Huge cotton plantations were located across the southern United States that produced the cotton necessary to make thread, so many of textile mills were established in this area. Cotton needs a long growing season, and the southern climate was prime! The plantations produced so much cotton that the plantation owners were exporting it all over the world! Europe developed their own mills and weaving factories, but cotton crops couldn’t grow successfully due to Europe’s wet climate. Most weaving in Europe was made of a stronger thread called wool, which is collected by shearing sheep! Wars and the Great Depression had an adverse impact on Europe’s ability to produce fabrics.

In 1863, Ebenezer Butterick, an American tailor, and his wife Ellen began to sell tissue paper dress pattern in graded, or sized, patterns. Ellen was frustrated with one sized patterns and wanted a better variety of style and size. They began selling men’s and boy’s clothing patterns, but they were such a huge success that they added women’s and girls clothing patterns in 1866. At the time these patterns cost anywhere from 0.25 to 0.75 cents apiece, which doesn’t seem like much today, but back in these days the average working person made $1 or $2 for a day’s work!

In the early 1900’s, ready to wear fashion became cheap and common. People no longer had to hand-make their clothes and could buy fashionable clothing from the store! Clothing brands, stores, and fashion designers emerged to create and sell this clothing. While many households still have a sewing machine today, it is no longer a necessity to make your families clothing and household materials. Sewing is still seen as art and a form of self-expression today!

Written By: Tammy Ducker
Pic Source: Pixabay.com

Shark Awareness Day

Shark Awareness Day

 

 

Did you know that almost 100 million sharks are killed each year for their fins? That’s just one of the many facts I learned while doing some research on Shark Awareness Day and became aware of exactly what sharks do for our oceans.

 

 

 

Sharks have been around for roughly 400 million years and there are nearly 500 different species of sharks in the world today. They are divided into 8 classifications. Out of 500 species of sharks there are only 3 species of sharks that are responsible for the most human attacks; the great white, tiger, and bull shark. Also, the odds of being attacked by a shark are 1 in 11.5 million! You might have a better chance at winning the lottery!

Sharks have a streamlined body and fins that help swim through water, fast. Their gills take in oxygen directly from the water and they never need to surface to breathe. They also have an outrageous number of sharp teeth that when one is lost a new one grows back.

 

 

Did you know…
– Their noses have a sensory organ on it that picks up electrical signals from its potential prey?
– Their eyes are larger if they live deeper in the water?
– They can sense vibrations?
– They have a two-chambered heart in the shape of a “S” that is in the head region?

Sharks are known to have some of the largest brains of all the fish species and are at the top of the food chain in every part of the ocean. Sharks also play a large role in the ocean’s ecosystem, even more than fish.

They eat everything they can in the ocean, from dead carcasses to sick prey, which helps keep the population healthy. They also keep marine life population at the right size so that one species does not become too populous in the ocean. Through this control, sharks indirectly maintain the sea grass and coral reef habitats as well. If sharks did not play such a vital role, or had a decrease in numbers, or started to become extinct, the oceans would be out of balance.

Shark Awareness Day was designed to provide education and awareness of how important sharks are to the ecosystem of our oceans. These informational programs are here to help people decipher shark myths from facts and identify which organizations you can work with to help make sure sharks avoid extinction!

info@ScienceMadeFun.net

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Pic Source: Pixabay.com
Source: worldwildlife.com

Compost

 

 

For the month of May, we are going to learn how beneficial, interesting, and easy composting can be!  You may ask yourself: what is composting or why is it important? You may also question why we need compost at all? We are going to explore the science behind composting and discover what a useful resource it is! Lastly, we will share exactly how you can make your own compost at home.

What comes to mind when you hear the word, “compost”? Compost is decayed organic matter, which includes a wide range of materials, such as sticks, banana peels, egg shells, coffee grinds, fruits, and vegetables.  Compost does not contain animal products such as meat, fish, butter, cheese, milk, or other fats.  Compost forms naturally and is everywhere! For example: leaves and grass are two organic materials that “break down” or decompose. The rich, dark brown, crumbly soil-like material that results is compost!

Tiny micro-organisms like bacteria, actinobacteria, fungi, Protozoa, and rotifers assist with “breaking down” organic materials to form compost. Earthworms also aid in the conversion of organic materials into compost by ingesting the partially decomposed material. Earthworms aerate the compost by making holes and tunnels too.

Now that you know what compost is, why do you think it is so important? What are its benefits? Composting is a wonderful way for us to help the environment. When trash goes to a landfill, it emits methane gas, a greenhouse gas, that contributes to climate change.  By composting, we reduce this methane gas as well as produce a rich soil that can be used as fertilizer.  Farmers use fertilized soil to increase crop yield.  It retains water better than plain soil thus allowing farmers and gardeners to grow more food with less water. Also, soils that contain lots of decomposed organic matter, like compost, can store more food (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sulfur, and calcium) for the plants to eat.  Composting can help save money on mulch, landscaping bills, trash/disposal services, and can even lower your water bill! How cool is compost?!

One of the best parts about composting is that you can make it right at home! There are so many different items that you can add to your compost pile. You want to make sure that your compost includes a mixture of “green” (Nitrogen heavy) materials and “brown” (Carbon heavy) materials like newspaper, card board, and dead plants.  Be sure to allow your compost pile to have access to sun, shade, movement, and add one tablespoon of water daily.  It will take some time for your pile to turn into soil, but you should notice a change within a few weeks!

Did you ever imagine that compost could be so exciting?  Its significance and benefits make it something fun!  Not only can it serve as mulch, but it can be mixed into soil to make very strong fertilizer! Composting helps save the environment and can even save your family some money. So, what are you waiting for?  Encourage and educate your household on its importance and start composting today!

If Pets Had Thumbs

 

 

Have you ever wondered why we have thumbs? Do you think only humans have thumbs?  What if all animals had thumbs? Our thumbs are an example of an adaptation.  Our hands evolved over time (much like our eyes and other distinct features) to serve a purpose critical to our survival as a species.

Our thumb is what makes our hands so useful and distinct.  It is an opposable thumb, which means it can flex towards our other fingers, allowing us to hold and grasp objects. You can tell it is opposable because you can touch the tip of your thumb to each of your fingertips.  Your cat may have five toes on each paw, but their “thumb” is not in opposition to the other toes meaning your cat can’t grab things like you can. Some cats, called polydactyl cats, have more than 5 toes on their paws!

We evolved to have this type of thumb so that we could pick up and hold tools.  Tools were essential to our survival during our evolution because they helped us hunt, build, protect our families, etc.  Our closest animal relative, the chimpanzee, also has opposable thumbs as well as most ape species. They are able to use rudimentary tools, peel bananas, efficiently climb, and build shelters all thanks to their thumbs!

It isn’t just monkey’s and apes that have opposable thumbs. Koalas, giant pandas, opossum, and frogs in the Phyllomedusa family are some more examples of animals with opposable thumbs.  All these creatures have one thing in common:  they all climb!  Climbing was so important to their survival that the evolution of an opposable thumb was essential.  Having thumbs helps them in a lot of ways. Imagine a panda grasping some bamboo, their main food, and you can see how the thumb benefits them.  Opossums actually have thumbs only on their back feet specifically to help them climb super-fast.  This is helpful for avoiding predators.

Can you imagine what your pets could do if they had thumbs? Instead of fetch, you could play catch with your dog because he would be able to catch and throw! I bet he could turn the doorknob and let himself out in the yard by himself too!  Take a few minutes and imagine what life would be like if all our pets had thumbs! What about the opposite?  Is there anything you would no longer be able to do without a thumb?

 

Color Me Impressed

Color Me Impressed

   

 

 

 

 

 

Look at that isn’t it beautiful!?  How many times have you seen something in nature and been blown away by how gorgeous it is? The sky, a lake, a volcano, and a field covered in crisp, fresh snow are all a feast for the eyes.  All exist in nature with no human intervention; they would be there whether or not we are around to appreciate them.  Nature and the Earth are special, but there are certain things that are on a whole other level and are considered natural phenomena.

A natural phenomenon is something that occurs in nature that is particularly extraordinary or spectacular.  The key thing with natural phenomenon is that it has nothing to do with humans.  Phenomena occur in all areas of the Earth; the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.  Some of the most impressive phenomena also feature incredible colors via different biological and chemical processes.

The geosphere is everything that makes up the various layers of the Earth.  From the top soil in the earth’s crust to the minerals and rock formations deep underground, this area covers everything from sand to land-forms such as mountains and canyons.  There are many notable phenomena in this area, but Yellowstone National Park is a hot bed of geothermal and geological natural phenomena.  Yellowstone is home to a super volcano caldera as well as vast geothermal fields full of geysers and hot mineral springs.

The Yellowstone Caldera is the largest active super volcano on the continent and measures about 34 by 45 miles.  As the name might imply, a super volcano is a large volcano capable of a huge magnitude 8 eruption, which is the very top of the volcanic explosivity index.  The one at Yellowstone has erupted with tremendous force three times in the last two million years.  The caldera looks different from a typical volcano because instead of a mountain-like cone it is a large cauldron-like hollow.  Basically, a large amount of magma erupted over a short period of time causing the surface to collapse downward into the partially empty magma chamber.  It looks like a crater, but it is more of a sinkhole hovering over an active magma chamber. The Yellowstone Caldera’s magma chamber is estimated to be a single connected chamber about 37 miles long, 18 miles wide, and 3-7 miles deep.  The caldera is so large you won’t even realize you are in it when you visit!  It takes up a large chunk of space at the park and features several interesting geological phenomena including mineral hot springs and geysers.

Within the caldera is an area called the Midway Geyser Basin, which is home to the beautiful Grand Prismatic Spring.  All the vivid colors of the rainbow can be seen here at this bubbling 160 degrees hot, mineral spring. The vivid colors you see are thanks to large colonies of microorganisms around the edges of the mineral-rich water. The colonies produce colors ranging from green to red depending on the season; in summer it is more orange or red and in winter it is a dark green. The center of the pool is a vivid blue because it is super deep and too hot to support life.  All of these elements combine to create a rainbow-like effect from the edge of the spring to the very center.

Another strikingly blue natural phenomenon can be found in the hydrosphere or more specifically the cryosphere.  The hydrosphere contains all the water on earth from salty oceans to fresh water lakes and underground aquifers.  The cryosphere is just the frozen parts of the hydrosphere; glaciers, ice fields, icebergs, etc. Blue ice is a fascinating phenomenon you see in icebergs and glaciers.

Glaciers are made of fallen snow that over many years has been compressed into large, thick ice masses. Most glaciers are found near the poles, but all the continents have glaciers. Each year in areas where the snow never fully melts away, new snowfall is added to the compacted layers, increasing the size of the glacier. Over time as gravity and new snow mass push down on the older layers, there is less and less air in the glacier and more and more ice as the ice crystals grow and push more air out of the ice mass. This is exactly how blue ice forms!

The top layers of ice appear to be white because air bubbles create pockets of space between the water molecules. Deep within the glacier, the pressure causes the air bubbles to be squeezed out, increasing the density of the ice. The molecular bonds in the water molecules stretch and selectively absorb red light leaving behind a vivid blue color.  You can see blue ice when pieces, i.e. icebergs, break away exposing the layers, in a crevasse, or in caverns within the glacier.

Another example of a colorful natural phenomenon can be seen in the atmosphere.  The atmosphere is the envelope of gases surrounding the Earth and is made up primarily of nitrogen and oxygen.  These gases regulate the Earth’s climate and allow us to live and breathe. If you’ve ever traveled somewhere close to the arctic circle or Antarctica you’ve probably seen the phenomenon known as the northern lights or aurora borealis.

The aurora borealis is a natural light display that you can see if you travel to either pole on Earth.  The pattern of lights is created by the interaction between Earth’s magnetic field, gas elements in the atmosphere, and highly charged electrons from solar wind.  The ionization and excitation of particles in the Earth’s atmosphere creates the wavy patterns whose color depends on the elements that are reacting. This happens in the Arctic and Antarctic because that is where Earth’s magnetic poles are located.  Nitrogen and oxygen in the lower atmosphere produce the most common aurora borealis color of green, but there are also pink, purple, yellow, and blue patterns depending on where and what is reacting!

All three of these are impressive examples of natural phenomena that occur in far-flung parts of the world.  You don’t have to travel far to see other examples of phenomena though. Thunder, fog, rainbows, ocean currents, erosion, and gravity are all examples of natural phenomena that you might experience in your own backyard.

You can create your own science painting of the aurora borealis with our at-home experiment!

Picture Sources: wikimedia.com
Sources: wikipedia.com
Sources: https://www.nps.gov

What’s That Smell?

 

What’s that Smell?

A stinky smell usually means something is wrong – food’s gone bad, something is dead, someone needs a bath. Yet in the plant world, a stinky smell can be a good thing.  Smelling super gross helps certain plants spread their pollen and seeds, which successfully creates the next generation for their species.

What is pollination and pollinators? How do plants attract them?

Pollination is the process by which a plant produces more plants for the next generation via the transfer of pollen.  Plants produce flowers specifically, so they can spread pollen, create seeds, and grow more plants!  Pollinators play a key role in the plant lifecycle. Some common pollinators include: bees and wasps, bats, moths and butterflies, hummingbirds, and flies and beetles.

Over time some plants have evolved attributes whose sole purpose is attracting a specific type of pollinator.  For instance, some plants have white, fragrant flowers that attract bats and moths at night. Other plants have bright red tube-like flowers that attract hummingbirds. Some flowers even have special patterns that show up in UV light that guide bees and butterflies straight to them.

Strangest of all are the plants that mimic raw meat and smell like dead flesh!  These are particularly attractive to some flies and beetles.

Mimicking Decomposition

What is super gross to you and me is absolutely delicious to these insects.  Their primary role in the ecosystem is to help break down dead things into usable nutrients for living things.  Think of decomposition like recycling; old material gets broken down to create the new.  In exchange for getting this dirty job done, the bugs get food and a safe place to lay their eggs.

Plants are very much a part of the living ecosystem, but some plants tap into decomposition to further their species.  By mimicking dead things, their flowers attract flies and beetles as their pollinators. Some even produce stinky fruit to attract animals to disperse their seeds.

When scientists analyzed the stinky stench of some of these flowers, they found the chemicals dimethyl trisulfide (like stinky limburger cheese), dimethyl disulfide, trimethylamine (rotting fish), isovaleric acid (sweaty socks), benzyl alcohol (sweet floral scent), phenol (like Chloraseptic), and indole (like feces).  That is quite a noseful!

 

Here are some different types of stinky plants:

Corpse Flower (Amorphophallus titanum): Native to the rainforests in Sumatra and Indonesia, corpse flowers draw huge crowds when they are featured at botanical gardens.  People will come from all around to watch the stinky bloom open!

The blooms on this plant are rare, but huge! They often take 7-10 years to produce a single bloom and it has the tallest inflorescence in the world – 10 ft tall!  An inflorescence is a collection of thousands of tiny flowers that together look like a giant flower.  The bloom has a dark red color, which mimic the color and texture of rotting flesh, and has a smell to match! That dead rotten smell attracts flies and beetles, who enter the bloom and pollinate it!

 

Stinking Corpse lily(Rafflesia arnoldii): Another native of the rainforests of Sumatra and Indonesia, the corpse lily is a parasitic plant.  It has no stem, leaves, or roots, but lives inside vines of the genus Tetrastigma.   Its thread-like fibers spread throughout the vines and gather nutrients from its host.

This makes the corpse lily and its flower hard to find because it is only visible when it breaks out of its host to create a bloom.  It starts with a tiny bud on the outside of the vine and over the course of a year a massive flower is produced, which only blooms for a few days. It has the largest individual bloom with the largest one ever recorded at 17 inches in diameter. Its blooms resemble rotting flesh in color and smell and attract beetles and flies.  Once pollinated it creates little round fruits that are consumed by tree shrews thus spreading the seeds.

Octopus Stinkhorn (Clathrus archeri):  It is a type of fungus meaning it reproduces via spores rather than seeds.  This weird looking species proves that even fungi can stink!  This fungus is native to New Zealand and Australia but has traveled the globe and can even be found in California.

When its egg-like sacs rupture, red, tentacle-like fronds emerge that smell strongly of rotting flesh or crabs.  It looks a little like an alien octopus hatching out of the ground!  The smell and appearance attract flies which pick up spores and spread the fungus.

 

Durian Trees

The fruit of this tree rather than the flowers is what stinks and seed dispersal is the stinky mission.  It is native to Southeast Asia and is banned from mass transit and hotels – you will even see “no durian” signs in cities in this part of the world.  There are many different species of durian tree, but universally the fruit they produce smells gross.  A stinky cousin of the cacao tree (aka chocolate), the durian tree produces big spiky fruit with a yellow, creamy, edible fruit inside. Even with the rind intact, the smell of rotting onions, sewage, stinky garbage and other sulfuric smells can reach your nose.  If you can get past the smell, it tastes amazing and is considered the king of fruits.

It smells so strongly to attract orangutans and other creatures to come and eat it, so the seeds can spread.  Think of the smell, like the tree shouting “Come and get my seeds!! Yummy taste inside – I promise!!”

 

Plants are all about the next generation, so spreading their pollen and seeds is a huge driving force in how they look, smell, and grow.  Producing a bloom or fruit takes a lot of energy and time so plants will do whatever is necessary to increase their success.  Even if it means smelling like a rotting corpse!

Resources: Pixabay

That Sounds Funny!

Image source: Pixabay.com

 

Sound is an invisible form of energy generated from vibrations. Sound waves propagate or repeat in a pattern as they travel across mediums.  Sound can travel through air, water, even some solid surfaces like walls.

Make your voice high and then low – did you notice a difference in the vibration? That difference has to do with how fast the vibrations are happening. The speed of the sound wave is the frequency but the sound that frequency produces is called pitch.

When an object vibrates, so does the air around it. Sound and music are parts of our everyday sensory experience. Just as humans have eyes for the detection of light and color, so we are equipped with ears for the detection of sound.

Sound waves go on a bit of a journey for our brains to identify or hear a sound. From the outside of your head sound travels inside your skull before nerve impulses send a message to the brain.

Image source: Pixabay.com
  • Ear lobe: Your ear lobe and outer ear help direct and funnel the sound waves into your ear.
  • Ear Canal: Is a warm, moist, dark tunnel that goes into your head. The sound waves travel down this tunnel.
  • Ear Drum: Is at the end of the ear canal. Scientists call this the tympanic membrane. When the sound waves hit the ear drum it vibrates. Without the ear drum you would not be able to hear!
  • Ossicles: A tiny chain of bones (the smallest in your body). The vibration travels from the ear drum and vibrates this chain of bones (the hammer/malleus, anvil/incus, and stirrup/stapes).
  • Cochlea: Looks like a spiral and the very last bone in the ossicles knocks on the cochlea, which vibrates the liquid inside and translates it into nerve impulses.
  • Auditory Nerve: At the end of the sound’s journey is this nerve. It picks up the vibration information and communicates it to the brain. The brain interprets the information, so you know if a dog is barking, your mom is calling you, or if a train is going by.

Besides our own voices, humans, throughout
history, have created instruments to make sounds and music for enjoyment and
communication. Instruments work by creating vibrations in a variety of
ways.  You can play an instrument by manipulating the pitch or note you
are generating with the instrument.

Image source: Pixabay.com

Basically, instruments create vibrations via
the plucking of strings, hitting a surface (percussion), vibrating air in a
tube (horns), or vibrating a small piece of wood called a reed (woodwinds). You
can see each category expressed in an interesting way in cultures all over the
world.

Image source: Pixabay.com

Join our
HTHT @ Home Science Experiment to make your own harmonica:

https://sciencemadefun.net/downloads/Harmonica-REV-6-28-2018.pdf

Now You See Me, Now You Don’t!

Now you see me, Now you don’t!

Who doesn’t love a good game of hide and seek? Hide and seek happens in nature through adaptations known as camouflage and mimicry. Most of these adaptations have developed over time.  Members of those species who use camouflage or mimicry are more likely to survive, so many species have evolved to use these adaptations.

Camouflage and mimicry sound similar but are quite different. Camouflage helps a creature blend into their environment, so they can be hidden; however, mimicry helps them blend in by standing out.  With mimicry, one creature mimics another to gain an advantage – sometimes this means having the same bright colors or markings.

A great example of camouflage is the octopus.  There are many species of octopus but most of them use some form of camouflage both to hide from predators and ambush their prey.  They have specialized cells called chromatophores that contain pigment or reflect light.  As they move they can rapidly change colors to match their environment.  They can even manipulate the papillae on their skin to change texture and fully blend into their surroundings!  Being an invertebrate cephalopod also means that they can easily adjust their shape to fit into small spaces.

What about predators? Both owls and cheetahs utilize camouflage.  Owls not only visually blend in they also blend in sound wise.  Owls have a specialized rounded wing shape that allows them to fly silently.  This adaptation serves them well because a lot of their prey have very sensitive hearing.  Most owls also have plumage that matches their environment, for example: the great horned owl blends with the bark of a tree; the snowy owl blends into the white snow of the tundra.

Cheetahs use camouflage and mimicry.  The adults with their tawny coats blend into the grass while their spots mimic shadows. It is this appearance that helps to break up the cheetah’s outline making them hard to spot as they stalk their prey.  Young cheetahs have totally different markings to both blend in and use mimicry.  They have a silvery patch of fur on their back that mimics the honey badger, which protects cubs through association, since the honey badger is super aggressive.  Nothing wants to mess with a honey badger!

Mimicry is a very efficient adaptation – by looking like something else, the organism saves energy hiding or fleeing.  Even though a lot of mimics stand out with their markings, they gain the same protection as their inspiration through association.  There are a few different ways that creatures mimic each other, but most are to avoid predation.

In the butterfly world there are many mimics, but the best example is the monarch and viceroy butterflies!  Monarchs are poisonous thanks to the milkweed they consume as larvae.  By mimicking them, viceroy butterflies avoid predation through association.  The interesting thing is both butterflies are poisonous, so this is considered Mullerian mimicry.  The thought is this mimicry evolved simply because it is easier to look alike and avoid predation versus a predator having to learn multiple ways to avoid these and other poisonous butterflies.

Now that you’ve learned all the ways that animals blend in, how would you blend in to your backyard?  Take some time to look around your backyard and see if you can find any hidden creatures.  Being a good copycat pays off in nature!

Join our HTHT @ Home Science Experiment to make you own scavenger hunt binoculars:
https://sciencemadefun.net/downloads/scavenger_hunt.pdf

Your Brain on Video Games

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                 Your brain on video games

Think fast! Your brain is a communication powerhouse! It takes in data, analyzes it, and helps you understand the world around you.  You also move, breath, and live because of the brain. So, what makes your brain tick and what happens when you add outside stimuli – specifically video games?

Think of your brain like an adaptable sponge.  It absorbs information and creates new pathways and skills based off the stimuli. The repetitive practice of a skill grows your brain’s grey matter as new connections are made and neurons fire more messages.  Think of something you do without even thinking – walking, riding a bike, typing on the computer.  All these tasks are things you learned by practicing which lead to your brain creating muscle memory for these actions.  As I sit here typing (not looking, just pressing keys as fast as I can), I think back to the first time I started to learn how to type.  It took time and practice, but now I do it without thinking; my fingers just know where to go to create the words in my head.  That is the defining quality of the brain – its plasticity and adaptability to new information and stimuli.

You can’t talk about the brain without mentioning two of the main chemicals that make all this communication possible – dopamine and serotonin.  They are essential neurotransmitters, which basically means they carry messages to different parts of the brain and body.  For movement, your basal ganglia require the secretion of dopamine, so you can get up and go! Dopamine also stimulates working memory in the pre frontal cortex.  Dopamine has a lot of functions but it’s main role where ever it goes is to stimulate – movement, memory, rewards, pleasure, focus, attention.  Serotonin is dopamine’s partner in crime.  It is another neurotransmitter wrapped up in mood, memory, sleep and cognition. Dopamine is your motivation message, serotonin is the sunshiny feeling you get when reflecting on what you have achieved.  The release of serotonin increases your desire to do an activity because your memory gives you that burst of happiness. Knowing this, you can understand how video games and other technology grab a hold of our brains.

Add video games to the mix and it gets interesting.  There is a lot of research and opinions about video games and the brain, but one thing we can agree on is that these games stimulate the brain!   There have been some studies that suggest that games help us learn and grow grey matter (remember that muscle memory!) and transferable skills, but on the other side is how addictive and, as a result, destructive these games can be.  These games, educational or recreational, tap into the reward center of the brain basically creating a positive feedback loop.  You play the game, dopamine motivates you and excites you. Then, later when you think of the game, serotonin zooms across your brain reinforcing the connection that video game = happy, which in turn leads to an increased desire to play again to relive that feeling.  On ward and round and round – you keep returning to the game to recapture that feeling.

Video game addiction is a real condition.  Imagine all those neurotransmitters firing and that natural high you feel as a result, but you unplug and carry on with life and what you need to do.  Now imagine having to play more and more often to get the same level of happiness and everything – relationships, job, your health – fall by the wayside because you MUST play.  That is the difference where too much video games outweighs the positive benefits and you enter the realm of true addiction.  As you can tell, my opinion is moderation and limits around this type of technology, a little bit is good but too much can have consequences.  An educational game that teaches a child to spell by offering rewards for a job well done is awesome, but when it skews to the other side and effects the wiring of the brain, that is a serious issue.

 

 

Sources:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170622103824.htm
http://www.iflscience.com/brain/playing-video-games-good-your-brain-here-s-how/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mental-wealth/201609/is-your-childs-brain-video-games
http://blog.idonethis.com/the-science-of-motivation-your-brain-on-dopamine/
http://www.iflscience.com/brain/playing-video-games-good-your-brain-here-s-how/