The blog Information is Beautiful is a demonstration of how art and creativity transform dry data into something stunning, attractive, and readily meaningful.

Check out this musical zen planetary interactive.

Solar System Music Box

Or this climate change graphic When Sea Levels Attack.

When Sea Levels Attack

Here’s my favorite of the new posts:

CreatureCast – Multicellularity from Casey Dunn on Vimeo.

It looks like this is the first in an intended series of Creature Casts. I can’t wait to see the future episodes!

CreatureCast Episode 1 from Casey Dunn on Vimeo.

“Sophia Tintori and Alison Sweeney talk about iridescence in squid. Audio production and animations are by Sophia, who normally studies siphonophores in the lab.”

Photo from a post titled "Occupational Hazards"

The Infinite Universe Blog is an engaging and witty site authored by local naturalist and photographer Tim Boyle.

I highly recommend scrolling down and checking out the sidebar section titled “Things kids say to a naturalist…”

Its really interesting to hear so many of the students say they would like to have people with science careers come into the classroom and talk to them about it. It seems like a no-brainer, but we are not doing it enough.

Miss Baker is a biology teacher who’s class has a blog, and who has her own blog about using blogs for science education. Very exciting and inspiring – she is meeting the students where they are and it is obviously engaging them.

I wonder if local nature centers could engage with schools by using blogs/facebook/twitter etc. Maybe they could even partners with a local biology class to set it up and run the blog for a school year, or get a summer intern. If any organizations are interested in this idea and would like some help setting it up, please contact me.

Here is an article from the LA Times about who literally owns the water in California and about the people who collect “someone else’s” water in rain barrels.

Here is a link to a Minnesota blog called CleaningUpTheRiver.com which encourages people to take ownership of local rivers through trash collection. The author marks the location of trash items (tires, safes, etc.) with GPS and then encourges people to go remove it = geo-trashing. Clever, huh?

This is a topic I’ve some professional familiarity with – I spent some time working with the DNR’s Adopt-a-River Program.  Among many different ecological lessons, it was in that position that I learned the Minnesota Governor has a unique contraption at his (and hopefully in the future, her) disposal – a signing machine. Used to imprint the governor’s signature on duplicates – such as Adopt-a-River certificates, it somehow traces the governor’s original signature with a mechanical arm that holds a Sharpie. It works rather slowly and the poor soul assigned to monitoring the process (me) loses a few brain cells and gets a little loopy inhaling the Sharpie fumes. I inquired if some other writing utensil could be used, but was informed that the governor thought that Sharpie was the most “manly.”  If I remember correctly, the machine is the only one like it in the nation.

Aedes triseriatus, Eastern Treehole Mosquito (Larva) by Alex WIld

Science Blogs has added a new science photo blog called Photo Synthesis. The first featured photographer is entomologist Alex Wild.

Project BudBurst

Springtime always peaks my interest in phenology. Recently, I went to a local book seller and inquired if they sold phenology journals, the women at the book store asked if I had looked in the New Age section. Right away I knew her mistake, “Not Phrenology,” I said, “Phenology.”

Here is a list of phenology resources from people and organizations who definitely wouldn’t make the same mistake.

The Minnesota Conservation Volunteer has a great young naturalists article on Phenology, including a teachers guide.

Project BudBurst is “is a national field campaign for citizen scientists designed to engage the public in the collection of important climate change data based on the timing of leafing and flowering of trees and flowers. ”

The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service’s extensive phenology page.

John Latimer, of Grand Rapids, hosts an interesting phenology radio series with the MP3s available on his website.

Red Wing Nature Notes is group blog which holds true to its name.

And the Star Tribune reports that this week the first barge plowed upstream through the ice at Lake Pepin.

Volcano erupting - image via the Eruptions Blog

As you may now be noticing, there are two very non-Minnesota natural topics that I am enthusiastic about: volcanoes and ocean creatures. Minnesota being land-locked and not home to any active volcanoes means I need to get my fix via the web.

Therefore, I’m happy to announce the Eruptions Blog. This new addition to the web collection ScienceBlogs is written by “Dr. Erik Klemetti, a geologist who spends most of his professional time thinking about magma.” You can count on this blog to fill in you on the most recent volcanic activity.

If you know of, or have, a local environmental blog please let me know and I’ll post about it!