As an environmental educator, I often feel like I’m trying to make scientific information relevant and digestible to children and the general public.
The blog Information is Beautiful is a demonstration of how art and creativity transform dry data into something stunning, attractive, and readily meaningful.
“The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured these images of the Twin Cities region on March 17, 2010 (top), and August 5, 2009 (bottom). Both use a combination of infrared and visible light to increase the contrast between water and land. Vegetation appears bright green. Clouds appear sky blue. Water varies in color from electric blue to navy. Bare ground ranges in color from dark brown to tan.
Taken in different seasons—late winter and mid-summer—these images not only show different water levels in the Mississippi and other rivers, but also dramatically different amounts of vegetation. While much of the region is heavily vegetated in August 2009, river levels are low enough to make the water bodies nearly invisible. (Tree cover along the riverbanks may partly obscure the rivers.) In contrast, the image from March 2010 shows vegetation just beginning to emerge from winter’s chill. Differences in vegetation between August and March are especially visible in the west, in what appears to be a large patchwork of agricultural lands. Compared to the previous summer, the Mississippi and other rivers in the region appear swollen. Some of the electric-blue hues in water bodies away from the rivers might result from lingering ice. Springtime rains and snowmelt often conspire to raise water levels.”
Jellyfish are stirring up the oceans. Above is a video demonstrating, with dye, how the negative pressure void behind a swimming jellyfish brings some water along for the ride. This may seem trivial, but when you add up the movement of all the swimming ocean creatures it sums to a major component of (previously unknown) significant ocean water movement. Which of course has major implications for world climate. Read more here (WIRED Science).
Also, sorry for the long blogging silence. The good news is that I have been very busy! The bad news – no time for blogging. A New Year’s resolution of mine is to find time for this blog – stay tuned and hold me to it!
Jellyfish and plastic pieces from the Pacific Ocean.
Crabs, Algae, and Flying Fish Eggs on Ocean Plastic.
Barnacles living on plastic bottles in ocean.
A research ship recently docked back home after weeks out at sea studying plastic in the ocean. You can read about the fascinating trip and see amazing photos on their blog. Or check out the official website.
Their destination was a location in the Pacific Ocean, far off the coast of California, where sea currents converge and cause a mass gathering of plastic. The plastic gathering isn’t a floating raft; but small pieces suspended at varying depths.
These plastic pieces probably leech chemicals into the water but they also act like magnets attracting hydrophobic industrial and agricultural chemicals – which are suspected to be consumed by small fish and work up the food chain to top-level-consumers like us.
Interestingly, larger pieces of ocean plastics become homes to pelagic creatures like crabs, algae, flying fish eggs. They anticipate needing six months (or more) to analyze all the data – should be some interesting results!
“Sophia Tintori and Alison Sweeney talk about iridescence in squid. Audio production and animations are by Sophia, who normally studies siphonophores in the lab.”
Meteors radiate from the constellation Perseus (Image from the BBC)
If the weather cooperates, tonight may be a stunning night for star-gazing. Even though the North American peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower was this morning, there should still be some good viewing tonight – if the clouds stay away. The bright moon may also obscure your view so bring along binoculars.
This page is dedicated to hosting information and media which I hope the Twin Cities environmental community will find interesting and valuable. Please check back often for updates or subscribe via RSS feed.
