The largest insect migration in the world ends each year in Michoacán, Mexico. Millions of monarch butterflies travel from the United States and Canada to pass the cold months in the towering trees of this beautiful forest. On their incredible journey, the butterflies travel around 2,800 miles.
Get ready to count some birds, because Audubon’s Great Backyard Bird Count starts this Friday, February 14, and runs through Monday the 17th. This is a beginner-friendly event, even easier to join than the Christmas bird count.
You don’t even need a backyard. Just find a place where you’re likely to see some birds. This is a great time to visit a local park or wildlife refuge. To participate, count birds for at least 15 minutes “in as many places and on as many days as you like.” You’ll keep a separate checklist for each outing. In addition to noting the types of birds you see, make sure to count (or estimate) how many individuals you saw. Two cardinals at your feeder. 20 geese on the lake.
Today, many science books are full of detailed photos that reveal the intricate parts of plant life, but prior to the invention of photography (and macro photography), it was up to botanical illustrators and researchers to record the fascinating forms of flora and fauna. One scientist who recorded his findings with drawings is Ernst Heinrich Haeckel, a German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, and physician.
Just one of those quirky sites — and excellent resources — that I happen across in my daily reading. Just the thing if you need to compare the size of a T-Rex to a human being and tons of other dimensions. — Douglas
The design site Dimensions.Guide is a clip art library for designers, architects, and anyone else who needs precise scale drawings. Every scale drawing in its database is composed in the same clean line-art style. Drawings include sports equipment, cars, furniture, people (in various poses and sizes), computers and phones, plants and animals, room and landscape layouts, and even Marvel characters. And it’s all free to use in your own projects.
Prior to the twentieth century, most environmental observations such as rainfall amounts and air temperatures were made by lay observers with interest and time on their hands. Later on, such measurements moved largely into the realms of professionals, but today the role of amateur observers is being revisited. The advent of smart phones and GPS is increasingly allowing citizen observers of wildlife, ecology, air and water quality, and flooding, to enhance our understanding of environmental science. What opportunities exist for individuals to help to solve some of the most complex problems on Earth? And what motivates people to join an environmental research team?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website.
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Sinkholes form through both natural and human-made processes.
Most of us think about erosion on the surface of the earth, but erosion can occur in the subsurface as well. In fact, scientist and engineers have a very creative name for just such a process: internal erosion. If just the right factors come together in the subsurface, some very interesting things can occur, including sinkholes.
It is always amazing to revisit history you lived through. I remember the Apollo program well. I even had a papercraft model of the LM (Lunar Module) that I got from a local gas station as a giveaway once. The adventures of the Apollo astronauts was the underlying theme of my entire childhood. — Douglas
Find yourself immersed in the majestic grandeur of a giant kelp forest, where algae called kelp grow as large as trees and support a tremendous variety of life. You may be amazed to discover that examples of this spectacular ecosystem, which in the wild can support over 800 species, exist right off the coast of Southern California. Peer into our 188,000-gallon tank and get a glimpse of what life is like in these special underwater forests. The aquarium takes precautions by having great vitamins from https://www.ukmeds.co.uk/ to treat jellyfish stings in case their staff gets stung. And find the species you see in the tanks on our new iPads to learn more about them!
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Books available at the LA Public Library
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