http://www.vimeo.com/7457522
After spending numerous meetings with Maya Lin at the Academy and seeing how she distilled the stories told by some of the most venerable figures in the field of conservation biology into a final artwork, it seemed fitting that we should give a voice to someone who took a chance to give a different perspective to science. Shaped like a giant megaphone, the “Listening Cone” unveiled September 17, 2009 on the Academy’s East Terrace is not just an art exhibit, nor is it just a memorial. It is at once a portal to planet Earth and a sounding device to the work that is currently being done to conserve its resources. Take your shoes off and step inside!
The Listening Cone is part of a multi-site memorial called “What is Missing”. To learn more about what others are doing and what you can do to prevent species and habitat loss visit a selection of the institutions and organizations that played an advisory role to the “What is Missing” project.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
National Geographic Society
Conservation International
National Resources Defense Council
World Wildlife Fund
Freedom to Roam
-Lindsay
Science Informing Art:
Play Now |
Play in Popup |
Download
http://www.vimeo.com/6505138
What colors are dinosaurs? We may be closer to figuring this out. Last week, a team of researchers published the first evidence of color in a fossil bird feather. The scientists hope that eventually their study can give some color to feathered dinosaurs.
No one wants to pass up a good dinosaur story, including us. The press has been all over this story, but I think it’s only the beginning– I can’t wait to find out Velociraptor’s true color.
http://www.vimeo.com/5999701
How smart are crows? Very, according to researchers at the University of Auckland and Oxford. How crows use tools to get food have scientists believing that not only are they smart birds, but they may prove to be smarter than apes. And this research just continues.
One of our favorite science reporters, Robert Krulwich, and his team at NPR recently set-up a quiz to test if humans are as smart as crows. Go ahead, give it a try.
As our own bird researcher, Jack Dumbacher, puts it, “Next time someone calls you a bird brain, you can thank them for the compliment.”
http://www.vimeo.com/5277596
A voyage across the ocean in a plastic boat seems an unlikely way to fight the buildup of plastic in the ocean. Yet that is just what David de Rothschild and team are planning as they build a 60 foot boat made entirely from recycled plastic. Dubbed “Plastiki”, after Thor Hyerdahl’s “Kon-Tiki” that made a similar voyage in 1947, the vessel is being manufactured out of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) - the same material used to make water bottles. Their goal is to change the public view of plastic as a one-use material into one that sees plastic for what it really is - a cheap and versatile raw material that can be reused time and time again.
The voyage calls attention to the toxic soup created from decades of dumping used plastic into the ocean. The mess created by our throw-away society has been consolidated by the winds and currents of the North Pacific Gyre into vast floating garbage patches. Much of the plastic is visible - bottles, toys, bags, netting, etc., but most of what is floating is invisible, because over time, plastic breaks apart into micro-particles. In some areas of the gyre the ratio of plastic to plankton is as high six to one. Birds, fish and mammals choke on and are poisoned by the bigger pieces, while the tiny particles are ingested by small marine life and enter the food chain. To make matters worse, the micro-particles attract and absorb toxic chemicals that are ingested as well.
As de Rothschild likes to say, the solution to pollution is not dilution. We need to change our thinking about the life cycle of plastic. The voyage of Plastiki demonstrates that plastic is not the problem – it’s how we use plastic. We don’t think of steel as a material to be dumped in the ocean after a single use. Steel is melted down and reformed. We can do the same with plastic - it is a matter of changing how we view it.
-Pete
Plastics in our Oceans:
Play Now |
Play in Popup |
Download
http://www.vimeo.com/2926047
Why go up when you can go down? Botanist Jim Malusa travels to the lowest places on the planet, on bicycle. From Lac Assal in Africa to Lake Eyre in Australia to Death Valley, he finds dry deserts, but also oases of life—birds, plants, and even people.
This was one of the first stories we produced for the newly conceived Science in Action. One of the goals for our new program is to show that scientists aren’t just people in white coats in a lab– they’re adventurers!
-Molly
