QUEST Community Science Blog Author: Cat

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The Megalodon's Descendants

June 24th, 2009 by Cat

Artist's depiction of a megalodon chasing two blue whales (image credit: Karen Carr, the Virginia Museum of Natural History)
Often I am drawn back to one place at the California Academy of Sciences, staring down at the dancing forms in the Lagoon's shallow water. Rays and sharks glide easily just above the tropical sand. Eventually, I see the lagoon’s shyer inhabitant, the guitarfish, whose body markings and shape resemble an upside down guitar. Sharks, ray, and guitarfish all belong to the subclass Elasmobranchii within the cartilaginous fish class Chondrichthyes. The Elasmobranchii also includes the infamous megalodon, thought to be the largest carnivorous fish ever to have existed. The megalodon was famed to reach lengths between 45 and 90 feet, dwarfing even today's most fearsome Great Whites.

What I find most interesting about this subclass is the body make-up these creatures share. They do not have a bony skeleton like humans; their skeleton is made up of cartilage—a dense connective tissue that is tough yet elastic. Their grace, speed, and great success as predators come from the fluidity of their movement.

This also makes it difficult for Ichthyologists to agree on taxonomy within this class as fossilized remains of cartilaginous fish are often poor. The oldest fossil on record of a megalodon, 18 million years old, is the only bone in the skeleton: a tooth. From the tooth, several researchers have tried to reconstruct the jaw and piece together what the body would look like. The tooth also suggests what this massive prehistoric shark preyed upon: There are bite marks on whales, dolphins, porpoises and sea turtles.

As the sharks, rays, and guitarfish pass by in the lagoon, I imagine the shadow of their giant cousin, the megalodon.




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Posted in KQED, Partners | Please Comment

The Farallones Caught on Camera

June 10th, 2009 by Cat

The Farallones consist of a group of rocky islands that are 28 miles North of San Francisco Bay.A national wildlife refuge just outside the San Francisco Bay is now under surveillance! The California Academy of Sciences in partnership with U.S. Fish and Wildlife and PRBO Conservation Science has installed a web camera on the Farallon Islands.

The Northern Farallones were originally granted protection by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1909. However, these islands were not always protected. Human consumption decimated many populations, some never to return. The demand for fur, oil and meat devastated the elephant and fur seal population. By 1900, the robust Common Murre population dwindled down to a few thousand because of the demand for Murre eggs.

Today, the Islands are further protected under the Marine Life Protection Act and the Farallones are also deemed a state marine conservation area. The majority of visitors of the human persuasion are not allowed access to the islands as they would upset the balance of the largest seabird breeding colony in the United States. Those humans that do frequent the island include wildlife biologists and land managers who are conducting wildlife research.

PRBO Conversation Science has been a local on the island day and night conducting research and monitoring the natives. The webcam helps their cause by collecting scientific data from a remote location. The camera enables biologists to observe without disturbing wildlife or incurring adverse environmental impact.

The water surrounding the islands makes this an ideal stomping ground for marine life and seabirds alike. Coastal upwelling takes place in the spring around the islands. The Coriolis Effect along the coast drives surface waters away from the coast; this water is then replaced with the denser waters from below. Within the deeper waters is a wealth of nutrients that are photosynthesized into dense blooms of plant plankton when exposed to the sun. This energizes the marine food chain as the plant plankton is eaten by krill. Krill is then made available to eat for fish, birds, and marine mammals. It does not only feed surrounding wildlife but growing human populations as well. The most productive fisheries in the world are supported by coastal upwelling. Given the location and the diversity of wildlife, the Farallones is well worth protecting.

The webcam not only aids research; it assuages curiosity. Anyone can pilot the camera. A panoramic view of the island is set up for the user to navigate and explore. Field guides and information on the project are also given on the site to reference observations.




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Posted in Environment, Partners | Please Comment

Being Green on the Way to Work

May 13th, 2009 by Cat

Some happy bike commuters from the 2008 Bike to Work Day
Credit: Len Gilbert

On Thursday, May 14th, expect a jump in the number of bikes on the road in San Francisco. The reason for the inflation? Bike to Work Day. This will be the 15th Annual Bike to Work Day in San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area, and this year nine Bay Area counties will participate in the festivities. The event seeks to promote a healthy way of commuting by featuring commute convoys, energizer stations, prizes for costumes and decorated bikes and downtown bike valet parking. Many organizations like the California Academy of Sciences have put together bike-commute teams to support the event.

The Bay Area is not the only city promoting bicycle advocacy. The best known community bike program was started in the 1960s in Amsterdam. Known as a bicycle sharing system, bicycles were available on a large scale, allowing people to have ready access to these public bikes rather than owning personal ones. This allowed people to shift from transit to bicycle and back again. These programs have not only been successful in Europe but the United States as well.

One of the first community bicycle projects in the United States started in Portland, Oregon in 1994 by several civic and environmental activists. A number of bicycles were available on the streets for use. Since then many other communities have set up similar projects. One was set up at Burning Man in 2007, following the example of the Portland Yellow Bike program.

150,000 commuters are expected to forgo their car commute and bike into work on May 14th. Nationally, many more will commute by bike during the entire month of May to support National Bike Month.

There are some great perks to commuting by bike to work: Bikes are much cheaper than cars. Typically, a bike will cost around $700 per year; compare that to the cost of a car (which includes insurance, repairs and gas), around $8000 per year (according to the American Automobile Association). Not only is it cheaper, the carbon footprint of commuting by bike is drastically lower as well. A gallon of gas releases about 20 lbs of CO2 into the air; a bicycle creates no CO2 emissions. Bicycling is also a great way to stay healthy and active without having to make a trip to the gym.

All in all, Bike to Work Day is an individually and environmentally healthy way to get to and from work. For more information on Bike to Work Day, bike routes, and services offered for bicyclists visit http://btwd.bayareabikes.org/.







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Swine Flu - A Virus or a Bacteria?

April 30th, 2009 by Cat

The swine flu virus, up close (and colorized!)
Credit: C. S. Goldsmith and A. Balish, CDC

Swine Flu has been blanketing the news as of late. On April 29th, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the first US fatality occurring in Texas. The CDC has determined that this swine influenza A(H1N1) virus is contagious and spreading from human to human. Yet at this time, they do not know how easily the virus spreads between people. At our museum, we have taken this very seriously and staff has been asked to stay home if symptoms arise.

CDC is recommending that those who come down with flu-like symptoms stay home from work in order to decrease the rate of infection. The Swine Flu is a viral infection rather than a bacterial infection, which makes it harder to treat. Much of the care for viruses is preventive; viruses are hard to treat after they have entered a living host.

Many people do not know the difference between a viral infection and a bacterial one and consider them interchangeable. Yet they are quite different. Viruses are sub-microscopic particles ranging in size from 20 to 300 nanometers (about 1000 times smaller than the width of a human hair). Viruses must have a living host to function. They remain dormant until they infect a living cell. Within a cell, they then change the genetic material of the cell to replicate the virus. AIDS and Influenza are both created by this process of taking over the normal function of a cell in order to replicate viral cells.

Bacteria do not take over cells. Bacteria are much larger than viruses, usually 10 to 100 times bigger than a virus. Their shapes include curved rods, spheres, rods and spirals. They are known as intercellular organisms because they live between cells. All viruses are harmful to the host because they alter cells, but bacteria can be beneficial (like the species that live in our guts and help us digest our food).

Harmful bacteria in the body create infections like Strep throat or Small Pox. Bacteria can grow and reproduce in both living and non-living environments. Antibiotics are used to treat harmful bacterial growth and infection in the body. Antibiotics; however, are ineffectual against treating viruses.

Because the Swine Flu is a virally spread disease, it is even more important to practice prevention. The CDC sees this disease being spread like a common flu - mainly from person to person through coughing or sneezing by people with influenza. People can also become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose. Taking simple precautions like washing your hands and covering your mouth when sneezing is effective prevention. Working in a museum,we take this extra seriously considering how often we come in contact with lots of people and their germs. Many of my co-workers, myself included, have hand sanitizer at our desks, wash our hands often, and carry tissues. It is a simple way to combat an evasive illness.

For more about how to protect yourself from swine flu, check out this podcast from the CDC.







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Posted in Biology, Health | 1 Comment

When a Cosmo's More Than a Cocktail: Yuri's Night at Cal Academy

April 15th, 2009 by Cat

Yuri Alexyevich Gagarin, "Columbus of the Cosmos" Last Thursday evening, over 3500 people came to the California Academy of Sciences to help celebrate Yuri. This gathering was not the only celebration of its kind. Two-hundred and eight parties in forty-six countries on eight continents celebrated Yuri's Night between April 6 and 12th of this year.  So who is Yuri and why does he deserve such accolades?

Yuri Alexyevich Gagarin was a Soviet cosmonaut.  He was the first human in space and is often referred to as "the Columbus of the Cosmos".   His spacecraft Vostok-1 orbited the Earth on April 12, 1961 for the duration of 108 minutes.   Yuri's Night, usually celebrated on April 12^th celebrates this historic first flight.

Yuri's Night also celebrates another April 12^th anniversary notable in the annals of space travel.  Twenty years after Yuri Gagarin's historic flight, the first NASA space shuttle flight, STS-1 was launched into space.  STS is short for Space Transportation System.  NASA names each flight STS with the chronological number after it.  STS-1 was launched on April 12, 1981; the shuttle orbited the earth 37 times during a 54.5 hour mission.

Since 1961, our interest in space and the exploration of its depths has magnified.  Recently NASA launched the Kepler mission.  On March 7^th, 2009, the Kepler Mission successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.  Kepler, which is a specialized telescope, was designed to find the first Earth-size planets orbiting stars within a "habitable zone". A habitable zone is an orbit around a star that would enable a planet to formulate and upkeep an atmosphere and the ability for water to form in pools on the planet's surface.  Liquid water is believed to be essential for the formation of life.  Thus from the nascent flight of orbiting our own Earth, space travels has evolved to look amongst other start.  This progress is certainly something worthy of celebration!

An exhibit on the Kepler Mission along with other NASA initiatives like SOFIA, LCROSS and NLSI fascinated guests last Thursday night.  For one guest, meeting Buzz Aldrin in person was the highlight of his night.   My favorite aspect of the evening was a 3-D rendered tour of the moon and neighboring space.  I am anxious to see what will be the new annal of space exploration when April 12^th and Yuri's Night comes around again in 2010.




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Posted in Astronomy, Events, KQED, Partners | 1 Comment

Questions from the Naturalist Center

April 2nd, 2009 by Cat

What does the size of a scorpion's claw mean?
Credit: kevinzim on flickr.com

The exhibits you see on the museum floor of the California Academy of Sciences are just the tip of the iceberg of the Academy's work. In fact, 90% of what we do is the education and research that happens behind-the-scenes. It is this ongoing research that in turn generates the exhibits and programming that guests enjoy.

The Naturalist Center, located on the 3rd floor, is a direct link for visitors to the education, research, and resources of the vast research collection that lies behind-the-scenes of the museum. Guests can ask questions at the Naturalist Center and they will get a reply from an Academy researcher or educator versed in that subject.

Below are some interesting questions guests have posed recently and the responses from experts on staff.

Q: How many copies of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" were published initially?
A: The first edition and printing had a print run of 1250 copies. All the copies sold on the first day of sale according to "The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin".

Q: You have a specimen in your collections that is noted for being the most poisonous bird in the world. Do you have more information on it?
A: It is the Hooded Pitohui (Pitohui dichrous). An Academy researcher, Jack Dumbacher, experienced the toxicity of these birds first-hand when he was doing research in Papua New Guinea and decided to study them more. He found that they sequester poisons from something they feed on, much like poison dart frogs.

Q: Do owls really see in total darkness like your matching game says?
A: Renowned for their solemn, spooky mien, owls have large eyes that face forward, and arrangement that's rare even among predatory birds. This gives them binocular vision and the resultant depth perception necessary to judge distances with almost pinpoint accuracy. These fast-focusing eyes are also equipped with a mirror-like membrane that lets them sample extremely dim light twice, and a dense concentration of light-sensitive cells in the retina. While owls may not be able to see everything in total darkness, they can see what other nocturnal predators might miss.

Q: What is Arsenic and Strychnine made out of?
A: Arsenopyrite is an iron arsenic sulfide (FeAsS). Strychnine is an alkaloid extract obtained from the dried ripe seeds of Strychnos nux vomica, a small tree of the East Indies.

Q: Someone told me that the red-winged blackbirds only have that red flash in mating season - is that correct?
A: According to Western Birds, QL 683 .W4 P4 1990, these epaulets are 'most conspicuous' in the spring time, suggesting that they are there all year round but brighter in the mating season.

Q: Do you know that saying about claw and tail sizes of scorpions that tells you which ones are more poisonous than the other?
A: The simple, although not universal, rule is that scorpions with thin pedipalps (claws) and thick tails tend to be more venomous than those with stout pedipalps and thinner tails. Working through this in a logical way, we can think that a scorpion with a large claw may be able to subdue its prey with the claw. If it has thin claws, it may need to rely more on the venom from the stinger to make up for its lack of strong claws. For more information about scorpions, click here. There is also a very well written amateur information page here.







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The Need for Science in America

March 5th, 2009 by Cat

This week the Cal Academy of Sciences celebrated the millionth
visitor to its new building in Golden Gate Park

On March 3rd, 2009 at 1:00 p.m., executive director Gregory Farrington greeted the one-millionth visitor to the new California Academy of Sciences. It seems incredible that in just over five months, one million visitors have explored our new building in Golden Gate Park. Yet science museums and cultural institutions are incredibly important in these tough economic times: Museums engage and educate people about their place, culture, accomplishments and environment. With the cutbacks in education, museums are even more necessary.

Earlier this year, the California Academy of Sciences commissioned a national survey of basic science literacy, administered by Harris Interactive. The results proved poor. Here's a sample:

• Only 53% of adults know how long it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun.
• Only 59% of adults know that the earliest humans and dinosaurs did not live at the same time.
• Only 47% of adults can roughly approximate the percent of the Earth's surface that is covered with water.
• Only 1% of adults knew the correct percentage of fresh water on the planet

Despite their poor performance, survey participants felt that science literacy and conservation were very important. Four out of five people surveyed marked science education as “absolutely essential” and directly related to the U.S. health care system, the U.S. reputation globally and the U.S. economy.

Scientists know that making new discoveries increases our understanding of our world and our place within it. Yet deepening science literacy in the general public is equally important. Scientific literacy not only engages potential future scientists, but it helps strengthen the U.S. economy. Analysts agree that science must be part of the plan for stimulating the American economy: A knowledge-based economy, including a focus on science, drives innovation, which in turn sparks new industries and subsequent jobs.

The Academy felt this survey was so important that they put the questions up on the website for anyone to try. What's your science literacy? Find out by answering the questions on www.calacademy.org.







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Posted in Education, Partners | Please Comment

The World's Largest Seed

February 19th, 2009 by Cat

Coco-de-mer, the world's largest seeds
Last Thursday, February 12th, was the inaugural evening of NightLife at the California Academy of Sciences, a weekly science evening for adults. It was also Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. To honor the father of evolution, Academy researchers unveiled Darwin's Carnival, a collection of curious specimens brought out from our collections, including Botany, Ornithology & Mammalogy, Entomology, Herpetology, Invertebrate Zoology, Geology, and the Library Archives.

There was a great variety of unusual specimens elucidating adaptation and evolution. One caught my eye, however, because I used to pass by it every day at our Howard Street location on the way up to my desk. I had presumed it was a cacao seed, but in truth it was a Coco-de-Mer, better known as the world's largest seed.

Coco-de-Mer, also known as "the double coconut", is the seed of the Lodoicea maldvica plant, a large fan palm that reaches 25 m (82 ft) in height. The palm is only found on two islands -– Praslin & Curieuse in the Seychelles. The palm is best known for the seed of its fruit, which is the largest in the world, weighing in at 15 to 30 kg (33 to 66 lbs).

The palm species was named maldvica after the Maldive Islands, the place the seeds were first found (before the 18th century the Seychelles islands were still uninhabited). Seeds that had germinated (and were therefore hollowed out) would find their way into the water, and prevailing sea currents carried a great many of them to the Maldives. The seeds were used by indigenous people on the islands for medicinal treatments and in trade.

Many stories abounded about the source of the seeds before the truth was discovered in the Seychelles islands in 1768. Many believed the seeds came from a mythical tree that grew at the bottom of the sea. European nobles would often have the Coco-de-Mer seeds cleaned and encrusted with jewels– befitting their mythical origins — in order to display them as collectibles in private galleries. Today, the Coco-de-Mer is still considered a treasure and the seeds and plants from which they grow are protected as a rare species.






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Posted in Biology, Environment, Partners | Please Comment

When Tech Evolves

February 11th, 2009 by Cat

The California Academy of Sciences' homepage

For the last forty-five minutes, I have been perusing the California Academy of Sciences website, trying to think of a topic for this blog piece. It is 10 PM on the day before my entry is due, and I am doing what I have been doing since college – procrastinating! But now the Internet makes that so much more time consuming. Going through the pages and sifting ideas to see what might work, I am drawn into how technology and the Internet are making so much available to the public, and how information interacts at so many intersections. You just need to look at the Academy's website for examples.

There is a page on the Academy website dedicated to blogs. It follows researchers in the field, or discusses nuances of climate change; one blog category is dedicated to being a fly on the wall. One of these "fly on the wall" blog entries notes that Claude (the albino alligator) is doing well after being pulled off the floor for an injury.  Because these blogs feature a way to leave comments, we can streamline them to answer specific inquiries, and also bring light to the concerns of the public.  People can watch specific animals online through streaming video, such as the Penguin Cams.  The videos and images are not wholly staff generated either; YouTube video and flickr photo uploads are linked in, as well as social commentary from Facebook and Twitter. There is even a  survey (on the bottom right of the homepage) that lets you test your science knowledge against a recent study.  I got all six of them correct, compared to an average of 4.1 right answers, a fact I found out immediately after taking the quiz.

Last week, Google unveiled it's new Google Ocean feature (for its Google Earth software) at a press conference in our building. A great deal of technical set-up went into the day to have the press conference virtual. A link to the story about the process of creating it is referenced on the homepage. You can also take a quiz to test your Google Earth acumen, again directly from our homepage.

None of this surfing and procrastinating led me to a finite topic, but it did give me a "huh" moment. I remember when the Internet was just disparate websites. Information that before would take me hours to find, if I could at all, I can now access from a home base on one website. Websites and information are integrated, and help form communities along with advanced interactivity. There are now Social Networking Coordinators at various institutions — including the Academy — who work to maintain and enrich this virtual and ever-growing community.

In just getting lost on the Academy site, I was emmeshed in a rich diversity of content and feedback. Evolution has put down strong roots online.




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Meditating on Change: January 20th and The Herd Effect

January 26th, 2009 by Cat

Photo Credit: Jessica LavinOn January 20th, over two million people congregated in one place. There were no arrests, people talked to strangers with no heed of creed or religion, and there was an overwhelming sense of joy complete with outbursts of singing and dancing. When President Obama got up and spoke, all two million people went silent and his voice rang loud and clear down the course of the National Mall.

I have never experienced anything like it and as I look back I know that being on the mall will be one of the truest moments in my life. Is this what happens when over two million people focus on the present moment and meditate on positive transformation and change?

The psychology of the inauguration fascinated me; more so because my experience of mob dynamics came from working at San Quentin State Prison where I have seen the Herd Effect in human populations. I brought walkie-talkies and set an emergency plan with the three other people coming with me just in case of violence. I expected if there were problems that the psychology of the Herd Effect would come into play.

The Herd effect describes how individuals in a group can act together without planned direction. Evolutionary biologists have noted in animals fleeing a predator, individual animals will band and run in a tightly packed group to insure their own self-seeking protection. By doing so the group becomes a unified front and collective action becomes paramount over individual need.

There are numerous case studies in sociology and psychology about the Herd Effect in humans. The Los Angeles riots of 1992 exemplified how the Herd Effect often results in mob violence. The security precautions at the inauguration, complete with snipers on the top of the museums, made me all too aware that the threat of violence had not been overlooked in the massive size of the crowd.

However, the event as packed and uncomfortable as it was, remained peaceful. Without the catalyst of fear, people looked out for each other and strangers burst out in the same songs. I left feeling empowered and intuitively in tune with my surroundings and fellow Americans. Although I had prepared for the possibility violence, I left with a bigger question: is there a positive counterpart to the Herd Effect? What happens when you have a collective body in a small area experiencing something positive and uplifting? Nothing came up in my research about this type of phenomena.

I would be curious to note if there exists any case studies about the effects of joy felt by millions in one area and what the side effects were in comparison. Perhaps this day and the actions of the crowd will be fodder for further study.




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Posted in Health, Partners | 3 Comments
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