SCIENCE EXPEDITIONS OPENS DOORS TO UW-MADISON SCIENCE

This Saturday, anyone living near Madison WI will have a chance to get  up close and personal with science.

A Madagascar hissing cockroach makes an appearance at the "Who's Who of the Insect Word" booth during Science Expeditions 2007 held March 24, 2007 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Photo by: Aaron Mayes Photo credit: UW-Madison, University Communications

The University of Wisconsin-Madison takes sharing its research with its citizens very seriously.

I’ve written about the amazing accessibility of the science on this campus in the past.  (see Twinkle, Twinkle, UW-Madison )

This Saturday,  the 10th annual Science Expeditions will offer a bigger, better opportunity to learn about science and get to know the labs, museums and researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Lauri Schwarts and her daughter Jacel Schwarts use special glasses to see various properties of light during Science Expeditions 2007 held March 24, 2007 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Photo by: Aaron Mayes Photo credit: UW-Madison, University Communications

The 2012 version of Science Expeditions, will open to the public more than 40 hands-on science exploration stations at two dozen different venues around campus – all connected to each other and free parking by a trolley that will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Engineering Expo. Photo by: Michael Forster Rothbart Photo credit: UW-Madison, University Communications

“Last year, we had thousands of visitors who met and learned from the people who work here,” says Tom Zinnen, a Science Expeditions organizer and outreach specialist at UW-Madison’s Biotechnology Center. “It’s all about those people. I love going to science museums, but science museums are primarily about exhibits. The great thing about coming to campus is that you get to talk to the scientists.”

That’s a key opportunity for the public, which funds research at universities around the country with billions of tax dollars.

“The people we’re inviting to campus aren’t just visitors, they’re patrons,” Zinnen says. “We have a stake in them, they have a stake in us – even if they never set foot on campus.”

Those that do set foot on campus or Science Expeditions will have more to do and see than ever before.

The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, 330 N. Orchard St., will serve as a hub, providing tours and hosting up-close encounters ranging from live reptiles to the science of chocolate. A series of Science Spectaculars will showcase physics, chemistry, astronomy and ever-popular dinosaurs in buildings near the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery from 10 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.

Among Science Expeditions’ many new venues are:

At an exploratory station organized by the School of Veterinary Medicine, student Leslie Estelle shows children an illuminated model of cow's stomach during Science Expeditions, an interactive science and technology outreach event held at Engineering Hall. Photo by: Jeff Miller

- The newly refurbished Biochemical Sciences Building, 440 Henry Mall, will be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for Biochemistry Outreach Day, with tours of new facilities given by the scientists who work in them.

- Birge Hall, 430 Lincoln Drive, home to the Botany Department and Wisconsin State Herbarium, will let visitors see with the eyes of a botanist at its Plant Imaging Center from noon to 2 p.m., offer guided tours of the Botany Greenhouse every 45 minutes starting at 10 a.m., and send people away with plant seedlings for at-home experimentation.

Natalie Rodenkirc participates in an activity booth explaining how DNA is isolated in a lab setting during the "Science is Fun" event at Engineering Hall, one of several activities offered during Science Expeditions 2008 held April 5, 2008, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Photo by: Bryce Richter Photo credit: UW-Madison, University Communications

- The Chazen Museum of Art, 750 University Ave., is planning a tour on the science of art conservation at 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., and another, “Bountiful Beauty: Fruit in Art,” at 1 and 2:15 p.m.

Also open for tours, presentations and other activities are Allen Centennial Gardens, UW Arboretum, the Botanical Gardens, Geology Museum, the Ingersoll Physics Museum in Chamberlin Hall, Chemistry Building, Madison Children’s Museum (where admission is charged), Genetics-Biotechnology Center Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, Microbial Sciences Building, the Stock Pavilion, D.C. Smith Greenhouse, Science House, the Zoological Museum, Steenbock Library, Babcock Hall Dairy Store, the Primate Center’s Learning Lobby, and the Dairy Cattle Center’s afternoon milking from 4:30 to 6 p.m.

This is your chance to learn more!

For a full schedule and information on parking, bus routes and the circulating trolley, visit the Science Expeditions website here.
If you don’t live near Madison, what are the science learning options available to you?  How do you like to keep up on the scientific research that affects all our lives in so many ways?

WISCONSIN INSTITUTES FOR DISCOVERY NAMED LABORATORY OF THE YEAR

“Photograph © Jeff Goldberg | Esto”

I just learned from a UW press release that one of my favorite new buildings in Madison, WI, Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, has been named 2012 Laboratory of the Year in an international competition sponsored annually by R&D Magazine.

Because this structure is nested between two of Madison’s major traffic arteries and about a 15-minute walk from my house, I watched it’s construction with great interest, explored during its grand opening and often catch a public lecture there.

 I know this building was  designed to encourage private and public scientists to work together, housing twin research institutes: the private, nonprofit Morgridge Institute for Research and UW-Madison’s public Wisconsin Institute for Discovery.

Much of the money to build this facility came from a donation from John and Tashia Morgridge, whose funding was matched by the state of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), the private nonprofit patent and licensing organization for UW-Madison.  Way to go, John and Tashia Morgridge!

It was also designed to foster interaction and collaboration between the scientists lucky enough to be housed in it and to reach out and encourage shared research across campus and beyond, creating bubbling think tanks that can lead to great discoveries.

Town Center

I personally love the gorgeous public space on the main floor they call the Town Center with science demos like the Mesozoic garden,  interactive displays and places to get good, local food and a wonderful central seating area for presentations.

The three research floors above ground and one below are organized as laboratory “pods” – each designed to house up to five principal investigators and their teams.   And there are teaching lab designed and outfitted like the research labs that are used  by faculty and staff from across campus and for K-12 students and learners of all ages who take part in hands-on outreach programs.

Large interior windows open up views between the teaching labs, research areas and the Town Center below.

The building earned LEED Gold certification last year.

If you live in the area, it’s worth a visit.

If you don’t, you may still find yourself benefiting from the research being nurtured here.

MOSS AND LICHEN DATABASE CREATES A CLIMATE-METER

This exciting news release from University of Wisconsin Madison offers another reason to like lichens!

Lichens and mosses are well-known barometers of the environment.

photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/aa3sd/3152714750/

With no real roots, they literally soak up their food from thin air – living on water and nutrients extracted mostly from the atmosphere. They come and go depending on factors of environmental quality such as air pollution, humidity and temperature. Both mosses, known to scientists as bryophytes (and which in fact include liverworts and hornworts, as well as mosses), and lichens, a botanical amalgam of algae and fungus, have been used as environmental sentinels to monitor changes in air quality. Increasingly, they are being used to identify the subtle manifestations of climate change.

5 WAYS TO BEFRIEND FIREFLIES

I spent the evening of Independence Day sitting in front of my barn.  The sunset was a gift of deep color fanning out across the entire western sky.  The crescent moon set through narrow bands of cloud.  And then the real show began as the fireflies lifted off from grass blades and pine needles and filled the air with a silent and dazzling spectacle.

Fireflies - their fate is in our hands. (photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/idua_japan/2580158947/ )

You don’t have to get out of town to enjoy this show.  Eric Johnson, whom I met researching an article on citizen science (read it here  ) wrote me last week to tell me about a drama that has been unfolding in his yard since the mid 1990s.  He wrote:

Back in 1994, when we got a black Labrador puppy, my wife & I decided not to use any toxic chemicals on the lawn.  We wanted to protect the dog, and we also wanted to prevent the dog from bringing herbicide into the house, on her paws.  

Around that time, I began growing everbearing raspberries, and mulching these with shredded tree leaves every fall.  

We have a large maple tree in the front yard, and it drops something like 10 cubic yards of leaves every year.  I used to put them on the terrace and wait for the city to come along and remove them, but it was often a long wait, and it was difficult to keep the leaves neatly piled until the work crew showed up.  So, I began shredding the leaves with our lawnmower, and looking for places in our yard to make use of them.  Shredding will reduce 10 cubic yards down to maybe three or four cubic yards, but that is still a lot of leaves.  Some of the leaves went on the raspberry patch, others were used around our blueberry shrubs, and the rest went on the compost pile, tucked away in an unobtrusive corner of the back.  

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamelah/23522284/

I don’t remember when we saw the first firefly, but they were a rare event up ’till 2000. Since then, they have gradually increased in number every June, and this year they are taking over the lawn, every evening, around 9 pm.  I have done some research into firefly habitat, and have learned that they like to live in “leaf litter,” so I guess that they are finding our yard to their liking.  I often find them perched on the raspberry canes during the day.  

Our dog passed on in the fall of 2008, but the fireflies continue, so I think of them as Midnight’s fireflies.  We also see them in the wooded strip of land along Lake Monona, along Lakeland, between Olbrich Park and Hudson Beach.  There are a few yards in the neighborhood, as well.  But I never see them in and around weed-free lawns.

 

(photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theloushe/3622541416/ )

According to a firefly website  fireflies are disappearing all over the world – for the usual reasons.  We are crowding fireflies out of existence as we keep developing their natural habitats.

If you want to make your yard a refuge for fireflies and a delight for yourself — here are some things to keep in mind.

The male flies about flashing a code specific to his species.  The female lounging on a plant will flash her response.  Eggs are laid about five days later preferably near water.  In about a month larvae emerge and burrow into damp soil or slip into water.  Later (depending on the species fall or spring) they form a cocoon and next summer develop into an adult.  The adults only a few weeks of life to find flash up a mate and start the cycle again.

(photo credit: http://serenityknitters.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html )

1.  Do NOT use chemicals in your yard.  An organic approach creates the kind of rich, loamy soil they need to lay their eggs.  Let logs and litter accumulate. 

2. Fireflies  like an area that is dim and damp in the daytime and extra dark at night.   Make sure you have some wild areas where the grass is tall and branches hang low.  That’s where the females like to sit.

3.  If you have a place for a pond or even a puddle, they will appreciate it.

4. Reduce light in and around your yard.  Make it easy for fireflies to find each other.

5. You can go one step further to help our flashing friends.  If you want to plug into what we know about fireflies, there is a great way! Become a firefly monitor.

Firefly Watch was launched in May 2008 by the Museum of Science, Boston.  You can register, log in and report observations of fireflies from your own yard, or someplace you like to go to watch them in action.  Fill out an observation sheet each time you spend a bit of time observing them.

With any luck, our children and their children will still be enjoying the magic of fireflies on a summer’s night.

THEY ARE COMING! JOURNEY NORTH TRACKS MONARCHS ON THE MOVE

Do you love the first sight of snow drops or crocus or scilla?  Are you watching the grass green up and watching willow branches turn yellow green?  Have you got geese nesting on a pond near you?  Senior citizens in Miami and Phoenix aren’t the only ones who venture north as the weather warms.

photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/lelepapillon/3810772155/

There are many waves of migration heading our way right now – whooping cranes, robins, humming birds, bald eagles, common loons, barn swallows, orioles and those might little monarchs.  You can follow them on Journey North.  Journey North is a nonprofit organization aimed at helping people tune into the global study of migration and seasonal change.

photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/28122162@N04/3758395703/

I was turned on to this map by Eric, a citizen scientist in Madison who has been submitting data for more than 10 years to the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project.  He knows from experience that his yard full of various milkweed plants is going to be a Monarch Motel, and the perfect place to take a break and lay some eggs.   He likes to know that those stout-hearted little butterflies that are winging up from Mexico.

It’s a harrowing trip.  The Monarchs that make it to the Midwest have spent the winter in the mountains of Mexico.  It’s touch and go for them down there.  If the winter is too hot, they move around too much, deplete their lipid reserves and burn out before spring, or perhaps worse, they may be triggered to start north too soon only to  freeze to death once they get here.    To avoid that they flap up hill some 3,000 meters in altitude where they can more or less count on survival conditions in the high mountain forests.  It will come as no surprise that these mountain forests where they gather together in colonies are currently being logged.

In March, they start to break diapause (a kind of dormancy to survive hard conditions) and get down to the business of heading north, mating and laying eggs as they go.  A few of those eggs survive to hatch and go through larval stages.  A few of those larvae form a chrysalis, and a few hatch out as freshly colored butterflies and head further north.  They reach the northern edge of their range about June.

Eric said he can tell when he sees the few who have made the trip all the way from Mexico.  They arrive at his milkweed patch ragged and faded.  They lay their eggs and then move farther north.

It’s an amazing saga, but it’s just one chapter in the big fat book of animal migration.  Journey North is one way to get a grasp on all these incredible journeys.  I used to marvel at the Monarchs.  I would see them and think, oh look!  The Monarchs are here.  I had no idea where they had come from.  What a complex interwoven environment it takes to keep them coming.  Now that I know more, I am in awe.

..Time to migrate! photo credit http://satellite.ehabich.info/

Eric is worried.   “Of course I hear the news,” he says.  “There is usually some event happening in Mexico that isn’t good for the monarchs, and you wonder if they are going to make it.”

Whether it is the logging or the creeping climate change that may make the wintering sites unsuitable within 50 years or all the perils that lay in their path, the monarchs and other migrating species surf the air currents and search the ground for shelter, experiencing the world in ways I cannot even begin to imagine.

The lucky ones will be blowing into Wisconsin in  June.  If you want to help them on their way, a good way to start is to check out Journey North.

GOING TO BAT FOR BADGER BATS

In 2006 people started finding dead bats whose noses were covered in a white fungus in caves around Albany NY.  We now know this is the deadly White Nose Syndrome WNS, which has decimated the bat populations of Europe.  It’s spreading fast, jumping west more than 500 miles just last year, leaving more than a million dead and dying bats in its wake in Eastern U.S. and Canada.

Because they are nocturnal and have been associated with vampires and other ominous pseudo threats, we don’t know much about bats and we worry even less, but their loss is going to hit us hard.  Bats are crucial contributors to the ecosystem and our human health and comfort.   Those one million lost bats will not be consuming almost 700 tons of night-flying insects that harm forests, agriculture and garden crops and spread germs.  (check out my previous bat post ).

WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT THE FOREST FLOOR

I listened to Dr. Don Waller, UW-Madison professor of botany and environmental studies and editor of “The Vanishing Present: Wisconsin’s Changing Lands, Waters, and Wildlife” give a presentation on long-term changes in Wisconsin forests last week as part of the UW-Arboretum Winter Lecture Series.  He shifted my forest focus from an upward-tilted gaze into the branches to a down-to-earth look at the ground.

I expected a talk on forests to be about trees, and yes, trees did make an appearance, but the real action is in the understory.  We all know trees are under siege from loggers, deer browse, insects like Emerald Ash Borer and climate change.  But Waller said it is damage to the spring ephemeral plants that are putting the entire ecosystem at the greatest risk.

Some of the things that are threatening the understory are issues that have escaped our notice.