Wind Energy!

Howdy, BTDS fans!

Our next program is coming up February 18, 6:00 PM at the Stillwater Public Library. Dr. Steve Stadler from the Oklahoma Wind Power Initiative will be our speaker. Among other things, he was instrumental in setting up Oklahoma's famous Mesonet system, and he uses mathematical models to determine where the best spots are for commercial wind farms.

If you'd like to explore this topic ahead of time, here are some cool websites to check out. Many thanks to Dana for helping collect these links!

Oklahoma Mesonet - This is the official Mesonet website. Spend some time poking around. You can see all kinds of data about current air and soil conditions in Oklahoma! Click "overview" to get some background information.

Power of the Wind - This article on Science News for Kids covers all the basics of wind energy.

KidWind - Lots of information for teachers and students, including directions for building your own wind turbine.

Alliant Energy Kids - This site includes information on many renewable energy sources, and has a great drawing showing the inner workings of a wind turbine. And you can test your knowledge with this Energy in Motion game.

Saul Griffith on Kites as the Future of Renewable Energy - This YouTube video shows a short talk on an interesting alternative way of harvesting the wind.

Here's Dr. Stadler speaking about Oklahoma wind power on OklahomaHorizonTV:

Here's me, singing my Wind Energy song for Evalyn's first grade class (two years ago):

Upcoming Programs

Please mark your calendar for our next two programs!

Feb 18, 6:00 PM, Stillwater, Oklahoma Public Library

Where Should I Put My Wind Farm?

Modeling and Mapping the Oklahoma Windscape

Dr. Steve Stadler from the Oklahoma Wind Power Initiative will speak about his research modeling Oklahoma wind, which is key to developing the state's wind energy resource.

Apr 15, 6:00 PM, Stillwater, Oklahoma Public Library

What is the Shape of the Molecule?

Using X-ray Crystallography to Deduce Protein Structure

Dr. Christina Bourne from the OSU Department of Veterinary Pathobiology will speak about how potential disease-fighting drugs can be developed through understanding the shapes and functions of key protein molecules.

Building the Bat Family Tree

Last night we had another great Born to Do Science event here at the Stillwater Public Library.

I kicked things off with a new song called "Bat Man." (I'll get these songs posted one day, really, honest!)

Dr. Ron Van Den Bussche then guided us on how to study the tree of life. We learned that species that look alike may not actually be closely related. And visa versa: species that look very different can be closely related.

How do we know? By studying genes. The more closely related two species are, the more genes they have in common.

The physical characteristics of species (morphology) can be misleading. Studying genes can lead us to new conclusions about who's closely related to who. Then we can go back and look at morphology more closely to verify the new information.

That gives us multiple lines of evidence, or two different ways of knowing. When they agree with one another, we can feel more confident we've got it right. When they disagree, we need to do more research.

We also learned many cool things about bats. There are 1200 different kinds; the smallest is the size of a thumb; the largest has a wingspan as wide as a basketball player is tall.

At the end of the presentation, we looked at bat specimens. All the small brown bats in the photos below are members of the bat family that Dr. Van Den Bussche is trying to sort out. Each sample represents a different species.

Notice that there isn't much to go on as far as morphology is concerned! That's one reason this family of bats is the last to be organized. Dr. Van Den Bussche is the only one working on them. He's using DNA to sort them all out.

Next month, February 18 - wind energy! See you then!

Building the Bat Family Tree

Coming Thursday January 21, 2010, 6:00PM at the Stillwater Public Library...

Molecular Evidence Reveals Bat History

"Bat Man" Dr. Ron Van Den Bussche from the OSU zoology department will speak about his research into the evolution of a family of bats that makes up eight percent of all mammal species!

If you'd like to prepare for this presentation (or learn more afterwards) here are some resources to check out!

Other researchers doing similar work:

Scientists Fill Blanks on Bat Family Tree (article)

Bats and Their Evolution (video)

General Background:

Vespertilionidae - the family of bats we'll be looking at

The Tree of Life Web Project

Speciation (video)

The Tree of Life (video):

Breaking Up Bad Bacterial Biofilms

Check off another successful Born to Do Science event! Dr. Marianna Patrauchan spoke this evening about biofilms.

We kicked off the event with the debut performance of a new song called "Super Scientist." It's all about how much patience and persistence it takes to do the type of important research Dr. Patrauchan does. By the end of the song she was beaming! Watch for the song - I'll be posting it soon.

Then we talked about cystic fibrosis and how for some reason this usually harmless bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA), forms a deadly biofilm in lung tissue of CF patients. These bacteria are very common in humans, so what is it about CF that induces them to grow?

Dr. P's hypothesis is that it has something to do with the higher concentration of calcium ions present; these ions are a signal from the body to the immune system that something is wrong (CF!). The PA bacteria pick up on it and it signals them to form a biofilm.

It takes proteins to pick up a chemical signal and act on it (see this amazing film!), so Dr. P's research involves sorting through hundreds of candidate proteins to see which ones, if knocked out, could block this process from happening. For each candidate protein a mutant PA strain with the corresponding gene knocked out is created and tested, and each test takes about six months to complete!

When I interviewed her in preparation for her talk, she hadn't yet found the magic protein, however...

In a high point of the presentation she revealed a slide showing a dramatic difference between the wild PA and a particular mutant strain growing in the presence of calcium. A positive result! Go, super scientist, go!!

Now that we've identified it, we just need to figure out how to block that protein from doing it's job, and perhaps a drug can be developed that will prevent fatal PA infections in CF patients!

Dr. P shared a stack of nutrient plates with the kids. Each kid chose four sources of bacteria (the are everywhere - pencils, fingers, crumbs from the floor, etc.) and seeded and labeled their plates. Tomorrow, they'll be able to see bacteria growth!

Hey, if any of you are reading this - send me a photo of your results and I'll post them here!

Upcoming BTDS on Biofilms!

Coming Thursday 12/17 at 6:00 PM at the Stillwater Public Library:

Breaking Up Bad Bacterial Biofilms

Scientific Espionage in the Battle Against Cystic Fibrosis

Dr. Marianna Patrauchan from the OSU microbiology department will speak about her biofilm research, which may eventually help save lives.

If you'd like to come prepared, check out the related links below. This isn't required, but it would help you ask great questions!

Artwork by Marianna Patrauchan - Who says scientists can't be artists, too?

Microbe World - Microbiology in the news

Biofilms on Wikipedia

OSU Microbiology page

The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

Stillwater Newspress Article

Pseudomonas_aeruginosa (The type of bacteria Dr. Patrauchan works with)

"Ain't It Beautiful" Video

Those of you who attended the last "Born to Do Science" saw a slideshow set to the song I wrote based on Cheryl Baker's research on cultivating resistance in wheat to the Russian wheat aphid. Cheryl and I have been refining the song and the slideshow since then, and here is the final product for your enjoyment!

Oh, and you can view the lyrics, plus download the song for free for a limited time from my songbook - click here.

The Science of Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

One of my favorite blogs is called Science For Raising Happy Kids, by Christine Carter, Ph.D. She offers parenting advice based on actual scientific research!

One of Christine's recurring themes is gratitude. Practicing gratitude actually makes you a happier person. Last summer, inspired by her teachings, the Harper family instituted a new tradition. When we sit down to dinner together we hold hands and go round the circle twice, each telling something for which we are grateful. It's simple, but I do think it's had a positive effect. Christine offers more ideas for stretching the gratitude muscle on her most recent post.

Anyhow, I thought I'd take the opportunity, this being Thanksgiving, to show a little gratitude here on the Born to Do Science blog. I'd like to thank...

• My wife Lisa, for her support of this project which takes up lots of time and brings us no income, at least not yet.
• Sue Busch and the Stillwater Public Library for hosting this season's events and providing the publicity.
• All the parents for bringing their kids to the events.
• All the kids for showing up, having fun, and asking lots of good questions.
• All the other folks who have supported, encouraged, and promoted the idea.
• And of course, my guest scientists, who take time out from their busy schedules to prepare and share their research with my audiences, but mostly I want to thank them for the incredible work they do growing our body of scientific knowledge, which improves and enriches all our lives!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Roundy Round Video

Check out this amazing fan-made video of my song, "Roundy Round"!

Here's the story behind it, from my friend Laurie: "I've been volunteering at my daughter's school, teaching science lessons. I want to expose her classmates to "Roundy Round," and I mentioned it to my husband, and lamented that I didn't have anything to show them while they are listening to it. So, my talented husband made a video with all sorts of video clips of planets and things going roundy round to the music. It is awesome."

I'll say! Check it out! Pass it on!

Super Wheat!

Last Thursday was our first "Born to Do Science" event at the library, and it went very well! Many thanks to Sue Busch for setting up the series with the library, to our guest scientist, Cheryl Baker, and to Lisa for taking all these great photos!

By the way, there is no photo of me performing because... Cheryl put together a slide show to go with my song, so we just played it on the projector. Stay tuned; you're going to get to see it too, soon!

Here's what the room looks like. A lot of people came in late, due to traffic from the football game (who knew?), so we ended up with a somewhat bigger crowd than you see here.

Cheryl was awesome - she brought vials of wheat for every kid to observe (and taste!), plus several kinds of live aphids and magnifying glasses to view them with!

My neighbor from down the street just happened to be growing wheat in his back yard (he's in the entomology / plant pathology department at OSU) - and he sent a bucket of it for us to look at. Here we're examining some insect damage.

Checking out the live Aphids that Cheryl brought! Can you tell the different species apart?

Amazing Lisa took this photo through a magnifying glass. The green oval shapes are aphids. The little ones are babies. They are born live, and come out as miniature copies (clones) of their mamas.

Here's Cheryl, explaining...

Cheryl also brought these little sprigs of wheat to show the difference between the resistant variety and the vulnerable variety, when infested with Russian wheat aphids. The ones in the photos look pretty healthy, but the non-resistant wheat was obviously not happy at all.

Don't forget, our next event is December 17, at the Stillwater Public Library at 6:00 PM. I hope to see you there!!