July 1, 2011
Have you entered the drawing to win a free iPhone or iPad copy of Seymour Simon’s ANIMAL FACT ANIMAL FABLE? There are just three days left to enter
Here is everything you need to know:
Seymour Simon is giving away ten (10) free downloads of the iPhone or iPad version - with "read to me" narration - of an enduring favorite: ANIMAL FACT ANIMAL FABLE. If you are at least thirteen years old, go to Seymour’s new Facebook Author Page and "LIKE" that page. Ten randomly-chosen people who press "Like" between June 13 and July 3, 2011 will win a code for a free iPad or iPhone download of this Diane deGroat-illustrated eBook.
Don’t delay - this offer ends on Sunday!
Posted by: Liz Nealon
June 21, 2011
Being a sea slug may not sound like a very glamorous station in life, but they are among the most colorful animals on Earth. This beauty is known as a Spanish Shawl (Flabellina iodinea).
Actually, sea slug is the casual name we often use, but this is technically a nudibranch, which means "naked gills." They come in many different shapes and colors, live in huge numbers in shallow waters near the shore, and they are invertebrates, which means that they do not have a spine.
Nudibranchs lost their shells through the course of evolution, which required them to develop a whole range of other kinds of protection. Most species have poisonous appendages sticking out from their bodies, as you see in this photo. They also tend to have very intense, bright coloring - "warning coloration" - which alerts other animals to the fact that they either taste bad, or may even be poisonous if eaten. Others are camouflaged because they look very similar to the plants around them. And if that weren’t enough, their skin releases a slimy, sour liquid when they are touched by another creature. Sea slugs are definitely a "look but don’t touch" kind of animal!
Here is another beauty, a black-spotted nudibranch (Phyllidiopsis papilligera). This one was photographed in shallow waters off the coast of Haiti.
Readers often ask me which is my favorite book of all the ones I have written. I can never say which I like the best (that’s like choosing among your children!), but my favorite at any given moment tends to be whatever animal I am writing about. These days I am working on a new book called CORAL REEFS. So, I am fascinated by all these marine animals who live in the vast "cities under the sea" that we know as the coral reefs. They are some of the most diverse, and certainly among the most magnificent, ecosystems on Earth.
Spanish Shawl photo: Magnus Kiaergaard
Black-Spotted Nudibranch photo: Nick Hobgood
Posted by: Seymour Simon
June 20, 2011
Good morning, campers! It’s time for SUMMER VACATION SCIENCE!
It’s still not too late to plant, and this week we are talking butterfly gardens. Would you like to have a special habitat, right in your own yard or nearby lot, where butterflies, moths and hummingbirds visit regularly and return? Click here to download the full project guide, which has everything from how to find the right plants, how to plant them, and what butterflies need to thrive and return. Get started today and create your own, personal, very unique butterfly garden!
This summer, our goal is to get kids outdoors, exploring and enjoying the world around them. Check back here throughout the summer for new installments of Summer Vacation Science.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
June 17, 2011
I took a walk today in Great Falls National Park, along the Potomac River in Virginia. The falls are really beautiful, and the trails are wooded and shady, but the best part, for me anyway, was spotting all the wild animals.
This Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) feeds at the water’s edge, using its long legs to wade through the water, spearing small fish and frogs with its long, sharp bill.
You can clearly see the compound eye of this beautiful Dragonfly (an insect belonging to the order Odonata), which was perched in the foliage high above the falls. You usually find dragonflies near the water, because their larvae, called "nymphs" live in the water. These insects are valuable predators (valuable to humans, at least) because they eat mosquitoes.
My grandson Ben Simon took this great photograph of a wolf spider, which was hiding inside a crack of an old stump. Wolf spiders are members of the family Lycosidae, from the Ancient Greek word "λύκος" meaning "wolf". The blue and white mass, which almost looks like a piece of jewelry, are actually all her babies - dozens of tiny wolf spiders, riding on her back!
Have you taken a walk in the outdoors this week? If not, get outside and keep your eyes peeled. There are fascinating wild creatures all around you.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
June 15, 2011
Back in April, Seymour wrote about his Earth Day pledges, and one of them was that we were going to build a garden that would be a butterfly habitat. We had a spot, under a big elm tree, that was completely overgrown with weeds.
Two months, a lot of hard work and one terrible case of poison ivy later, we have a butterfly garden! Now, we just need to wait for it to stop raining, for the weather to get a bit warmer, and for our new seedlings to grow and flower. Hopefully, we will soon see many butterflies, moths and hummingbirds in this peaceful place.
Next week’s SUMMER VACATION SCIENCE unit will be about how to create your own butterfly garden. Be sure to check back here to learn more!
Posted by: Liz Nealon
June 14, 2011
Today’s Cool Photo of the Week is of a baby Canadian Goose (called a "gosling"). The little one is staying warm underneath its mother’s feathers, and by the size of that yawn, I’d say it is settling in for a nap!
Photo: Robin Loznak for msnbc.com
READERS: Are you wondering how to add your own "comment" to this blog? Click here for exact directions on how to add a comment so you can become one of our Seymour Science writers! We also want you to be safe and not share too much information when you write on this blog, so please take a minute to read about how to stay safe on the Internet. We love to hear from you, so give "comments" a try!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
June 13, 2011
Welcome to week one of SUMMER VACATION SCIENCE!
Frogs live all over the world. About twenty different kinds are in the United States including bullfrogs, including bullfrogs (Rana cateseiana), leopard frogs (R. pipiens) and green frogs (R. clamitans). Frogs can live almost anywhere if there is enough water. Summer time is too late in the year to collect frogs’ eggs, but you can certainly collect tadpoles. Tadpoles will grow into frogs in a home aquarium or in a large wide-mouthed jar. But keep in mind that it’s important for you to be able to return the baby frogs to their natural environment after you’ve kept them.
Click here to download today’s unit: FROM TADPOLES TO FROGS, to learn not only how to do this yourself, but also how to help protect frogs and their habitats.
This summer, our goal is to get kids outdoors, exploring and enjoying the world around them. Check back here throughout the summer for new installments of Summer Vacation Science.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
June 13, 2011
Science and nature are great topics for kids when they want to be outdoors and have fun. Starting this Monday, the Seymour Science blog will feature a new SUMMER VACATION SCIENCE unit every week, designed for elementary aged kids and their friends or families. All these activities are fun, informal, encourage active learning and exploration, and have suggestions for supplementary reading.
Watch for the first unit to be posted later today!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
June 10, 2011
The best video of the week has to be the massive solar flare that erupted from the sun on Tuesday morning. Our friends at SpaceWeather.com wrote that "this recording of the blast by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory ranks as one of its most beautiful and dramatic movies (ever)." Click here to see the video.
"It looks like someone kicked a clod of dirt in the air," said solar physicist C. Alex Young of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in a YouTube video interview. "I’ve never seen material released in this way before - an amazing, amazing event."
People who live in the northern latitudes may see particularly beautiful auroras (northern lights) this week, as the CME (coronal mass ejection - a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields released into space) makes its way toward Earth.
Video: NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory
Posted by: Seymour Simon
June 8, 2011
When I saw a wild turkey crossing over the dirt road leading up to my house in the country the other day, I thought of Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States. Why? Because when it came to choosing a symbol of the United States, Ben Franklin thought the wild turkey was a more dignified bird than the bald eagle. I’m not sure if I agree; the bald eagle is magnificent soaring in the sky and I think the turkey looked a bit pompous and stuck-up strutting across my road. But the turkey is a pretty interesting bird. It would rather walk than fly (though it can fly, at least for a minute or two). Seeing a single turkey is rare around here; I usually seem them in flocks of a dozen or more birds.
Not to be outdone by a wild turkey, a large snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) came walking across the same dirt road. I stopped the car to take a picture of the snapper. When I came close, the turtle turned around to face me, snapped and hissed. "OK," I thought. "I’m just looking. Let’s part friends!" And I got back in my car and watched the snapper disappear into the undergrowth. There’s a stream just nearby the road and I guess that’s where the turtle was headed.
A snapping turtle has a large head with strong jaws. This one was quite large - I would estimate about 14 inches from its head to the tip of its armored tail. 
That’s about the distance from your fingertips to your elbow. Unlike many other kinds of turtles, the snapper can’t withdraw its head into its shell. It relies on its jaws for defense and can bite hard enough to take your finger off. I wouldn’t try to pet a snapping turtle, and neither should you! Thinking it over, petting a wild animal is a "no, no" in every case, no matter what. Wild animals are not pets and should not be touched, for your own safety as well as theirs.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
