June 7, 2011
Today’s Cool Photo of the Week is simply incredible. A volcano in Chile erupted this week for the first time in 50 years, and the friction caused between the rising cloud of dust and the air above the volcano created this astounding cloud-to-cloud lightning.
This is a massive eruption. Ash has been blown six miles into the sky, 3500 people have been evacuated, airports are closed, and cities in Chile and nearby Argentina are covered with so much ash that it looks as if there has been a snowstorm.
Officials say that they can’t even tell which one of four volcanoes in the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic chain has erupted, because of all the ash clouding the sky. Chile’s chain of about 2,000 volcanoes is the world’s second largest after Indonesia. Like Indonesia, Chile is situated on the "Ring of Fire" - the area in the Pacific Ocean that has the strongest geological activity on Earth, including many earthquakes and volcanoes.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
June 6, 2011
One of the most popular posts on the Seymour Science blog this past year was called: DOGS vs CATS: An Experiment. We reported on a study that showed that unlike dogs, who slurp their water and make a mess when they drink, cats drink daintily, using their curled tongue to pull liquid into their mouths in a neat stream.
Two scientists at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology decided to study dog drinking habits and see if this is actually true. They found that the way dogs get liquids into their mouths is very similar to what a cat does. And they have an x-ray to prove it!
Click here to see an x-ray of a dog drinking.
It turns out that dogs, just like cats, form their tongues into a "scoop" to pick up liquids. And also like cats, the liquid sticks to the tongue, forming a stream that is trapped when the animal closes its mouth.So dogs and cats are very much alike, at least when it comes to drinking!
To read more about puppies and why they do what they do, download my new eBook, WHY DO PUPPIES DO THAT? You can buy an iPad version in the iTunes store, and it is now also available for the Nook Color. Happy reading!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
June 4, 2011
Well, not exactly a REAL tiger! This beautiful moth that Liz spotted is a member of a large group of moths called TIGER MOTHS. Tiger moths (their common name) belong to a group of moths named Grammia, which have dark wings with white stripes and beautiful geometric patterns. Most of these moths have thick furry bodes. When these moths are not flying around, their wings are folded roof-like over their bodies, just as in this photo, which Liz took of a tiger moth on the deck of our country place. The larva (caterpillars) of these moths are called Wooly Bears.
Any of my readers have photos of butterflies or moths that YOU took? Send them to me in an email and I’ll publish them on my blog for all your friends to see! And the best photos I get may receive a surprise in your mail this summer (I’ll notify you about that if you’re gonna get one).
Be sure to watch for my new book about BUTTERFLIES! It is being published at the end of August.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
June 2, 2011
Seymour Simon’s new eBook, WHY DO PUPPIES DO THAT?, is now available as an app for the iPad.
This "read to me" book is full of fascinating, real information about puppies, and you will also see some of the cutest puppy photographs we could find!
It is on sale for $3.99 for this first week in the iTunes app store (through Saturday, June 4). Try it and let us know what you think!
Posted by: Liz Nealon
May 31, 2011
Seymour was out at the pond this weekend, collecting tadpoles in a jar for our first SUMMER VACATION SCIENCE 2011 project! Watch this space for more on how you can also collect these "pets in a jar." It is fascinating to watch these little swimmers, who will soon grow legs and turn into frogs!
Posted by: Liz Nealon
May 27, 2011
Did you ever get soap in your eye? It stings like crazy, and all you want to do is rub your eye and wash it out with clear water as quickly as you can.
So what happens if you are in the middle of a spacewalk, wearing a helmet that you cannot take off, and you get soap in your eye? Astronaut Andrew Feustel, a mission specialist on the Endeavour crew working at the International Space Station, ran into just that problem yesterday. "My right eye is stinging like crazy now," he radioed. "It’s watering a lot." It turned out that the soap-like anti-fogging solution that they spray onto inside of the astronauts’ helmets had gotten into his eye. Ouch. No way to reach up and rub your eye if you are floating in deep space!
For a few minutes, they thought that they would have to cut the spacewalk short and let him come back inside. Finally, he managed to rub his eye against a foam block in his helmet - normally used for clearing ears - and said that helped. He also noted that tears in space "don’t fall off of your eye ... they kind of stay there."
Kids (and adults) often wonder about how astronauts take care of simple things like having a drink when liquids float away. Same problem with brushing your teeth, or going to the bathroom. NASA had to figure out how astronauts would accomplish all of these things before we were ever able to send men and women into space. Yesterday’s incident was just one more example of things that we handle so easily here on Earth, but can become a real pain (in the eye) in space!
Photo: NASA
Posted by: Seymour Simon
May 27, 2011
Memorial Day Weekend marks the unofficial beginning of summer here in the U.S. The days are getting longer, school is almost over, and we’re all looking forward to swimming, fishing, playing ball, reading for fun and picnics!
You can’t avoid insects at a Memorial Day picnic, so we’ve found a Silly Animal Insect Joke just for today. Can you guess the answer? Click here to find out!
Have a Silly Summer, everybody!
Posted by: Liz Nealon
May 27, 2011
If you haven’t tried Seymour Simon’s SILLY DINOSAUR RIDDLES eBook yet, this could be the week! We are so pleased to be a Featured App in the Android Marketplace (thank you, Google!). And in honor of the occasion, we have lowered the price to $1.99.
So, if you have an Android phone, pick up this very funny, eBook original today!
Posted by: Liz Nealon
May 27, 2011
If you were in the Atlanta, Georgia area last Friday night around 10:45 pm, you might have seen an object brighter than a full moon streak across the sky. People watching reported seeing bright blue-green flashes, luminous sparkles, and distinct fireball-shadows. If you thought you saw a UFO (Unidentified Flying Object), you did…. but it’s not "unidentified" any more.
According to Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office, it was a disintegrating piece of comet. "This icy, fragile object was about 6 feet (2 meters) wide, hit the atmosphere at a speed of 86,000 mph (38.5 kilometer per second), and completely disintegrated about 75 miles (60 km) above the ground." The comet was recorded by a NASA fireball camera at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, GA, which is how he was able to tell us what it was. Bill Cooke says that "It was the brightest event we’ve seen in the three year history of our meteor network."
Here is the video. It is very short, but very bright, and comes to us courtesy of our Seymour Science favorite SpaceWeather.com website.
Click here to see video from Seymour Science.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
May 25, 2011
It was amazing to watch people emerging, unhurt, from their storm cellars as we were watching television news last night of the latest powerful Oklahoma tornadoes.
That got me thinking. What happens to all the animals when a tornado strikes?
Rescuers searching for people trapped in the ruins often find animals, and say that frightened pets often wait until dark to sneak quietly out to look for their owners. In this photograph, taken after the devastating tornadoes that stuck in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, rescued kittens are waiting to be picked up their owners. More than 350 dogs, cats, birds, snakes, lizards and even a tarantula have already been found there.
Dogs also go to work alongside the rescuers when disaster strikes. In this photo, a live-find dog named ChicoDog searches for survivors in the wreckage of a public housing complex in Joplin, Missouri. His partner is Kathleen Kelsey, a canine rescue specialist with the Missouri Task Force One search-and-rescue team.
Kittens Photo: Dave Martin / AP
ChicoDog Photo: Mark Schiefelbein / AP
Posted by: Seymour Simon
