Brain Slices

As I write this, you can watch live streaming video of a frozen brain being sliced into sections for study at the Brain Observatory at the University of California, San Diego. The brain belongs to a man who lost his short-term memory after an operation to help his seizures.

From CNN:

A camera is taking a picture of each individual slice, and these pictures will also be made available on the Web. The goals are to map the human brain in new ways and correlate individual structures with specific functions such as memory.

Nature Art -- Big and Small

I finally got the chance to interview (via email) local nature writer/illustrator Carol Coogan. Read "How to Get Your Kids Out Drawing Nature" on GeekDad.

And The Micropolitan Museum of Microscopic Art Forms is a website featuring images of teeny tiny organisms. Here's their description:

For several centuries artists have depicted the human figure, still-lives, landscapes or non-figurative motifs. One subject has been widely neglected all those years: Micro-organisms!

The Micropolitan Museum finally exhibits these often overlooked works of art which are only visible with the aid of the microscope. Curator Wim van Egmond has collected the finest microscopic masterpieces nature has ever produced during eons of natural selection.

Great Kids Book about Triops

Photographer Lori Adams sent me
a review copy of the new book she produced with author Helen Pashley about triops. This book is the reference you'll need when you try raising these frisky little critters for yourself. It has all the information you'll need, plus lots of clear, well-marked photos so you can identify what you're seeing. I recommend it highly. Order it through Little Science books.

You can also order triops kits through Amazon or directly from Triassic Triops (but I get a small kickback from Amazon, and shipping is free)!

See my post about triops on GeekDad. The comments are pretty funny, too.

Charlie's Playhouse - Toys that Teach Evolution

Thanks to my fellow GeekDad writer Jenny for pointing me towards Charlie's Playhouse, a toy company dedicated to games and learning tools about evolution. As Jenny writes:

The 24th of November is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s work, “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.” To celebrate this important anniversary, Charlie’s Playhouse, maker of evolution-inspired toys, play things and apparel, is inviting us all to ask our kids (age 4 to 10), “What is evolution?” They are hoping this will spark family discussion about evolution.

How Did Our Garden Grow?

This year's garden was eventful, and deserves a report:

1. The Three Sisters Garden worked great!

Following the directions from NativeTech, I planted corn, stringbeans and various kinds of squash Native American-style. We had way more corn than the previous year (although several ears never developed), and the beans were plentiful up until the first frost. In fact, the beans grew so well that the corn stalks began bending under the weight and had to propped up with stakes taken from the tomato patch (more on which below). I also got a lot of acorn squash (reminder to self: make menus to use up acorn squash in downstairs fridge) and a few zucchinis. I even got two pickings of pickles from the one vine that grew over by the compost pile. But most of the squash didn't thrive. Possible reasons: planted seeds too deep, critters ate seeds, powdery mildew, squash bugs. But all in all relatively easy and very rewarding. (Note for next year: deepen lower plot to move corn farther away from fence.)

2. Those poor tomatoes.

Tomatoes throughout the area had it rough this year. Tomato blight arrived early, thanks to plants shipped to the big-box stores. Although experts recommended pulling up all plants and discarding them, I kept a few which still had leaves and found that by the end of the season they each had produced several more small fruits (which I failed to harvest before the frost, sadly). The other weird thing was that somehow I ended up without a single regular round red tomato among all my varieties. And due to a mistake on the part of the farmer's market guy, the green zebra seedlings I bought turned out to be orange globes (which the husband pronounced unsuitable for sandwiches, for some reason). Not a total washout, not a great year.

3. What happened to all the pumpkins?

Last year we had pumpkins up the wazoo, just from throwing our old ones on the compost pile. This year, nada. Still had vines -- but they turned out to be plain little gourds, barely suitable for decorations. Went to our usual pumpkin place (across from the dairy farm we lived on years ago) to stock up, and the girl there said all the wet weather was not pumpkin-friendly. Well, there's always next year.

4. The herbs, the strawberries, the grapes, the apples.

The herb garden we created at our last house was so wonderful, I figured it would be easy to replicate. But so far, no luck. Even though herbs are billed as being suitable for shady spots, ours have not filled out. And with the non-stop rain, everything growing in the lower part of the backyard was pretty much drenched, if not underwater, throughout the entire season. I added some more ever-bearing strawberries, which turned out to have much larger fruit than the first batch (about half the size of a regular strawberry, as opposed to little wild-strawberry-sized fruit). They only produced a few, and sometimes the bunnies got to them before I did. I'd like to add more of those next spring. Of the two grape plants I put in by the pond, one died and the other survived but didn't fruit. The apple tree produced about a dozen apples, of which the squirrels got two. All were bumpy and funny-looking, but were OK when peeled and cooked.

Winter gardening: I still need to pull out the old plants and cut what herbs remain for drying. The carrots I planted in September seem to be doing OK; I plan to cover them and see if they are pickable in the winter. I also planted some lettuce in flower boxes on the porch rail, but the squirrels decided they were the perfect place to bury nuts.

Not sure about doing any hydroponics other than sprouts this winter, but I may try to grow something in one of the fish tanks. Still looking into it! Also hope to try some of the projects in Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The Square-Inch Gardener's Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting.

New Blog - Home Physics!

It'll be a few more weeks before it really gets up and going, but I'm starting to add helpful links and info about learning physics at home to this year's science blog, Home Physics. Come visit! And feel free to comment with your favorite resources or suggestions.

Nature Drawing

I don't think I ever posted these drawings of tomato plants by my kids last winter. We have been inspired by the lovely illustrations of naturalist Carol Coogan, whose work is published weekly in our local newspaper.

Images Copyright by Carol Coogan