by Rosamund, Coastal Studies for Girls
 
My group is analyzing the density of Soft-shell clams along the local shoreline in three different places. We have found out since starting the project that the Harraseeket River has an abundance of clams at low tide. This is interesting, because a local clammer told my group and I that a few years ago, it used to be the exact opposite: there used to be no clams at the Harraseeket River and an abundance in the other locations we researched.

Badwater Basin in Death Valley sits 282 feet below sea level and is known for its extensive salt flats and brackish water. The harsh environment is forbidding to all but the specially adapted and salt-tolerant. And recently added to its collection of atypical life-forms is a group of greigite-producing magnetic bacteria, which were isolated from a sample of brackish spring water and described in a report published in Science in late December.

By Mariel Emrich, Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School
 
Want to help researchers while playing a game? Dr. Jérôme Waldispuhl of the McGill School of Computer Science and collaborator Mathieu Blanchette have designed a web-based video game called Phylo. By playing Phylo, gamers can contribute to scientific research and advance our understanding of the genetic basis of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and cancer. No knowledge of science needed to play!

Cultural Entomology encompasses both the positive and negative impacts insects have had on human society, moors and beliefs. Insects were one of the first foods for hunter-gatherers and were used in primitive bombs in ancient wars. They have vectored diseases like malaria, typhus, and yellow fever that have killed millions of people over the last several hundred years. And they are symbols of change, rebirth, strength, resilience, and magic for many cultures across the globe.

By Mariel Emrich, Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School
Fireworks are used for many special occasions including New Years Eve and the Fourth of July. Fireworks originated in the Han dynasty in 200 B.C. When dry fuel ran short, chunks of green bamboo were thrown onto a fire. The bamboo got darker and started to sizzle. After a while, the bamboo unexpectedly exploded. The reason for this is that bamboo grows so fast that sacs of air get trapped inside the plant’s segments, and when heated, the air pockets expand and eventually burst. The bursting air pockets create such loud sounds that they frightening people as well as animals. The Chinese figured that if the noise scared people so much, then it would also scare away evil spirits. So it became customary to throw green bamboo into a fire on the Lunar New Year.

Kaitlyn Gerber, Carleton College
I was lucky enough to interview Dr. Annie Bosacker, a Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology at Carleton College, who has done significant research studying babboons in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Her main research interest is in the social behavior of primates, specifically how social circumstances influence an individual's exposure to stress. Here, Dr. Bosacker speaks about her previous work, her interests in biology, and what it's like balancing a family and a successful career in biology.

By Mariel Emrich, Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School
TB is a difficult disease to treat. People are prescribed a combination of many antibiotics to be taken daily for 6 to 9 months. This is a schedule that is hard for patients to follow and hard for their nurses and doctors to administer. Even after beginning the appropriate treatment, some of the infectious cells survive for long periods of time. A team of researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health conducted a study to figure out why some tuberculosis cells are inherently more difficult to treat with antibiotics.

By Mariel Emrich, Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School
Iron oxide is a component (along with magnesium) of ferropericlase, the second most abundant mineral at Earth’s lower mantle. In the center of the Earth, there is extreme pressure and high temperature. This causes atoms and electrons to squeeze so closely together that they interact differently from the way they interact in the outer layers of Earth. New experiments and supercomputer computations have enabled researchers to discover something interesting about the way iron oxide (FeO) behaves in deep Earth conditions.

by Meryl, Coastal Studies for Girls
On November 30, our final guest speaker of the semester, Anne Madden, gave a talk on her research involving microbes in paper wasp nests. Anne Madden, a graduate research student at Tufts University in Massachusetts, studies the microbes in wasp nests.

Fin whales are enormous animals, with the largest individuals measuring nearly 90 feet in length and weighing 80 tons. Something that large should be conspicuous, especially in the coastal waters where fin whales spend much of their time. But the species’ propensity to disperse to open water and steep declines in its numbers in the 20th century have rendered it a rare sight. And so, relative to its famous baleen cousins, the blue whale and the humpback, the fin whale is lesser known, and its behavior little understood.

For our first podcast, and just in time for the holidays, we explore the insect stop motion animation work of Ladislaw Starevitch, a Russian insect enthusiast. He created The Insects' Christmas, a lovely short film that’s perfect for the season. So leave out some cookies for Santa and some crumbs for the beetles and join us on Bug Bytes.