As I sit here on my 5th ..6th ..7th .. (what day are we on?) day of marathon writing, trying to meet an impossible February 1st deadline, I can’t help but think about some recent studies and articles on the dangers inherent in our sedentary lifestyles. Then today, a fabulous video on the subject crossed my path, so I want to share that with you. But first, some background.
For decades doctors have studied the positive effects of activity. By now we should all know that if you exercise more, you’ll be more healthy — physically and mentally. I don’t even need to give you links for that. But what if you’re pretty happy with how you look and feel? Does that get you out of exercising?
To find that out, someone had to study the problem from the opposite viewpoint– how does being sedentary affect health? Well, the folks over at Obesity Panacea have been talking about the whole field of sedentary physiology for some time. Check them out for a run down of what science knows about that. But meanwhile, I’ll jump straight to the spoiler:
I started this blog in February of 2011, so while I haven’t been blogging for a full year, now seems as good a time as any to recap some of my more popular posts of the last year. As a brand new blogger, my readership isn’t exactly what you’d call earth-shattering, but I am pretty pleased with myself for having caught the eye of some of the more prominent science bloggers.
To those of you who linked to me, tweeted and promoted my posts, and otherwise took notice, I am entirely grateful. You’ve been instrumental in bringing my blog to public light.
This post has garnered an enormous amount of interest, primarily because of its connection to Deborah Blum’s wonderful series on Chemical Free Chemistry. Her posts (and others) inspired me to reflect on why our use of language is important when shaping young people’s image of science, in general, and of chemistry in this particular case. For me, the quotes from Primo Levi illustrate the true wonderment a scientist can have for his or her subject when they aren’t tainted by fear or social pressure.
In this season of giving, I’d like to offer up a suggestion for a last-minute gift exchange that has meaning and doesn’t involve battling crowds at the mall: Exchange donations.
I don’t mean just dropping off toys at the firehouse or sending your kids to school with non-perishable food items for the food-bank box. I mean turning at least part of your Christmas gift exchange into a Donation Exchange.
I know I’m not just speaking for myself when I say I don’t need any more stuff. Really. But there are people who do need things, so why not channel the money you’d spend on gifts to them?
This post won’t be so much about where to donate your money, (though I’ll make some suggestions along the way), but on different ways that families and friends manage a donation exchange.
That’s the gorgeous book, Poseidon’s Steed, by Helen Scales –truly a lovely natural history of seahorses and human’s relationship with these remarkable creatures. Then there’s a pad of seahorse paper, perfectly pocket-sized for note-taking at the zoo; a dancy squid with springy tentacles (he’s a refrigerator magnet!) and an official Scripps Institution of Oceanography coffee mug.
So, what did I do to deserve this fun collection from Scripps?
I know most of my science followers already saw this over on PZ Myer’s blog, but for the rest of you.. well .. just this:
And, if you’re in the US (and maybe Canada?) be sure to catch BBC’s Frozen Planet on the Discovery Channel in March. I’ve see it, and I assure you, you’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve been watching nature documentaries my whole life, and this just blew me away.
Also, this is important: Americans reading this should know that originally the Discovery Channel only agreed to air 6 of the 7 episodes. Why? you ask. Because the last episode shows something that apparently Americans aren’t equipped to cope with. Are you ready for this? It contains information about …. CLIMATE CHANGE.
I know. I was shocked.
However, faced with enormous public backlash, The Discovery Channel conceded and will be airing all seven segments, the final one narrated by David Attenborough himself. (I guess they don’t think we can handle too much Attenborough either. The first six segments will be narrated by Alec Baldwin.)
This announcement comes a bit late in “internet time” — a full 3 days after I receive the email from Jennifer Ouellette. But I’m not a yipeee jump up and shriek sort of person – especially for myself. Also, I do feel that certain people deserve to hear Big News first (and BIG this was!).
My order of operation was simple: Husband (over a toast during my birthday dinner: “Honey, I have news …” ), parents, close friends and family, my writing group, and only then, Twitter ….and the world.
But while my announcement comes late, the honor itself comes early in my blogging career. My first post went up February 25, 2010. Romeo went up on August 27, almost 6 months to the day after I began. Three months later, this. What better confirmation can a blogger ask for, really?
So first, a humble thank you to the editors/judges of Open Lab 2012: Editor, Jennifer Ouellette, Bora Zivkovic, Scientific American Blog Editor, and Amanda Moon, Senior Editor, Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux. I appreciate the effort that you must have put in and know it couldn’t have been easy to make the final selections. Thank you very much.
It’s an honor to be amongst such a great group of writers. There are so many people on that final list (and in the science blogging community at large) I admire. First, of course are the veterans – those scientist and journalists whose names I recognized from books, newspapers, and magazines. You are the first people I found when I stumbled my way into Twitter six months ago and you are the level heads, critical thinkers, and seasoned writers I consistently take my cues from.
But really, it’s you young bloggers who leave me in awe –the students and young scientists and writers whose unfettered enthusiasm, grasp of science, and pure hutzpah have completely blown me away. Unlike me, you folks came of age in this world of blogging, tweeting, and online discourse and you’ve embraced it in the most positive way I can imagine. I’m thrilled (and hugely relieved) to know you’re out there taking the world head-on in the name of delivering accurate and immensely readable science to the public.
So congratulations to all of the fine writers who made the cut for Open Lab 2012 and also to those who, just by nature of print-publishing constraints, had to be one of the darlings killed in the final selection. I’m looking forward to another great year of being part of the science blogging community and, most especially, to the publication of Open Lab 2012.
A story of two of the largest eggs in the world and what they reveal about the extinct elephant bird (Aepyornis maximus).
Check out this picture:
That, of course, is Sir David Attenborough. In his hand is an elephant bird egg. He, and that egg are featured in a 2011 BBC documentary on Madagascar that I’ve just finished watching, called, Attenborough and the Giant Egg. In the 3-part series, Attenborough shows, through archival video, how he came to be in possession of the egg during his first visit to Madagascar in 1960, while filming an episode of the BBC TV series ZooQuest. This video clip, in which a young Attenborough receives his egg (in the form of several large pieces) and reassembles it with medical tape, is a gem worth watching.
Attenborough then retraces his steps, now 50 years later, updating the audience on Madagascar today and providing more information on what is known about elephant birds and what he has learned about his egg – including its age (which I’ll get to later).
I’m not going to recount the details about elephant birds here. The basics you can find on Wikipedia. For the rest I’d highly encourage you to watch the BBC production.
But I do want to say that the minute I saw Attenborough’s Giant Egg, I thought, Wait! I’ve seen that egg! Ok, not that exact one, but an elephant bird egg.
This is the story of how one passionate scientist, speaking live in front of an audience, can impact a life.
My husband and I went to see the first of four National Geographic Live presentations in Toronto last week. It was a fabulous lecture and seeing photographer Mattias Klum in person reminded me of the last time I saw I live National Geographic presentation.
When I was growing up in Maryland, my parents always got season tickets to the National Geographic Film Series in Washington DC. Every Friday night through the winter my parents would dress up, drive into DC to DAR Constitution Hall, and enjoy a film narrated live by a National Geographic sponsored researcher, traveler, journalist or photographer.
What this meant for me and my sisters, when we were young, was a babysitter, TV dinners, and being allowed to stay up past our bedtime to watch The Addams Family. But what this meant when we were older was that we each got to choose one lecture to attend with my parents.
After my post on the Ontario Roadside Zoos and the problem of exotic animal ownership and regulation, it seemed only natural that I should address the tragic event that occurred last week in Zanesville, Ohio.
In case you missed it, a man named Terry Thompson killed himself. But before he did that, he set free more than 50 exotic animals from his private collection.
Lions and tigers and bears ran loose; police with guns and wildlife experts with darts converged; locals were cautioned to stay indoors; the dark of night took over, and when the bloody aftermath was revealed, the death count stood at 49 animals including Bengal tigers, lions, grizzly and black bears, mountain lions, wolves and primates.
But after all this, I couldn’t really figure out what to say. The scope of the tragedy doesn’t need restating. The state of Ohio and the governor are being called to task over the state’s lack of regulation and l didn’t think I needed to draw the obvious parallel to Ontario and the potential for that to happen here.
Besides, the main points have been covered quite well. Susan Orlean at the New Yorker, wrote a lovely piece addressing the question of whether any exotic animals should be kept in captivity – zoos or otherwise. Her points are all right on the mark.
Anyone who claims that he needs to own wild animals because he loves them is delusional. Wild animals don’t want to be owned. They’re wild. They are not pets; they are not our friends; they are not objects. No scenario makes private ownership of wild animals reasonable or fair. – Susan Orlean
This either
Television host and former director of Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Jack Hanna directed his wrath at the Ohio legislators, insisting they review the current exotic animal laws.
“All eyes are on Ohio. The world is watching, and we need to have something in place so this never happens again.” Jack Hanna to the Ohio committee to review exotic animal laws (via UPI)
And several writers and bloggers did a nice job of summing up the complexity of regulating exotic animal ownership, the role of the media and its thirst for “wild” animal marketing shots, and making the point that there are no simple solutions.
But then I realized, there is one more thing that needs to be addressed. Put aside, for a moment, the question of whether any exotic animals should be kept captive. I want to address the current state and one root problem that I have not seen discussed anywhere: the problem of the solitary owner.
...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."
--Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species, 1st Ed. 1859
, by Helen Scales –truly a lovely natural history of seahorses and human’s relationship with these remarkable creatures. Then there’s a pad of seahorse paper, perfectly pocket-sized for note-taking at the zoo; a dancy squid with springy tentacles (he’s a refrigerator magnet!) and an official 
