Birds
- According to experts, feeding birds is probably the most common way in which people interact with wild animals today.
- More than 50 million Americans engage in the practice, collectively undertaking an unwitting experiment on a vast scale.
- Is what we’re doing good or bad for birds?
- Recently, researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology sought to answer this question, analyzing nearly three decades’ worth of data from a winter-long survey called Project Feeder Watch.
- Preliminary results suggest the species visiting our feeders the most are faring exceptionally well in an age when one-third of the continent’s birds need urgent conservation.
An Important Measuring
- A review is a survey of what you have covered.
- It is a review of what you are supposed to accomplish not what you are going to do.
- Rereading is an important part of the review process.
- Reread with the idea that you are measuring what you have gained from the process.
Palaus
- Palaus and his colleagues wanted to see if any trends had emerged from the research to date concerning how video games affect the structure and activity of our brains.
- They collected the results from 116 scientific studies, 22 of which looked at structural changes in the brain and 100 of which looked at changes in brain functionality and or behavior.
- The studies show that playing video games can change how our brains perform, and even their structure.
- For example, playing video games affects our attention, and some studies found that gamers show improvements in several types of attention, such as sustained attention or selective attention.
Hottest Earth
- The Earth just had the hottest month in recorded history, and it’s even worse than normal.
- The record comes in a run of unprecedentedly hot months.
- Not only does it break through the all-time record set a year before, it also continues a now 10- month long streak of months that are the hottest ever according to Nasa data.
- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calculates temperatures slightly differently.
Far From Content
- Your first draft is complete, but your paper is far from finished.
- The next step is to revise your paper: strengthen the content.
- Start this at least a week before your paper is due.
- In fact, you don’t need to wait until you have a complete first draft to start revising.
- You can revise individual paragraphs as you finish them as well.
Arctic Environment
- With the Arctic the fastest-warming region on the planet, climate change is already altering key components of the Arctic environment.
- Some of the clearest signs of change are the thinning and retreat of sea ice and the migration of species into the Arctic that normally live at lower latitudes.
- The response of the Arctic to climate change will have an unprecedented impact on how the Arctic ecosystem operates.
- This is likely to affect the UK’s climate and economy, with anticipated impacts on industries like tourism and fisheries.
Research Report
- So now that you’ve completed the research project, what do you do?
- I know you won’t want to hear this, but your work is still far from done.
- In fact, this final stage – writing up your research – may be one of the most difficult.
- Developing a good, effective and concise report is an art form in itself.
- And, in many research projects you will need to write multiple reports that present the results at different levels of detail for different audiences
Echolocation
- Vision and echolocation have many features in common.
- One narrow range of radiation — light in the case of vision, ultrasounds in the case of echolocation provides information relevant to a wide variety of cognitive and practical goals.
- Why, then, is vision so common and echolocation so rare?
- Because, in most environments, vision is much more effective.
- Echolocation is adaptive only in an ecological niche where vision is impossible or badly impaired—for instance, when dwelling in caves and hunting at night, as bats do.
Copernicus
- Copernicus probably hit upon his main idea sometime between 1508 and 1514. For years, however, he delayed publication of his controversial work, which contradicted all the authorities of the time.
- The historic book that contains the final version of his theory, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi (“Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs”), did not appear in print until 1543, the year of his death.
- According to legend, Copernicus received a copy as he was dying, on May 24, 1543.
- The book opened the way to a truly scientific approach to astronomy. It had a profound influence on later thinkers of the scientific revolution, including such major figures as Galileo, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton.
LiDARs
- Cameras help autonomous vehicles read street signs and the color of traffic lights.
- But LiDARs, aka light detection and ranging systems, do the important work of sensing and helping cars avoid obstacles, whether that’s a fallen tree, a drunk driver, or a child running out into the road.
- Now, a startup called Luminar Technologies Inc., is unveiling a high-resolution LiDAR sensor that was five years in the making.
- The startup, which has raised $36 million in seed-stage funding so far, built its LiDAR systems from scratch.
Photogrammetry
- Photogrammetry involves taking hundreds of photos of an object at slightly different angles and ‘stitching’ them together to create an interactive digital 3D model.
- The process is already being used by the University of Aberdeen’s anatomy department to create digital models of organs and other body parts to aid teaching and learning for young doctors.
- Now the same technology is being used to create virtual replicas of artifacts within the University’s museum’s collections, including an ancient Egyptian mummified cat, prehistoric skulls and ancient Greek pottery.
- These artifacts are rarely handled as they are so fragile.
- Photogrammetry lets the public and students get to see them close-up and in very high detail.
Namesakes Bay
- Aboard the ship Discovery, Hudson left England in April 1610.
- He and his crew, which again included his son John and Robert Juet, made their way across the Atlantic Ocean.
- After skirting the southern tip of Greenland, they entered what became known as the Hudson Strait.
- The exploration then reached another of his namesakes, the Hudson Bay.
Noise and Study
- Some students say that they need complete quiet to read and study.
- Others study best in crowded, noisy rooms because the noise actually helps them concentrate.
- The point is, you should know the level of noise that is optimal for your own studying.
- However, one general rule for all students is that the television seems to be more of a distraction than music or other background noise, so leave the TV off when you are reading or studying. Also, don’t let your self distracted by computer games, email, or internet surfing.