Archive for the ‘Scientific’ Category

Life Aquatic

Monday, April 20th, 2015

Is that Bill Murray from the movie The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou?

Nope, it’s Boris the K from the CSU Bio Sciences and Plant Management Department

He’s without a doubt one of the world’s formost experts in the study and identification of aquatic insects; Yes, yet another entomologist!

Sorting out the families

Together with a host of CSU entomology students, we were able to collect various insect species from the Poudre River right in the heart of Fort Collins.

Can you identify these immatures?

I’ve been trying to do some photo micrography but I can’t seem to get the lighting just right. Also, with aquatic bugs, they look more natural wet but the liquid reflects the light and screws up the photo. Probably not worth the trouble spending too much time on this. Also, the semester is almost over and there is much yet to do.

February Science Review, Maybe

Saturday, February 28th, 2015

Record snowfall  in NoCo for February! The neat thing is that it snowed a bit every other day and then it all melted the next day!

Ento 555 expedition

This is for Boris’ class on immature insects. There is a collection due in May. We need to collect 24 families of immature insects; So far I found 10 families from the orders Orthoptera, Diptera, Coleoptera, Ephemeroptera, Homoptera and Hemiptera. Will need to go on a fishing trip for Odonata, Trichoptera and Plecoptera when the weather warms up.

Warning: Contains Paunch

Paunch! It’s what’s for dinner if you are a cow or a goat or a deer. These are ruminant animals and the so-called “Paunch” or Rumen contains all sorts of living micro bugs (but NOT insects) that can be used for demonstrations in a microbiology class.

Gold bug under the microscope

OK, this was my electroforming experiment and I’m using one of the dissecting microscopes from CSU to inspect the coating for exposed sections and missing plate areas. Look good to me.

BioMed students at the LSOP

The LSOP or Little Shop of Physics this year combined with the BioMed and BioEng departments for a great show at the new improved LSC (Lorrie Student Center) at CSU (Colorado State University). One of the things on display was a fully dissected human nervous system. No pictures allowed of this out of respect for the human donor, natch.

Winter!

Sunday, February 8th, 2015

Don’t kid yourself– it’s still winter; even though the east coast is knee deep in snow and it is 70 degrees in FoCoLand…

Dead Frog

At least I *think* its dead. I poked at it with a stick and it didn’t move. Note that I put a quarter next to it on the frozen pond to show you how big this frog was or is. Whatever. Dead Frog.

Dead for sure

Desiccated frog on the shore. How did it get there? I’ve been to this pond many times and have never seen this before.  This could be a normal thing thing perhaps if the water becomes frozen solid.

Dead Fish too

There are some that claim that the ice on the top of ponds can cut the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water and if there is a lot of plant growth and silt on the bottom it can spell death to any fish if the pond is iced over for several weeks. Then again some might say it is caused by  “military testing of some kind, maybe some kind of death ray maybe some chemical, testing it on the animals with a view to possible future use on humans”

Projects going into 2015

Monday, December 15th, 2014

That means they are not yet finished:

Press Cylinders

More like 4 inch diameter PVC pipes with a 1 inch steel pipe through the center (we hope) prior to filling with concrete. It’s an idea I’ve had for a while to make a printing press for intaglio plates. May or may not work…

Heavy cylinders

In this step, both cylinders are filled with concrete and allowed to harden. Some plywood end stock was fitted to each end to help set the steel pipe through the center. Whatever happens next will not  happen until next year. See you then!

And in another corner, some project involving electro-forming:

This project is about electrochemistry, copper anodes and sulfuric acid; the idea is to coat various non-conductive surfaces with metal by a process called Electro-Forming. It’s how bronzed baby shoes were made (if you remember those.)

Some sort of plant pod

This is an example of a non-conductive surface that could be coated with metal. Maybe they could be made into earrings? After they are dried, the surface is coated with lacquer and, depending on a number of conditions I haven’t quite worked out yet, the surface is made conductive and then electro-plated. At this moment I have not perfected the method.

An Assassin Bug

Naturally I have a constant source of insects (dead or alive) to choose from. The coating process seems like it may require some intervals to properly get the job done with insects. The initial coating requires a freshly deceased subject such that the legs and antennae can be manipulated without breaking off.

Gold Bug

Or something like that. Sufficient time to dry out is important at this stage. I’m giving this guy at least a month to dry completely before I do the final coating.

Creator Hub break time

About this time there was a little diversion to make a few holiday projects with the Hub Crew at the Harmony Library. Hope to get back with more projects next year!

Mysteries at the Museum

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2014

A male Ghost Mantis is in the following picture:

Museum worker Chris lowering the shade

At the last HOLA (or Hands On Live Animals) I was attempting to use my new magnifier app on my new smart phone to take a close-up picture of  Phyllocrania paradoxa otherwise known as a Ghost Mantis.  Just when I was getting the phone ready, the leafy looking bug decided to take off! As in fly away… He (and it was a male mantis) made a few circles at a height of about 25 feet in the air and then finally rested upon the shade near the window. He’s in the upper left of the window in the above picture but you can’t see him.

Ghost Mantis at the top of the window shade

Using the zoom function of my camera (Not my smart phone) I was able to get the above shot of the little ghost while he rested on the shade. Chris got a ladder to reach the pull chord for the shade and gently lowered the little bug-a-boo so he could safely be returned to his cage. All is fine, so I thought, but when I returned to the museum the following week I found out that 1) Chris got a job a CSU and is no longer employed at the museum and 2) The females in the mantis cage ATE THE ESCAPEE ! … I guess they were a bit pissed off that he wanted some time away from the girls.

The “HUB” visits FoCo Science Guy

Saturday, November 15th, 2014

Special show today at Science Toy Magic in Old Town Fort Collins:

Matt shows off some of his toys

Which could be boomerangs or gyroscopes or radiometers; Included with this performance is a detailed explanation of how it all works. That’s the real show at this magic store: You learn about physics and you like it.

If you see people looking down a copper tube…

It must be a demonstration of Lenz’s Law. The ‘Law’ says that any induced electromotive force will create a current whose magnetic field opposes the magnetic flux from the original induction. It kinda shows how electromagnetic circuits obey Isaac Newton’s ‘Third Law’, com’ on, you know this one: For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction.

Science Time at Avo’s

Friday, November 7th, 2014

No music this time:

Women of science

From left to right: Dr. Gillian Bowser, Natural Resource Ecology Laboaratory, CSU; Dr. Emily Fischer, Department of Atmospheric Science, CSU;Dr. Sara Rathburn, Warner College of Natural Resources, CSU; and Dr. Paula Cushing, Curator, Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

This working group on Women, Population and the Environment offered the public a speaker series titled, “Exploring the Influence of Gender in Science and the Environment” We had to come because Dr. Cushing is an arachnologist who helped revise Spiders of North America: An identification manual. She had to sign my copy!   Lots of young women science majors in attendance, none of them spider doctors.

Sponsored by:  Women’s Services and Gender Resources, School of Global Environmental Sustainability, National he Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Ripple Effect.

Buggy Museum

Saturday, March 29th, 2014

You will see buggies at the National Coach Museum in Portugal, but here in Fort Collins:

Today was learn how to care for your giant millipede

Or these Blue Beetles

And Bees, can’t forget bees!

The new animal exhibit at the FoCoMOD has been constructed to help introduce visitors to species and their vital roles, to highlight the need for conservation, and to spark scientific curiosity. It features animals including Colorado native tiger salamander, tarantulas, leopard geckos, “Dumbo” rats, honeybees, and even a ball python named “Slinky”, an old favorite but not native to Colorado.

Real Science this time!

Monday, March 24th, 2014

Can you say Nobel Prize winner?

Randy Schekman checks out the podium

… as a large group of scientists fill the lecture hall to hear about the molecular description of the process of membrane assembly and vesicular traffic in eukaryotic cells.

The slide I understand

Uh, because there are PacMan characters on it? No! It’s because catabolic cell degradation involving the actions of lysosomes is my middle name. And hanging with a Noble Prize winner can’t be bad!

Green Hack

Tuesday, November 5th, 2013

In a warehouse South of Loveland:

It’s a Hydroponic Garden!

Apparently things grow faster without soil because the plants don’t have to work so hard searching for food in the dirt  (I guess?)

Some kind of experimental soil

Known as the “Green Hackerspace” or the “Warehouse”, this is the play area for environmentally concerned DIY folks to hang out and test some ideas in real space.

Green test bed

Located in the middle of nowhere with lots of working area to do stuff, this warehouse might be just the pace to get things done. Stay tuned!