School Daze

I finally went in to register for classes and the science gods were with me. I am lucky enough that in my senior year I get to do a semester of freshman level courses! Chemistry 2, Physics, Freshman Development Seminar, Social Science 100 and CPR. I never took these classes because I'm stubborn. Now that I am getting burned out on school, this will be a painless semester to help me get back into the swing of things. *sigh*

Now onto some devastating science news I read on Greg Laden's blog. Apparently baby penguins are being washed ashore hundreds of miles away from their native lands. 300 have been found dead or alive in Bahia state in Brazil. Some believe that it is due to overfishing in Patagonia a la Happy Feet and others believe it has to do with stronger than normal ocean currents. Whatever it is, they are getting closer and closer to the equator and it's a bit scary. If you want to find out more about penguins, PBS did a great job with this penguin series.

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More Sea Glass

I know I talked a bit about what you could do with sea glass in my video about it. I wanted to show everyone part of my collection, however, so you all can see that I really do collect it. A lot. I think I have a problem.

Some bottles with sea glass look nice on an end table I have

This is an old trinket box filled to the brim

Another bottle in my bathroom

Now on to the various types of sea glass. As mentioned in the video (I think), it comes in various sizes and colors and a lot of them are a bit more rare than others. The pictures aren't fantastic, but these are a few pieces from my own insane collection and some descriptions.

These are various shades of amber. Amber can be pretty common being the color of various beers and other beverages.

These are various shades of green ranging from the normal kelly green (think Heineken) to seafoam (even though it looks clear here) and various olives and leaded pieces in between.

These are really rare colors. Clockwise from top: orange/yellow, lime green (even though it looks kelly in this picture), turquoise, sage green, and seafoam.



These are all neck pieces from various colored bottles. These are prized for their unique shaped.



These are bottle bottoms. I like these because they are rarely just flat. I'm very excited about the clear piece at the bottom because it obviously comes from a square gin bottle.

These are the "rares" or really hard to find pieces. Clockwise from top: jelly bean shaped, bonfire glass, fused pieces of glass with stuff stick in between, and a complete bottle mouth.

I told you I had a problem, but each piece has a bit of history and I can't resist.

Sea Glass Collection by
Marizela Moya is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.


You can find out more about sea glass in many books. Lots of people are addicts too and have written about and photographed their own collections.

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What's going on?

First things first, I won a haiku challenge at Lunch Bucket Bento and part of the "prize" is being featured as the next blog to write a haiku about. I was a bit nervous because it's a food blog and, needless to say, this is not. Surprisingly enough, some of the haikus are HILARIOUS! You should go read them. Maybe you could enter too and win a cute prize!

Next up on the list, it's my cousin's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAGEE!

Finally, this Friday is a solar eclipse from Europe through Asia. Sorry to my Western Hemisphere readers! There are many really fun ways to view a solar eclipse without staring at the sun. I know it sounds like fun, but I do not recommend it. The first thing you could do is use a special pair of eclipse glasses. The next thing, what I'm doing, is watch it online. NASA is webcasting it live from China. It will be a full eclipse there. The easiest is to put a pinhole in a piece of paper or poster board and set it about a meter above something. Then you watch the shadow from the light cast through the pinhole onto the ground or whatever you have it above. Pretty easy. I did this in 2nd grade or something and it worked great. Since I am pretty sure most of us are in the Western Hemisphere, however, I suggest you just use the link above and watch it online. That is, unless of course, you have something better to do. Lol.

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Top 10 mad scienctists!

LiveScience posted a list of the top 10 mad scientists so far and while I have to agree with most of them, they left one out! Yes, I know how disturbing the picture is. I was inspired by A. Einstein's tongue picture and even wore a wig!

Read it. I promise it is simple and you will definitely learn something!

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Thursday already!?!?!

I cannot believe how quickly the week has passed... and not an utter of science news? I must be getting ill. So to make up for it I am gonna list some of my favorite useless facts. This may come in handy should you ever be fortunate enough to be in the Cash Cab! (I'm an addict, not affiliated)

A calorie is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one cubic centimeter one degree Celsius.

There are only approximately 4500 stars visible to the naked eye... although many will argue more.

Seasons are caused by the tilt of the axis of earth while orbiting the sun.

The air we breathe is actually mostly nitrogen.

Three common states of matter : solid, liquid, gas.

1 atmosphere of pressure is equal to approx. 5 feet molten rock or 33 ft of water.

There are millions of cells under an area on your body covered by a quarter.

Smell affects taste!

Most of the dust in your air is skin! (eww)


Ok I'm done. I may update this later with some more cheesy facts!

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Rainy Day

It finally rained today. I'm happy because our island has had a bit of a dry spell. Our cisterns filled up a bit this morning and out plants got some much needed love. It's strange how after a good rain you can hear the plants growing. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure. A bit of a break from thinking about science. There is lots of science involved in this process, but I rather enjoy the scenery a bit more.


The Guanabana (Sour Sop) tree seemed to really enjoy it

Papayas too...

If only I could reach those mangoes!





rainy day pictures by
Marizela Moya is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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Oh My Goodness! It's Episode 2!

Click to Play

Finally. I have a lot of grumbling to do as my co-host skipped out due to social and work obligations so you get a crappy Mimi only video with bad gaps in the narration and a rushed finish just cause I needed to put something up. Please forgive me. I just need the practice and it's always something you know? lol

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Something I'm Missing

In case you failed to notice, the blogs name comes up as Science, Food, Art and Music... well the reason is, I'm addicted to all those things. Now the most important one to this blog is obviously the science, however, in a past life (2 years ago) I painted for a living. I miss it. I still paint occasionally and do drag my sketch book to the beach when I remember it, but it is not that large a part of my life anymore. It's not because I all of a sudden made a switch to science. On the contrary. I am one of the old schoolers who believe science and art go hand in hand. Once upon a time, I thought to give up my dream (filmmaking) and switch to medical illustration. Those are all those posters at your doctors' offices or the illustrations in your science texts.

It's a bit deeper than that though. It's just something I do and I don't get to do it enough anymore. My new job is more focused on my future degree. I work at The Butterfly Farm and it's awesome. I get to teach people about science all day. It's such a high energy job, however, by the time I get home, I don't want to do anything artistic anymore. It wouldn't be so bad if there were more of an artists' community here on island. There kind of is, but not very strong. The few things we have going for us are a bunch of galleries, including Camille Pissaro... very cool... but hours are erratic and it's hard to get there when they are open. They are open the same hours as my job. *sniff* I need to make more me time. For now, you get an old sketch by me... This is a website I had to do for Marine Invertebrate Zoology a few years back, so the generalized crustacean is by me.

Horrid I know. Maybe one day I will show you my really artsy stuff. Like later this week.

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About St. Thomas

In case you haven't figured it out, I live in St. Thomas, VI. We are a part of the United States just located in the Caribbean. The Caribbean (for all us science types) is a tectonic plate all its own and the collision and interaction of this little plate with other larger ones is how the Antilles were formed. Because our islands with the rest of the ones in the Caribbean form a chain that acts as a barrier for the fierce Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea is calm and tranquil pretty much consistently.

View from Annaburg Plantation, St. John. Copyright 2007 M. Moya

Pretty, I know. It's not just the scenery that is nice, or the trade winds that keep the temperature mild. Below the surface is a bunch of really beautiful reef. The reefs in the Caribbean are predominately 70 different species of reef building coral, a ton of sponges, crustaceans (think crab and shrimp), mollusks (think escargot and clams)and various other invertebrates. They are also home to hundreds upon hundreds of species of fish, turtles, and other chordates (more on that some other time).

Reef, Gorgonian, and Bait Fish Highway. Lerkenlund, St. Thomas. Copyright 2006 M. Moya.

On land we have some interesting critters as well. About 2,000 species of bug and insects (that includes really pretty butterflies and amazing rhinoceros beetles) also call St. Thomas home as do numerous other types of animals like wild donkeys, deer, boar (although not so much on St. Thomas as St. John now-a-days), iguana, birds a plenty, bats, mongoose, snakes, chickens (they deserve a separate listing than birds) and lots of other fauna.

Iguana in Papaya Tree. Bonne Resolution, St. Thomas. Copyright 2006 M. Moya.

With all this we are still having our problems. Due to over development (living here seems to be prime real estate), our native plants are disappearing and animal habitat is all but gone in places. The snakes are all but gone, we are having a heck of a time breeding the local butterflies as most of the host plants are being removed, the parrots aren't coming back like they should... the list goes on. With all the beautiful scenery and natural environments, it's a shame we can't focus our tourism around this a bit more. Granted there are lots of dive spots, but what of our mangroves and tropical dry forest? What of the gallery forests in out "guts" (guts are temporary waterfalls where freshwater drains off the bedrock)? I think people would want to see this. Maybe it's just me.

Me and my doggy on the beach at Lerkenlund. Copyright 2006 M. Moya.

I enjoy finding the few place left here that haven't been developed, where the runoff from the building hasn't destroyed the reefs, the parrots still sing, and the mangroves are uninterrupted. I love it here, and I think everyone who comes here on vacation should support eco-tourism and the University, so our local government can see what people really enjoy is the pristine.

All Photos by Marizela Moya are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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Kent Couch, Lawn Chair Balloonist

This picture is from the Open Clip Art Library and was released into Public Domain

Yes, that is correct. You read it. Lawn chair balloonist. This man made his first accent into the skies via lawn chair in 2006. Then last year (July 2007), he made a 193 mile flight using a cluster of balloons. As if that wasn't enough, Couch wants to make the trip all the way into Idaho (he usually leaves from Oregon). Well... he did it. This weekend he "flew" 235 miles from Bend, OR and landed in a field in ID. He uses Cherry Kool-Aid as his "ballasts" and a BB gun for buoyancy- control. He has done numerous TV and radio appearances but does it for the fun of it.


So now we go on to the science.

Helium.
Most of the helium that exists on Earth is the result of Radio Active Decay (a topic that takes way to long to explain). It is the second most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen. It is lighter than air (which is about 78% nitrogen) though heavier than hydrogen. Hydrogen burns easily, however, and helium does not, making it the best choice for balloons (score one for safety, Kent). Not only does it not burn, it it the least reactive of all the element on the chart. It is the least water soluble of all the gases and actually heats up when allowed to expand. Since there is little helium in the atmosphere, it would be very expensive to remove it from the air. Economically it is easier to remove helium from natural gas, which contains about 7% of this element. Because of it's low solubility, it is used in air mixtures for deep sea divers. Helium is also used as a tracer gas to find leaks in high-vacuum and high-pressure equipment... and apparently for making trips across state lines in lawn chairs.

Then what causes the squeaky voice from sucking on helium? Well, the speed of sound is also different in helium. It is actually three times faster than air.

Now that you know the basics of helium... does it make lawn-chair ballooning any less scary?

Not to me.

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More Corn

My post yesterday got me thinking of the amounts of corn I am going to eat this weekend whether in the form of cornbread, corn on the cob, the cornflakes that make fried chicken so crispy and other things (like the horrid high fructose corn syrup that makes soda-pop so yummy). This, in turn, got me thinking of what health benefits fresh corn has (not the evil refined things we get force fed in our cereals and juices). I can't help these trains of thought, I'm a science geek. It happens daily.

The good news is fresh ears of corn (grilled with a tiny drizzle of olive oil and salt please!) are LOADED with fiber and B vitamins. Corn also has a lot of complex carbs and essential fatty acids. If you are a carb friendly person, like me, this doesn't seem so scary. White corn is deficient in vitamin A but yellow corn has plenty of vitamin A. Corn also has lutein, so it's good for your eyes! There is even a bit of vitamin C, vitamin E, folic acid, magnesium and phosphorus. A serving is 1/2 a cup and counts as starchy veggies.

Now that guilty pleasure doesn't seem so guilty does it? Get to grillin'!

Happy Emancipation Day! (July 3rd, Virgin Islands)

Photo from the USDA website so is Public Domain.

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The New Environmentally-Friendly (?!?!) Plastic

This photo is from the USDA and is therefore public domain.

There is a new plastic (well not that new) on the market and it's gaining popularity. This plastic is made from corn and touts its biodegradability. The material is polylactic acid and it has been known about for over a century. It is only now gaining popularity due to another wave (similar to the early 90's) of eco-consciousness.

While this new plastic does have a few things going for it (a renewable resource and, in principle, compostable) there are a few things a lot of people haven't really studied or answered.

The pros:

• Regular plastics use an average of 200,000 barrels of oil a day to produce our demand
• Corn is a renewable resource and the plants help offset the amount of carbon produced in the plastic's manufacture
• Plastics take up 25% of dumps by volume
  
• PLA (polylactic acid) is compostable within 3 months at a controlled composting facility
• It costs less than $1.00 to make a pound of PLA (see here)
• Generates less air pollution to make
  

The cons:

• PLA takes much longer to compost in a bin or even in a landfill
• There are only 113 controlled compost facilities nationwide... only a quarter of these facilities accept residential scraps
• PLA must be kept separate from other plastics to keep it from tainting their recycling process
• Estimates for this breaking down in landfills are anywhere between 100 and 1,000 years (see here)
• Cannot survive temperatures of 114 degrees Fahrenheit
  

Possible cons (of the controversial type)

• Made of highly genetically modified food
• Is using a food product to make non-food stuffs while people are going hungry
• Still supports single use and disposables still adding to landfills

So it seems that the pros and cons are evenly matched and there are some controversial issues that are brought up... but I guess at least it is a start in the right direction. At least there is a push for biodegradable containers.

The biggest manufacturer of PLA in North America is NatureWorks. Go check out the website and tell me what you think!

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