The Arctic Is Running a Fever

By Claire Eamer

We've heard a lot about melting ice in the Arctic this summer, and we're likely to hear more. It takes a long time for polar ice to start melting and a long time for it to return, so the 2012 melt will continue for another month or so. That means -- almost certainly -- some new climate records. And with no sign of serious efforts to stop or slow the human contribution to climate change, there will be more records in the future.

A satellite image of the Northwest Passage, taken August 3, 2012,
shows large areas of open water.
Photo credit: NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen

Here are a few of the stories so far this summer:

Just a few days ago, scientists from the European Space Agency reported that sea ice in the Arctic is melting far faster than anyone predicted. Based on information from a satellite that measures the thickness of the ice, they estimate that 900 cubic kilometres of ice have disappeared every year since 2004. At that rate, they say, it could be as little as ten years until the day when a satellite image shows no ice at all in the Arctic Ocean at the peak of the summer melt.

Earlier this month, a giant cyclone raged over the Arctic Ocean. Storms are common at this time of year, but the researchers studying them said this was the biggest they had seen. The winds churned the ocean, breaking up the ice floes and making them more susceptible to melting.

In mid-July, a wash of warm air over Greenland triggered melting across 97 percent of the island's massive ice sheet. The last time this happened was in 1889. Scientists don't know if the melt this time is related to climate change, but they do know global warming is causing Greenland's glaciers to thin and chunks to break off, forming massive icebergs.

Does any of it matter? The quick answer is, yes. Whole ecosystems depend on arctic sea ice, from microscopic, single-celled organisms to polar bears. As the ice retreats, the open ocean absorbs more heat, warming the atmosphere above it and speeding up global warming. And melting of the fresh water locked up in Greenland's ice sheets would cause sea levels to rise around the world.

For a less quick, more detailed answer, and lots more about climate change, try some of these sites:

Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis, from the United States' National Snow & Ice Data Center

RealClimate: Climate science from climate scientists

ClimateSight: an excellent blog by a young Canadian climate researcher

The Science of Finding Stories

Camel Library in Mongolia's Gobi Desert

    “Where do you get your ideas?” is a question many writers face. I once heard Lois Lowry answer that one with “If I knew that I would go there.”
The fact is that writers need to keep their eyes, ears and minds open for ideas at all times, whether you write poems, fiction or science. You never know where or when an idea will pop up that may eventually blossom into a full fledged story, a poem or piece of informational writing. But no matter how interesting the fact may be, fact is that a writer needs to be the one to spot the story inside it. How do you see a story in a crater, in lichen? That’s what science writers do, whether it is natural science or social science.

    About eight years ago, I read an article in a newspaper about the National Library Service in Kenya, Africa. They were concerned about children in outlying desert villages. These children of wandering herders, whose families congregate in remote desert areas, had no access to books. The roads in this part of Kenya were often impassable. The only way to bring a heavy load into this hinterland, was by camel. Thus, the Kenyan Library camel train was born.

    Upon reading the article, I realized that I had never lived in a place without a library. Many children around the world, however, do not have such access to books. I started to do research, mostly through the internet, to find out how else in the world children get library books. I didn’t know at the time that my research would lead to a book.
    A man in Azerbaijan told me enthusiastically, via email, how a blue truck loaded with books makes its way to children in war torn areas. The children live in poverty and the truck full of books brings a bit of happiness. “For us,” said the librarian who travels with the truck, “the mobile library is as important as air or water!”
    Children in Thailand receive books even in remote jungle villages. An elephant library delivers books, learning aids and medicine.
    The volunteers and librarians who work with the mobile libraries around the world were keen to share their success stories. Somehow they managed to find or borrow a camera and I started receiving envelops full of wonderful photos: beaming children’s faces in Papua New Guinea, pictures of a bicycle loaded with books in Peru, a boat library in Indonesia.
    My book MY LIBRARIAN IS A CAMEL was published by Boyds Mills Press. Little did I know that it would lead to many more heartwarming stories and incredible travel opportunities for me. I was invited to Pakistan to work with teachers and students. In Lahore I saw the very mobile library about which I had written. Then I was asked to speak about the book at the IBBY (International Board of Books for Young People) Congress in Macau, China. Here I met Dashdondog, a man from Mongolia with whom I had been emailing for several years. He had come to the Congress to receive the Asahi Award for his amazing mobile library project in the Gobi Desert.
    I was privileged to speak at International Schools in Malaysia and Indonesia. I visited a mobile library on the island of Java. All of the stories I heard from teachers, librarians and children about their different schools led to a book. MY SCHOOL IN THE RAIN FOREST was also published by Boyds Mills Press. It features unusual schools in Afghanistan, India, Scotland, Australia and many other countries. Both books have led to many schools ‘adopting’ a mobile library where books are desperately needed, including a Mayan village in Mexico: http://www.booksformayans.org
    The books have even led to a global book mark exchange between children in over 18 countries. This social science activity is available to you if you are a teacher. If you are interested in
• having students make bookmarks and sending them to children in another country or
• if you would like to help a school or library in need of supplies, please email me: margriet@margrietruurs.com

Global Bookmark Exchange

Visualizing Science

How do you visualize scientific concepts? It's often pretty tough. This link shows some of the ways designers from the 1950s and '60s gave it a go. Some Saturday eye candy for those with a love of design and science. This brilliant post is another from my favourite on-line curator, BrainPickings.

This post is just for kids!

If you are getting a little bored and want something to do, here's some science fun that you can eat. Make sure an adult helps you with this activity as you can get a nasty burn.

This is from Bubble Science


 Bubble Candy
There is a wonderful candy filled with bubbles that feels like an edible sponge on your tongue. When this amber-colored treat is covered with chocolate, it’s sometimes called Seafoam or Honeycomb. Grab an apron and an adult helper and make some bubbly candy.

You Will Need

a deep saucepot with tall sides

3 cups (750 mL) sugar

1 1/2 cups (325 mL) golden corn syrup

1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt

1 tsp (5 mL) unflavored gelatin

1 tbsp (15 mL) cold water

a small bowl

1 tbsp (15 mL) baking soda

a wooden spoon

a candy thermometer

10-inch (25-cm) square pan

butter or margarine

an adult helper

What to Do

Note: The candy mixture is very hot and can cause serious burns. Make certain an adult uses caution when preparing the mixture. Do not touch the candy until it is cool.
1. Pour the sugar, syrup, and salt into the saucepot and stir to mix.
2. Have an adult place the pot on the stove and cook over medium heat. Stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves.
3. While the adult is busy stirring the mixture, place the gelatin in a small bowl and add the water. Stir to mix.
4. Prepare the pan by using a small amount of butter or margarine to grease the bottom.
 5. Have an adult use a candy thermometer to measure the temperature of the boiling syrup. When the candy reaches 290 degrees F (145 degrees C), have the adult add the baking soda, stir gently, then add the gelatin. Keep stirring and remove from heat.
6. Have the adult continue to stir the candy gently (so as not to stop the foaming action) for several minutes, then pour the mixture into the greased pan.
7. Let the candy sit until it is cool (at least an hour). To remove from the pan, place the pan into a larger pan of warm water. Make sure the water doesn’t get into the pan with the candy. Have an adult run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the candy.
 8. If you wish, you can melt chocolate and drip it over the candy. Store the candy in an airtight container.

What Happened

As soon as the baking soda was added, the mixture started bubbling. The bubbles were formed because the baking soda, a chemical called sodium bicarbonate, gives off carbon dioxide gas when it is heated. This gas becomes trapped in the heated mixture and forms millions of tiny bubbles. When the candy hardens, the bubbles make it really crunchy.

Bubbles in Food (sidebar)Bubbles can be found in all sorts of food. Take for example the "holes" in Swiss cheese. No, it isn’t a tiny mouse eating round sections out of the cheese. Cheese contains bacteria that give off carbon dioxide gas; as the cheese ripens, the gas forms bubbles. The cheese hardens around these bubbles, and that pretty much accounts for the holes. And now for some really interesting Swiss cheese trivia: The US government has regulations controlling exactly how big the holes, or "eyes," must be for Grade A Swiss cheese. If the holes are too big or too small, it can’t be called Grade A.

Bubbles in Soda

The next time you drink a carbonated beverage, take a close look at the liquid. You should see tiny bubbles rising from the bottom of the glass or bottle. Take a sniff over the top of the glass. Does your nose tickle? The bubbles rising from your drink contain a gas called carbon dioxide. It’s these bubbles that make your drink fizzy. Carbon dioxide gas is added under pressure when the soda is bottled or canned. When you open the container, the pressure drops and the gas can’t stay dissolved in the soda so it comes out. Warmer soda doesn’t hold as much gas as cold soda so if you want to keep that fizzy feeling, you need to drink your soda cold. Then, when it warms up in your mouth, the bubbles will form.

I like lichens!

By Claire Eamer

Lichens add colour to a stone wall.

Have you ever noticed big splotches of white, green, or even red and orange on rocks and tree trunks? The white ones look a bit like bird poop, but they aren’t. (Well, actually, they might be – so look closely!)

Mostly, those splotches are lichens. And they’re actually pretty amazing.

To begin with, lichens aren’t one thing, but two. As the excellent guidebook Plants of Northern British Columbia puts it, lichens are fungi that have discovered agriculture. The basic structure of the lichen is provided by a fungus, a relative of mushrooms and puffballs. That structure is a kind of factory, filled with willing workers. Inside each fungus factory is a colony of algae, and that’s what creates the lichens’ sometimes-garish colours.

Lichens on an ancient standing stone.

Colour isn’t all the algae contribute. Safe inside their fungus, the algae work away at what they do best: converting sunlight into carbohydrates, vitamins, and proteins through photosynthesis, the same process plants use. The fungus, which can’t produce its own food, takes a share of what the algae produce as a kind of rent.

The arrangement works so well that the fungi and algae are inseparable, so they go under the single name of lichen. The kind of relationship the two partners have is called symbiotic, which means neither partner dominates the other and the arrangement benefits both of them.

The splotchy lichens (like the lichens on this ancient standing stone in northern Scotland) are just one form, called crustose or crust lichens. There are also lichens shaped like overlapping scales, and others shaped like curling dried leaves, miniature bushes, tiny clubs, or even fine hair. The floor of the boreal forest, which stretches across much of Canada, is so littered with lichens of all shapes and sizes that it’s sometimes called a lichen forest.

Lichens in the Yukon forest.

All those shapes, sizes, and colours have led to some pretty entertaining names. Spraypaint lichen, dog’s tongue lichen, chocolate chip lichen, and toad pelt are just a few. And there are plenty more. About 14,000 species of lichen have been identified so far, and there are still thousands more to find and describe.

Interested? Here are a few links:

A general online guide to lichens.
Ebook guide to lichens in Canada’s west coast forest. 
Ebook guide to lichens in Canada’s mixed hardwood forests.
And for lots of information about lichens, as well as some beautiful photos, The Lichen Guide.

Arizona Meteor Crater

by Joan Marie Galat

Next time you make travel plans, trying searching the name of your destination with the word ‘astronomy’ and see what appears. You might discover a new science center, observatory, planetarium, or if you are very lucky, one of Earth's 150 meteor craters!

The best preserved impact crater is the Barringer Meteorite Crater in Arizona. Known simply as Meteor Crater, it is located on private land on the Southern Colorado Plateau between Winslow and Flagstaff.  The crater's rim rises up to 60 metres (196 feet) above the surrounding plain. The hole is 1.6 kilometres (1 mile) across, four kilometres (2.4 miles) in circumference, and more than (180 metres) 590 feet deep!

The Holsinger Meteorite is a fragment of
the asteroid that created Meteor Crater in Arizona 

About 50,000 years ago, the crater formed when part of a nickel-iron asteroid struck the desert. Travelling 26,000 miles per hour (almost 42,000 kilometers per hour), the approximately 100,000 ton rock hit with the force of more than 20 million tons of TNT! In only a few seconds, the blast moved 175 million metric tons of rock.

Scientists use the site to study how meteors impact planets, as well as to train astronauts and test robots.

The crater is located on privately owned land, however an on-site visitor centre offers excellent guided tours. You will also enjoy the large theatre, interactive exhibits, and observation telescopes. 

Paddling the Ice Kap

No, I didn't get up North or to Antarctica, to paddle my kayak at either of the actual ice caps. Instead I got to try out a kayak model called the Ice Kap, from Sterling Kayaks. It was a great day to learn more about kayaking science. Yes, there's science in kayaking! There are all the measurements, when designing and constructing boats. There's also research. Which boat shape is good for racing, or for surfing in waves? And then there are the experiments. No lab coats and clipboards for me -- I just try the different boats and have fun, while my friends Louise and John keep a notebook of their own experiments with kayaks.

At the MEC Paddlefest on Willows Beach, we found an assortment of several models from Sterling Kayaks. Each is a custom job, with the foot pedals set to accommodate the paddler's own leg length, for example. I got to sit in an Illusion, but even with the footpedals adjusted as far as possible, my feet still couldn't reach. That would be no problem if I owned one of their kayaks, explained the designer, Sterling Donaldson. He would put the footpedals closer to the seat for someone as short as me. He's calculated the centre of gravity and balance points for all his kayak designs.

Donaldson gets fibreglass under his fingernails and epoxy all over his hands, he complained at one point. But there's no substitute for the hands-on approach when customizing a kayak for someone with special needs.

The foam seats are a terrific support... lifting the knees a little and fitting around the butt. I'm guessing that my partner Bernie would find THIS seat doesn't hurt his back. The seat back is good support, but low so that a paddler can lean back when rolling the kayak. On each side of the seat is a support for foam padding, to customize the fit to the paddler's thighs.

I got into the Ice Kap which is designed for small people. The coaming, the edge around the cockpit opening, is low. As in half-way up my thighs when I'm seated in the kayak. No more rubbing my elbows on the coaming with each stroke! That happens in most kayaks for me. The designer Donaldson pointed out, most shorter people are not only short in the leg, but have short backs as well. It's hard to roll a kayak that is too big.

My friend John Herbert  took a photo of me on the water in the Ice Kap. It's pretty clear in the photo that this boat has a lot of rocker, a curve which brings the keel up in the bow and stern. That makes for a lot of fun riding waves. I expressed some concern about the front deck being so high out of the water, and the stern so high. Wouldn't they catch wind and turn like a weather vane? "None of our boats weathercocks," Donaldson insisted.
The Illusion has a similar hull to the Ice Kap, but the coaming rises a little higher at the paddler's thighs and sides. John could tell that he wouldn't fit either model. At 6'4", he went for their Grand Illusion that fits the 6'3" designer. But the model on the beach had been padded to fit a thinner paddler. Not for John today!
Louise tried the Ice Kap as well, just to add another model to her research for which style of boat she would buy this summer. We compared notes. Afterwards, John and Louise changed out of their paddling clothes while I just wandered around evaporating. One of the most important things I learned about kayaking science is to wear clothes that evaporate dry quickly.
Our verdict: if you're a thin, short man or woman who is wanting an exciting kayak, try the Ice Kap for an experiment of your own. If you're not thin, try the Illusion as the coaming is just a little higher instead of pressing on the sides of your thighs.
And if you're a differently-able paddler (like every member of our paddling group, and plenty members of SISKA and VCKC and the entire crew of the Breaststokers Dragon Boat team), talk to a kayak designer about kayak science. How can a kayak meet your needs?
This particular designer understands. Sterling Donaldson not only talks the talk, he walks the walk with one leg and crutches on the beach among his kayaks. He grew up designing experimental aircraft with his father, and now he applies the scientific methods he learned to building kayaks.