Navigation
Recent blog posts
Upcoming events
Blogs
Infrared Goggles
At the ASTC meeting this fall I learned about a version of infrared (IR) goggles that you can make very inexpensively. After we've made some, there are a ton of really cool things to do with them. I just need to track down the right light filters to filter out all of the light except the IR.
The instructions are online at: Instructions
Picture of infrared goggles from PictureTravis – November 12, 2005 – 10:13amTravis's blog – login to post comments
LED light sensors
When I was at the ASTC conference this fall I heard about a cool way to use LEDs at light detectors.
An LED (light emitting diode) emits light of a very narrow wavelength when you attach it to a battery. It turns out that if you shine light of the right wavelength on an LED it actually makes an electric current; it makes a kind of mini battery or light sensor.
We could use this do do some neat projects that look at the light reflected from different things around us. For example if we had an LED that emitted infrared (IR) light, we could use it to measure how much infrared light things emit. Maybe different kinds of paint or different types of plants emit different amounts of IR light.
More info about LEDs can be found at: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/led.htm
Travis – November 12, 2005 – 10:03amTravis's blog – login to post comments
Monkey and Mirrors
Here's an article to go along with the Kaleidoscopes project. I think it might be a an easy conversation piece to use with people making kaleidoscopes. The connection to Kaleidoscopes is not very strong, but both topics are about how we see the world.
The original article is at: Article
A copy is pasted below.
Aug. 10, 2005
Some days, when you view yourself in the mirror, you might look really good. Other days, you might not be so happy with what you see. Either way, you know who you're looking at: You.
Capuchin monkeys have a different experience, a recent study discovered. When these little primates see themselves in a mirror, they know they are looking at something interesting. They're just not exactly sure what it is.An adult male capuchin monkey touches his reflection. In the experiment, a mesh barrier separated the monkey from the mirror.
Marietta Dindo
Scientists define an animal as "self-aware" if it touches a painted spot on its own face when it looks in a mirror. People start to recognize themselves in this way at around age 2. Apes and dolphins figure it out in adulthood. Most monkeys, on the other hand, ignore facial markings. They just don't understand that the image in the mirror is their own.
To find out whether capuchins are self-aware, psychologist Frans B.M. de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta and his colleagues studied eight female and six male monkeys that live at a research facility in Georgia.
Each capuchin entered a test chamber, where it was presented with three different situations. In the first, the monkey saw an unfamiliar monkey of the same sex on the other side of a glass barrier and behind a mesh screen. In the second scenario, the capuchin saw a monkey of the same sex that it was familiar with. Finally, it confronted its own reflection in a mirror behind the screen. The tests lasted for 15 minutes. Each monkey faced each test scenario twice.
When monkeys saw other monkeys that they already knew, they didn't do much. When shown an unfamiliar monkey, males made threatening gestures. Females looked nervous and avoided eye contact. These were all natural reactions.
When the monkeys saw their own reflections, however, something odd happened. Females looked into their own eyes and acted friendly. They swayed and smacked their lips, as if they were flirting. Males also made more eye contact with their reflections than they did with the animals in the other two scenarios. Unlike females, though, they squealed, curled up on the floor, tried to escape the chamber, and otherwise acted confused and distressed.
The study shows that capuchins have some medium level of self-awareness, de Waal concludes. They don't quite see the image as another monkey. Nor do they see it as themselves.
Other experts disagree. It is possible, they say, that capuchins simply respond to mirrors as they would to another monkey who won't stop imitating them. And everyone knows how flattering or annoying a copycat can be.—E. Sohn
Going Deeper:
Bower, Bruce. 2005. Reflections of primate minds: Mirror images strike monkeys as special. Science News 168(July 23):53-54. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050723/fob6.asp .
Travis – November 12, 2005 – 9:46amTravis's blog – login to post comments
Singing Mice
I heard about this story on the radio. I think it is a fun connection to the vocal cord model that the team has been working on.
The original version is at: Original Article
Here's a copy of the text:
Mouse Songs
Nov. 9, 2005
For some people, the sight of a mouse can be reason to scream. For other mice, the same sight can be reason to sing.
Rodents will probably never sing their way to Broadway, but researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have found evidence that mice do, in fact, sing. Until now, crooning mice have starred in cartoons, but never before have they been heard belting it out in real life.Mice appear to string together "chirplike" ultrasonic noises (shown as a plot in yellow) to create songs.
Timothy E. Holy and Zhongsheng Guo
Scientists already knew that mice make ultrasonic sounds—noises that are too high-pitched for people to hear without special equipment. Mouse babies cry out when they lose their mothers. Male mice make noise when they smell females.
To find out whether mice put such sounds together in song-like patterns, the researchers recorded the sounds of 45 male mice. They put each mouse in its own chamber with a urine-soaked cotton swab. The smell of the urine inspired them to make noise. Microphones recorded the sounds.
Using computer software, the researchers were able to separate the squeaks into specific types of syllables, based on how quickly the pitch rose or fell. The mice produced about 10 syllables per second.
The results showed that nearly all of the mice repeated sequences of syllables in distinct patterns. That's enough to meet the definition of what scientists call song. Birds, whales, and people do the same thing.
Not all scientists are convinced that what the mice are doing is actually singing. To prove it, the researchers must show that there's learning involved. And, they need to figure out why the mice sing. One guess, the researchers say, is that male mice use songs to woo females that they admire.
Nonetheless, the discovery that mice produce such complicated sounds could have important implications for the study of communication in animals, including people.
To hear various versions of mouse songs, visit Songs
Going Deeper:
Harder, Ben. 2005. Beyond falsetto: Do mice sing at ultrasonic frequencies? Science News 168(Nov. 5):293. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20051105/fob5.asp .
You can hear various versions of mouse songs at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20051105/mousesongs.asp .
To learn more about how researchers studied mice and their songs, go to mednews.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/6040.html (Washington University School of Medicine) and www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-10/plos-mha102605.php (Public Library of Science).
Travis – November 12, 2005 – 9:39amTravis's blog – login to post comments
Listening to centimeters
Travis and I were talking about monkeys and mirrors and there was a ruler on the table that I started playing with, listening to the sounds it made when I held it and pulled down like a catapult.
It seemed to change according to how much of the ruler was played
The sound looks like this in the program I used to record it:
Here's the sound I recorded.This is a web site I found that describes what we were thinking about.
admin – November 11, 2005 – 4:51pmadmin's blog – login to post comments
Making a speaker from wire, a cup and a magnet
I went up to the floor of the museum to visit with Travis.
He was "piloting" some sound ideas connected to Current Science and the earthquakes.
Travis had materials out for making your own speaker....This is a coil of wire hot-glued to the bottom of the cup
Keith B – October 21, 2005 – 10:05am
