Animal Discoveries and Inspiration

Today I’m sharing two new books about mysterious and inspiring animals written for the 8-12 year old crowd. The first is about animals that glow in the dark; the second about animal-inspired inventions. Both were published by Millbrook Press this fall.

Mysterious Glowing Mammals: An Unexpected Discovery Sparks a Scientific Investigation
by Maria Parrott-Ryan

Some of the coolest discoveries come about by accident. Take this one: forest ecologist Jonathan Martin was looking for tree frogs that glowed when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light. So he got a UV flashlight and went outside to look for some clinging to trees in his northern Wisconsin backyard. And guess what? He didn’t find any.

So he went out again, to see what he could find. Night after night. If he couldn't find frogs, could he find lichens that glow under UV light? Then one night he heard a chirp coming from his bird feeder. His flashlight revealed … a flying squirrel – which, by itself isn’t unusual. Flying squirrels are common. But this one glowed bright pink!

And that set off a chain reaction. Martin texted a biologist friend who shared the observation with another colleague and they began wondering: had any scientists documented biofluorescence in other mammals? One study did, in opossums. So they did what any other curious folks would do – they began an investigation.

This book dives into the how, and a bit of the why, of biofluorescent animals – but mostly it raises questions. The study is far from complete, and the last chapter outlines what directions the scientists hope to explore.

What I really like about this book (aside from the fact that it’s an amazing story) is that the author, Maria, shares her own explorations with a UV flashlight. She also clearly explains the difference between bioluminescence (when organisms make their own light using chemicals, like fireflies and fungi) and biofluorescence (when organisms absorb UV light and release it as a glow). Now I want my own UV flashlight! (Fortunately, you can find them in stores and online)

 

Wild Inventions: Ideas Inspired by Animals (Sandra Markle's Science Discoveries)
by Sandra Markle

Since ancient times, humans have observed animal adaptations and modified them for their own use. “When animals give people ideas for inventions, it’s called bioinspiration,” says Sandra Markle. People have used their animal-inspired ideas to build homes, armor boats, design safety helmets, and more.

Take architecture. If you’re looking for a way to keep a home cool when the temperature outside goes up, up, up, check out how termites build their mounds. Termites construct their home around a central chimney and a series of passageways that act as airducts. The bees use a combination of water and fanning their wings to cool their nest – much like draping a wet bandana over a fan.

Engineers have studied echolocation used by bats and dolphins to create ultrasound and sonar – and now, LIDAR, which uses light instead of sound to help self-driving cars navigate. Gecko toepads have generated ideas for adhesives, as has the glue of certain worms. Markle highlights many inventions based on animal adaptation, and encourages readers to observe the animals around them. Maybe you’ll come up with some ideas for your own “wild inventions” she poses.

 

Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copies provided by the publisher.

Life on Surtsey

Last week I shared a book about a long, deep hole in the ground - the Grand Canyon - featuring ancient rocks from millions of years ago. Geology, though, isn't just about old rocks.

This week's book features younger stone, rock, and land forms: an island born on November 14, 1963 from the eruption of a volcano. In the ocean. Off the coast of Iceland. 

Life on Surtsey, Iceland's Upstart Island
(Scientists in the Field)
by Loree Griffin Burns
80 pages; ages 10-16
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017

 "For the people who live in Iceland and the kids who grow up here, ice and fire just aren't that unusual," writes Loree Burns. But for everyone else around the world, this was big news. A new island! Scientists were eager to explore it - as soon as it cooled off enough to step foot on.

In this book,  Burns invites us on an adventure of exploration to the shores of an island now just over 50 years old. We meet some of the scientists who have been studying Surtsey since before she was a teenager. Erling Olafsson is one of those scientists who has been keeping an eye on the island's development since the summer of 1970. That was when he joined a small crew to study plants and other life on the island. They found insects, seagulls, plants...things that flew or floated to Surtsey's shores and made a life for themselves.

Through the pages, we join the 2015 expedition and watch scientists at work in the field. They set pitfall traps for insects, and sweep the grasses for flying bugs. Since the island was born, gulls have changed the soil, making it more suitable for plants. Seeds and insects have hitched rides to the island, and life has taken hold. The work is methodical, and it pays off: they find new species of insects!

What I like about this book: it's a marvelous adventure! The photos are gorgeous. In addition to plants, insects, and bird life, Loree introduces us to Icelandic culture, and the alphabet. The back matter is a rich resource, and she includes a section about other recently formed volcanic islands.

Learn more about Iceland here.

Check out this cool video of Surtsey.

Today we're joining the STEM Friday roundup - Review copy from the publisher.

Wednesday Explorers ~ What's that under the ice?

Credit, Guillaume Grosbois

 When Guillaume Grosbois and Milla Rautio visited Lake Simoncouche, Quebec, they didn't expect to see much life swimming about beneath the frozen surface. Certainly not bright red zooplankton!

But there they were - red copepods buzzing about in the dark water. Turns out these copepods spend their fall chowing down on algae and building up their store of fat for the winter.

You can learn more about these curious creatures, and watch a video of them here.

Super Women ~ Six scientists who changed the world

Super Women, Six scientists who changed the world
by Laurie Lawlor
64 pages; ages 8-12
Holiday House, 2017

"Imagine being a highly trained astronomer who's forbidden to look through a state-of-the-art telescope," writes Laurie Lawler. Or that you're an accomplished underwater cartographer not allowed on a research vessel, or a chemist not allowed to work in a research lab.

Not because you don't have the skills - but only because you're a woman. We're not talking about women in science hundreds of years ago, but within our lifetime. Absurd, right?

And yet, Lawlor has compiled half a dozen stories of real scientists who had to fight against gender discrimination to do their research. Her tales include:

• Eugenie  Clark, known as the "shark lady" - an oceanographer who dives into the sea to study sharks and other creatures living in the deep. Her research helped people understand that sharks can learn. Scientist, explorer, Clark authored more than 175 scholarly and popular science articles and been a champion of ocean conservation.
• Gertrude Elion shares the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology & Medicine with George Hitchings and Sir James Black. Her research contributes to drug treatment for cancers. But when she graduated in 1937 with high honors in chemistry, she was turned away from research labs because hiring a woman would be "too distracting".
• Katherine Coleman Johnson served as a human "computer", one of a team of mathematicians who helped send Alan B. Shepard, Jr. into orbit around Earth. As an African American woman and mathematician, she faced many obstacles working in the brand new space agency, whose technical staff was mostly white and male. In 2015, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
• Marie Tharp mapped underwater mountains, valleys, ridges, and plains. She was one of the first scientists to notice evidence for plate tectonics. Other researchers discounted her thoughts as "wacky ideas" and "girl talk", but eventually she convinced them. She worked with another researcher to create the world ocean floor map.
• Florence Hawley Ellis wanted to be an archeologist, but men joked that she'd never find workers willing to follow her into the field. In addition to digging up artifacts, she collected information from Pueblo and Navajo elders about customs, stories, social organizations and more. She also noticed historical evidence of droughts and ongoing perils of climate change in the Southwest. 
• Eleanor Margaret Burbidge is an astronomer who hunts deep-space objects. She viewed the first image of a quasar that was billions of light years from Earth. But in the early years of her career, institutes denied women access to telescopes because the living quarters were meant to be places where male astronomers wouldn't be bothered by wives or family. She finagled a way to live off campus and use the telescope and has contributed greatly to the field of astronomy.

The book is filled with photos, and complemented with a glossary where you can quickly look up "quasar".

Today we're joining the STEM Friday roundup. Drop by STEM Friday blog for more science books and resources. Review copy from the publisher.

First Big Book of How

Little Kids First Big Book of How
by Jill Esbaum
128 pages; ages 4-8
National Geographic Kids, 2016

This book lives up to its name: it has a little bit of everything in it written in small sections in language kids will understand. Want to know how ice cream is made or how microwave ovens work? It's in there. Want to know about bicycle gears? It's in there. Want to learn the best way to make bread moldy? It's in there too.

The section I like best is the one about animals because - there are OCEAN animals in there!
Jellyfish. Octopuses. Humpback whales.

Jellyfish have long, soft tentacles - but beware! They have venom and can shoot that so fast you don't even know you've been stung until it's already happened.

Octopuses are amazing creatures: they have no bones and can squeeze anywhere, and have three hearts. Also, they squirt ink when they're startled or afraid. There's a couple photographs to show where the ink comes out, and what it looks like. And did you know that the smallest octopus can sit on a penny?

The section about humpback whales focuses on how they communicate with each other. They sing. They make bloop-bloop sounds. They groan and moan. They even slap their tails on the surface of the water. All those sounds must mean something - but what?

There's a table of contents listing topics by group: around the home, human body, animals, and more. There's also an index to aid in searches for specific topics. Each section ends with a game and throughout the book there are lots of hands-on investigations. There's even a page of "parent tips" with additional activities - including a recipe for ice cream. 

Today's review is part of the STEM Friday roundup. Drop by STEM Friday blog for more science books and resources. Review copy from publisher.

Wacky New Animals

Wild Discoveries:
Wacky New Animals

by Heather Montgomery

64 pages; ages 7 - 10

Scholastic, 2013

I can't pass up a book with a frog on its cover - especially one this unusual. It's a Condor Glassfrog from a forest high on an Ecuadorian mountainside. And it's a new species - at least "new to us". Because, while it's been around for years decades centuries, scientists only "discovered" it within the last half-dozen years.

Heather Montgomery gives us a round-the-world tour of new animals (and a couple non animal species) discovered between 2007 and 2012.  For each, she includes its scientific name (genus and species) - the Latin label that allows it to be identified by scientists no matter what language they speak when they order take-out. She also lets us know its role in nature (carnivore, decomposer) where it was found, how big it is, and a little about its life or behavior.

There's a brilliant pink Dragon millipede, a cat-sized Titi monkey, a 7-inch long crayfish with hairy antennae, and a Pygmy seahorse that measures a half inch. Scientists have bestowed some of their new discoveries with humorous names: "Tarzan chameleon" for a chameleon that climbs trees; "pancake batfish" for a fish as flat as a pancake; and Spongiforma squarepantsii for a brand new fungus that resembles... a sponge. Every now and then Montgomery tosses in a magnifying glass icon with an "unsolved mystery" question.

Heather was kind enough to answer three questions about her new book.

Archimedes: What drove you to write this book?

Heather:  While researching other projects I had been corresponding with several scientists who had discovered new species of insects. I became fascinated with the process of discovery and wanted to write a book that followed an entomologist and his team through the process. When an editor at Scholastic asked me for a proposal I realized that a long narrative was not the right approach for that kind of book. I began digging, and digging and discovered a vast number of organisms being discovered (even on a daily basis!) and decided to approach the topic by using an abundance of examples. When I found things like a hot-pink millipede and slime-spewing worms which had never been known to science, I knew this would be "wacky" examples to illustrate the diversity of life.

Archimedes: Can you describe how long it took & the kinds of  research you did?

Heather: I LOVE research! For this book I read extensively - many, many news releases and scientific papers. I interviewed many scientists, by phone or email - they were exceptionally helpful! Unfortunately time and resources prevented me from visiting the amazing places on the planet where these animals were found (miles deep in the ocean, high in the cloud forests of South America,...) -- except for one peaceful creek where a bottlebrush crayfish was recently discovered. That creek happens to be about an hour away from my home. In my many paddling trips via canoe or kayak, how did I manage to miss discovering that 11-inch, blue-blooded beauty?

Archimedes: What new animal discovery surprised you the most?

Heather: That's kind of like asking a parent which is their favorite kid.  A see-through frog, the longest insect in the world, a worm that eats whale bones, and a 2-foot monkey that no one knew about?!?! But, if I had to pick, it wouldn't be a particular animal - but instead, the fact that animals that live basically in my back yard have never been described by scientists. That blows my mind!  It makes me want to get outside and see what I can find!

OK eco-explorers...  let's head outside and see what new animals - and plants - we can discover. Even if they are just "new to us".
Check out other cool science posts and STEM resources over at STEM Friday. Review copy provided by the author.