Butterflies on the International Space Station!

There are butterflies in space! Painted Lady larvae and three Monarch caterpillars are currently orbiting above us, after recently traveling to outer space aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis. The "butterflynauts" boarded the International Space Station yesterday.

You can track the progress of the Painted Lady butterflies via Twitter (@ButterflySpace). Teachers can download a free teacher's guide and register for email updates about the mission. There's also a specific thread for teachers on the BioEd Online web board devoted to this experiment.

From the Butterflies in Space website at BioEd Online:

"On November 16, 2009, Painted Lady butterflies [flew] aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station (ISS). The butterflies will spend several months in space as part of an exciting experiment to observe their life cycles and behaviors in microgravity. We invite your class to participate! The butterflies will live in a special habitat, which provides a safe environment, food and water. Photos and video will be transmitted back to Earth and made available here ..."

But Painted Lady butterflies aren't the only insect space travelers this time. Monarchs are up there, too! Through Monarchs in Space, Monarch Watch is documenting the progress of the monarch larvae. You can download some wonderful instructional data from this site along with links to other fun stuff like these recent pictures of the monarch caterpillars in space.

This current set of butterfly experiments builds upon previous work by BioServe Space Technologies, which has designed experiments in space since the early 1990s (including space flights for spiders, ants, and silkworms).

This video describes some of the challenges that the butterflies may face in their new habitat:



Enjoy!

The importance of perspective

I once watched a professor give an interview on writing. He recounted writing exercises that had helped his students to think creatively. One of his favorite assignments went something like this:

Imagine describing your school's cafeteria lunch. You might write about the gloppy goo served by surly workers, the boys flipping pats of butter so they stick to the ceiling (kids really did that at my high school!), or the limp and wilted salad bar. You've painted quite a picture, haven't you?

Now, imagine the same cafeteria scene with one change: You are desperately hungry. You haven't eaten a decent meal in weeks. How does this affect what you see?

Perspective plays an important role when studying scientific subjects, too. Here are two very different examples:

--Perspective & attitude

How many times have you heard someone say, "I'll never get that. I'm just not good at science." Or, maybe they've said that science is too hard or science is boring. Maybe you've said the same thing. Changing the way that you approach at the material can help you to enjoy science. Try to have a positive perspective with regard to new material. Tell yourself instead, "Yes, this is a challenging subject, but if I work hard I'll learn something new." Or even, "I'm good at science!" I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at what a difference it makes!

--Perspective & observational bias

Perspective also makes a difference when you are writing up observations during an experiment. I remember one time when I was looking at slides of stream water under a microscope. The light of the microscope was so hot that some of the teeny tiny critters would swim away from the center of the slide! If I was slow with my observations, I would have fewer creatures to describe in my field journal. The very act of studying the stream water affected what I saw. This effect is known as observational bias. Scientists work hard to reduce observational bias whenever possible.

Here's a picture of a tree taken from the trunk looking up. How different would this tree look if you changed perspective and looked at it from the leaves down?

Photo credit: Leon Brooks, BurningWell.org

Walk your way to mental clarity

Photo credit: Leon Brooks

Do you want to improve your ability to concentrate? Take a walk!


But wait! Don't just walk anywhere.






In the paper "The Cognitive Benefits of Interacting With Nature" (Berman, et. al, 2008), published in Psychological Science, the authors discuss how a walk through a natural setting can refresh your brain. A walk in the city seldom does; it requires too much directed attention. Car horns force you to focus on not getting run over. You have to consciously ignore billboards, ringing cell phones, and other mentally jarring intrusions just to get some peace. Natural settings, on the other hand, give your brain some much needed breathing room. You might see and hear interesting things, but they aren't urgently forcing your brain to pay attention.

(Mama Joules' digresses: OK, so I have to wonder about this. What if your natural setting isn't so peaceful? Maybe you are hiking through an untamed forest complete with stinging insects, the threat of extreme weather, and the potential for attacks by large hungry wildlife? Would you still feel refreshed and restored afterward?!)

The authors conducted a study among college students and sent them for walks under different conditions. The students were able to concentrate better on a memory test after a walk along a wooded path (as opposed to the densely populated city street). This effect held true even if the participants were in a bad mood or the weather was foul.

So, the next time that you or your child are stuck on a hard problem -- be it homework, a tax question, or how to seat your relatives at the dinner table so that they won't fight over the rolls -- take a time out and go for a walk in the park.

(But take my advice: If you're seeking solace and mental restoration, go for a relatively tame natural setting. No bears!)

Using bad science for the greater good

These days, you can't open a newspaper or magazine without bumping into bad science: poorly explained topics, unsubstantiated claims, theories touted as facts. And the web isn't helping any -- anyone can put up a website and claim whatever they choose. So, how do we separate bad science from good?

Ben Goldacre is a British doctor who writes a weekly column in the Guardian devoted to the topic of Bad Science. He also teamed up with Planet Science to develop a series of experiments to test some of the crazier claims.

I like the idea of taking bad science and using it for good. Testing crazy or unproven claims (as long as they aren't dangerous) can be fun. It's also a good opportunity to practice setting up an experiment.

For example, instead of rolling your eyes at the next television commercial -- the one that promises that this new and improved breakfast cereal is tastier than the leading brand -- why not put the claim to the test? Set up your own scientific trial at breakfast. Blindfold your family, put two bowls of cereal (one bowl of the old brand, one of the new) in front of each person, and record their responses. Do they like the new cereal? Could they taste a difference?

Or, if a new dishwashing detergent claims to make your dishes less spotty, do your mom a favor and run a load of dishes. Compare the newly washed glasses to the previously washed ones. How do they compare? Do you get a different answer if you count the spots in a new way? Do you get a different answer depending upon how many dishes you examine?

Questioning the world around you is the hallmark of a good scientist. And that applies to everything you read -- including this post!

(My thanks to CricketB for pointing out the benefits of Bad Science!)