In the northern hemisphere, the season of winter - with its freezing temperatures, muddy trails, and a dearth of wildlife - can be a difficult time to appreciate nature. Unlike the frenetic activity that occurs each spring, winter can seem downright boring by comparison. But if you take the time to experience nature in winter, you will find it a rewarding experience. Here are some tips for your next nature walk:
Silence your phone. In this age of constant communication, it is hard to let go and experience the moment. Allow yourself some time to simply be in nature, without expecting anything from yourself or your surroundings.
Use your four senses. At first, you may notice human activities like helicopters buzzing overhead or cars idling in the parking lot. But the longer you listen, sounds of nature will capture your fancy: birdsong, leaves crackling under the weight of a squirrel, a light breeze through tree branches. Take a closer look at the downed trees, the dried grasses in the meadow, or the animal tracks in the mud or snow. Touch tree bark and the hulls of seed pods. Inhale deeply and smell the unique scents of nature. But please don't taste anything during a nature walk unless you are certain of what it is!
Savor your visit. Capture your moments of awareness by jotting them down in a nature journal, taking a photograph, or writing a poem or essay about your experiences.
This article was first posted at the Audubon Naturalist Society. Come visit Woodend!
Showing posts with label senses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label senses. Show all posts
Friday, January 30, 2015
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Cricket ears are amazing
A department store recently used this fact -- Crickets have ears on their knees! -- to peak interest in an email ad. I thought the claim sounded bogus (can you just picture a little cricket with tiny ears sticking out of its legs?), so I took to the Internet to investigate.
It turns out the ad is correct (my apologies to Kohl's). The University of Arizona Center for Insect Science Education Outreach states in their Cricket Information sheet that when the male chirps, "the resulting chirping sound is picked up by the female's ears on her front legs."
Still, I figured that these "ears" would be simple structures, nothing that would even come close to rivaling the complexity of the human ear. But again, I was mistaken. The book Artificial Neural Networks: Biological Inspirations – ICANN 2005 includes a paper entitled "New Ears for a Robot Cricket". The authors, Torben-Nielsen, Webb & Reeve, state that a cricket has "at least four body openings" used in hearing and describes the cricket's auditory system in this way:
[It] consists of two ear drums ... located on the forelegs and connected through a system of tracheal tubes. One extra sound opening on each side of the cricket body ... is also connected to the tracheal tubes.In short, the cricket's auditory system is nothing less than amazing. The female cricket uses all of this auditory information to track down the location of the chirping male to mate with him.
Male crickets have an equally complex system for "singing", the noise they generate when rubbing their wings together. As scientist Axel Michelsen explains in the fascinating paper "The Tuned Cricket" (News Physiol Sci 13: 32-38, 1998), "a scraper on one wing hits a series of cuticular teeth on the other". (That's the male cricket's instrument!) The male cricket's wing then acts as a "loudspeaker" to amplify the sound so that the female can hear it. The song is optimized to account for the fact that crickets are low to the ground and the resulting frequency of the vibration ensures that the noise can be picked up and heard by the female.
According to Professor L. C. Miall in House, Garden and Field: A Collection of Short Nature Studies, both male and female crickets can hear:
The male cricket hears the sound which he produces, and the female hears the call of the male.But only male crickets can sing, a fact I learned from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. They have a nice page about crickets that includes a coloring sheet, the formula for predicting the temperature based upon the number of cricket chirps in a given amount of time, and a recipe for (eeew!) chocolate-covered crickets.
If bugs are your thing, be sure you drop by The Center for Insect Science Education Outreach. Their website has advice for Using Live Insects in Elementary Classrooms for Early Lessons in Life, with lesson plans, information sheets about various insects (including crickets), and tips for caring and raising the little critters.
Photo credit: Larry Page, through a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Thoughts on Synesthesia
The other night, my 3-year-old crawled into bed with me after a fit of tears. Looking at the interesting reflection of the lamp on the ceiling, he said, "Look at the shape my crying made." His comment made me think of a fascinating book that I read once called The Man Who Tasted Shapes by Richard E. Cytowic.
This book describes synesthesia, a condition in which certain sensory perceptions are combined. People who are affected with this involuntary condition perceive sensory input a little differently than most. You might see jagged red lines when you hear a siren. You might taste shapes in certain foods. Or maybe colors have a smell. Any combination of senses is possible, but the most common variant is to perceive letters, words, or numbers as having color. These associations are consistent for the individual -- if the word shoes is associated with the color green, it always appears green.
In his book, Cytowic describes attending a dinner party where the host complained that he had ruined the chicken -- it wasn't pointy enough. Cytowic thought it interesting that this man's house lacked walls; the rooms were open and flowed into each other. He pointed out that you can think of synesthesia in the same way. The usual walls between sensory input -- sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch -- are blurred or absent.
I think synesthesia is a fascinating condition. After I read the book, I kept wondering if I had ever experienced it. The closest I've come is when I'm almost asleep. Sometimes I see jagged black lines when I hear a sudden loud noise. But that's it. How about you?
CNN's Ann Kellan writes that if you are curious about this condition, synesthetes suggest that you rent "Walt Disney's 'Fantasia', an animated film that attempts to visualize music."
This book describes synesthesia, a condition in which certain sensory perceptions are combined. People who are affected with this involuntary condition perceive sensory input a little differently than most. You might see jagged red lines when you hear a siren. You might taste shapes in certain foods. Or maybe colors have a smell. Any combination of senses is possible, but the most common variant is to perceive letters, words, or numbers as having color. These associations are consistent for the individual -- if the word shoes is associated with the color green, it always appears green.
In his book, Cytowic describes attending a dinner party where the host complained that he had ruined the chicken -- it wasn't pointy enough. Cytowic thought it interesting that this man's house lacked walls; the rooms were open and flowed into each other. He pointed out that you can think of synesthesia in the same way. The usual walls between sensory input -- sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch -- are blurred or absent.
I think synesthesia is a fascinating condition. After I read the book, I kept wondering if I had ever experienced it. The closest I've come is when I'm almost asleep. Sometimes I see jagged black lines when I hear a sudden loud noise. But that's it. How about you?
CNN's Ann Kellan writes that if you are curious about this condition, synesthetes suggest that you rent "Walt Disney's 'Fantasia', an animated film that attempts to visualize music."
Monday, April 21, 2008
Keep your mind open
When I was shopping over the week-end, I did a double-take when I handed the clerk a $5 bill. The new U.S. $5 bills have a large purple number five in one corner, which startled me when I saw it. I thought it looked like play money.
I commented on this to the cashier. "Do you think it could be counterfeit?"
The clerk looked at me in surprise. "No. We've been seeing these for weeks."
That made me wonder. Had I been seeing them for weeks, too? Maybe I'd been using these bills for a while and just hadn't noticed.
How often do we grow complacent with our surroundings? Part of being a scientist includes really seeing the world.
Take a moment today to really examine something in your daily life. It could be the telephone, a dog toy, the house key, your hairbrush. How would you describe the item to someone who'd never encountered it before? Is it soft, prickly, fuzzy, squishy? Does it make noise? Is it colorful or bland? Can you eat or chew it? Does it smell?
Observing your surroundings -- and acknowledging your biases -- is crucial. You can't experiment with your world if you aren't paying attention to it.
One of my favorite quotes sums this up nicely:
I commented on this to the cashier. "Do you think it could be counterfeit?"
The clerk looked at me in surprise. "No. We've been seeing these for weeks."
That made me wonder. Had I been seeing them for weeks, too? Maybe I'd been using these bills for a while and just hadn't noticed.
How often do we grow complacent with our surroundings? Part of being a scientist includes really seeing the world.
Take a moment today to really examine something in your daily life. It could be the telephone, a dog toy, the house key, your hairbrush. How would you describe the item to someone who'd never encountered it before? Is it soft, prickly, fuzzy, squishy? Does it make noise? Is it colorful or bland? Can you eat or chew it? Does it smell?
Observing your surroundings -- and acknowledging your biases -- is crucial. You can't experiment with your world if you aren't paying attention to it.
One of my favorite quotes sums this up nicely:
"Eyes that look are common. Eyes that see are rare." J. Oswald Sanders
Friday, December 7, 2007
Website of the Week: Infrared Zoo
See animals in a whole new light at this week’s website, Infrared Zoo.
Humans only see a small portion of the light spectrum. What we see is known as visible light. Infrared is the portion of the light spectrum that includes heat emissions. Normally, we can’t tell whether most things are hot or cold just by looking at them, but these photos were taken with a special camera.
Some animals, like pit viper rattlesnakes, perceive infrared light. This ability is thought to help them detect and catch prey. Be sure to visit the Warm and Cold-Blooded page for an eye-catching comparison of what it means to be a warm or cold-blooded animal. My favorite pictures are the ones of the warm-blooded humans holding the cold-blooded animals (a scorpion and a gecko). You can tell that the humans are regulating their body temperatures because “colder” colors are visible along the outside edges of the body with “warmer” colors near the center of the body or body part. The scorpion and gecko’s body temperatures match their surroundings so they are nearly all one color – a cold one. Check out the scorpion’s tail – it is actually warmer where the person is holding it.
[Follow-up: NASA also has a great page explaining infrared light called The Electromagnetic Spectrum: Infrared Waves.]
Humans only see a small portion of the light spectrum. What we see is known as visible light. Infrared is the portion of the light spectrum that includes heat emissions. Normally, we can’t tell whether most things are hot or cold just by looking at them, but these photos were taken with a special camera.
Some animals, like pit viper rattlesnakes, perceive infrared light. This ability is thought to help them detect and catch prey. Be sure to visit the Warm and Cold-Blooded page for an eye-catching comparison of what it means to be a warm or cold-blooded animal. My favorite pictures are the ones of the warm-blooded humans holding the cold-blooded animals (a scorpion and a gecko). You can tell that the humans are regulating their body temperatures because “colder” colors are visible along the outside edges of the body with “warmer” colors near the center of the body or body part. The scorpion and gecko’s body temperatures match their surroundings so they are nearly all one color – a cold one. Check out the scorpion’s tail – it is actually warmer where the person is holding it.
[Follow-up: NASA also has a great page explaining infrared light called The Electromagnetic Spectrum: Infrared Waves.]
Friday, November 30, 2007
Website of the Week: NIEHS Kids Page of Optical Illusions
This week, we explore the mysterious and fascinating world of optical illusions. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has put together a great page of images to delight and confound. Check out the NIEHS Kids Page of Optical Illusions and see for yourself. The Man in the Coffee Beans was my favorite because I literally jumped out of my chair when I found him!
Optical illusions fool us for different reasons. Some rely more upon perception than optics. For example, take the one where you are asked what color you see when the word “blue” is colored green. Our brain perceives one thing (as we read the word “blue”) while our eyes see something else (the color green). Other optical illusions, like those involving after-images, take advantage of how the eyes function.
Some optical illusions, like 3-D puzzles, rely upon how your eyes work together. If you are blind in one eye, like me, you won’t be able to see these kinds of optical illusions. (When I was younger, I had a book of illusions that suggested pointing both index fingers at each other over the bridge of your nose. Supposedly, if you pulled your fingers apart very slowly and stared straight ahead, you would soon see a small “hot dog” type image floating over your nose. Try as I might, I could never make this illusion work because it relies upon the viewer having three-dimensional vision).
If you like visual puzzles, check out the work of artists who specialize in creating optical illusions, like the late M. C. Escher.
Optical illusions fool us for different reasons. Some rely more upon perception than optics. For example, take the one where you are asked what color you see when the word “blue” is colored green. Our brain perceives one thing (as we read the word “blue”) while our eyes see something else (the color green). Other optical illusions, like those involving after-images, take advantage of how the eyes function.
Some optical illusions, like 3-D puzzles, rely upon how your eyes work together. If you are blind in one eye, like me, you won’t be able to see these kinds of optical illusions. (When I was younger, I had a book of illusions that suggested pointing both index fingers at each other over the bridge of your nose. Supposedly, if you pulled your fingers apart very slowly and stared straight ahead, you would soon see a small “hot dog” type image floating over your nose. Try as I might, I could never make this illusion work because it relies upon the viewer having three-dimensional vision).
If you like visual puzzles, check out the work of artists who specialize in creating optical illusions, like the late M. C. Escher.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Make an Audio Map
One of the most important things a scientist needs is improved powers of observation. What does this mean? You need to learn to be in the present moment, to see things a little differently, to think "outside the box." How do you achieve this? One way is to focus on each of the five senses. Today, let's explore hearing.
For the littlest scientists, take them outside and go for a walk. Stop every so often during your walk and ask, "What do you hear?" When your child answers, "A car," you can answer, "I hear the leaves moving in the wind. What else do you hear?" As your walk progresses, you can repeat these questions. A good book to follow up with is Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Eric Carle.
For the older child (and everybody else!), I recommend this activity (based on an assignment I had in my college days, I'd give credit if I remembered the teacher!). Go outside with a sheet of paper and a pen. Make a mark in the middle of the page to show where you are. Close your eyes for a few minutes and just listen. What do you hear? When you open your eyes, mark these sounds on your paper, in the same direction that you heard them. You might have a "d" to the left of center for the barking dog to the left of you, a "c" in the upper right-hand corner of the page for the car alarm blaring up the street, and an "a" near you for the airplane flying overhead.
Wait a minute or two, then repeat the process. This time, you might have another "d" in the same place, the "a" will have moved further away, and with any luck, you won't have another "c." Keep repeating these steps until you have an "audio map" of your experience.
For the littlest scientists, take them outside and go for a walk. Stop every so often during your walk and ask, "What do you hear?" When your child answers, "A car," you can answer, "I hear the leaves moving in the wind. What else do you hear?" As your walk progresses, you can repeat these questions. A good book to follow up with is Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Eric Carle.
For the older child (and everybody else!), I recommend this activity (based on an assignment I had in my college days, I'd give credit if I remembered the teacher!). Go outside with a sheet of paper and a pen. Make a mark in the middle of the page to show where you are. Close your eyes for a few minutes and just listen. What do you hear? When you open your eyes, mark these sounds on your paper, in the same direction that you heard them. You might have a "d" to the left of center for the barking dog to the left of you, a "c" in the upper right-hand corner of the page for the car alarm blaring up the street, and an "a" near you for the airplane flying overhead.
Wait a minute or two, then repeat the process. This time, you might have another "d" in the same place, the "a" will have moved further away, and with any luck, you won't have another "c." Keep repeating these steps until you have an "audio map" of your experience.
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