January 12 - The Glass Universe

The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel

In the mid-nineteenth century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or "human computers," to interpret the observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. At the outset this group included the wives, sisters, and daughters of the resident astronomers, but soon the female corps included graduates of the new women's colleges--Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith. As photography transformed the practice of astronomy, the ladies turned from computation to studying the stars captured nightly on glass photographic plates.

The "glass universe" of half a million plates that Harvard amassed over the ensuing decades--through the generous support of Mrs. Anna Palmer Draper, the widow of a pioneer in stellar photography--enabled the women to make extraordinary discoveries that attracted worldwide acclaim. They helped discern what stars were made of, divided the stars into meaningful categories for further research, and found a way to measure distances across space by starlight. Their ranks included Williamina Fleming, a Scottish woman originally hired as a maid who went on to identify ten novae and more than three hundred variable stars; Annie Jump Cannon, who designed a stellar classification system that was adopted by astronomers the world over and is still in use; and Dr. Cecilia Helena Payne, who in 1956 became the first ever woman professor of astronomy at Harvard--and Harvard's first female department chair.

For the first time in more than 80 years, salmon spawning in the upper Columbia River

Colville Tribal biologists counted 36 redds (a gravely nest in which female salmon lay their eggs) along an 8-mile stretch of the Sanpoil River, a tributary of the Columbia, in September.

“I was shocked at first, then I was just overcome with complete joy,” said Crystal Conant, a Colville Tribal member from the Arrow Lakes and SanPoil bands. “I don’t know that I have the right words to even explain the happiness and the healing.”

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2020/dec/17/for-the-first-time-in-more-than-80-years-salmon-sp/?amp-content=amp&s=09

Burnt

 Twenty-four hours inside the battle against California’s worst wildfire season on record

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a34963368/california-wildfires-truckee-firefighters-2020/?source=nl&utm_source=nl_esq&utm_medium=email&date=122020&utm_campaign=nl22431318&utm_term=AAA%20--%20High%20Minus%20Dormant%20and%2090%20Day%20Non%20Openers

To Prevent the Next Covid-19, We Must Prioritize Biodiversity

 From the most remote terrestrial wilderness to the most densely populated cities, humans are inexorably changing the planet. We have put 1 million species at risk of extinction, degraded soil and habitats, polluted the air and water, destroyed forests and coral reefs wholesale, exploited wild species, and fostered the proliferation of invasive species. And we have caused a global climate crisis.

https://undark.org/2020/12/10/prevent-the-next-pandemic-prioritize-biodiversity/

Trump administration proceeds with rollback of bird protections despite objections of scientists, environmentalists

 The Trump administration on Friday advanced its plans to cut federal regulation protections for birds despite criticisms from scientists and former federal officials that the move will likely be severely detrimental to the U.S. bird population. https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/527735-trump-administration-proceeds-with-rollback-of-bird-protections?utm_source=Our+Daily+Planet+Subscribers&utm_campaign=1d6e37b501-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_11_29_06_43&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_15a39131a0-1d6e37b501-62466329&mc_cid=1d6e37b501&mc_eid=8b3219c7d6

Tiny toucan-like bird with a single tooth flew during the dinosaur era

A bizarre bird from the Mesozoic Era had a small, scythe-like beak with one tooth at its tip. Its fossil was found in Madagascar and hints at a lost world of ancient birds that paleontologists are only just starting to uncover.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2260763-tiny-toucan-like-bird-with-a-single-tooth-flew-during-the-dinosaur-era/

Searching for Mary Austin

Life for the author of The Land of Little Rain was as hard as the inhospitable region she wrote about.

https://www.altaonline.com/dispatches/a8713/searching-for-mary-austin-joy-lanzendorfer/

Virtual Book Discussion - December 8, 2020 - Cod by Mark Kurlansky

 Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky

The Cod. Wars have been fought over it, revolutions have been triggered by it, national diets have been based on it, economies and livelihoods have depended on it. To the millions it has sustained, it has been a treasure more precious that gold. This book spans 1,000 years and four continents. From the Vikings to Clarence Birdseye, Mark Kurlansky introduces the explorers, merchants, writers, chefs and fisherman, whose lives have been interwoven with this prolific fish. He chronicles the cod wars of the 16th and 20th centuries. He blends in recipes and lore from the Middle Ages to the present. In a story that brings world history and human passions into captivating focus, he shows how the most profitable fish in history is today faced with extinction.

The scariest things in the universe are black holes – and here are 3 reasons

Halloween is a time to be haunted by ghosts, goblins and ghouls, but nothing in the universe is scarier than a black hole.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/10/the-scariest-things-in-the-universe-are-black-holes-and-here-are-3-reasons/ 

Virtual Book Discussion: November 10 - Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

 Hidden Figures Characters

https://www.litcharts.com/lit/hidden-figures/characters

Margot Shetterly 

Dr. Robert B. Lee III

Katherine Coleman (who took on the married names Goble and Johnson)

Dorothy Vaughan

Mary Jackson

Christine Darden (Also Christine Mann)

Margerey Hannah

John Glenn

A. Philip Randolph

Henry Pearson

William Waldron Schieffelin Claytor 

Blanche Sponsler

Charles Hamilton Houston

Howard Vaughan

Woodrow Wilson

Virginia Tucker

Harry Byrd

R.T. Jones

Henry Reid

Miriam Mann

Joshua Coleman

Dorothy Hoover

Doris Cohen

James Williams

John Becker

Kazimeirz Czarnecki

Thomas Byrdsong

President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Levi Jackson Jr.

J. Lindsay Almond

John F. Kennedy

Alan Shepard

Gloria Champine

Pearl Young

Yuri Gargarin

Melvin Butler

Emma Jean Landrum

The daring plan to save the Arctic ice with glass

The fear that action to combat climate change has been too slow has led some scientists to test unconventional methods to stem the loss of Arctic sea ice.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200923-could-geoengineering-save-the-arctic-sea-ice 

Humans Wiped Out Two-Thirds of the World’s Wildlife in 50 Years

 Threats to global biodiversity are also threats to humans, experts warn

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/humans-wiped-out-two-thirds-worlds-wildlife-50-years-180975824/

This Photo Book Explores Lake Tahoe from Below

'Clarity' dives into North America's largest alpine lake, highlighting the beauty of, and threats to, its renowned clear water

https://www.outsideonline.com/2408258/clarity-lake-tahoe-photo-book?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Dispatch-091720&utm_content=Final&utm_term=dispatch 

Virtual Book Discussion - October 13 - Grave Secrets of Dinosaurs by Phillip Manning

 T-rex skeleton could fetch record price at New York auction

September 16, 2020

.https://www.rawstory.com/2020/09/t-rex-skeleton-could-fetch-record-price-at-new-york-auction/

The skeleton of a 40-foot (12-meter) dinosaur nicknamed “Stan”, one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever found, will be auctioned in New York next month and could set a record for a sale of its kind

Discovered in 1987 near Buffalo, South Dakota, the 188-bone skeleton took more than three years to excavate and reconstruct by paleontologists from the state’s Black Hills Geological Research Institute, where it has been exhibited since.

Reminder - Virtual Book Discussion - September 8 - Gulp

Book Review: A Pair of Guides to Fossils, Past and Future

https://undark.org/2020/08/14/book-review-footprints-some-assembly-required/ 

How do you like your science writing served?

Some of us are omnivores, nose-to-tail gourmands who want as much information presented to us as we can load onto our plates. Others want our science served like a fancy gourmet meal, a little light, perhaps, but beautifully plated.

Two recent books illustrate the distinction: “Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA” by Neil Shubin and “Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils” by David Farrier.

Shubin, the Robert R. Bensley Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago, is provost of the Field Museum of Natural History, and he gives us the smorgasbord: a rich guide to the science of evolution in the age of DNA analysis. Farrier is a professor of literature and the environment at the University of Edinburgh, and his offering is a more literary work of quiet grace. Neither is an extreme example of the form — after all, these categories aren’t mutually exclusive. But they are very different, and tuned to the tastes of different readers.

Researchers find 7-foot-long, 3,000-pound triceratops skull in South Dakota

The team named it "Shady" after nearby town Shadehill.https://www.cbs8.com/article/life/animals/triceratops-skull-south-daokta/67-84d9488b-50ba-4eaa-9ea5-01605355ad08 

Hummingbird True Facts

An interesting and entertaining look at Hummingbirds that will leave you with more knowledge about this unique creature than you ever dreamed possible. This is the latest video in the True Facts series from Ze Frank. Each episode is like a miniature science lesson from a teacher full of humor and sarcasm that any student would find entertaining

https://biggeekdad.com/2020/08/hummingbird-true-facts/ 

‘Major victory’: Court tosses out Trump Interior’s gutting of century-old protections for migratory birds

Major Victory 

Virtual Book Discussion - September 8 - Gulp

 Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach

 In GULP Roach presents the facts of the research while giving her little interpretations and feelings upon the subject but other than that she gives the reader a chance to interpret the research themselves.  For this, Roach somewhat reveals her opinion to the reader but in a way that makes it clear to the reader that she believes in this while it could be interpreted in other ways.

We first learn about the impact of smell on our eating habits.  Smell makes the first impact on our choices of what to eat.  Also what is mentioned in the first chapter about smell that disappointed me is to learn that the United States is the olive oil “dumping ground”.  

Then Roach travels to a pet-food taste-test lab where she learns about the science behind how to make the coating of tasty foods for animals.  Hands down this is my favorite chapter because I find it so interesting how scientists can interact with animals who can not communicate with them.  So it is a lot of trial and error experiments.  One experiment that Roach discussed was how rodents reacted with either a sugary solution or bitter solution.  If it was sugary they would lick all over themselves to get the well-liked taste and if it was bitter the rodents would try to get the solution off of them.

Then Roach talks about the cultural influences on eating.  It is interesting to think that where we live shapes our appetite.  For example, if I were to live in Alaska I might like more gamey meat than I do right now.

Then Roach talks about the process of chewing and the benefits of it.  Then the book travels to the stomach and meet William Beaumont who teaches us the acid juices that are in the stomach and how they kill bacteria.  Also Beaumont emphasizes on the fact that digestion is chemical, not mechanical.

We then learn about saliva and more about chewing at an oral-processing lab.  We also learn about Jianshe Chen’s amazing knowledge of knowing “the minimum number of chews required to ready a McVitie’s Digestive biscuit for the swallow (eight)” (137).

After, we go inside a whale to debunk the legend of William Beaumont who was said to be eaten by a whale.  Roach debunks the story by explaining the gastric acid and pepsin in the whale would have killed him.

Then we learn about the scary story of eaten mealworms eating whoever ate them.  But through research, we learn it is not true.

Roach then talks about a man given the name Mr. L who overdosed on opium pills and was getting his stomach pumped, but the doctors did not know they pumped too much and he died.  Roach also talks about why we feel full.  It is because our stomach stretches which signals our brain that we are full.

We then learn the uses of taking advantage of the anal’s function (as a storage space).  We learn about the criminal acts that smuggle items into prison by putting something in one’s anus (keistering).  Then Roach informs us on defecation (pooping).

After, Roach talks about the bacteria that is in our colon and the hydrogen and methane in our digestive track.

We then learn about flatulence.  Then Roach amusingly talks about the study of smelling flatulence, and the three sulfuric gasses that make the smell of flatulence.

After, Roach talks about eating rectally which took me by surprise.  I never heard of anything like that.  It is used to postpone death when someone is in a very unhealthy state but not sustain life.  But the downfall of eating rectally is that the colon and rectum can not absorb large molecules: fat and protein.

Then we learn about mega-colons, and how the constipation of having a mega-sized colon can lead to death.  This was sadly the case for The King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley.

Lastly, we learn about fecal transplants which takes bacteria from one person’s colon and implants it into another person’s colon.

 The end result, Roach presents an easy way for the reader to understand the unusual yet complex topics discussed in GULP.

This tiny camera can show the world from a bug’s point of view

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/watch-tiny-camera-show-world-bug-s-point-view

The Epic Siberian Journey to Solve a Mass Extinction Mystery

A quarter-billion years ago, huge volcanic eruptions burned coal, leading to the worst extinction in Earth’s history. Here’s how scientists hunted down the evidence

https://www.wired.com/story/the-epic-siberian-journey-to-solve-a-mass-extinction-mystery/

Arctic hits more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit

‘This scares me’: Arctic hits more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit — hottest temperature on record
By Jake Johnson, Common DreamsJune 22, 2020

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/this-scares-me-arctic-hits-more-than-100-degrees-fahrenheit-hottest-temperature-on-record/

Giant tortoise Diego, a hero to his species, is home

Giant tortoise Diego, a hero to his species, is home

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/giant-tortoise-diego-a-hero-to-his-species-is-home/

The Great Migration Mystery

It was once believed that swallows spent their winters on the Moon, or asleep on river beds.

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/natural-histories/great-migration-mystery

Climate Change in the American Mind: April 2020

https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/climate-change-in-the-american-mind-april-2020/2/

REPORT · May 19, 2020
Climate Change in the American Mind: April 2020
By Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, John Kotcher, Parrish Bergquist, Matthew Ballew, Matthew Goldberg, Abel Gustafson and Xinran Wang
Filed under: Beliefs & Attitudes

1. Executive Summary
This survey was fielded from April 7 – 17, 2020, during which time a large percentage of the U.S. population was sheltering at home due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic. Social science theory and prior research suggest that people have a “finite pool of worry,”1 such that worrying about one issue will decrease concern about other issues. In a national survey on American Responses to COVID-19, conducted separately from this survey, we found that most American adults were quite worried about COVID-19 in April, and justifiably so given the large number of deaths and serious illnesses it was causing at the time. Given the finite pool of worry hypothesis, we were prepared to find dramatically reduced levels of concern about climate change in this survey. Although we did find a slight decline in the proportion of Americans who report being “very worried” about climate change since our previous survey in November 2019, overall, the results of the current survey are remarkably consistent with our previous survey, with several indicators of public engagement actually reaching record levels. This is not to say that the finite pool of worry hypothesis is correct or incorrect, as we did not formally test it. But what is clear is that public engagement in the issue of climate change remains at or near historic high levels. Specifically, we found:
A record-tying 73% of Americans think global warming is happening. Only one in ten Americans (10%) think global warming is not happening. Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who think it isn’t by a ratio of about 7 to 1.
A record-high 54% of Americans are “extremely” or “very” sure global warming is happening. By contrast, only 6% are “extremely” or “very” sure global warming is not happening.
A record-tying 62% of Americans understand that global warming is mostly human-caused. By contrast, about three in ten (29%) think it is due mostly to natural changes in the environment.
More than half of Americans (56%) understand that most scientists think global warming is happening. However, only about one in five (21%) understand how strong the level of consensus among scientists is (i.e., that more than 90% of climate scientists think human-caused global warming is happening).
Two in three Americans (66%) say they are at least “somewhat worried” about global warming. One in four (26%) are “very worried” about it.
About six in ten Americans (63%) say they feel at least “moderately interested” in global warming. Four in ten or more say they feel say they feel “disgusted” (46%), “hopeful” (45%), “angry” (41%), “resilient” (41%), “outraged” (41%), or “helpless” (40%).
More than four in ten Americans think people in the United States are being harmed by global warming “right now” (45%) and about the same percentage say they have personally experienced the effects of global warming (44%).
More than four in ten Americans (43%) think they will be harmed by global warming, while more think their family (46%) and people in their community (49%) will be harmed. Half or more Americans think global warming will harm people in the U.S. (62%), people in developing countries (66%), the world’s poor (67%), future generations of people (73%), and plant and animal species (73%).
Many Americans think a variety of health harms, both physical and psychological, will become more common in their community as a result of global warming over the next 10 years, if nothing is done to address it.
Two in three Americans (66%) say the issue of global warming is either “extremely,” “very,” or “somewhat” important to them personally, while one in three (33%) say it is either “not too” or “not at all” personally important.
More than six in ten Americans (64%) say they “rarely” or “never” discuss global warming with family and friends, while 36% say they do so “occasionally” or “often.”
About half of Americans (47%) say they hear about global warming in the media at least once a month. Fewer (22%) say they hear people they know talk about global warming at least once a month.
Fewer than half of Americans perceive a social norm in which their friends and family expect them to take action on global warming. Forty-seven percent think it is at least moderately important to their family and friends that they take action (an injunctive norm), and 44% say their family and friends make at least a moderate amount of effort to reduce global warming (a descriptive norm).
Two in three Americans (66%) feel a personal sense of responsibility to help reduce global warming.
Few Americans (11%) agree with the statement that it is too late to do anything about global warming, while about two in three (68%) disagree that it is too late.
Majorities of Americans think global warming is an environmental issue (82%) or a scientific issue (74%). Half or more think global warming is an agricultural (67%), severe weather (64%), economic (64%), humanitarian (61%), health (60%), political (60%), or moral (50%) issue.
Two in three Americans (66%) think global warming is affecting weather in the United States, and one in three think weather is being affected “a lot” (33%).
A majority of Americans are worried about harm from extreme events in their local area including extreme heat (66%), droughts (65%), flooding (60%), and water shortages (56%).
Majorities of Americans think state and local governments should place a “high priority” on protecting agriculture, public water supplies, and people’s health (all 55%) from the effects of global warming over the next ten years.
Six in ten Americans (60%) feel at least “fairly well informed” about global warming, but only one in ten Americans (10%) feel “very well informed.”
Majorities of Americans are at least “moderately” interested in news stories about a variety of topics related to global warming.


Table of Contents
Report Summary
1. Executive Summary
2. Global Warming Beliefs
3. Emotional Responses to Global Warming
4. Perceived Risks of Global Warming
5. Personal and Social Engagement with Global Warming
6. Efficacy Beliefs
7. How Americans Conceptualize Global Warming
8. Global Warming and Severe Weather
9. Adaptation to Global Warming
10. Becoming Informed About Global Warming
Appendix I: Data Tables
Appendix II: Survey Method
Appendix III: Sample Demographics

Virtual Book Discussion - June 9 - The Uninhabitable Earth

The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-wells

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The Uninhabitable Earth hits you like a comet, with an overflow of insanely lyrical prose about our pending Armageddon.”—Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • The New York Times Book Review • Time • NPR • The Economist • The Paris Review • Toronto Star  • GQ • The Times Literary Supplement • The New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews

It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible—food shortages, refugee emergencies, climate wars and economic devastation.

An “epoch-defining book” (The Guardian) and “this generation’s Silent Spring” (The Washington Post), The Uninhabitable Earth is both a travelogue of the near future and a meditation on how that future will look to those living through it—the ways that warming promises to transform global politics, the meaning of technology and nature in the modern world, the sustainability of capitalism and the trajectory of human progress.

The Uninhabitable Earth is also an impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation—today’s.

LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/E.O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD

“The Uninhabitable Earth is the most terrifying book I have ever read. Its subject is climate change, and its method is scientific, but its mode is Old Testament. The book is a meticulously documented, white-knuckled tour through the cascading catastrophes that will soon engulf our warming planet.”—Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times

“Riveting. . . . Some readers will find Mr. Wallace-Wells’s outline of possible futures alarmist. He is indeed alarmed. You should be, too.”—The Economist

“Potent and evocative. . . . Wallace-Wells has resolved to offer something other than the standard narrative of climate change. . . . He avoids the ‘eerily banal language of climatology’ in favor of lush, rolling prose.”—Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

“The book has potential to be this generation’s Silent Spring.”—The Washington Post

“The Uninhabitable Earth, which has become a best seller, taps into the underlying emotion of the day: fear. . . . I encourage people to read this book.”—Alan Weisman, The New York Review of Books

Tuesday, May 12 @10:00 - Virtual Book Discussion - The Feather Thief

The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century, Kirk Wallace Johnson, 2018 
A rollicking true-crime adventure and a captivating journey into an underground world of fanatical fly-tiers and plume peddlers, for readers of The Stranger in the Woods, The Lost City of Z, and The Orchid Thief.

On a cool June evening in 2009, after performing a concert at London's Royal Academy of Music, twenty-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist boarded a train for a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History.

Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose gorgeous feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwin's obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying.

Once inside the museum, the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skins—some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin's, Alfred Russel Wallace, who'd risked everything to gather them—and escaped into the darkness.

Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief …
What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins?

In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation. The gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man's destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature.

More Helen Czerski

Dr Helen Czerski - What is a fact?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz4PDdO8DX8

Give Me Inspiration! The Paradigm Shift with Dr Helen Czersk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoC2Hz6QfSM

May 12 - An Ornithologist Reads 'The Feather Thief'

The true story of a flytier who stole hundreds of bird specimens hits hard when you rely on those specimens to do critical research
https://www.outsideonline.com/2299821/ornithologist-reads-feather-thief#close

Storm in a Teacup RESCHEDULED

Due to a glitch with Zoom, we have rescheduled the virtual discussion of Storm in a Teacup for Tuesday, April 21 @10:00.
OLLI will be proving the link to join the discussion.
Sorry for the inconvenience.

Scientists have found oil from the Deepwater Horizon blowout in fishes’ livers and on the deep ocean floor

Over the decade since the Deepwater Horizon spill, thousands of scientists have analyzed its impact on the Gulf of Mexico. The spill affected many different parts of the Gulf, from coastal marshes to the deep sea.https://theconversation.com/scientists-have-found-oil-from-the-deepwater-horizon-blowout-in-fishes-livers-and-on-the-deep-ocean-floor-133145

Tuesday, April 14 @10:00 - Virtual Book Discussion - Storm in a Teacup

Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life (2018) by Helen Czerski

Storm in a Teacup is Helen Czerski’s lively, entertaining, and richly informed introduction to the world of physics. Czerski provides the tools to alter the way we see everything around us by linking ordinary objects and occurrences, like popcorn popping, coffee stains, and fridge magnets, to big ideas like climate change, the energy crisis, or innovative medical testing. She provides answers to vexing questions: How do ducks keep their feet warm when walking on ice? Why does it take so long for ketchup to come out of a bottle? Why does milk, when added to tea, look like billowing storm clouds? In an engaging voice at once warm and witty, Czerski shares her stunning breadth of knowledge to lift the veil of familiarity from the ordinary.

Helen Czerski is a physicist at University College London’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and a science presenter for BBC. She writes a monthly column for BBC Focus magazine called “Everyday Science” that was shortlisted for a Professional Publishers Association Award.

How Does the Coronavirus Behave Inside a Patient?

We’ve counted the viral spread across peoples; now we need to count it within people.
By Siddhartha Mukherjee
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/06/how-does-the-coronavirus-behave-inside-a-patient#intcid=recommendations_default-popular_15c73da8-bfb7-4ca5-b526-274a373d6214_popular4-1

Nature Lovers Book Group is going virtual.

The Nature Lovers Book Group is going virtual. We will meet via videoconference at our scheduled date and time: Tuesday, April 14 at 10:00.We will be using Zoom, a remote conferencing service that combines video conferencing, online meetings, chat, and mobile collaboration.

You will soon be receiving an OLLI Update regarding using Zoom for the first time and instructions for joining the Espionage Book Group for our discussion of Storm in a Teacup by Helen Czerski.

What ‘Walden’ can tell us about social distancing and focusing on life’s essentials

Seeking to bend the coronavirus curve, governors and mayors have told millions of Americans to stay home. If you’re pondering what to read, it’s easy to find lists featuring books about disease outbreaks, solitude and living a simpler life. But it’s much harder to find a book that combines these themes.
https://theconversation.com/what-walden-can-tell-us-about-social-distancing-and-focusing-on-lifes-essentials-134524

Nature surrounds us, even in quarantine

Two new books revel in the evolutionary beauty of weeds, moths, and the quotidian insects that live in our homes
https://www.salon.com/2020/03/22/nature-surrounds-us-even-in-quarantine/

Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life by Helen Czerski

Since we probably will not be meeting in person on April 14, I thought that I would share some of the material that I planned to share then.

Helen Czerski - TED Talk

https://www.ted.com/speakers/helen_czerski

Earth has acquired a brand new moon that's about the size of a car

Earth might have a tiny new moon. On 19 February, astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona spotted a dim object moving quickly across the sky

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2235427-earth-has-acquired-a-brand-new-moon-thats-about-the-size-of-a-car/

April 14 - Storm in a Teacup

Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life
by Helen Czerski

Storm in a Teacup is Helen Czerski’s lively, entertaining, and informed introduction to the world of physics. Czerski provides the tools to alter the way we see everything around us by linking ordinary objects and occurrences, like popcorn popping, coffee stains, and fridge magnets, to big ideas like climate change, the energy crisis, or innovative medical testing. She provides answers to vexing questions: How do ducks keep their feet warm when walking on ice? Why does it take so long for ketchup to come out of a bottle? Why does milk, when added to tea, look like billowing storm clouds? In an engaging voice at once warm and witty, Czerski shares her stunning breadth of knowledge to lift the veil of familiarity from the ordinary.

NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who inspired the film ‘Hidden Figures’, dies at 101

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/nasa-mathematician-katherine-johnson-who-inspired-the-film-hidden-figures-dies-at-101/

Tiny songbirds, big consequences: Why ornithologists see climate change looming everywhere

Within the field of ornithology, it is becoming difficult not to see echoes of climate change across the spectrum of research.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/tiny-songbirds-big-consequences-why-ornithologists-see-climate-change-looming-n1140716

March 10 - The Gene

The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee

The story of the gene begins in earnest in an obscure Augustinian abbey in Moravia in 1856 where Gregor Mendel, a monk working with pea plants, stumbles on the idea of a "unit of heredity." It intersects with Darwin's theory of evolution, and collides with the horrors of Nazi eugenics in the 1940s. The gene transforms postwar biology. It invades discourses concerning race and identity and provides startling answers to some of the most potent questions coursing through our political and cultural realms. It reorganizes our understanding of sexuality, gender identity, sexual orientation, temperament, choice, and free will, thus raising the most urgent questions affecting our personal realms. Above all, the story of the gene is driven by human ingenuity and obsessive minds -- from Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin to Francis Crick, James Watson, and Rosalind Franklin to the thousands of scientists working today to understand the code of codes. Author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller The Emperor of All Maladies, Mukherjee draws on his scientific knowledge and research to describe the magisterial history of a scientific idea. Woven through The Gene is the story of Mukherjee's own family and its recurring pattern of schizophrenia, a haunting reminder that the science of genetics is not confined to the laboratory but is vitally relevant to everyday lives.
The moral complexity of genetics reverberates even more urgently today as we learn to "read" and "write" the human genome--unleashing the potential to change the fates and identities of our children and our children's children
Magnificent, beautifully written, and riveting, Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Gene: An Intimate History illuminates the quest to decipher the master-code of instructions that makes and defines humans; that governs our form, function, and fate; and that determines the future of our children.

The Washington Post 10 best books, 2016 The New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books, 2016