Motley Moose – Archive

March 2013

Our friend Ed came to dinner the other night. It was a Tuesday evening small dinner party. We also had friends S & G join us. He is a local musician and instructor of music at our university. She is also a musician and teaches steel drum. Back in the 70s, S was a high school student an hour south of our town. Ed was a teacher at that school. That’s where they met. We have had Ed and S & G over for dinner together once a few years before. A lot happened between that time and this.

Ed looked really good. He said he had gained 20 pounds over the past year. He was hoping his Tai Chi exercises would help him lose some of it. Ed is quite a character. He is single, near 70, and is active physically and mentally. He teaches classes at the local senior center. Like most people, he has some interesting, happy, and sad parts to his life. I want to share with you thoughts I wrote about him and his journey during the most recent years. His journey has taken him to the depths. Now, he seems to be back.

Please join me below for that part of Ed’s story.

Death of a Dove

This is a story of something that happened at our back window nearly two years ago.

It had been quite a while since I last used the window cleaning tools to reach those on the second floor. Maybe I would get around to it soon. But, I was in no hurry.

There was a loud thud on the window. Birds will often do that as they come and go at our feeders. Sure enough, there was a faint outline of a bird in flight on the glass. A Dove was dead on the patio below. A few small feathers stuck to the glass where it made impact. I could barely make out some other features on the glass.

Come below for more.

A couple of days ago the weather in east central Iowa was kind of nice-ish. We have had a fair amount of rain. Melting has removed most of the snow and ice. We are making progress toward spring. But, there are no green things yet.

Melanie and I were returning from a walk and approached our driveway. The neighbors have a huge cottonwood tree. She looked up and asked what that thing was up in their tree. I got the camera and two pictures. It’s about the size of a softball. We had never seen it before. I thought the neighbor boys had destroyed a softball and ripped off the cover. They are wound with string. Maybe they tossed it up there.

Can you help us?

See below for your instructions.

Comet PanSTARRS (C/2011 L4) has been putting on a good show for observers in the southern hemisphere. Our turn has arrive in the northern hemisphere. But, the show will not be as impressive. Here is a sky chart looking west just after sunset during the twilight time. If you have clear skies and an unobstructed view to the horizon, you might get to see it. Use binoculars.

The evening of the 12th would be the easiest to spot the comet. It will appear just left of the new moon. Each successive evening the comet will appear more to the northwest and a little higher in the sky. The moon will quickly move up and not be near the comet. The chart shows the comet about 10˚above the horizon. That is a fist width at arm’s length. So, it won’t be very high. If you wait too long for it to get darker, the comet will have moved lower and possibly out of view. Your viewing time is quite limited.

This is a good article from Sky & Telescope magazine for more information.

Come below for a couple of images of the comet in recent weeks from Australia.

You probably wonder what the title has to do with a diary about science. It is part of a sentence in an interesting story in the March 5 NY Times about a discovery 50 years in the making. It was the story of the Higgs Boson. This was a story about some of the major players and events. I found it especially interesting because of my own involvement in a small way many years ago.

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) was 10 miles from the high school where I taught. In 1983, Fermilab offered for the first time three summer science teacher institutes in chemistry, biology, and physics. I was teaching physics. I was fortunate to be one of the 20 teachers selected for the physics group.

Join me below for more.

Early Sunday morning at 4:31 CST, the astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured the supply ship Dragon launched Friday. They were using the station’s robotic arm. Dragon was berthed to the station at 7:56 AM CST. Power and pressurization is being completed. About 1,200 lbs of supplies and scientific equipment will be moved from it beginning Monday March 4. It will spend 22 days attached. Nearly 2,700 lbs of waste and investigation samples will return in Dragon. The samples will demonstrate how life in microgravity affects plant and animal growth, changes to the human body, semiconductor and detergent behavior, and much more. The following video was released Saturday showing the capture.