Mrs Parrington Loves Science

Pic source: www.frogsite.org/ pic/Redeyed_Tree_Frog.jpg

Hello fellow froggy enthusiasts!

Guess what? It’s time to get out those recording devices and head out to your local waterway. To start the spring season off, Melbourne Water are hosting a launch at Werribee Open Range Zoo.

Here are the details:

The Spring 2008 Launch of Melbourne Water’s Frog Census will be held at Werribee Open Range Zoo on Sunday September 7th (Threatened Species Day), at 10:30am. Join us for froggie fun and learning, speak to frog experts from the Amphibian Research Centre, see some of our fascinating local frogs and take part in Waterwatch activities.  

For further information and to RSVP to this event please contact Amy Paraman  amy.paraman@melbournewater.com.au 

Project Manager Waterwatch East and Frog Census Melbourne Water

Please remember to RSVP by Thursday 4th September!

I hope to see you there!!! Ribbit

Have you ever heard of an ultrasonic frog? No? Well, I’ll let you in on a secret, neither had I until I read this article from National Geographic.

This amazing frog (and you all know how much I LOVE frogs) uses ultrasonic communication and can tune it’s ears like a radio to block out background noise. Aren’t frogs amazing creatures???

This makes the concave-eared torrent frog the only known animal that can physically control which frequencies it hears by opening and closing parts of its ears.

For more information, have a look at the original article here.

While you’re there, have a look at the National Geographic photo of the day…GORGEOUS!

Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080725-ultrasonic-frog.html

Accessed 24/8/08

During his first year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter is given an invisibility cloak that belonged to his father James.  It’s silky, shimmery surface helps him move around undetected.  

Scientists at Tokyo University in Japan are working on Optical Camouflage technology that has helped them create an invisibility cloak of their very own.

Click on this link to have a look at the “How Stuff Works”  article for more information!

Photo courtesy ©Tachi Laboratory, the University of Tokyo
Optical-camouflage technology developed at the University of Tokyo

Source: http://science.howstuffworks.com/invisibility-cloak.htm

Image Source: earthmoon_sm.jpg

Partial Lunar Eclipse

As the full Moon sets on the morning of the 17th it will be in the midst of a partial lunar eclipse. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth’s shadow crosses the face of the Moon. From Melbourne we will only see the initial part of the eclipse as the Moon sets before the eclipse reaches maximum:

The Moon sets just before the eclipse reaches its peak, which occurs at 7:10am.

It is completely safe to watch a lunar eclipse and no special equipment is needed. At greatest eclipse, 80% of the Moon’s diameter will be covered by the Earth’s shadow. We will continue to see only partial lunar eclipses for the next few years. The next total lunar eclipse will not occur until 10th December 2011.

For more information - click here to go to the Planetarium Website

Source:http://museumvictoria.com.au/Planetarium/DiscoveryCentre/Skynotes-August-2008/

Have you ever experienced a freezing sensation after eating an ice cream (or a Slurpee)? You’re with a group of friends eating the dessert, and suddenly you have a really bad headache that lasts for a brief amount of time. You’re not alone because billions of people have had this common reaction called sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia. It’s also known as brain freeze or ice cream evoked headache. Why does even the simplest thing get a scientific name? But in all seriousness, what exactly happens to the body when one experiences a brain freeze?

Check out this website to find out more…

http://brainblogger.com/2008/07/06/the-science-of-brain-freeze/

Picture Source: http://www.aaavacsew.com/bumble%20bee.jpg

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go behind the scenes at The Melbourne Museum?  

Well, now you can find out thanks to Access All Areas Podcast Adventures. 

“Each episode we will be sneaking into the research laboratories, slipping into the collection stores and swanning about in the exhibitions, to get a side of the museum you don’t normally see.” Dr Andi

Episode 1 is called Bee Nice to Curators and gives you heaps of information about the bees and the bee hive exhibit at the Melbourne Museum.

Check it out at:

Recently reported in the Scientific American…

Picture Source: Herve Lavigne/iStockPhoto (Octopus); GNU: Booyabazooka (Rubik’s Cube)

In an attempt to find out if octopuses are right- or left-handed, er, tentacled, scientists from the Sea Life Center in England, have provided 25 of the beasts with colorful Rubik’s Cubes to play with in the center’s aquariums across Europe. Many animals in nature are known to favor one appendage, but researchers are unsure whether that holds true for the eight-armed octopus. (They could turn out to be “octidextrous”—equally good with all tentacles.) Biologists, who worry about the stress that these creatures are prone to in captivity, want to determine if octopuses have a preferred side for receiving food, as this may make their lives just a little bit easier. For the study, visitors and caregivers will record which limb (labeled as R1, R2, L6, L7, etcetera) the octopus uses to pick up the cube when it’s dropped into their tank, along with other objects like jam jars and Lego bricks. Researchers said it’s unlikely that any of these cephalopods will solve the Rubik’s Cube. Let’s hope the challenge doesn’t add to their stress level.

Source: http://www.sciam.com/gallery_directory.cfm?photo_id=04A6AC54-DFF7-6744-EA8131F1594C0B55 (accessed 17/7/08)

Image source: http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/NIM/AF581~Frog-Posters.jpg

Looking for an interesting site to look at?  Do you love animals?  

Follow this link to the Zoos Victoria Website, it is fantastic!!!

(or you can visit http://www.zoo.org.au)

They have wonderful information about Melbourne Zoo, the Werribee Open Range Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary including Zoo News, Learning Experiences, an Events Calender, School Holiday Program, Conservation and Research, information about The Year of the Frog and heaps more.  

Sign up to the Zoo Newsletter to keep yourself up to date.

Have fun surfing and let me know what you think.  

Maybe I’ll see you at the zoo these holidays? ROAR!!!

Have you ever wondered what the Hubble Space Telescope is? Where is it?  Who put it there?  What does it do and why? Well, have I got a web site for you.  

Click on this link to  HubbleSite  

This site will answer all your questions about the Hubble Space Telescope.  It has fantastic mulitmedia presentations, a photo gallery, a news centre, information about astronomy and the telescope.  There is also some really interesting information about the discoveries the telescope has made, like new red spots on Jupiter, amazing!!!. My favourite is the gallery of galactic collisions.

Take a look.  It’s really out of this world!

Western Australia has some of the world’s oldest rocks, as well as some of the world’s oldest fossils. Now it is home to the world’s oldest mother.  Palaeontologists in Western Australia recently found a fossil fish complete with an unborn embryo. The fossil is the oldest example of internal fertilisation, aged 375 million years. Astonishingly, this fossil depicts not just the mother and a juvenile fish, but an umbilical cord as well.

The fossil fish has been named Materpiscis attenboroughi, meaning mother-fish Attenborough, after Sir David Attenborough.

For more information and a look at a sensational video of this amazing fish, follow this link to the Museum Victoria Website.

Source: CSIRO Science by email 6^th June 2008