Senor Parrot’s Perch

How to Clone a Sheep

By Hazel Richardson

Illustrated by Andy Cooke

Kids love science when it’s served up on their level and written in a lively, humorous style. That’s exactly what you get with How to Clone a Sheep by Hazel Richardson and Illustrated by Andy Cooke. This fun little book is a first-rate introduction to genetics, DNA and cloning aimed at kids in about the 4th through 8th grades. The book also has some activities that are easy and educational.

How to Clone a Sheep covers the basics. Beginning by explaining what exactly are clones, DNA and genes, the book approaches the subject from a historical perspective, explaining historical thought about the inheritance of traits and how these ideas were either confirmed or rejected. Finally, it explains the science and methodology employed to produce Dolly, the famous cloned sheep. There is quite a bit of interesting historical information provided, as well. Richardson’s description of the race among scientists to discover the secrets of DNA is especially amusing, and it gives us an inside perspective on scientific research.

I think that adults would enjoy reading this along with their kids. In fact, it was my 6th grader who found this book and passed it along to me after reading it herself. She insisted I’d love it and she was right. The explanations are simplified and accompanied by terrific cartoonish drawings that perfectly illustrate the text.

Courtesy of NASA

In some crowds science has a bad reputation. These people folks find it dull, or poorly written. It’s a reputation not at all deserved, yet sometimes the writing of science books can leave a bit to be desired. That’s why it’s great news when we learn about the best of the best science books available. So when I saw that The School Library Journal had posted the list of finalists for the American Association for the Advancement of Science Best Science Books for Children and Young Adults, I was excited.

There are three categories: Children’s Science Picture Books, Middle Grades Science Books, and Young Adult Science Books. Today I’ll highlight the nominees for the Children’s Science Picture Books.

Children’s Science Picture Books

Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life

(Blue Sky Press, 2009)

By Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm

Illustrated by Molly Bang

This might have been called “My first book of Photosynthesis”, Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life, Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm explain how plants transform sunlight into energy and life giving food for everything on the planet. The illustrations are colorful and support the simple text. It’s almost magic when an author can explain such a complex web of interaction within a children’s picture book.

Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11

(Atheneum, 2009)

By Brian Floca

Author and illustrator Brian Floca lets us ride along with the Apollo 11 crew as they journey from earth to the moon and back. The illustrations in Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 have a fantastic sense of scale to them. The story is exiting and full of interesting details that bring this historic and inspiring journey to life.

Redwoods

(Roaring Brook, 2009)

By Jason Chin

Redwoods by Jason Chin is a bit reminiscent of Flotsam, a visual fantasy by David Weiner, as it follows a boy who finds a book about the giant redwood trees just before riding the train. As he reads the simple text of the book, the dinosaurs and other things appear in the train window behind him showing what was happening in the world during the lifespan of the spectacular trees. In one of the illustrations a young girl is seen. Later, when the boy puts down the book we see that girl finding the book and beginning to read it herself.

What Bluebirds Do

(Boyds Mills, 2009)

By Pamela F. Kirby

What Bluebirds Do by Pamela F. Kirby highlights a year in the life of bluebirds in beautiful photos. It’s simple text should be readable by many early readers. Following a pair of bluebirds who have nested in her backyard, Kirby captures their daily life, including their raising of five young bluebird chicks. School Library Journal compared this book to The Red-Eyed Tree Frog by Nic Bishop.

Space Scientists have located what they believe are tunnels beneath the surface of Mars. Probably formed by volcanic activity, these tunnels may harbor existing or former microbial life. This story is reported on LiveScience.com and titled Mars Caves Might Protect Microbes (or Astronauts). They may also prove suitable to protect astronauts from manned Mars missions from some of the harsher martian environmental extremes, such as radiation or dust storms.

If you’re interested in an good introduction to the science of astrobiology, or life in outer space, check out Life on Earth — and Beyond: An Astrobiologist’s Quest by Pamela S. Turner. My review of this book from a few months ago is titled Searching for Life on Other Planets.

Courtesy of NASA

Space never ceases to provide us wonders. You’ve heard that there is water on Mars. Did you know about the water on the Moon? Live Science has an interesting article, Controversial New Idea Surfaces on Origin of Moon’s Water By Clara Moskowitz, Staff Writer about the source of the water recently found all over on the moon’s surface.

Some astronomers think that hydrogen ions from solar wind are reacting with oxygen in the lunar soils to produce water. Other astronomers think that the water came from meteors crashing into the Moons surface. One of the astronomers discussed in the article highlighted by Live Science believes that the water in the lunar core is slowly seeping out to the surface. Some scientists think that more than one theory explains why water is on the moon.

Photo courtesy of NASA

How did scientists discover that there was water in the lunar core? They found it trapped inside volcanic rock which reached the surface by flowing from the Moon’s core and down the side of a volcano, or maybe shooting through the air to some distant location. These rocks were brought back to earth by astronauts in the Apollo Space Program.

Friday, October 9, NASA is crashing some rockets into the Moon just to stir things up and break through the surface, hoping to generate a lot more data about what the moon is made of. I’m taking bets they find green cheese. That’s also the source of the water. I’m from Wisconsin. We believe in cheese.

All of the discussion about the source of water on the moon made me think of all the scientific knowledge that is used for learning about space and places like the Moon. There is chemistry, geology, physics and engineering. These are the tools of discovery and invention in our modern times.

Many students are scared off by the complicated appearance of science, but science and math need to be learned like a language. Once the language of science is learned a doorway into a universe of wonders is opened. And it isn’t too early to begin. In fact, the earlier our children are exposed to science, the better.

Well, maybe here’s a career for a video gamer with good eye-thumb coordination – RoboSurgeon! At HeraldTribune.com there’s a fascinating article titled For Human Hearts, Renovation by Robot on heart surgery using a robot with tiny arms and hands that wield the sutures and tiny scalpels to make the cuts.

Because of it’s size and dexterity it can operate inside of a human through a much smaller opening. The surgeon twists and fiddles with small controllers attached to the mini surgical samurai to direct its slicing and sewing inside the patient, hence the critical need for that eye-thumb brain connection. The surgeon and spectators watch the entire procedure from the inside the patient via the video delivered by the robot’s miniature camera eye. The manufacturer, Intuitive Surgical, names this robot the da Vinci Si HD System.

Here’s a promo video from their site. The surgeon’s control of the robot is very cool.

There are not many surgeons qualified to operate using a robotic surgeon. There are many others who feel that there are too many risks associated with the procedures at this time. However there are some great advantages. For starters, these robotic mini-surgeons eliminate the need to saw the patient’s sternum in two, and also the subsequent pulling apart of the rib cage in order to make enough room for your surgeon’s hands, which you can imagine, must be at least as big as catcher’s mitts. Then, there is the reduced chance of infection because the surgical area is so much smaller and there is less exposure to airborne microbes. A team of additional medical personnel stand by to immediately pursue traditional surgery should something occur that requires their intervention.

The surgery isn’t perfect and some doctors qualified to perform the surgery won’t do so because of the risks and drawbacks, such as lengthier surgeries and longer time under anesthesia.

I remember when my father underwent a quadruple bypass (when he was my age). His recovery was agony, in part because of the pain of recovery from having his sternum separated. Then, he was limited in what he could lift in order not to put additional pressure on it. I don’t believe that he would have been a candidate, though, because his liver was sufficiently impaired that the anesthesia was a big concern, since it would tax his liver. (Your liver cleans stuff out of your blood, like anesthetic drugs, alcohol, and other goodies.)

So, the upshot is, go ahead, get that kid of yours an Xbox and save a life. That mind-boggling waste of time today may be saving skill of tomorrow. Think of it, your child may someday to become the virtual pilot of a mini anti-cancer submarine swimming through a patient’s veins, zapping cancer cells before they zap another healthy cell. Then, you’ll be proud to proclaim, “It was the video game console we bought him when he was just 8-years old. He almost didn’t graduate from high school, but look at him today!”

Mother Osprey: Nursery Rhymes for Buoys and Gulls

By Lucy Nolan

Illustrated by Connie McLennan

ISBN: 978-1-934359-96-9
Published by Sylvan-Dell Publishing, emphasizing Science and Math through Literature

Twinkle, twinkle, starfish dear,
hiding in the shallows here.
Just beneath the waves you lie,
like a star tossed from the sky
Twinkle, twinkle, starfish dear,
hiding in the shallows here.

Mother Osprey: Nursery Rhymes for Buoys and Gulls, written by Lucy Nolan and illustrated by Connie McLennan, is a collection of  fun and entertaining parodies of many favorite Mother Goose nursery rhymes. But the rhymes inside Mother Osprey are parodies with purpose. Math and counting skills, science and history are all lessons taught in these poems.  Don’t think “Boring” when you see that this book teaches hard subjects like math or science. The rhymes and illustrations are pure enjoyment in themselves.

Most of Lucy Nolan’s rhymes are pure silly fun that kids will enjoy listening to over and over and even memorizing; the rest vividly illustrate a point in time from history. An appendix in the back adds more facts and explanations that the parent or teacher can use to draw young listeners further into a teaching moment. A map shows where each of the habitats is located.

Twinkle,  Twinkle starfish dear, quoted above, places the starfish in its natural habitat and opens up rich opportunities for discussing the shallows and beaches along a rocky coast. What other animals life nearby? What do they eat? What eats them?

But Lobster Pies is just plain silly:

Old Mrs. Wise
made lobster pies all on a winter’s day;
her greedy son
grabbed every one
and took them clean away.

What a surprise
for Junior Wise
lay inside that croaker sack.
When he sat on a bench
to eat a pinch,
the lobster pies pinched back!

Nursery rhymes satisfy at many levels: they’re great fun to listen to, with their rhymes and the rhythm of their meter. They’re pleasing for the strength of their imagery. They easily capture a child’s imagination, slipping into their memories and never losing their ability to bring enjoyment. Children seem to never tire of repeating them over and over and the verses are a natural invitation to singing. Nursery rhymes teach children language skills and the repetition packs information into their young, developing brains and they help develop their ears for word use and phrasing.

Mother Osprey is a perfect gift for your child or your child’s classroom teacher, whether in preschool, kindergarten, or the early grades. The rhymes are a perfect starter to get children to focus on some part of the environment, or a place. They introduce elements of nature in an interesting way, which leads naturally to a discussion of what is in the rhyme.

Pink Tentacle has this post and video of a Japanese robot from the University of Tokyo that pitches with amazing accuracy. An updated version of a robot constructed first in 2003, this new model has super sensitive control of its fingers. The batter is a robot from MIT.

If you’ve read The Mysterious Benedict Society then you’ll remember that Mr. Curtain, the bad guy in the story, had developed his own power system using wave and tidal power. Here is a YouTube video of the AP news story with a brief report and description of actual work to harness the power of waves to produce electricity. Its a neat video showing some actual devices and deployments in the lab.

This is an exciting new direction, especially in light of the renewed interest in alternative sources of energy. Think of all the engineering challenges. What sort of materials will withstand the ocean environment for long periods of time and still maintain their functionality? What about barnacles and other ocean flora and fauna? Will they glom onto the apparatuses and bog them down or stop them dead in their tracks?

There are political challenges, as well. Where will these be placed? Will they interfere with fishing and recreation to a great enough extent that political barriers will be raised against their use? Doubtless, there are many challenges to satisfying our never ending needs for new sources of energy.

Here are two other interesting lines of questions I’m interested in here. What ecological effect would wave-energy farms have on ocean habitats and what economic conditions will need to exist for us to really break free of our dependence on oil and coal as our major sources of energy?