explore-blog:

You go into it because there is something that, when you learn about that stuff, just gave you a little bit of a fever. And you wanna give that fever to somebody else.

How to make great radio – fantastic behind-the-sciences look at Radiolab, who have ushered in a new era of media at the intersection of science and storytelling.

Radiolab is free and supported by listeners, so help them keep making this magic happen with a donation.

Also see Ira Glass’s illustrated guide to great radio and Jad Abumrad on “gut churn” as the secret of creative success. 

Great look at how it’s done. It’s like watching Da Vinci paint. 

Support this fantastic show!

Yesterday’s devastating tornado in Moore, Oklahoma is a heartbreaking tragedy, a painful reminder of nature’s destructive power. WHile your heart deals with many feelings, your head may be swimming with questions on just why these terrible twisters happen. Here’s some answers:

Learn how tornadoes are formed in the above video from Scientific American. As warm air rushes in from the Gulf of Mexico, it collides with high-altitude cold air forced down from the north. That creates a rotating barrel of air that is bent upwards by the hot, humid updraft (the warm, low-pressure Gulf air wants to rise). If it bends far enough, that barrel can become a funnel cloud and touch down. Of course, all of these factors just make a tornado likely. We still don’t know exactly what the final steps are.

Just how extreme is the energy carried by those colliding air masses? Check out this animated wind map from yesterday, just after the storm, from the amazing real-time Wind Map visualization site:

Why do tornadoes seem to strike the midwest so often? With the exception of Antarctica, every continent is at risk of tornadoes. But a staggering 75% of all tornadoes on Earth strike North America. The large landmass of Tornado Alley is at the convergence of a constant stream of warm Gulf air and cold Polar air. It’s an unlucky coincidence of geography and physics. Here’s 56 years of tornado paths mapped by John Nelson:

Smithsonian Smart Newshas you covered on just how big this tornado was. And Alexis Madrigal and The Atlantic team have a superb collection of info and links on the historical and scientific context of the storm.

Finally, as a reminder of how important hope and optimism is in recovering from a disaster like this, watch this video of an elderly woman who finds her (very much okay) dog in the rubble during a news interview.

How you can help those affected by the Moore Tornado, text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief, donate online, or donate by phone at 1-800-RED CROSS.

The Sea’s Strangest Square Mile

Sit back and let your eyes soak up this goggle-fogging journey to the Lembeh Strait near Indonesia by Shark Bay Films. It’s known as one of the richest homes of odd coral reef creatures on Earth.

Lightning-quick eels! Coral-colored, pregnant frogfish stuffing their bellies with wriggling prey! Baby cuttlefish!! BABY CUTTLEFISH!!!

(via kottke)

Source: vimeo.com

Our Atmosphere is Escaping!

Oh gahd! Quick! Take a deep breath!! Someone save Minute Earth!!!

What’s that? Oh … we have nothing to worry about? It’s only losing hydrogen and helium? And it will take billions of years to lose that stuff? Whew.

Bonus: Check out my YouTube vid about just how small (and shared) our atmosphere really is.

Source: youtube.com

Ever wonder how these spooky, 3D images of life beyond the macro are taken? Step inside the lab of the world’s foremost electron microscope photographer: David Scharf. From the early days of film and hand-coloring to today’s more advanced digital microscopy images, Scharf is truly gifted. And he does it all out of his own home. My favorite part is him explaining how he mounts his insect samples by putting them to sleep in the fridge. They have a surprise when they wake up: “That usually calms them down and then they wake up and their butts are glued down.” More at Petapixel.
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Ever wonder how these spooky, 3D images of life beyond the macro are taken? Step inside the lab of the world’s foremost electron microscope photographer: David Scharf.

From the early days of film and hand-coloring to today’s more advanced digital microscopy images, Scharf is truly gifted. And he does it all out of his own home.

My favorite part is him explaining how he mounts his insect samples by putting them to sleep in the fridge. They have a surprise when they wake up:

“That usually calms them down and then they wake up and their butts are glued down.”


More at Petapixel.

Source: petapixel.com

NASA’s 19-Gigapixel Filmstrip of the Earth

With the newest generation of Landsat satellites up and snappin’, in orbit over 400 miles above us, NASA continues a mission over a generation in the making: Observing a beautiful and changing planet from above.

This video features 56 photos stitched together in a continuous 19-gigapixel image that stretches from Russia to South Africa. Dig in to the interactive “Long Swath” at NASA’s Earth Observatory. This image covers almost 1.7 million square kilometers, but it would take over 300 of them to paint a picture of all of Earth’s surface.

Bonus: Combine this with Google’s Earth Engine to gain a perspective on our planet once reseved for time-traveling astronauts.

(via The Atlantic)

Source: The Atlantic

Discovery, Animal Planet, and History Channel exposed for killing animals for profit

climateadaptation:

These channels are failing the spirit of conservationism and education. They are failing inspiring awe in young people. Failing much needed inspiration in a very confused and conflicted world.

These shows are failing their core values, their main purpose, which is leadership in environmentalism and cultural education. Far worse, they are failing millions of young people - millions - who look up to them.

Please join me in asking Discovery, Animal Planet, and the History Channels to stop, apologize, and correct.

That’s an important read up there, folks. These “reality” shows are feeding an outdated and unscientific view of predator species. These are channels founded on principles of education and conservation (TLC, of course, left the building years ago). Are they willing to sacrifice that for what appears to be gratuitous bloodsport?

Like any media, you can vote with your eyeballs. And if you support any kind of rights for wild animals and natural spaces, you can not support these programs. If the account above is true, shame on these networks.

It speaks to part of a larger issue with nature films. The amazing footage we see in shows like Africa, Planet Earth, and Frozen Planet is rarely the result of serendipity. It involves years of careful research and preparation to maximize the chances of capturing nature’s majesty on camera, and what is captured is highly edited to create story, drama and emotion. These are uniquely human interests, and nature doesn’t include them in her original script.

That’s not to say we are being fleeced all the time. People like Sir David Attenborough take these concerns very seriously, and constantly strive to find the balance between entertainment and true nature in every varying instance. What we watch is real. But is it REAL?

I wonder how many people realize that, for instance, the famous polar bear birth scene from Frozen Planet was filmed in a zoo? Disney’s adorable Chimpanzee movie was not a documentary, but rather spliced together to create an emotional tale of adoption. Jason Goldman put together a great collection of opinions on the matter.

How far can we take allowances to deliver good edutainment before we are delivering bad science? The “reality” shows surely fail the test. But the others? What do you think?