Crash Course - Ecology

Virtual Labs Textbook ResourcesClick an item at the left to access links, activities, and more. Once your teacher has registered for the online student edition, he or she will give you the user name and password needed to view the book. Additional Resources Use the additional resources to see the NASA picture of the day, learn about science fairs, and more. Unit and Chapter Resources Use the Unit and Chapter pull-down menus at left to access resources for your textbook. Here you will find Student Web Activities, Self-Check Quizzes,WebQuests and more. To view all of the contents of this Web site, visit the Site Map. What Would Happen If I Ate A Teaspoonful Of White Dwarf Star? "Everything about it would be bad," says Mark Hammergren, an astronomer at Adler Planetarium in Chicago, beginning with your attempt to scoop it up. Despite the fact that white dwarfs are fairly common throughout the universe, the nearest is 8.6 light-years away. Let's assume, though, that you've spent 8.6 years in your light-speed car and that the radiation and heat emanating from the star didn't kill you on your approach. White dwarfs are extremely dense stars, and their surface gravity is about 100,000 times as strong as Earth's.

Lake Erie's Toxic Bloom Has Ohio Farmers On The Defensive Paul Herringshaw says farmers like him have been taking steps to reduce crop runoff for years. Sarah Jane Tribble/WCPN hide caption itoggle captionSarah Jane Tribble/WCPN Paul Herringshaw says farmers like him have been taking steps to reduce crop runoff for years. Sarah Jane Tribble/WCPN A giant algae bloom is still making the waters in the western part of Lake Erie look like a thick, green pea soup. A New Window On The Big Bang Has Been Opened : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture The BICEP2 telescope at twilight, which occurs only twice a year at the South Pole. Steffen Richter/Harvard University hide caption itoggle captionSteffen Richter/Harvard University The BICEP2 telescope at twilight, which occurs only twice a year at the South Pole.

Mars Offers Humanity A Do-Over : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture On Monday, the Mars One Project announced that its group of 1,058 finalists for a one-way trip to Mars has been whittled down to 705, based on the results of medical examinations and on personal decisions to drop out of the pool. Last month when I wrote about Mars One's aim to establish a human colony on the red planet by around 2025, I learned a lot — through comments left here at 13.7 and through emails and Twitter updates sent to me directly — about two divergent channels of thought regarding this goal. Finalists and their supporters are excited about the mission, believing it key to the future health of our species; skeptics and detractors say it will never come about because the technological know-how and funding required are beyond the means of this organization. I have no idea if Mars One will succeed in setting up habitable colonies on Mars in the next decade or so.

Crisis Or Challenge? The Physics Of Today : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture Physics is full of big, interesting questions about phenomenon such as black holes. This illustration shows the supermassive black hole at the heart of the active galaxy NGC 3783 in the southern constellation of Centaurus. M. Kornmesser/ESO hide caption itoggle captionM. Kornmesser/ESO The Algae Problem in Lake Erie Isn’t Going Away Anytime Soon With the water ban lifted, more than 400,000 people in the Toledo, Ohio, area are once again able to turn on their taps. But the bloom of toxic algae in Lake Erie isn’t going away anytime soon, and the troublesome scum serves as a warning that one of the largest supplies of fresh water in the United States is in trouble. “These blooms are not going to be eradicated in the short term,” says Timothy Davis, a researcher at NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “They are a symptom of a larger problem: a lot of our lakes are sick, and so you get these harmful events occurring.” Blooms of the toxic algae Microcystis are fed by phosphorus running into the Great Lakes from nearby farms, which use the nutrient as fertilizer.

Boil, Burn Or Explode? How You Die In Space : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture Eddie Toro/iStockphoto C'mon, admit it. You've wondered. You've mused. You've pondered. Astronaut Who Walked On The Moon: 'It Was Science Fiction To Us' hide captionDuring the Apollo 12 mission, astronaut Alan Bean holds a container of lunar soil. The astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad, who took the photograph, is reflected in Bean's faceshield. Bean says he used to think that in his lifetime, we'd build a base on the moon and start preparing to travel to Mars. Hulton Archive/Getty Images During the Apollo 12 mission, astronaut Alan Bean holds a container of lunar soil. Research shows it’s ‘blind luck’ that asteroids haven’t destroyed a major city yet Well, here’s something happy to think about as you head into the weekend. Phys.org brings us word that three former NASA astronauts are going to present new research next week showing that there have been 26 asteroid crashes since 2001 that have caused “atomic-bomb-scale explosions” that have fortunately been far away from major population centers. The research, which was conducted by the B612 Foundation, used data from a nuclear weapons warning network to measure the impact of major asteroid strikes on the Earth’s surface. “This network has detected 26 multi-kiloton explosions since 2001, all of which are due to asteroid impacts,” explained B612 Foundation CEO Ed Lu, a physicist who worked at NASA from 1994 until 2007. “It shows that asteroid impacts are not rare but actually 3-10 times more common than we previously thought.

The Salad Frontier: Why Astronauts Need To Grow Lettuce In Space hide captionAstronaut Steve "Swanny" Swanson tends to lettuce plants growing at the International Space Station that may one day make it into his salad. Courtesy of NASA Astronaut Steve "Swanny" Swanson tends to lettuce plants growing at the International Space Station that may one day make it into his salad. Have you ever craved a salad, I mean really craved a salad because you've been eating a lot of freeze-dried meat and beans? Astronauts who spend months on end in space sure do miss their greens. That's why NASA is embarking on a program to get astronauts growing their own food.

Finally! A Decent Espresso On The International Space Station hide captionThe new ISSpresso orbital espresso machine. Argotec The new ISSpresso orbital espresso machine. Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, during his stay on the International Space Station last year, said the one thing he missed was a real cup of espresso. Engineers on the ground in Italy were way ahead of him. Ten Things You Didn't Know About the Apollo 11 Moon Landing This month marks the 40th anniversary of humankind's first steps on the moon. Auspiciously timed is Craig Nelson's new book, Rocket Men--one of the most detailed accounts of the period leading up to the first manned moon mission. Here, we have ten little-known Apollo 11 facts unearthed by Nelson during his research. 1. The Apollo's Saturn rockets were packed with enough fuel to throw 100-pound shrapnel three miles, and NASA couldn't rule out the possibility that they might explode on takeoff.