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Bog Hopper Highlights
TITANIC LECTURE SERIES CONTINUES OVEMBER 19: Join us on Thursday evenings this fall as we explore the personal stories and remarkable artifacts recovered from nearly three miles beneath the ocean's surface. The lecture series will help you discover the science behind Titanic's demise and tell us what may have happened on that fateful night in 1912. Learn More
About Bog Hopper
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The genome of the domestic horse (Equus caballus) has been decoded by a team of fifty-seven investigators from thirty institutions (including the University of Minnesota) in ten countries working over ten years and led by Claire Wade at Broad Institute, MA. The DNA from a female Thoroughbred horse named Twilight (photo) revealed a genome of about 2.7 billion letters (nucleotides); this is slightly larger than the genome of a domestic dog and smaller than the genomes of the human or cow. More than ninety hereditary diseases that affect horses also affect humans. Moreover, 53% of the horse chromosome pairs consist of material like that in a single human chromosome whereas only 29% of dog chromosomes have this similarity. This means that there are fewer chromosome rearrangements that separate humans from horses than separate humans from dogs. The authors think that studies with DNA of horses will aid in study of human diseases. (Science 2009: 326(5954): 865-867)
The Alps originated from a collision in tectonic plates of Africa and Europe about 55 million years ago. The Alps have been growing taller over that time. According to Swiss geologists, the Alps have grown at about one millimeter (0.04 inches) a year which, over millions of years, would be substantial and even rival the height of the Himalaya Mountains. Actually, the height has not been increasing despite the growth. The answer is that erosion has kept pace with growth, report Jean-Daniel Champagnac and associates at Universität Hannover and GFZ, Germany, and University of Bern, Switzerland. As the mountains are eroded, they rise to about the same amount. (Tectonophysics 2009; 474(1-2): 236-249)
Migratory songbirds typically breed in temperate regions and then fly long distances to spend most of the annual cycle in tropical wintering areas. However, in a study of five neotropical migratory species, some birds in each group breed in the summer areas in United States and Canada, then in midsummer migrate to their wintering regions in Mexico and Baja California Sur and breed a second time in the same summer, report Sievert Rohmer and associates at the University of Washington, Seattle, and Environment Canada, Saskatoon. After the second breeding, birds migrate still further south to their final wintering homes. The authors also conclude that conservation plans must consider dual breeding for some birds. (Proceedings National Academy of Sciences USA 2009; 106(45): 19050-19055)
Weather is not the same as climate. Weather is recorded every day but climate is the weather pattern over time, usually for at least thirty years; time is the difference. Weather is basically the way the atmosphere is behaving at a given time and it can change from minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day, and season to season. The components of weather are sunshine, rain, cloud cover, wind, hail, snow, sleet, freezing rain, flooding, blizzards, ice storms, thunderstorms (photo), steady rains from a cold front or from a warm front, frost, excessive heat, heat waves, and more. Climate, is the average weather over time and space. Climate variability can be the result of changes in El Niño, La Niña, volcanic eruptions, or other changes in the Earth’s system. In general, meteorologists report on weather and get their information from instruments, and climatologists study climate and get information from activities in nature (changes in glaciers, tree rings, fossil pollen, stalactites, timber line, ocean bottom organisms, and more). Climate prediction in USA started in the 1700s with Thomas Jefferson.
Jessica Fries-Gaither, science resource specialist at Ohio State University, will lead a discussion of two challenging topics in the elementary and middle school curriculum—Day and Night and Seasons—from both science and literacy perspectives. The discussion will review scientific principles, examine common misconceptions and formative assessment strategies, and discuss how to approach these topics by integrating science and literacy. Resources from Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, the National Science Digital Libraries' Middle School Portal, and other high-quality content providers will be explored. The seminar is scheduled online for December 10, 2009, 6:30-8 PM EST on the 
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Literally, "ungulate" refers to any animal with hooves—a hoof being an enlarged toenail. However, in practice, the use of the name "ungulate" has been inconsistent. While it was originally used to refer to the even-toed orders (Artiodactyla) and odd-toed orders (Perissodactyla), the "true" ungulates, the term over time expanded to seven different mammalian orders, some of which have no hooves whatsoever. As a result, ungulate now has no classification significance, and its definition has returned to its original descriptive roots: a mammal with hooves. Ungulates (257 species) account for the vast majority of large herbivores currently on earth. They include the horse, zebra, tapir, rhinoceros, camel, llama, hippopotamus, giraffe, deer, moose, elk, caribou, gazelle, bison, ox, antelope, sheep, cattle, pig, and more. To learn more, go to the 
