US students: email me a picture of you outside viewing the shower with your family for 5 points extra credit on your semester 1 final exam.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
LAST EC OF THE SEMESTER!!!!!!
US students: email me a picture of you outside viewing the shower with your family for 5 points extra credit on your semester 1 final exam.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
The vibrant colors in images of nebulae and galaxies are widely admired, but if future space travelers were to pass by one of these objects, what would they see?
Telescopes can capture radiation with energies on the electromagnetic spectrum that are invisible to the human eye. The electronic detectors, similar to those found in digital ca
meras, create black-and-white images which are then transmitted back to earth for processing.
Because the detectors only measure the intensity of the radiation, the images appear in greyscale. However, each pixel is made up of a particular shade of grey that contains some color information based on the wavelength picked up by the telescope.
The final images are comprised of two or more layers of these greyscale exposures. The colors that make space images so pleasing to the eye are usually added as a tool for scientists to study a physical process.
Filters are applied to images in order to isolate specific radiation energies and block others out. When a set of red, green, and blue filters are applied, and the subsequent images are layered over each other in chromatic order, they mimic the RGB receptors in our eyes and a "natural color" image is generated. Thus, only natural color images come close to what the hypothetical space explorers would witness as they traveled past.
Representative color is used to approximate the appearance of an object in wavelengths that we cannot see, such as infrared. Colors on the visible light spectrum are assigned to corresponding wavelengths on other spectra, allowing us to entertain what it might be like if our eyes could perceive other wavelengths.
Enhanced or false color images do not follow the chromatic order and are created for various reasons--studying fine structural details that would be lost in the visible light spectrum, for example, or simply for aesthetic reasons. Composite images are created when two or more wavelengths are combined.
The collection of images shown represents different exposures of NGC 1512, a galaxy roughly 30 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Horologium. By assigning blue to the ultraviolet spectrum, green to the visible light spectrum, and red to the final three infrared photographs, scientists were able to generate the composite image in the center for the purpose of studying star clusters near the core. The 7 surrounding images span the wide range of wavelengths that the Hubble Telescope is able to capture.
When processing these images, scientists take care not to create details that were not present in the original data. It's necessary that chromatic order is carefully and methodically applied to the exposures in order to ensure their research value but the subtleties of color can produce a variety of results. As long as certain scientific principles are observed, the groups that process these images are operating with a certain amount of aesthetic freedom. Image manipulation is governed by a large amount of parameters, meaning that the end result is largely a product of pure science but partially a product of taste.
-RLO
Sources: http://
http://hubblesite.org/
Image credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Maoz (Tel-Aviv University and Columbia University)
Because the detectors only measure the intensity of the radiation, the images appear in greyscale. However, each pixel is made up of a particular shade of grey that contains some color information based on the wavelength picked up by the telescope.
The final images are comprised of two or more layers of these greyscale exposures. The colors that make space images so pleasing to the eye are usually added as a tool for scientists to study a physical process.
Filters are applied to images in order to isolate specific radiation energies and block others out. When a set of red, green, and blue filters are applied, and the subsequent images are layered over each other in chromatic order, they mimic the RGB receptors in our eyes and a "natural color" image is generated. Thus, only natural color images come close to what the hypothetical space explorers would witness as they traveled past.
Representative color is used to approximate the appearance of an object in wavelengths that we cannot see, such as infrared. Colors on the visible light spectrum are assigned to corresponding wavelengths on other spectra, allowing us to entertain what it might be like if our eyes could perceive other wavelengths.
Enhanced or false color images do not follow the chromatic order and are created for various reasons--studying fine structural details that would be lost in the visible light spectrum, for example, or simply for aesthetic reasons. Composite images are created when two or more wavelengths are combined.
The collection of images shown represents different exposures of NGC 1512, a galaxy roughly 30 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Horologium. By assigning blue to the ultraviolet spectrum, green to the visible light spectrum, and red to the final three infrared photographs, scientists were able to generate the composite image in the center for the purpose of studying star clusters near the core. The 7 surrounding images span the wide range of wavelengths that the Hubble Telescope is able to capture.
When processing these images, scientists take care not to create details that were not present in the original data. It's necessary that chromatic order is carefully and methodically applied to the exposures in order to ensure their research value but the subtleties of color can produce a variety of results. As long as certain scientific principles are observed, the groups that process these images are operating with a certain amount of aesthetic freedom. Image manipulation is governed by a large amount of parameters, meaning that the end result is largely a product of pure science but partially a product of taste.
-RLO
Sources: http://
http://hubblesite.org/
Image credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Maoz (Tel-Aviv University and Columbia University)
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Extra Credit Opportunity
Open to all students! Read this article and email me a paragraph describing which of these new technologies excites you most and why.
5 pts homework credit. Due Friday, November 16.
5 pts homework credit. Due Friday, November 16.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Why are organisms carbon-based?
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/lab-rat/2012/11/11/shine-on-you-crazy-diamond-why-humans-are-carbon-based-lifeforms/
Friday, November 9, 2012
Exam Extra Credit!!!!
To
Friday, November 2, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Monday, September 24, 2012
Large bacterial population colonized land 2.75 billion years ago
http://phys.org/news/2012-09-large-bacterial-population-colonized-billion.html
Friday, September 21, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
9th and 10th grade
Write a short summary of this article. In a separate paragraph, evaluate the validity of this experiment. Make sure that you identify dependent, independent and controlled variables.
Due by Monday, 9/24 for 10 points extra lab credit.
Due by Monday, 9/24 for 10 points extra lab credit.
7th grade extra credit...
Write a short paragraph describing this article on Friday's exam for 5 extra credit points.
Israeli inventor makes $9 cardboard bicycle...
This is amazing! Can you think of other everyday items you could make using recycled cardboard?
Friday, September 7, 2012
Politics
What is a fractal?
For 5 pts extra homework credit: visit this site, print out a color print of the fractal that you like most. On the back of the print, write your name and a short definition of fractal in your own words. Open to all classes. Due by 4:00pm on Monday, Sept 10.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Photosynthesis-like process found in insects
http://www.nature.com/news/photosynthesis-like-process-found-in-insects-1.11214
What ice-free summers will mean for Arctic life - life - 30 August 2012 - New Scientist
What ice-free summers will mean for Arctic life - life - 30 August 2012 - New Scientist
"Relatively few creatures have evolved to survive at Arctic temperatures, so the fate of entire food chains can pivot on a few species."
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
What....
Monday, May 14, 2012
The discovery and naming of neuron....
Evolution of Color Vision
Friday, April 20, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Arctic Sea Ice
Open to all classes. Due by Friday, 3/30.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
What is this?
Email me the correct answer by 3/23 for 5 points extra exam credit. Open to all classes.
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Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Why is this beautiful picture so disconcerting?
Read this article and email me your answer along with an analysis of what this has to do with fossil fuels and the current political climate in our country and globally.
Open to all classes for 5 pts extra hw credit. Due by 2/10/12
Friday, February 3, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Stretching spider silk to its high-tech limits - tech - 26 January 2012 - New Scientist
For 5 pts extra Portfolio credit, email a description of 5 different novel uses for spider silk identified in the article by Friday, January 27. Open to all classes.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
What is the digital universe?
.....and what does quantum computing have to do with it?
Watch the video and answer these questions in an email to me . I'll give you five points extra homework credit if you're on the right track.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Test Tube Yeast Evolve Multicellularity
By watching evolution in progress, scientists reveal key developments in the evolution of complex life and put evolutionary theories to the test
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=test-tube-yeast-evolve&page=2
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=test-tube-yeast-evolve&page=2
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
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