UNITED STATES Last Interview with a Storm Chaser Tim Samaras, a high-profile meteorologist and storm chaser, was killed in an Oklahoma twister last week. For years, Samaras has driven into the heart of tornadoes, equipment in hand, to learn more about them. Late last month, as tornado season was opening in Oklahoma, Samaras talked to National Geographic about what motivated him to engage in such … Continue reading Last Interview with a Storm Chaser
SCIENCE Mutant Mosquitoes Lose Lust for Human Scent Biologists have engineered a mutant strain of mosquitoes that lack the ability to sniff out human beings. Or insect repellent. Discussion Ideas: There are more than 3,000 species of mosquitoes in the world. Why do students think the scientists featured in the Nature article chose to study the species Aedes aegypti? They’re not hard to find. Aedes … Continue reading Mutant Mosquitoes Lose Lust for Human Scent
GEOGRAPHY The Saddest Tweeters Live in Texas Researchers analyzed ten million tweets to map happiness in the U.S. Congrats, Napa. Buck up, Beaumont. Discussion Ideas: In their academic study, researchers analyzed individual words used in tweets across the nation. Can students list some “positive” and “negative” words? How do those words match up with the words researchers analyzed? Most positive: laughter, happiness, love, happy, laughed, … Continue reading Geography of Happiness
SCIENCE Linguists Try to Decipher Teenage Grunts Clearly, linguistics exists just so we can give a technical description of those hard-to-spell sounds that erupt from callow youths. yeeah. The eye-rolls are vital. Discussion Ideas: Alveolar glides, affricates, glottal stops. Do students think linguists invented these terms to better understand teenage speech patterns? Unlikely. These are words or descriptions that apply to very specific sounds made … Continue reading Deciphering Teenage Grunts. DUH.
GEOGRAPHY A transportation planner has used flight data from around the world to create stunning kaleidoscope-style flight path visualizations. (Daily Mail) This animation offers another way to visualize similar data. Discussion Ideas: Look at the new images of global air traffic in the Daily Mail article or this BBC photo gallery. Now look at the “Lights at Night” layer in our MapMaker Interactive. Can students … Continue reading New Maps Track the World in Flight
