Our Dynamic Earth Blog

Make the most of the sunny weather....

2011-07-12T11:51:00.002+01:00

How did you cope with the unusually cold winters of the past couple of years? Did you become a snow shovelling specialist or did you turn into a housebound hermit hibernating for the winter? I hope you were the former, as those skills may prove very useful in years to come.
Researchers at the University of Reading have suggested that the Sun is entering a period of low solar activity which may last for the next 50 years and may increase the probability of exceptionally cold winters in the UK. Scientists have previously linked colder winters in Europe to low solar activity and now, using evidence of the Sun’s behaviour over the last 9300 years, they have been able to make predictions on future activity.
It is believed there is a 1 in 7 chance that average winter temperatures in the UK could drop to below 2.50C, less than half the average winter temperature for the past 20 years. While these predictions won’t have any effects on global warming (these effects are regional, only applicable in winter and associated with warmer temperatures elsewhere - meaning the global average is unaffected) this could have serious implications for areas such as infrastructure and farming in the UK. Planning for lower temperatures will be required in order to keep the country running effectively. On the bright side this could be good news for British snowsports enthusiasts with a longer season in prospect!

Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough

2011-07-11T13:28:00.002+01:00

As humans we tend to be in awe of and have a natural fascination with dinosaurs. We like to debate which species was the biggest; or the strongest; or even the fastest and here at Dynamic Earth is no exception. One of the most frequent questions we get asked involves guessing which species would win in a fight, e.g. who would you choose between a Velociraptor and a Triceratops?? Or perhaps species from completely different time periods, e.g. an Allosaurus versus a T Rex? Is it the T Rex every time? Or maybe you think the Allosaurus would have been more agile?
Well it appears that we are not alone in our musings! Scientists from Canada and the USA have been comtemplating a similar scenario: the head butting potential of a pachycephalosaur Stegosaur, or “thick headed lizard”, called Stegoceras validum. This herbivore is thought to have walked on two legs, been about the size of a large dog and importantly possessed a rather dome shaped cranium! Using CT scans and statistical modeling scientists have compared it’s ability to withstand the impact of a head butt from a diverse range of modern day animals. Including: big horn sheep and musk ox as well as llamas and giraffes.
As you can imagine our longer necked friends did not score too highly and, although both the big horn sheep and musk ox are definitely hard hitters, in the end it was the feisty little Stegosaur who reigned supreme! Understanding such facts helps scientists build up a more complete picture of a species’ lifestyle and behavior and that of course means that the more we learn about these creatures the more animated our debates become about our favourite dinosaur showdowns! So, how about a Triceratops versus an Argentinosaurus, anyone?

Don’t worry, be happy!

2011-07-04T11:19:00.002+01:00

Is happiness the key to a long life? A new report suggests that, for orang-utans anyway, this may well be the case.
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh working with colleagues at the University of Arizona have found that a good mood and enjoyable social interaction have a significant impact on an orang-utan’s life expectancy.
In carrying out the study orang-utan keepers were asked to assess how often orang-utans were in a good mood, how much beneficial social interaction they enjoyed and whether they were successful in achieving their goals. As another assessment, tool keepers were asked to gauge how they would feel if they were in the orang-utan’s position! Do you think you could imagine how it would feel to be an orang-utan?
The study found that orang-utans showing more signs of happiness were much more likely to be alive up to seven years later. While it is not suggested that a good mood causes a longer life, assessing the happiness of an orang-utan could be useful for indicating their general state of health. So keeping an eye on an orang-utan’s mood swings could be a simple and effective way of monitoring their health, happiness means healthy!

Guest Blog - Harry's Volcano Blog

2011-06-29T14:05:00.003+01:00

My name is Harry and I’m here at Dynamic Earth for a week to do work experience. I have chosen to write a blog on volcanoes because I am very interested in studying geology at university and I feel volcanoes are a particularly fascinating topic.
There are around 1510 active volcanoes in places all over the world, everywhere from Mount Etna in Italy to Mount Fuji in Japan. There are even volcanoes underwater! Volcanoes erupt often across the world, with around 50 – 70 eruptions each year. The nearest volcano to Dynamic Earth is only a few minutes’ walk away – Arthur’s Seat is an extinct volcano which last erupted over 350 million years ago!
Volcanoes can cause very serious natural disasters because they cannot be stopped. They can destroy entire towns and bury them in ash, like Mount Vesuvius did to Pompeii almost 2,000 years ago. They can also burn all the crops in farmers’ fields so the people have nothing to eat. Volcanoes can be incredibly dangerous too, killing lots of people. When Krakatoa erupted in 1883 it was so big that it killed 36,000 people and could be heard over 3,000 miles away! As recently as last year volcanoes made some big problems for people. A volcano called Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland stopped thousands of flights all over Europe from taking off when it erupted last year because it was too dangerous to fly.
However, volcanoes can be very useful to people too. Land around volcanoes is very fertile and good for growing crops, so farmers quite often live close to volcanoes. Rocks near volcanoes can also have lots of minerals, such as titanium, in them. These minerals can often be sold for a lot of money if they are mined.

Guest Blog - Heather's Dynamic Earth Experience

2011-06-29T14:02:00.002+01:00

My name is Heather and I have been doing my work experience with Our Dynamic Earth and Geowalks this week. The week started off with a very early morning of 5:30am. I met with Jemma, an Education Officer at Dynamic Earth and got to sit in a lesson about Oceans where the children were very enthusiastic. I also had a chat with the lovely Marketing Assistant, Natalia, who explained how the Marketing Team promote the science centre.
On Tuesday I joined Angus Miller from Geowalks and a group of people with many nationalities to take a walk to Siccar Point – a place that is of high geological importance. This is where James Hutton proved his theories of an ancient Earth. The walk itself was filled with wonderful views and interesting geological features and although we were soaked through due to the unfortunate weather, it was a great experience.
On Wednesday I found out what it was like to be in the public eye by shadowing a member of the Front of House staff at Dynamic Earth.
On Thursday I was with Geowalks again, this time in Holyrood Park. I joined with a school group who were working on their John Muir Award. We made a presentation to deliver to an S1 group and my topic was on rocks. We discussed the rock types; sedimentary rocks (sediment is formed in horizontal layers and normally fossils are found within these layers e.g. limestone, sandstone and coal), igneous rocks (formed from molten lava e.g. basalt) and finally metamorphic rocks (either made form sedimentary rocks or igneous rocks when put under a lot of heat and pressure which forces the layers to squeeze together to form rocks like slate and schist).
On my last day I watched two lessons; Dinosaur storytelling with Primary 1s and Restless Earth with S2. I enjoyed seeing how the Education staff engaged and enthused the kids in the workshop.
It’s safe to say I have had a very busy but extremely interesting and active week. I have learned a lot and have met a lot of very lovely people.
I would just like to thank everyone at Our Dynamic Earth especially Jemma and the Education staff, the Front of House team and to Angus Miller, thanks for a great week.

I’m going home to sleep!!!

The Proof is in the Poo!

2011-06-21T09:05:00.004+01:00

Scientists around the world agree that our planet is warming up due to the extra greenhouse gases we are adding to the atmosphere. One of these gasses is called methane which is produced by cows and other ruminants (sheep, cattle, bison, etc.,) when they release wind! There are a lot more of these animals on our planet than would naturally be here; fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s and Burger King sell over 10 million beef burgers a day and all that beef comes from cows which we are farming. There is therefore more methane being released into our atmosphere but measuring quite how much more has proven to be a challenge. Scientists have tried to catch cow’s flatulence but this used an invasive method which caused the cows much discomfort. Now they have a new method which involves looking at their poo rather than their farts! A special molecule that can be found in cow pats, called archaeol, has shown to be positively correlated with the amount of methane produced by that individual cow; the more methane the cow releases the more archaeol is found in its pat. More studies need to be done, but with methane being 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, it is important to get a fuller understanding of the relationship between cow’s flatulence and their pats. Who knew we could find out so much from poo?!

As one rover sleeps another awakens

2011-06-08T14:33:00.004+01:00

In a bittersweet moment last week it was announced that the Mars based rover Spirit had permanently retired. Having failed to respond to signals from NASA for over a year, it was finally accepted that her days of adventure were over. Spirit spent over 6 years exploring the red planet’s Columbia Hills and terrain sending back an amazing 124,000 images. She also confirmed the prior existence of water and hot springs on the planet, leading to renewed speculation that there may have been life there. All in all an amazing feat for a mission that was initially only expected to last 12 weeks.
Life as a rover however was tough. She suffered relentless dust and wheel malfunctions; had to learn to drive backwards; became trapped, and finally ran out of power. Even then scientists did not give up hope that she may come out of hibernation but it was not to be.
However all is not lost! There is a new rover on the horizon! Readying to continue the search for past life and roughly the size of a small car, Curiosity is a laboratory on wheels carrying instruments to analyse the atmosphere, soil and rocks. Kitted out with a nuclear battery, as well as the ability to turn full circle and overcome objects 30 inches high it is hoped that he will be able to travel further than was previously possible when he finally arrives on Mars in 2012.
Over the years the Mars rovers have captured people’s hearts and imaginations so much so that a site has now been set up so that well wishers can send Spirit a virtual postcard to wish her well. If you would like to read some of them or even add your own then simply click on the following link.. http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/spiritpostcards

What's that smell?!

2011-05-19T16:58:00.002+01:00

If you notice a strong stench or putrid pong in the Edinburgh air in the next few weeks then it may well be coming from the Royal Botanic Garden....
At the beginning of this month a bud appeared on a very special plant – a plant that, when flowering, smells of rotting flesh! The plant is called Amorphophallus titanum (meaning giant mis-shapen penis) and is native to the rainforests of Sumatra in South East Asia. The plant is also known as the corpse flower because of its dead flesh stink which is intended to attract flies and beetles.
A flowering Amorphophallus titanum is a rare sight as it can take 6 years for a seed grown plant to reach flowering stage and it is in bloom for only 4 days. When one flowered in Kew Gardens in London in 1926 it attracted crowds so large that police had to be called in to control them! The flower is an impressive sight as the central spike can grow to over two metres.
To give you an idea of how smelly this plant is experts from the Royal Botanic Garden have estimated that if it were flowering at the west end of Princes Street you would be able to smell it on the Mound. The bud is now nearly 20cm long and is expected to flower soon, so get your nose pegs ready!

New Crops to Help Us Make Energy?

2011-05-06T11:13:00.002+01:00

By law, 15% of all the UK’s energy must come from renewable sources by 2020. But what sources will they be? Most people think of wave, wind and solar power as being the main renewable energies but scientists believe they may have found a crop to help meet these targets. The new source of biomass (a source of energy that comes from living or previously living material) can be grown on unused marginal land – land that is not good enough for arable farming, so they claim it will not affect the amount of farmland we have to produce our food. The biomass will come from poplar and willow plants especially designed for short-rotation coppice. This means they grow fast and can be cut down within 2 – 5 years. The energy stored in the crops is released as heat when it is burned. The heat created is used to boil water and the energy created from the steam is used to rotate turbines and generators which provide us with energy. It is believed that the combination of being able to grow on poor quality land and being fast growing may make this biomass sustainable and could contribute up to 4% of the UK’s current renewable energy target. What do you think? Is this a realistic way to help meet our energy targets?

Recently I received an email asking if a comet could hit Jupiter. I thought you might like to read my answer...

2011-04-06T10:46:00.000+01:00

Dear Arianna, Recently you were exploring our website and noticed that you could ask the Education Team here at Our Dynamic Earth a question that was troubling you. It is always nice to see that young explorers are interested in the Universe that we live in. You were wondering if a comet could hit Jupiter. To answer this let’s first think about what a comet actually is. A comet is made up of ice and dust and is often referred to as a “dirty snowball”. They usually stay in the outer Solar System in a similar orbit to Pluto, however, sometimes the comets crash into one another. When this happens the comets change direction and their new paths may take them into the inner solar system. But can a Comet impact upon Jupiter? Indeed it can, and in fact it has done. The first collision of two Solar System bodies ever to be observed was from the 16th -22nd July 1994. This comet was named Shoemaker- Levy 9 and consisted of at least 21 fragments with diameters of around 2 kilometres. These fragments were sucked into Jupiter at speeds 100 times faster than a bullet! Shoemaker- Levy 9 caused an explosion event on Jupiter which resulted in a dust cloud bigger than planet Earth. This means if a comet or asteroid of this size were to hit our planet, then we would be in serious trouble. But don’t worry, scientists are always observing our night sky, and in principle we do have the technology to apply force to cause the objects orbit to change slightly so that it misses planet Earth. Phew!

Up Up and Away!

2011-03-29T09:13:00.001+01:00

In 2009 Disney Pixar sparked people’s imagination with their animated film Up, in which a 78 year old man and young boy embark on a journey to South America in their makeshift aircraft. Using thousands of balloons attached to the roof of his house, they make their way to the tropical utopia Paradise Falls. This may seem like fantasy but National Geographic have brought this dream to life in a recent experiment earlier this month! Scientists, engineers and world-class balloon pilots filled 300 8ft tall balloons with helium and attached them to a small house. The house made it to an altitude of 10,000 feet and flew in the sky for about an hour. A new world record was set for the largest balloon cluster flight ever attempted. To see the multi-coloured aircraft visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSXcgUb5h9Y&feature=related and prepare for lift off!

How Google helped Japan

2011-03-15T13:24:00.000Z

A massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck Japan on the 11th March 2011. The earthquake created a 10 metre high tsunami wave which hit the Japanese coast. Many towns were flooded and fires broke out across the country. There were thousands of fatalities with many more left homeless and displaced.
To help people search for loved ones, Google (the leading internet search engine) launched a People Finder. The website acted as a message board so people could write a note saying they were safe.
In its first few hours, the Japan quake Person Finder had logged more than 4000 records. Friends and families were reunited thanks to this technology.
Has the internet helped you in a difficult situation? Have you been able to contact someone in an emergency using modern technology? Let us know your experience by replying below this blog.

How does an earthquake affect a glacier?

2011-02-23T14:24:00.005Z

Around 12:50pm local time on Tuesday a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand. At present at least 75 people are known to have been killed however it is thought the death toll will rise. The effects of this quake have been particularly severe due to the unlucky combination of it being very shallow, the epicentre being very close to the city centre and it striking at lunchtime when many people were out and about.
The quake also had a surprising effect on a nearby glacier. The Tasman Glacier, New Zealand’s largest, lies 200km away from Christchurch. During the quake a 30m ton chunk of it calved off and fell into the Tasman Lake. The piece of ice was 1.2km long, 300m high and 75m long and created a huge wave across the lake as it fell, much to the surprise of tourists out on boats on the lake!

Did the Earth move for you?

2011-01-06T15:33:00.002Z

Late on Monday evening the towns and villages of North Yorkshire were rattled by a magnitude 3.6 earthquake. An earthquake in the UK? Sounds as silly as snow in the desert! However this was the second earthquake of this magnitude to hit the north of England in recent weeks. The quakes each lasted for under a minute and were felt up to 100km away from their epicentres. People affected by the quakes reported hearing doors and windows rattling.
Most earthquakes happen close to edges of the Earth’s tectonic plates, where great slabs of the Earth’s crust are crunching and grinding together. The UK lies far from any of these boundaries but can still be affected by the great stresses involved. Quakes in the UK tend to happen close to the Midlands Microcraton which is a hard lump of very old rock surrounded by softer rock. Faults in this area can be reactivated by pressure from the plate boundary in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. So earthquakes in the UK are not that uncommon, on average we experience quakes of the magnitude of those felt recently about once every year. It is important to think about the scale of these earthquakes however, at magnitude 3.6 they were over 24 million times less powerful than the quake that caused the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, so you don’t need to worry about building earthquake proof houses yet!
P.S. Snow in the desert actually happens pretty frequently too...

Here is some Christmassy Science for you...

2010-12-14T10:39:00.001Z

Everybody knows that Rudolf is meant to have a red nose. But it is not just Rudolf, many reindeers have red noses! This is because they have lots of folds of skin in their nose and these act as heat exchangers – cold air is heated up when it is breathed in, and air leaving the reindeer’s body is cooled. This is great for the reindeers as it helps keep them warm in the freezing Arctic conditions in which they live. However, these special folds of skin make a good home for many bacteria. It is these bacteria that can cause an infection and make a reindeer’s nose red! Poor Rudolf!

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas from the Education Team here at Dynamic Earth.

A Double Whammy

2010-12-09T14:28:00.008Z

The people of Indonesia suffered a double whammy of natural disasters during October 2010. Mount Merapi, Indonesia’s most volatile volcano erupted and this was closely followed by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake off the south-west of Sumatra that triggered a tsunami in which at least 40 people were killed. What makes this part of the world so susceptible to these sorts of natural hazards and are they related?

The concentration of seismic (earthquake) activity along the south-western coast of Indonesia indicates that this area is close to a plate margin.

When we look at the global distribution of earthquakes we see that these define plate boundaries. In this case, Indonesia is located on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” at the boundary between the Indo-Australian plate and the Eurasian plate. Here the Indo-Australian plate is sinking beneath the Eurasian plate along what is termed a subduction zone. As can be seen from the more detailed diagram, there is a significant element of lateral slip. The process of one plate moving down beneath another, in this case, the Indo-Australian plate moving down beneath Indonesia, creates earthquakes that become deeper towards Indonesia. At the same time, this movement creates a deep oceanic trench, the Sumatran Trench.

Tsunami are not generated by every earthquake, but when that earthquake occurs in the marine zone, at high levels in the crust and physically displaces the ocean floor, then a tsunami can occur. Movement of the ocean floor pushes up the column of water which then moves outwards as a wave. In deep water the amplitude of the wave may be minimal but as it approaches the coast and the water gets more shallow the circulatory effect of the wave is amplified and when it reaches the coast may be very large.

Both the volcanic eruption and the tsunami are caused by major plate movements and emphasise that living at the edge of a tectonic plate is a potentially dangerous business!

Snow much fun

2010-11-30T10:53:00.003Z

Snow, snow, everywhere! Large parts of our country have experienced heavy snow over the past few days which has provoked mixed reactions – frustration from those prevented from travelling, delight from those for whom school is cancelled! We have faced the coldest November temperatures in the UK since 1985 with thermometers in Powys, Wales dropping to a staggering -17.3oC. The unexpectedly low temperatures have been caused by an area of high pressure over Greenland and low pressure over the Baltics which has resulted in winds from the Arctic being blown straight to Scotland. A cold snap early in winter is often followed by a particularly chilly winter, so wrap up warm and get you snow boots on, winter’s here to stay!

Are you snow lover or are you snow-bored? Send your snow photos to education@dynamicearth.co.uk and we’ll put the best ones on our website.

Hundred Year Starship

2010-11-04T17:00:00.001Z

I have a question…

How many of you would like to be one of the first people to walk on Mars? By 2030 this could be a possibility, if you have a spare £6.3 billion that is!

NASA is investigating the possibility of sending astronauts to Mars with a mission to colonise the planet. Weirdly it is a lot cheaper to get to Mars than it is to come home - so if you would like a trip to Mars, I am afraid you will be buying a one way ticket. I can safely say I would not be interested in going to the red planet knowing I would never be returning to Earth, but maybe I am not as adventurous as some.

The Pentagon has already contributed $1 million towards this plan, with NASA contributing a further $100,000. The rest of the money will come from the world’s billionaires.

But there is an ethical dilemma here too. Is it right to spend this amount of money on planetary exploration when there are people on our own planet that could use these extra billions of pounds?

Or is it money well spent? Our world’s population is constantly increasing and we are pushing our natural resources to the limit. Mars could give us a whole new planet to populate and the opportunity to explore for new resources.

So is Mars the answer? I am torn between the excitement of people landing on Mars within my lifetime and the huge amount of money involved – could it (or even would it) be better spent here on Earth. .

What do you think?

A Miner Miracle

2010-10-14T16:07:00.002+01:00

Modern life couldn’t be sustained without the exploitation of our planet’s natural resources. All around the world people take on the arduous task, often in hazardous conditions, of extracting coal, metals and minerals essential for producing energy or providing manufacturing resources.
The recent case of 33 Chilean miners trapped half a mile underground for 69 days in a gold and copper mine is a startling example of just how dangerous this work can be. Miraculously all 33 miners have been hauled out of the mine after an intrepid rescue effort was staged which involved drilling down to the miners and pulling them out one at a time. Unfortunately not all miners are as lucky; in Chile alone over 30 people die every year in mining accidents and around the world yearly mining deaths run into the thousands. The Chilean miners have emerged from their underground prison as national heroes and hopefully their story has highlighted to the world the dangers some face in our push to extract Earth’s natural resources.

Life – as we know it?

2010-10-01T12:12:00.001+01:00

Over 500 planets have been discovered since the 1990’s; it is so common place that a finding rarely makes the news. Most of these planets are very hot, very cold or made of gas. However, a new planet has recently been found and this may be one to get excited about!
Its name is 581G and is believed to be very similar to our own planet.
Earth is in the Sun’s Goldilocks’ Zone. This means that it orbits the Sun at a distance where water can be liquid (not a gas or in solid ice form). Just like Goldilocks’ porridge in the fairytale, it is not too hot or too cold, it is just right. And just like Earth, planet 581G is in its Goldilocks Zone so it is possible water exists there.
Why is this exciting? Well, it means there could be life living on it! Water is a requirement for life as we know it. But it gets even more exciting than that! The new planet is rocky, seems to have an atmosphere and has a gravitational pull similar to Earth so a human could walk on the surface.
Planet 581G is 118,000,000,000,000 miles away. This seems like a huge distance, but in space terms it is actually quite close. We have only searched a fraction of the Universe and already found a planet similar to Earth. If not on 581G, surely there must be alien life out there somewhere….?

Vulnerable Gibbons

2010-10-01T09:54:00.003+01:00

Here at Our Dynamic Earth we have recently celebrated International Year of Biodiversity. There are so many different species to celebrate that it is hard to know where to start but I would like to draw your attention to an ape that many people forget about; the gibbon.

When I say apes, most people think about the great apes such as gorillas, chimpanzees and orang-utans. But gibbons are the most vulnerable of all the apes. There are 16 gibbon species, all of which are endangered, and 4 of them that are classed as critically endangered.

The black-crested gibbon is the most vulnerable of them all as 75% of their habitat has been destroyed by deforestation and they are often taken from their natural habitat to be sold illegally as pets. These animals live in very isolated regions in Asia and are in drastic need of protection if they are to be saved from extinction.

One man who has dedicated his life to saving the gibbons is Chanee Brule. He is a Frenchman who has left his native country to work in a sanctuary in Borneo. Chanee has a very special skill; he pairs up captured gibbons to become a couple and then releases them back into the wild. But why bother ‘match making’? Well gibbons are the only apes that live as a couple and are faithful for life. They defend their territory together so it is hard for a gibbon to live alone. Chanee has to make sure he pairs gibbons so that one will be more dominant than the other. This skill has made this sanctuary very successful in releasing the gibbons back into the wild and therefore Chanee is setting up a new sanctuary in Sumatra.

Chanee has a radio station that plays chart music to entertain the younger generation. During breaks he uses this opportunity to educate people about gibbon conservation and keeps them up to date with his projects. This has proved popular, very much so that people even call him to report illegal pets. Chanee can then take these gibbons and introduce them to his sanctuary.

Fingers crossed the future may look brighter for the gibbon!

Flooding affects millions in Pakistan

2010-08-10T16:38:00.001+01:00

We may think of Scotland as being a rather rainy place, however the rain we experience is nothing compared to the monsoon rains experienced in many parts of Asia. The monsoon season is caused by seasonal winds which bring large amounts of rain every day for several months. In Pakistan in recent days the monsoon rains have been extremely intense, causing the country’s worst flooding in 80 years. The floods have affected 4 million people, destroyed thousands of houses and caused the deaths of at least 1600 people. The disaster is now into it’s second week and looks set to get worse as more heavy rain is forecast for next week. Attempts have been made to evacuate towns and villages in areas likely to be affected and aid is being sent to areas that have already been severely hit. However this process has been difficult as the flood waters have torn down essential bridges and blocked roads to remote towns, leaving many people stranded. In addition to this, flood waters have contaminated wells leaving many people without safe drinking water. The dirty flood water carries potentially deadly diseases such as cholera. The flooding is now progressing into the heavily populated Punjab area, an area rich in agriculture known as ‘the breadbasket of Pakistan’, threatening to destroy large areas of crops and yet more houses. The impact of these floods is likely to be felt for a long time and Pakistan will need strong support from the international community to rebuild infrastructure and re-house flood victims over the coming months. The British contribution to the aid effort in Pakistan is being coordinated by the Disasters Emergency Committee, to contribute go to www.dec.org.uk

2010-07-30T15:11:00.002+01:00

Have you ever looked out the window at the world around you and wondered how the land was formed? Have you ever been at the beach and wondered where all the sand came from or where it will end up? If you have, you are not the only one. People have been studying the Earth for hundreds of years, trying to answer some of these questions and among these people are the geologists!

James Hutton was such a person, a geologist, born in 1726, he lived in the countryside with his family, where he worked as a farmer. During his day to day tasks at the farm, Hutton noticed little things like rivers carrying soil away and depositing it somewhere else. This intrigued him and he began to investigate the world around him in more detail. He wanted to understand how these processes were occurring.

We now know of Hutton as the founder of modern geology. He has changed the way in which the world is perceived, most notably the age of the planet itself. He discovered that forces in the Earth made mountains. These mountains were then subject to erosion and became fine particles of rock known as sediment, which, when compacted becomes rock once more. Hutton realised that for this to happen, it would have to occur over a very long time – millions and millions of years. It is from this research that the age of the Earth was determined at 4.5 billion years old!

Hutton’s theories were quite controversial at the time, many people believed that the Earth had been created in six days, and that God had rested on the seventh. However, the evidence provided by Hutton and modern geologists gives us a very different date, instead of the Earth being around 6,000 years old as theorists had previously thought, Hutton and modern geologists provides a very strong argument and the rocks on our land tell the story of the Earth’s formation over a much longer period of time.

Why not try your hand at becoming a geologist at Our Dynamic Earth over the summer! There will be exciting trails that will lead you through the formation of Scotland. Will you be able to spot some fossils in our amphitheatre? You can even get up close to rocks that formed during the Jurassic period, when dinosaurs roamed our land and find the secret code hidden within our trail.

In the Company of Gannets

2010-07-26T14:01:00.003+01:00

I recently had the chance to fulfil a lifelong ambition by visiting the Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth. Situated off the coast of North Berwick, it is the plug of an extinct volcano, over 300 million years old and initially studied by the Edinburgh born “father of modern geology”, James Hutton. It also happens to be the largest single rock gannetry in the world which, at over 100m, currently supports a mind boggling 150000 gannets! Sir David Attenborough, who visited the island himself recently, described it as “perfection” and so it was with much anticipation that I set off on my adventure!

After a breezy crossing, we wound our way up the narrow path towards our base, passing as we did an array of gulls barking and squawking their marching orders at us as we gently passed their fluffy, freckle-headed chicks. The cacophony of calling intensified with the ascent as did the “eau de gannet”! The sheer exhilaration of being part of it all was intense! We settled down for what was to be an awe-filled, glorious afternoon in the company of one of natures’ top predators. I watched quietly as gannets incubated their dappled eggs; powder puff chicks yawned and dozed in the sun; adults “sky pointed” and took off, or squabbled and fought with their neighbours; it was all there within metres of where I sat and was an absolute privilege to experience.

Saving Biodiversity

2010-06-17T10:29:00.001+01:00

Being the International Year of Biodiversity, I think that timing is perfect for the formation of a science panel focusing on biodiversity and ecosystem services.
At the United Nations meeting this month in Busan, South Korea, the decision was made by 85 nations to create the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (or IPBES for short). It is hoped it will be up and running in 2011 and will bring together scientific research from developed and developing countries with much needed political action. Its aim is to halt the loss of species, forests, freshwaters, coral reefs and other ecosystems on planet Earth.
It has taken five years to reach this outcome to form the IPBES; the idea was established after the UN’s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005 where they concluded that human activities threatened the Earth’s ability to sustain future generations. Negotiations began in 2006 and in June 2010 it was finally concluded that this group must be formed to hinder more biodiversity losses.
The panel will try and raise global awareness and understanding of the threats we face if biodiversity continues to decline at the current rate and empower governments to make policy to counter these threats. All this will be done based on sound scientific evidence from research carried out across the globe.

Is It Easy Being Green?

2010-05-20T16:11:00.001+01:00

In 2009, Our Dynamic Earth was proud to receive a SILVER award from the Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS), along with a SILVER award from the Keep Edinburgh Clean scheme.

So, how did we get these important awards?
After receiving feedback from our visitors asking about our ‘environmental position’ we decided to join the GTBS which is run via VisitScotland.
Our ‘Green Champions’ were then found and volunteers recruited to form our Green Committee. We were very lucky that one person from nearly each department wanted to be on the team (in some cases more than one) which meant we could hold our first meeting pretty quickly.

Whilst the team was being recruited, our 2 Green Champions were familiarising themselves with the criteria, seeing if we do any of the objectives already. It was great to be ticking boxes off before we even had the committee completed:
Since opening, we have had low water usage toilet flushes, recycled our waste paper, used specialist heating back systems and used recycled stationery where possible.

We then had a review by the Carbon Trust; they came out and spent a day seeing how we use our building over 24 hours. This report was a great opportunity for us to amend any practices that we were unaware were doing more harm than good. This highlighted any lights and power points being run unnecessarily over night or suggestions on machine set up’s that may be beneficial. They also pointed out things we could do that were not only green but could also save us money. (We installed Intellipads on all the office pc’s, so peripheral equipment switched off when the pc switched off).

With the unique design of our building and the fact we are based in a Heritage area, we are limited to any structural changes (such as sun and wind powered energy makers) so we concentrated on the more immediate areas such as house-keeping. It’s amazing how much this can save (in the home AND in the office!) If lights get switched off when not in use, machines switched off at the end of the day, paper gets re-used as scrap and temperatures monitored we can make a huge difference to the environment with very little effort.

Of course, this is just a snippet of the work and effort that went into getting our awards, the Green Committee still goes strong, meeting every three months to ensure systems already in place continue and any new ideas are given the chance to be heard.

So, is it easy being green? Well, yes and no. There is an amazing array of technology out there to aid you but even if we start with just the basics, we really can all make some difference.

Oil spill threatens wildlife and much more

2010-05-14T16:03:00.001+01:00

An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig last month killed 11 rig workers and has lead to the release of millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It is being described as the worst ever oil disaster with the leaking oil drifting towards the coasts of 5 American states, an area Barack Obama has stated is ‘one of the richest and most beautiful ecosystems on the planet’. The oil spill has already had a devastating effect on the area’s fishing industry and as oil approaches coastal waters and delicate wetlands over 400 species are threatened and an environmental disaster on an unprecedented scale could be on the cards.
Attempts are being made to clean up the oil - chemical dispersants have been sprayed on the oil slick in an effort to break down the oil and lessen its environmental impact, parts of the spill are being set on fire and containment booms are being laid along the coast to prevent the oil reaching the most sensitive areas. However, at present the leak has not been stopped so thousands more gallons of oil are leaking into the sea every day, constantly increasing the environmental risk. In the coming weeks the true impact of this disaster will become clear but for now it serves as a reminder of the environmental risks we take every day to satisfy our need for oil.

Bloody adaptations

2010-05-13T09:19:00.001+01:00

Have you ever wondered just how creatures like the colossal Woolly Mammoth were able to survive in the subzero conditions of our most recent ice age climate 20000 years ago? Research published this week in the peer reviewed journal Nature Genetics indicates that to some extent, it may just be in their blood. Their haemoglobin to be exact. Red blood cells which make up the vast majority of animal blood are tiny doughnut shaped cells with the primary role of transporting oxygen around the body, keeping the creature alive and functioning. Red blood cells grab hold of oxygen molecules using a protein called haemoglobin. By taking samples from the remains of 3 Siberian mammoths, researchers were able to take a tiny amount of the animal’s haemoglobin and this they found could release oxygen effectively even at low temperatures. Crucially this would have helped keep the animal functioning in the subzero conditions and would reduce the need to use large amounts of energy to keep the creature warm. This is a trait not shared by their modern day cousins, the African Elephant as they have no need to function at freezing temperatures.

Mammoths are not the only animals however with blood cell adaptations to aid survival at temperature extremes. The red blood cells of the dromedary camel for example help the animal undergo extreme dehydration loosing up to 40% of its body weight. Such a water loss would be lethal to any other animal. The tiny oval red blood cells of the camel continue to circulate despite the blood becoming increasingly viscous, helping the camel to soldier on in search of water.

Together these examples demonstrate the highly adaptive, yet often fleeting nature of evolution.

Ash in the sky stop all flights!

2010-04-15T13:16:00.002+01:00

High up in the sky today something very unusual is going on. The UK is covered by a huge ash cloud from an erupting volcano in Iceland.
The area of Eyjafjallajoekull in Iceland is experiencing it’s second volcanic eruption in a month. The eruption has sent huge plumes of volcanic ash 11km up into the atmosphere and high altitude winds have spread the ash cloud over large areas of northern Europe. The ash cloud is not visible from the ground but it can be tracked using satellite imagery. It poses no danger to us here in Scotland, however it has made the airspace above Scotland a very dangerous place to be. All flights above Scotland have been cancelled today because flying through an ash cloud can cause a plane’s engine to fail, a scary prospect when cruising at a high altitude! As ash particles enter a plane’s engine they accumulate and turn into molten glass, clogging up the engine and stopping it from functioning. The cloud will start to dissipate over the next few days making it safe to fly over Scotland again, but for today I’d recommend keeping your feet firmly on the ground!

Why Our Dynamic Earth Collects Visitor Feedback

2010-03-19T09:09:00.001Z

We love to know what our visitors have thought about their time with us. It’s always great when we get positive, happy feedback. Everyone loves to know when they are doing things well, or great. ‘Positive’ feedback allows us to understand where our strengths are; what to keep doing and what to do more of.
Positive feedback gives staff a boost (especially if they have been lucky enough to have been mentioned by name). It’s a buzz to see your name stand out and be thanked by someone that you met for a few hours and know that you made an impact on the enjoyment of their day!

However, we also appreciate and understand the benefits of ‘negative’ feedback. We have learnt to use this as a tool to improve and train to ensure our standards are always as high as they can possibly be. The key to this feedback is not to fear it but to learn from it.

Some examples of where we have used visitor feedback include additional seating throughout the galleries, lighting and volume settings (these are monitored if we get any comments about them), through to joining the Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) and getting a silver level award and updating galleries (including the upcoming 4DVENTURE gallery.)

We use 2 ways to collect our feedback:
We have our ‘In-House’ forms that are a snapshot of a persons visit. We ask a few questions and ask people to grade their experience. There is also space for individual comments too. If someone wants a response to their feedback, we ensure this is done within a reasonable time and that the comments have been discussed with the relevant teams.
Next we have Visitrac, an independent on-line survey that goes much more in-depth and can take up to 10 minutes to complete, also using a grading system. Again, there is space for comments.

All the results are put into monthly reports and shared throughout the whole company. This means every single member of staff gets the chance to understand and appreciate what our visitors think of their time with us.
We are proud that we have been a 5 Star visitor attraction for the last 7 years, awarded through VisitScotland; our visitor feedback plays a key part in maintaining this high standard. We were also delighted to be a finalist at the Scottish Thistle Awards in 2009 in the Customer Care – Going the Extra Mile category.

So next time you’re visiting, why not offer us your feedback, we always love to hear about your time with us.

Powerful earthquake means everybody gets to go home early today

2010-03-11T16:47:00.002Z

One of the most powerful earthquakes of recent times hit Chile at the end of last month. It was 8.8 in magnitude, so powerful that it may have shifted the planet’s axis and shortened the length of a day.
NASA scientist Richard Gross has calculated that the quake may have been so powerful that it displaced the Earth’s axis by 8cm. The length of a day depends on the Earth’s rotation and the shift in the axis caused by this earthquake means that the Earth now makes a full rotation quicker than before meaning days are now shorter! But don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you’ll have to get up earlier in the mornings – days have only been shortened by 1.26 microseconds, or 0.00000126 seconds, so you won’t feel any change as this is even less than the time it takes to blink your eye.
Despite the fact that this earthquake was 500 times more powerful than January’s earthquake in Haiti, the damage and loss of life in Chile was much less severe. This is due to several mitigating factors – the Chile quake occurred deeper underground than the Haiti quake, the epicentre was much further away from a heavily populated area and most importantly Chile is a country that is well prepared for earthquakes with strict building codes in place meaning more building were built to withstand earthquakes. However many lives were still lost, another reminder of the powerful forces at work inside our planet.

Mercy Corps

2010-03-08T09:51:00.000Z

Today I met with a fascinating group of young adults from the Global Citizen Corps, a section of the Mercy Corps, a non-profit organization engaged in humanitarian aid and development activities. They were visiting Dynamic Earth to find out how we communicate the issue of climate change and global warming to the youth of Scotland. The group themselves were composed of individuals from the UK, USA Lebanon and Jordan and are working together to come up with strategies for solving some of the worlds biggest issues whilst promoting peace and understanding between the nations involved.

It was an amazing opportunity to chat with them and show them how we tackle the topic here with our local youngsters. They were very receptive and asked lots of great questions. They seemed to benefit from seeing our resources and were presently surprised by the interactivity and diversity of our sessions. One member of the group was also surprised to learn that methane from cow flatulence was a significant source of greenhouse emissions.

The group will be in and around Edinburgh involved in various activities over the next few days, including speaking at the parliament.

For more information on the Mercy Corps check out
www.mercycorps.org.uk/

Haiti – what happened and why?

2010-02-23T17:15:00.003Z

On the 12th of January this year, at 4.53pm local time, Haiti was hit by a magnitude 7 earthquake. The earthquake struck just 10 miles southwest of the capital Port-au-Prince and at present it is thought that 230,000 people have been killed, 300,000 people have been injured and 1 million people have been left homeless. But why did this earthquake happen? And why were its effects so devastating?
Firstly, let’s look into exactly why an earthquake hit this location. The island of Hispaniola, of which Haiti occupies the western half, is caught between two tectonic plates – the North American plate and the Caribbean, making this area prone to earthquakes. The two plates are trying to grind past each other and in the Haiti region this plate motion takes effect along a series of faults. The earthquake happened on the Enriquillo-Plaintain fault, which has been locked solid for 250 years, accumulating stress all this time. So an earthquake was bound to strike on this fault; it was just a question of when and how big.
But why did this earthquake cause as much damage as it did? After all, every year a handful of magnitude 7 quakes hit different locations around the world often with limited loss of life. The answer to this lies in a combination of unfortunate factors that added together to make this earthquake one of the biggest humanitarian disasters of modern times. The first significant fact is the exact location of the earthquake’s epicentre - the quake hit just 10 miles from the capital of Haiti and the source was just 5 miles from the surface. Had the quake occurred at a different point along the fault, deeper into the ground and further away from a densely populated area then the severity of shaking and the number of people exposed to shaking would have been greatly reduced. This in turn would have greatly reduced the number of casualties. The second factor that contributed to the level of damage was the number of aftershocks felt. After the initial quake there were many very powerful aftershocks, 10 larger than magnitude 5. This meant that buildings weakened by the initial quake were exposed to further powerful shaking, causing greater damage. The third contributing factor was the state of most building in Haiti. In many countries that experience earthquakes buildings are constructed with foundations that allow them to move and sway as an earthquake hits. Most buildings in Haiti were not constructed this way and many simply crumpled when the quake hit. Lastly it had been over 150 year since the last major earthquake hit Haiti so the government and the population in general had no experience of earthquakes and were not properly prepared for an event on this scale.There are several other cities around the world – Tehran, Istanbul, Caracas, Kathmandu – that could in the near future experience an earthquake of this scale, so lessons need to be learnt from Haiti and put into practice in order to minimise future loss of life.

If the climate is getting warmer why has it been so cold recently??

2010-01-11T09:17:00.002Z

Nobody in the country can have failed to notice that it’s been really rather chilly recently, really rather chilly indeed. In fact, some experts believe we are experiencing the coldest winter since 1963. Snow has fallen over every part of the UK, temperatures in the north of Scotland have fallen to -22°C, 12 000 schools have been forced to close and an estimated 1 million snowmen have been built!
We are always hearing about the Earth getting warmer so how do we explain this extra cold winter?
The answer lies in the difference between weather and climate. Weather is what we experience day to day and week to week whereas climate is defined as the average weather over a 30 year period. So the fact that it has been very snowy for a few weeks doesn’t change the fact that our climate has got hotter over the last 100 years and will continue to do so in the future. When talking about climate a short term interpretation is irrelevant.
However, global warming doesn’t necessarily mean vineyards and beach holidays in Scotland becoming a possibility. It is in fact possible that if global temperatures keep increasing Europe will experience longer, frostier winters. This could happen if global warming shuts down the Gulf Stream, the oceanic mechanism which brings heat across the Atlantic from the tropics and makes our climate warmer and wetter than is normal for our latitude. Edinburgh lies on the same latitude as Moscow which experiences bitter winter averages of -8°C, much colder than our winter averages of around 4°C. So brush up on your ice skating skills and invest in some snow boots – they might just come in handy in the future!

Copenhagen – the meeting that will save the planet?

2010-01-08T15:18:00.000Z

Leaders of the world’s nations came together last month to talk about climate change with the aim of agreeing limits on human-made global temperature rise. Many scientists feel that while future temperature rise is inevitable, ideally, average global temperature should not rise more than two degrees Celsius above what it was before the industrial revolution.

But many now see the Copenhagen Summit as a failure. So I’d like to ask, did anything good come out of these two weeks of talks?

I think yes, there was positive progress made….the USA, China, India, Brazil and South Africa all agreed that global temperature should not be allowed to rise above the two degrees Celsius mark. To achieve this they will reduce their production of one of the greenhouse gases; carbon dioxide (produced when fossil fuels and wood are burned).

On top of that, $100 billion have been promised to developing countries every year until 2020 to help them combat their effects of man made climate change.

That’s all great news….but there are negatives as well. The reductions in carbon dioxide quoted are not legally binding and the UN did not approve it, meaning countries have no obligation to meet the ‘no more than 2 degrees rise’ limit and there are no penalties in place if countries miss their targets to cut their carbon emissions.

As for the $100 billion per year to developing countries…well, there are no clear expectations on where the money will come from or what it should be spent on…its all just a bit vague.

So it wasn’t the legally binding global agreement I had hoped for but it is a good start. Climate change has finally been recognized as a major threat to our future on planet Earth and hopefully future meetings in Germany and Mexico this year will make things more concrete.

What decisions would you like the world leaders to make on climate change?

Large Hadron Collider

2010-01-04T14:19:00.002Z

What do you get if you mix the following:
· 10 000 scientists and engineers from over 100 countries,
· the energy to power 6 million light bulbs; and
· around £2.6bn?

The biggest experiment of all time, of course: the Large Hadron Collider at CERN on the Franco-Swiss border. Essentially, the Large Hadron Collider is a twenty seven kilometre long, super-cooled race track. Beams of atomic particles are accelerated around tubes until they approach close to the speed of light. They are then forced to collide and the results are recorded by one of four huge detectors. Now up and running, scientists are working round the clock attempting to answer some of the fundamental questions about the universe.

So why would you want to fire beams of infinitesimal particles around a 27km track at close to the speed to light?

The universe began with a big, hot explosion around 13.5bn years ago, called the Big Bang. Since then it has been cooling down as the universe expands. To find out why the universe is the way it is today we need to learn about its very early stages. To discover what it was like millionths of a second after the Big Bang we need to recreate the extreme heat or energy which was around then. When you collide two beams of fast moving particles together these very high energies are achieved.

The scientists don’t really know what they will discover when they peer into these mysterious high energies. This science really is at the cutting edge of our understanding. Some of the Big Questions they hope to answer are “What is our universe made of?” and, “What happened in the Big Bang?”

More information can be found on the Large Hadron Collider website:

http://www.lhc.ac.uk/the-big-questions.html

In 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus’ transformed our understanding of the universe by publishing his revolutionary idea that the Earth orbited the sun. Will the greatest experiment ever built shake our picture of the universe in a similar way? Only time, 10 000 scientists, the energy to power 6 million light bulbs and of course £2.6bn will tell!

Darwin@Dynamic Earth

2009-10-23T13:46:00.003+01:00

Today I saw a child kill an insect, the years rolled away and I was back on the coast of Wales about 10 years old. My sisters had taken me there on holiday you see my mother died when I was only eight, and I was brought up by my big sisters, Marianne and Caroline.

By the time we were holidaying in Wales I was fascinated by collecting. I had grown past hoarding pretty objects and preferred to collect insects for study.

In Wales I was always wandering off to watch birds, which my sisters approved of, or killing insects which they did not approve off in the slightest. What I row I got!

But they taught me something I had not known. It is wrond to kill insects for my own interest, even my own knowledge. Dead insects were every bit as good. So I began collecting for study only dead insects. When I came back from the Galapagos I had a live baby tortoise as well as numerous dead specimens. These I studied and gradually thrrough years of research developed the theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. But I was always careful in what I collected no random killing for me.

I explained all this to the little boy I hope he has learned.

Later on today during my wanderings I realised that much of my work was based on plants and animals I had brought back from abroad. This I understand is no longer permitted. I could not bring back finches to examine the differences in their beak sizes - adapted to suit their food supply.

I wonder what people today think of what we were able to do almost 200 years ago.

I would be interested to hear your views. Indeed I would be delighted if you would write to me with yout thoughts.

Darwin@DynamicEarth today

2009-10-22T10:07:00.002+01:00

Today I walked over to the Royal Botanic Garden. I t was not always there. Indeed the garden had just been at its present location for five years when I arrived in the city. It began as the herbal garden for the medical school, but moved to its current position as its exhibits increased. The Palm House had not been built when I was a student in Edinburgh. I very much enjoyed visiting it. It is splendid, and it reminded me of when I was a little boy, and we had a greenhouse in which my father grew all sorts of interesting plants. What a wonderful place the garden is.

The building where 'my' exhibition is going on is also a wonderful place. How I wish we could have had places like that when I was a child. It is so exciting to go into the jungle area, or into the cold room of what the world must have been like when Edinburgh had glaciers. The jungle room reminded me of my time on the beagle when I saw tropical fruit for the first time. It is a source of much delight to me that children and adults living in the 21st century can go to see, wha I could because I had been lucky enough to hae the opportunity to travel on HMS Beagle. 'Our Dynamic Earth' is a place of wonder and delight. I hope every child in Scotland visits it.

Darwin@DynamicEarth today

2009-10-20T17:25:00.002+01:00

When I was living here I, and my brother who was also studying medicine, lodged with a lady called Mrs Mackay in Lothian Street. I enjoyed strolling over there today. Near her lived a freed South American slave, who worked at the Museum and who taught taxidermy to add to his income. I went along because I was interested. I had no idea at the time of how valuable these lessons would be. Once I was on HMS Beagle I had to send back to England stuffed animals and birds. The Beagle was too litle to carry them. And of course they would have smelled, had I not been practised in taxidermy. Without these lessons in Edinburgh, I could not have carried out my research after the Beagle voyage. I have much to thanks Edinburgh for.

I am also very glad I came here to study medicine for I learned very quickly at the School of Anatomy that I did not want to be a doctor. You see Edinburgh was one of the few places where students dissected bodies. However I did not like how the bodies were acquired. Grave robbers lead by folk with strange names: Spune and Moodiewarp fought over bodies stolen out of graves. Some of the students also stole corpses. They said they were advancing science. I wonder what folk think of that idea now.

Fortunately I had left the city before the murderers Burke and Hare began their murderous business. But I have to say that I had attended the lectures of Dr. Robert Know who, (it was never proved or disproved) may have acquired some of the bodies I saw him dissect from these men.

Charles Darwin@Dynamic Earth

2009-10-19T17:28:00.002+01:00

Dynamic Earth is delighted to welcome Charles Darwin for one week only! He has taken time out of his busy schedule to talk to our blog!

'How exciting it is to be back in Edinburgh after so many years. I had a very good time when I was here. Like many students I did not study as my parents would have liked me to do.

Rather I spent a great deal of time wandering the city, walking up on Arthur's Seat and down at the river. The view from Arthur's Seat is very much as it was when I was here. It is wonderful that I can come back from almost 200 years ago, and find my way around. So little has really changed in this magnificent city.

From Arthur's Seat there is the High Street. On that tiny volcanic rock Scotland's history was played out for centuries. Behind it the New Town spreads to the river. Some of it was still being built when I was here.

But up here on the Crags I was at my happiest. This is where James Hutton only 50 years before I was here changed the thinking of how the Earth was made. I was in awe of someone who could come up with an idea, study it, test it, prove it, and then have the courage to say it. What a mind he must have had. Little did I know at that time that one day I too would change the face of science. Here at the age of 16, I was happy to walk where great thoughts had been developed.'

Great news for Giant Pandas!

2009-08-17T17:08:00.005+01:00

On Thursday 23rd July this year, a baby giant panda was born in a special panda reserve in the Sichuan province, China. This is obviously good news for pandas in this reserve, but it is also revolutionary for this endangered species across the globe. You see, this birth was no ordinary birth; it is the first panda to be conceived through artificial insemination using frozen DNA and born. Artificial insemination is used a lot in today’s world, for example to breed pedigree dogs, like those on Crufts!
Encouraging pandas in zoos and reserves to have babies is a difficult task! They are very fussy creatures, but it is now possible to transport frozen DNA from one panda to another panda at the opposite side of the world. Transporting frozen DNA is much easier than transporting a whole panda! This process is fantastic as it will reduce inbreeding, meaning that pandas in American zoos can have babies with pandas in China.
These cute fluffy animals live in the wild in only 6 isolated mountain ranges in south-central China, and it is believed that there are less than 2000 left. They occupy temperate montane forests with lots of their favourite food – bamboo. Many of these forests have been destroyed to make way for farming, leaving less and less space for the pandas to live. They are described as a “conservation reliant” endangered species, meaning that their survival depends on us helping them. So this new-born baby is one step forward for pandas worldwide. Conservation scientists hope this innovation will help giant pandas avoid extinction. I’ve got my fingers crossed for these amazing animals.

A venomous dragon?! Just what we need...

2009-06-08T15:23:00.003+01:00

At three meters long and weighing up to 150 kg The Komodo dragon is an infamous carnivore. Their bite is extremely deadly and even seemingly lucky prey which survive a tussle with a dragon may have short lived fortunes. Any deep bites are so toxic that the animal is almost certain to be dead within 24 hours providing a much easier meal second time around for the dragon.

But what makes a Komodo dragon’s bite so deadly? For decades the toxic nature of the bite was blamed on the 50 or so different types of bacteria thought to be passed on every time the Komodo dragon takes a mouthful. This ‘toxic cocktail’ of bacteria was then held responsible for causing blood poisoning resulting in an unhappy end for the hapless prey.

However a new study has discovered the true reason for the fatal bite; Venom. While examining various Komodo dragon specimens’ scientists at the University of Melbourne discovered two huge venom glands present in the mouth. The venom produced is highly toxic as it stops blood from clotting, an essential part of wound healing, as well as lowering the blood pressure of the victim. This causes the prey to go into shock and eventually collapse and die.

What surprised me about this story is how these glands have not been spotted before. Indeed the researchers compared this oversight to “missing the teeth on great white sharks and saying they are plankton eaters.”

The researchers were also keen to state that it was likely that the extinct ancestor of the Komodo dragon, the Megalania lizard had the same toxic bit. This would make it the largest venomous create ever to have been discovered!

So the next time you are exploring the tropical rainforest at Our Dynamic Earth keep a look out for the Komodo dragon and be sure not to get to close! I think the researches said it best when they described a Komodo dragon’s mouth as a “sophisticated combined-arsenal killing apparatus.” Nice.

What is the difference between a comet, an asteroid and a meteorite?

2009-05-22T12:20:00.015+01:00

A friend came to me distraught. A colleague at work couldn’t sleep at night because of the science questions troubling his mind. His first question out of a long list goes as follows: What is the difference between a comet, an asteroid and a meteorite? I thought you might like to read my answer…

Dear Paul,

It has come to my attention that you have some questions about the universe… Firstly this is nothing to worry about, we all go through these times and in the immortal words of High School Musical – “We’re all in this together”

What is the difference between a comet, an asteroid and a meteorite? The main differences between these three roughly similar objects centre around three things: where they come from, what they are made from and what they do.

Comet: This is a dirty snowball, usually a good few kilometers across which comes from really far away in our solar system. Somewhere in the region of Pluto. The reason we sometimes see them from earth (e.g. Halley’s comet and Hale-Bopp) is because they sometimes come close to the sun and start to melt. When they melt they give off a big trail of gas which shows up in the sky as a bright streak. When comets are visible they usually last for a good few weeks. Some people think that the wise men were following a comet when they were looking for Jesus.

Picture shows - Comet Hale-Bopp lit up the skies for two months

Spring 1997, reaching it’s brightest at the beginning of April

Asteroid: This is a lump of metal and rock, anywhere in size from a golf ball to Arthur’s Seat. These are found much closer to home. They orbit the sun, like the earth and all the planets at a distance somewhere between Mars and Jupiter. They usually stay there, but sometimes bash into each other and bits fly off…

Picture shows - Asteroids Ida and Dactyl orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Photo taken by the Galileo probe, August 1993. Interestingly Dactyl is Ida’s moon!

Meteorite: This is a lump of rock and metal which has landed on the Earth from space. They are typically bits of Asteroids which have been bashed off in the collisions we were just talking about above. Out of the three objects you’ve mentioned these are my personal favourite. Have you ever seen a shooting star? Well shooting stars are tiny meteors which burn up as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere. They are usually about the size of a grain of rice. Meteorites are bigger lumps that burn up a lot, but still make it through the atmosphere and land on the ground. Around 3000 rocks heavier than a bag of sugar fall to the earth each year. But there have been no recorded incidents of some being hit and dying. (Although there once was a small dog who was killed by a meteorite in Egypt).Picture shows - A handful of meteorites.Notice the beautiful

patterns on the slices of metal meteorites.
Phew!

Earthquakes in Scotland?

2009-05-13T11:32:00.003+01:00

It isn't everyday that we get an earthquake in Britain, though it may be more common than most of us think! The earthquake centred on Ulverston in Cumbria on the 29th April makes us all realise just how dynamic the crust of the Earth is, even in a highly stable area like Britain. Many folks immediately try to relate an earthquake to a major fault, being used to thinking about earthquakes in the context of the San Andeas Fault and other major fractures in the Earth's crust. But the important bit of information from the Ulverston earthquake was that it was about 8.8km deep. That's a long way down and it is very difficult to identify any deep structures that might be associated with the earthquake.

Most big earthquakes are associated with plate boundaries, the large rigid plates of crust that make up the surface of the Earth. Here in Scotland we are well away from any plate boundary but we can still get small earthquakes that result from the release of stresses within our plate. Many of the small earthquakes felt in Scotland are along the geological structure known as the Ochil Fault to the south of the Ochil Hills but small earthquakes are felt all around Scotland. One of the earliest scientific buildings devoted to detecting earthquakes in Scotland is at Comrie. Earthquake House was built in 1874 to investigate earthquakes along the Highland Boundary Fault which separates the Highlands of Scotland from the Midland Valley. Over the years a variety of modern equipment links into a world-wide network through the work of the seismologists in the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh.