Author: Science Project

32. Allergies32. Allergies

Are you suffering from a stuffy nose? Itchy eyes? Endless sneezing? Overall-dear-god-why-won’t-it-stop-misery? It could be the flu… or it could be allergies! On today’s show, K+K explore our immune system’s response to airborne pollen, the specific mechanisms inside the body that make those of us with allergies feel so awful, and just why the immune system attacks innocent little pollen in the first place.

T-Shirts!!T-Shirts!!

Yo, guys! Guess what? WE HAVE T-SHIRTS!!! I guess that means we’re preeeeetty official now.

Would you like a T-shirt? You would?? Well, there’s two ways to get one:

  1. Come to our booth on Saturday (tomorrow!) at the March for Science Expo! Which you should do anyway, cause it’s gonna be great. We’ll have lots of ocean-themed hands on science demos for you to play and learn with. Look for us in Waterfront park between 10am and 2pm.
  2. If you won’t be at the march, e-mail us at 2scienceproject@gmail.com and we’ll find a way to get you one. All proceeds go towards furthering our mission to inspire people to use science to explore the world around them!

Shirt graphic by Louis Duncan, lduncandesign.com.  Thanks, Louis!

31. Way, Way Down At The Bottom Of The Sea31. Way, Way Down At The Bottom Of The Sea

Bathypterois grallator, the Tripod Fish. So named because it’s an avid photographer.

Have you been feeling like ,homes in Portland are becoming too expensive to afford? Well, good news! There’s plenty of available real estate… under the sea! If, of course, you don’t mind adopting some of the necessary physical adaptations needed to survive there. If fact, the deeper down you go, the stranger your characteristics will have to be. That’s because the deeper down you go, the more extreme conditions like temperature and pressure become. Just ask the creatures that live there!

Female Anglerfish. Male is not visible because his tiny dwarf body has already mostly absorbed into her flesh.

Think you could hack it as a deep sea creature? Listen in to today’s episode and see what it would take!

30. Octo-Knowledge30. Octo-Knowledge

What’s going on inside a nautilus’s shell? Is it true that cephalopods can edit their own genes? An octopus has how many brains?

Oh hey.

Join Keera & Kira, plus coordinators of the Portland branch of the March for Science and test your Octo-knowledge in today’s quiz, “Science Fact or Science Fiction: Cephalopod Edition.”

We hope to see you at the Portland March for Science, taking place on Saturday, April 22nd, 2017!  Kira & Keera will be there, with their nonprofit educational organization, Science Project. From 10am until 3pm, the Science Project’s exhibit, “Oceans: Dive Deeper!” will provide lots of exciting hands-on experiments that will give you a better understanding of the many layers of our oceans. Plus we’ll be unveiling our very first edition Everything Is Interesting t-shirt!! Come by and visit us, and get your very own!

4/12/2017

Contact Your Legislators About OR SB3!Contact Your Legislators About OR SB3!

Hi everyone! If you listened to our show this morning about suction dredge mining, you heard us mention that you should contact your Oregon representatives and let them know how the health of salmon and the stream ecosystem is important to you. Specifically, that you would like them to vote YES on Senate Bill 3.
Below is the contact information for some of our state-level legislators, plus a script of what to say in your email.

(If your rep isn’t listed here, click on this link: Find Your Legislator and find your district on the map. Remember, each district has a senator and a representative! Double the fun!)

Mt. Tabor area: 

Senator Michael Dembrow – 503-986-1723 – Sen.MichaelDembrow@oregonlegislature.gov

Representative Alissa Keny-Guyer – 503-986-1446 – Rep.AlissaKenyGuyer@oregonlegislature.gov

Reed College, Milwaukee & SE Portland:

Senator Kathleen Taylor – 503-986-1721 – Sen.KathleenTaylor@oregonlegislature.gov

Representative Rob Nosse – 503-986-1442 – Rep.RobNosse@oregonlegislature.gov

Lake Oswego, West Linn, Tualatin: 

Senator Richard Devlin -503-986-1719-  Sen.RichardDevlin@oregonlegislature.gov

Representative Ann Lininger – 503-986-1438 – rep.annlininger@oregonlegislature.gov

North Portland: 

Senator Lew Frederick – 503-986-1722 – Sen.LewFrederick@oregonlegislature.gov

Representative Tawna D. Sanchez – 503-986-1443 – Rep.TawnaSanchez@oregonlegislature.gov

 

Be sure to share the science by emailing your reps a link to this episode & the following (you can copy and paste, we don’t mind!) :

“Dear _____________(your rep’s name here),

I love being a resident of Oregon, in part because I love the natural beauty of this state. This includes the streams, rivers, and lakes that are essential to our way of life. I care about protecting these bodies of water, and our ecosystem as a whole, so I am urging you to vote YES on Senate Bill 3, expanding the moratorium on suction dredge mining.

I learned about SB 3 on the science show, Everything Is Interesting, that aired this morning on Portland’s XRAY 107.1fm station. By presenting the science in an approachable and interesting way, the show put me in a better position to understand the importance and fragility of the stream ecosystem and how suction dredge mining threatens the integrity of our water ways. I urge you to also listen to it. Click on this link and it’ll bring you right to it: “Salmon, Streams, and Suction Dredge Mining”

Thank you for your time,

__________________ (your name here)

29. Salmon, Streams, & Suction Dredge Mining29. Salmon, Streams, & Suction Dredge Mining

A healthy stream ecosystem is an intricate fabric, where pulling one thread could cause the whole system to unravel. Furthermore, each aspect of this ecosystem may provide a service to you directly, but in ways you probably often overlook. You eat the salmon, but the Aquatic Reed Sweetgrass makes your oxygen, the Western Pearlshell Mussel filters the toxins out of your drinking water, and the stable riverbanks supply nutrients that eventually end up in the food you eat.

On this episode, Keera and Kira talk with Jack Williams of Trout Unlimited and Matt Sloat of the Wild Salmon Center, 2 of Oregon’s premiere experts on fishery science and aquatic ecosystems, about our streams, why they matter, and what’s threatening them.

********(Looking for the information about how to send this show to your legislators? Go here: Contact Your Oregon Legislators)*********

(Looking for more information about Suction Dredge Mining and healthy stream ecosystems? Go here: OLCV 2017 Legislative Priorities, here: Trout Unlimited, or here: Wild Salmon Center

28. Yes, We Have Many Bananas.28. Yes, We Have Many Bananas.

Ah, the banana. Cornerstone of Snack Time, foundation of the banana split… and genetically identical to every other banana you’ve ever eaten (in the US, anyway). How did we end up with a banana monoculture? What’s the difference between the DNA of a naturally evolved banana plant and a banana plant clone? And what’s the connection between bananas, Big Mike the rapper, and 100 unicorns? Find out, on today’s episode.

27. Resistance Is Futile.27. Resistance Is Futile.

What goes through the mind of a bee? Does it have its own thoughts, or is being part of a hive-minded collective like being a part of the Borg?  Can an organism with swarm intelligence have a private identity, or does the community simply add each individual’s biological and technological distinctiveness to its own?

Lower your shields. Resistance is futile.

On this episode, Keera and Kira examine the decision making process in communities of bees, birds, neurons, and slime mold, and discover what life is like as part of a hive mind.

26. They’re Wet & Weird & Wild, You Make Them Come Alive…26. They’re Wet & Weird & Wild, You Make Them Come Alive…

Every now and then, Keera and Kira hang out and do stuff OTHER than talk about science. Like, sometimes they reminisce about growing up in the 90’s, and the strange toys and commercials and fashion that shaped their impressionable little minds.

That’s how K+K stumbled upon the Amazing Live SEA MONKEYS! Remember getting those eggs in the mail, and how excited you were for your microscopic primates to come alive with just a little water? Kira and Keera do!

On this episode, the Science Ladies talk about this aquatic crustacean species, Artemia salina, (Spoiler Alert: they’re not monkeys. Sorry.) as wells as where they come from, how they evolved, and why you can send them through the mail like a pack of tomato seeds. They also explore the story of Harold von Braunhut, the man who sold these little creatures as living magic tricks, and the science behind really good marketing. 

How to Make Your Own Aquatic WorldHow to Make Your Own Aquatic World

On today’s Everything Is Interesting episode, we talked about Sea Monkeys (you’re welcome) and those neat little glass biospheres they live in sometimes.

The self-contained biospheres are both beautiful and amazing, because everything Sea Monkeys (spoiler alert: brine shrimp) need to survive is provided by their habitat. The shrimp, algae, and bacteria inside a self-contained biosphere complete a nutrient cycle loop, where all organisms are providing the oxygen, CO2, and nutrients that sustain the other organisms in the system.

As promised, here’s a link to some instructions on how to make your OWN aquatic biosphere.

*Note* We did not craft this document, it belongs to Anne Schultz. Thanks for letting us link to your instructions, Anne!

Click here for: DIY AQUATIC BIOME INSTRUCTIONS

*Another Note*  Science Project has a glass biosphere that has been sustaining itself for the last 2 years! However, we used cherry shrimp because they require less salty water, meaning there’s more plants that will survive in a cherry shrimp habitat than in a brine shrimp habitat. If you live in Portland, OR, we happen to know that there are shrimp and plants at Pets on Broadway in NE!