Professor Blue

It’s Valentine’s Day…how about a dance?

Our inter­view with Cedric Tan, famous for danc­ing his PhD the­sis topic.

We fea­tured Cedric ear­lier here at the bloog because he made a dance out of his grad­u­ate stud­ies on fruit flies and … chick­ens — also known as ‘red jun­gle fowl’.  And it was excel­lent!  He is cur­rently a PhD stu­dent at the Uni­ver­sity of Oxford in the Zool­ogy depart­ment.  As a hobby, Cedric chore­o­graphs dances based on human-nature inter­ac­tions, reach­ing out to the masses on issues of con­ser­va­tion and top­ics of his PhD research.

Pro­fes­sor Blue: How old were you when you became inter­ested in science?

Cedric Tan: Prob­a­bly about 10-years-old when I was in Pri­mary school.

Pro­fes­sor Blue:  Which inter­est came first for you: the fruit fly or the dance?

Cedric Tan: Def­i­nitely dance! I started dance 6 years ago and was inter­ested in ani­mal behav­ior about 4 years ago. How­ever, it was only recently (about 1 year ago) that I started com­bin­ing both of these inter­ests to cre­ate dance pieces like the one in the video.

Read more…

Bon­jour kids!  I have a ques­tion. What year is this?

a)  Some peo­ple call it 2011.

let me guess, 2011 is going to offer a bunch of Happy Meal toys

b)  But other peo­ple call it the Year of the Tur­tle.

a lit­tle elbow grease to get outta here…if only I had elbows

c)  Some peo­ple call it the Year of the Rab­bit.

you should see my brother with my father’s bowl­ing ball

d) What kind of quiz is this?

e) all of the above

Which answer is correct?

Answer: e. all of the above

2011 also looks like it’s a tug of war between two ani­mals.  Rab­bit and turtle.

In China, as well as many other coun­tries in Asia, the year 2011 is the Year of the Rab­bit.  The Chi­nese have 12 ani­mals that mark their cal­en­dar, one ani­mal for one par­tic­u­lar year.  Being born in a par­tic­u­lar year is believed to give that baby cer­tain qual­i­ties like the ani­mal.  Peo­ple who were born in the year of the rab­bit believe this:

Rab­bit is a shy and friendly ani­mal and doesn’t have too many ene­mies, except for Chicken . There­fore, for those peo­ple who born in the year of Chicken, their peo­ple rela­tion­ship or social con­nec­tion will be poor in the year of 2011.

But con­ser­va­tion­ists call 2011 to be the year of the tur­tle.  Two ani­mals and one year.  Does it remind you of any­thing?  Have you ever heard about the race between the rab­bit and the tur­tle (also called the hare and the tortoise)?

It’s a famous story.  Hap­pened so long ago, in a time where things might or might not have hap­pened but no one can really prove it.  Peo­ple write books about the race. Peo­ple put videos on You Tuber about it. That girl, Nancy, the one who was in your 2nd grade class last year? The one who eats only the bologna inside her sand­wiches? She said some­thing just the other day about it.  It seems as if you can’t get away from that story, and now it looks as if the story is com­ing back!  Are the rab­bit and tur­tle about to meet again for another race for 2011?

A tur­tle chal­lenges a rab­bit to a race after being made fun of by the rab­bit for being slow.

It seems like an unfair race is a race, since the tur­tle has a well-deserved rep­u­ta­tion for being, well, slow.  And the rab­bit for being swift.  But it’s the tur­tle who has made the race hap­pen in the first place.  The race begins.  The rab­bit zooms past the tur­tle, and decides that he, the rab­bit, is so far ahead, that he’ll be able to take a lit­tle nap and wake up in time to still beat the tur­tle.  But you know what hap­pens next, right?  The tur­tle, slow and steady, passes the sleep­ing rab­bit.  The rab­bit doesn’t wake up in time to catch up with the tur­tle, and the tur­tle wins the race.

Maybe it’s a good thing that PARC has decided to enter the tur­tle into the pic­ture for this year.  They say:

“Tur­tles are dis­ap­pear­ing from the planet faster than any other group of animal…However, it’s not too late for our tur­tle her­itage to be salvaged.”

Time to slow the tur­tles down so that they can win.

But maybe the race is actu­ally between us Planet Earth­lings and time.

inter­ac­tive game for kids for ipad avail­able at itunes

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id391149031?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

race with rab­bit – free game online

http://www.gamesclub.com/race-with-rabbit.htm

I’m re-posting this so that it stands out on its own.  The Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion in Con­necti­cut is hav­ing an art con­test for kids!  You don’t even have to live in Con­necti­cut to enter the contest!

All chil­dren from kinder­garten through fifth grade are eli­gi­ble to enter an orig­i­nal draw­ing, paint­ing, or sketch of a tur­tle native to Connecticut.

• Entries will be judged in three cat­e­gories: K-1st grade, 2nd-3rd grade, and 4th-5th grade.
• Prizes will be awarded in each cat­e­gory for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and hon­or­able mention.
• All entries will be dis­played at the Ses­sions Woods Con­ser­va­tion Edu­ca­tion Cen­ter, in Burling­ton, for Year of the Tur­tle Day, sched­uled for June 26, 2011, from 1:00–4:00 PM.
• Full details and entry infor­ma­tion are avail­able on the offi­cial entry form (PDF) or by call­ing the Wildlife Divi­sion at 860–675-8130 (Mon-Fri, 8:30 AM-4:30 PM).

More info here:

http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?a=2723&q=473472&depNav_GID=1655

This dia­mond­back ter­rapin is a native Con­necti­cut resident

What do we know about tur­tles?  Hard shell to pro­tect the body.  Check.  Four legs that don’t move so fast.  Check.  Able to retreat into the shell for pro­tec­tion from out­side forces that wish to do it hard.  Check.  Un-check?

Well, PARC — Part­ners in Amphib­ian and Rep­tile Con­ser­va­tion  – has called this year – 2011 — the Year of the Tur­tle because they would like peo­ple to pay close atten­tion to tur­tles.  Why?   They “…are dis­ap­pear­ing from the planet faster than any other group of ani­mal. Today, nearly 50% of tur­tle species are iden­ti­fied as threat­ened with extinction. “

Their hard shells can­not pro­tect them from loss of their habi­tats, inva­sive dis­eases, cars run­ning them over, peo­ple tak­ing them as pets, and so much more.

There are things we can do to slow down the loss of the tur­tle pop­u­la­tion like not tak­ing tur­tles out in the wild as pets, and not destroy­ing their nests.

We have to not behave like a tur­tle to help pro­tect the turtle!

Read more here: http://parcplace.org/news-a-events/year-of-the-turtle.html

Also the Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion in Con­necti­cut is hav­ing an art con­test for kids.  You don’t even have to live in Con­necti­cut to enter the contest!

All chil­dren from kinder­garten through fifth grade are eli­gi­ble to enter an orig­i­nal draw­ing, paint­ing, or sketch of a tur­tle native to Connecticut.

• Entries will be judged in three cat­e­gories: K-1st grade, 2nd-3rd grade, and 4th-5th grade.
• Prizes will be awarded in each cat­e­gory for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and hon­or­able mention.
• All entries will be dis­played at the Ses­sions Woods Con­ser­va­tion Edu­ca­tion Cen­ter, in Burling­ton, for Year of the Tur­tle Day, sched­uled for June 26, 2011, from 1:00–4:00 PM.
• Full details and entry infor­ma­tion are avail­able on the offi­cial entry form (PDF) or by call­ing the Wildlife Divi­sion at 860–675-8130 (Mon-Fri, 8:30 AM-4:30 PM).

More info here:

http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?a=2723&q=473472&depNav_GID=1655