Meet baby Sophie from the Saint Louis Zoo.
Just three months old, this fluffy little Coquerel’s sifaka lemur spends her day riding piggyback on mom Almirena. She is still nursing, but is beginning to reach out and show some curiosity about the food her parents and brother Titus (age 15 months) enjoy. Watch Sophie and Mom interact.
Continue reading Zoo’s conservation efforts in Madagascar include welcoming a baby lemur
Archie the corpse flower’s blossom is dying in the UMSL greenhouse. But Betty, a companion corpse flower is growing fast, and should reach her spectacular and smelly full bloom in the not too distant future.
The corpse flower, titan arum, is the largest flower of its type in the world. Technically, it is an unbranched inflorescence, meaning that within the flower structure are many male and female flowers. Native to the equatorial rain forest of Sumatra, it is spectacular in all senses of the word.
Over 11,00 young robotics enthusiasts from 48 states and 29 countries converged on the Edward Jones Dome for 4 days of team competition and excitement at the International FIRST—For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology—championship last week. The event, sponsored by the Saint Louis Science Center and FIRST, includes challenges for teams from kindergarten through high school.
The Saint Louis area had 34 teams competing in the four categories, and came out with several winners. The Perpetual Chaos Team from St. Louis Gateway Tech earned the “Coopertition” award”, the iBrick First Lego League Team from St. Albans got the judges “Save the Day” award, and fourteen area Junior Lego League Teams won special recognition. Luther Banner, a junior from Hazelwood High School and member of their Robo Hawks team was one of only ten students awarded the “Dean’s List Award” for outstanding leadership.
Continue reading Robotics fans from around the world have field day at Edward Jones Dome
“Cutting edge technology is taking us farther and faster into an extraordinarily challenging domain where the human brain is trying to understand the human brain,” declares Washington University’s Dr. David van Essen, lead investigator for the Human Connectome Project, a consortium of nine institutions.
The $30 million Human Connectome Project plans to create a wiring diagram for the human brain in the next five years. This massive undertaking, led by Washington University School of Medicine and the University of Minnesota’s Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, will make a road map showing how each small area of the cerebral cortex connects to the rest of the brain. The map will give detailed information down to a resolution of 1-2 cubic millimeters.
The brain contains about 90 billion nerve cells (neurons) that make approximately 150 trillion synapses (connections) with each other. Trying to untangle such a vast network seems dazzling in its audacity. However, the Human Genome Project seemed like an impossible dream at one point.
Continue reading Washington University plays leading role in ambitious brain-mapping project
For Missourians, the time to consider a solar energy system is now. The Missouri Clean Energy Initiative, passed overwhelmingly as Proposition C in 2008, requires that 15% of the state’s electrical power come from renewable sources by 2021. As a result of the Clean Energy Initiative, Missouri’s power companies are offering financial incentives to customers who help them meet that goal. ” Erin Noble of the Missouri Coalition to the environment points out that those incentives added to the 30% federal tax credit can reduce the initial cost of a solar installation by up to two-thirds.”
In addition, the cost of solar panels has come down about 30% in the last three years.
Solar Energy Use Becoming More Visible
Until recently solar panels have not been a frequent sight in Missouri. Ameren has only about 200 solar power producers integrated into its grid. (Most commonly, Ameren supplies the needed power to supplement solar production, and will buy excess power if solar production exceeds usage.)
Now solar panels are going public. The Missouri Botanical Garden recently installed a 25 kW array of 100 solar panels on its Commerce Bank Center for Science Education. The panels, given to the Garden by Express Scripts, will produce about 32,000 kW-hrs a year—about 5% of this large building’s electricity requirements, or enough electricity to power four to six average homes.
Continue reading Monetary gains make solar power a more practical choice
