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A Free Online Science Project

The Virtual Science Project is a free live help and online resource for teachers, parents and students to integrated lesson plans, interactive activities, articles, discovery, experiments, labs, media, projects and science news for educational and home school settings.
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Ghost in Your Genes!

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Scientists have long puzzled over the different fates of identical twins: both have the same genes, yet only one may develop a serious disease like cancer or autism. What's going on? Does something else besides genes determine who we are? NOVA explores this startling possibility in this program.

The "something else" turns out to be a network of chemical switches that sit on our DNA, turning genes off and on. Called collectively the epigenome, the switches appear to play a major role in everything from how our cells keep their identity to whether we contract dread diseases. Epigenetic switches may even help mold our personalities—or so it appears to Canadian researchers studying a group of epigenetically modified rats.

Website: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/genes/

 
 
Last Updated on Friday, 18 September 2009 02:23
 

Ape Genius

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Something strange is happening in the forests of Africa. Chimpanzees are doing things no one has seen them do before: they are having pool parties. But that's not all. At a site called Fongoli, in Senegal, they have also invented a remarkable way to catch a meal. They are making spears and hunting, just like our ancestors.

Fresh steaks and a swimming pool? How long until they fire up the barbecue? After all, the great apes—chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas, and bonobos—seem so much like us, it's hard not to feel a deep connection.

What Makes Us Human?
Recent brain imaging research is offering new insights.
The Ape That Teaches
Why is our ability to teach so critical and so complicated? MIT's Rebecca Saxe explains.
Kanzi the Bonobo
In this audio slide show, researcher Sue Savage-Rumbaugh describes one extraordinarily linguistic ape.
Our Family Tree
See (and hear) where you stand among the great apes in this audiovisual interactive.
Video Extras
Clever bonobo, dim-witted chimp? You decide.

READ MORE ...

Retrieved from: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/apegenius/

Last Updated on Saturday, 20 June 2009 18:38
 

Encountering Sea Monsters

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Encountering Sea Monsters NATURE’s Encountering Sea Monsters follows Bob Cranston in his quest to film and understand the world’s most mysterious cephalopods.

Imagine coming face to face with a cannibalistic creature that is as tall as you are and has long tentacles, a razor-sharp beak, and skin that flashes with bizarre, dazzling color. NATURE’s Encountering Sea Monsters does just that, as underwater cameraman Bob Cranston explores the remarkable world of marine creatures called cephalopods. Cephalopods include squids, cuttlefish, octopi, and nautili.

Cranston and top marine scientists dive in waters from Indonesia and Mexico to Australia and Texas, meeting up with a variety of cephalopods — from the tiny but deadly blue-ringed octopus to the giant Humboldt squid, known for its aggressive behavior, flashing light shows, and cannibalism.

Join Bob Cranston as he fearlessly reaches out and interacts with some of the ocean’s most fascinating life forms.

Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/encountering-sea-monsters/introduction/558/

 

Last Updated on Thursday, 25 June 2009 21:12
 

A bird that keeps the beat

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Video | New research shows that Snowball the sulfur-crested cockatoo moves in time to musical beats, an ability long attributed only to people.Credit: Aniruddh D. 

A dancing cockatoo shows that humans aren’t the only animals with rhythm

By Stephen Orne

The idea for a science experiment can come from an unusual place. After watching a YouTube video of a dancing bird named Snowball, a scientist in California decided to study the ability of animals to keep the beat.

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Retrieved from www.sciencenews.org

Last Updated on Thursday, 21 May 2009 06:15
 
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SCIENCE NEWS

NOVA scienceNOW | PBS
NOVA turns its lens on the timeliest developments and most intriguing personalities in science and technology in a new magazine series, NOVA scienceNOW, and we want to hear what you think about it.
NOVA scienceNOW