Posted on 5th July 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | health | sciences
anti-aging, grain, grains, nutrition, supplements, whole
This learn node points you to definitions by the Whole Grain Council, Mayo Clinic explanations of natural whole grain nutrition, and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health lectures on Popular Diets and Dietary Supplements. For learning the role of whole grains in healthy, nutrition, and anti-aging, these three excellent, authoritative sources bring together nutrition facts for natural whole grain and studies of nutrition supplements.
The image with this post is Bob’s Red Mill’s drawing of the basic whole grain anatomy: bran, endosperm, and germ, plus a slide from Lecture 6 of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health course on Critical Analysis of Popular Diets and Dietary Supplements.
Posted on 3rd June 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | ecology | geography | sciences
biodiversity, forest, forests, papua_new_guinea, rain, remote_sensing
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The New York Times report on the biodiversity topic “Forest Disappearing in Papua New Guinea” is a learn node connecting to interrelated topics of significance and urgency. The full rain forest report can be downloaded from the PGN Remote Sensing Center whose homepage is shown in the image with this post. For background on the Papua New Guinea location of this specific biodiversity challenge, the New York Times has a detailed PNG country section. Enriching this learn node from the sciences side are Connexions learning objects on the definition of biodiversity and an introduction to biodiversity.
Posted on 20th May 2008 by Judy Breck in astronomy | engineering | general science | sciences
lander, landing, mars, mission, phoenix, surface
Phoenix Mars Lander is the topic of a magnificent learn node in the New York Science times today. Like any quality learn node, this one in the Times focuses on a small hunk of a subject: the scheduled landing of the vehicle this week on Mars. The node has internal links to superb supporting materials such as the graphic from which a piece is shown at the top of this post – although the graphic regretfully does not have a url of its own. Other internal links do, such as the slide show.
The node aspects are stunted here because there are not links beyond the NY Times to related material, such as The University of Arizona’’s Phoenix Mars Mission home webpage and NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander homepage. The great news is that the New York Times no longer posts its science materials for free and then a few days later closes them behind a paid subscription. Since it will remain open online, this Phoenix Mars Lander node will remain available to link into other networks of space exploration and related subjects.
Posted on 14th May 2008 by Judy Breck in engineering | mechanics | physics | sciences
buildings, damage, earthquake, frequency, oscillation, resonance, Sichuan
The above image combines a map from the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program with a formula from a Connexions module by Sunil Kumar Singh that teaches forced oscillation. The map was captured as a screenshot from the USGS website 2 days after the Sichuan Earthquake began, and as the large squares on the map indicate, the aftershocks were continuing.
The Connexions module text accompanying the formula explains:
The resonance is an interesting feature of oscillation. This phenomenon attracts interest as it makes possible to achieve extra-ordinary result (material failure of large structure) with small force! Resonance also explains why earthquake causes differentiating result to different structures – most devastating where resonance occurs! The condition for maximum amplitude is obtained by differentiating amplitude function with respect to applied frequency as [the illustrated formula sets out.]
Thomas L. Pratt, who teaches research geophysicists at the University of Washington, provides a webpage that explains frequencies, periods, and resonance in which he includes this simple explanation: “Resonance is when motion at a given frequency is amplified by waves of that same frequency. For example, when a child is being pushed on a swing, the swinging is increased by a push being applied at the right time (at the correct frequency) during each swing.”
At Science Fair Central you can follow instructions for a simple experiment with 2 paper circles and a piece of cardboard to show why earthquakes shake some buildings more than others.
Posted on 1st April 2008 by Judy Breck in engineering | health | sciences
bulb, energy-saving, hygiene, industrial, Johns Hopkins, led_lighting, light, safety
If you have been wondering just how dangerous it is to break one of the new energy-saving light bulbs, click to play this video to find out. As it has recently been opening more of its content online, the Wall Street Journal is becoming a valuable resource for learning content. The above video is an example. Students interested in the health an safety implications from the video can flip on some outstanding expertise from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health course materials. An introductory lecture includes this definition of Industrial Hygiene:
Science and art devoted to the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of those workplace environmental factors which may cause sickness, impaired health and well-being, or significant discomfort and inefficiency among workers or among citizens of the community.
If you have time to listen to the complete brief video, you will get a preview on LED lighting, which this expert predicts as the future of lighting. You can also copy the code by clicking the icon on the video, and embed it in teaching, learning or other bright idea online locations.
Posted on 5th March 2008 by Judy Breck in chemistry | engineering | general science | sciences
learn, materials, metallurgy, NIST, science, solder, soldering, tutorial
The triangle of information shown in this learn node is a phase diagram thermodynamic calculation for solder Bi-Pb-Sn. So who care about something like that? In the advancing complexity of metallurgy, depth of detail is important. This is the explanation of the NIST host of the diagram, whose Web site explains the mission:
The NIST Metallurgy Division is working closely with materials suppliers and users to develop the measurement and standards infrastructure needed in diverse technological areas – from steelmaking to the fabrication of nanostructured multilayers for magnetic recording heads. . . .
Learning about solder might seem more likely to involve technique, like that offered in the PDF which contains the illustration of “Tinning the soldering iron” from About Soldering—making Clip Leads—CLK from MIT’s Open Courseware. A sample of third sort of soldering knowledge available online is this popular Soldering Guide, a tutorial supported by Google ads.
Within the open Internet, patterns of related ideas for the subject of solder can be an amalgam from diverse sources.
More learn nodes at: learnodes.com
Posted on 25th January 2008 by Judy Breck in physics | sciences
Chandra, cycle, MIT, neutron, physics, pulser, reactor, star, vela, x-ray
In a learn node here featuring the MIT Open Courseware on Neutron Science and Reactor Physics this chart of the Neutron Life Cycle is found in Lecture 7. The introduction to the lecture explains that:
A major objective of this course is to determine the neutron flux as a function of both position within a reactor core and the neutron energy. Neutron life cycle analysis is the first method that we will examine for this purpose. It was the principal means of design for nuclear reactors in the 1950s, before the advent of significant computational power. It remains an important tool for qualitative understanding and, in some cases, for quantitative analysis of criticality.
Cosmic perspective on neutrons, is found at the Chandra X-Ray Observatory webpages on Neutron Stars/X-ray Binaries. The image is the Vela Pulser.
More learn nodes at: learnodes.com
Posted on 23rd January 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | health | sciences
biological, bioterrorism, botulism, courseware, microbes, open, toxins, weapons
A learn node of up-to-date knowledge of what homeland security is up against in the area of manipulating naturally occurring deadly materials is provided in the OpenCourseware at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in a course called Biological Agents of Water and Foodbourne Bioterrorism. The Notes to first lecture include this alarming overview:
- The microorganisms and toxins that could act as biological weapons are naturally occurring.
- The agents that could potentially be used as biological weapons are diverse and widely distributed in nature and include −
–viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa −
–the toxins produced by many microbes
-These microbes are found naturally in soils, waters, plants, and animals.
The Bioterrorism section of the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a cluster of the latest expert material for the topic, including specific bioterrorism agents. The sections about agents are superb learnodes for their topics. For example the botulism information is broad and deep concerning the disease, its prevention and treatment.
More learn nodes at: learnodes.com
Posted on 13th November 2007 by Judy Breck in history | sciences
beans, beer, chemistry, chocolate, cocoa, history, MIT
This tasty learn node includes reports of discoveries in the history of chocolate from the Los Angeles Times, New York Science Times and other open sources relaying to the public science news that is from a source is limited to its paid subscribers (in this case the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).
The chocolate news from the LA Times report:
Humans began exploiting cacao beans for alcohol before they started using them to make chocolate, according to new findings that push the earliest known use of cacao back about 500 years.
Residue scraped from pottery vessels dating to 1400 B.C. to 1100 B.C. indicate that residents of Honduras’ remote Ulua Valley fermented the sweet pulp of the chocolate plant to make an alcoholic drink well before they began grinding the bitter seeds and mixing them with honey and chiles to produce the equivalent of modern cocoa. . . .
Open chocolate history, chemistry and food information are richly available online. To pick a few pieces out of the virtual chocolate knowledge box: This MIT Kitchen Chemistry page includes a topic-by-topic online chocolate topic tour. Chicago’s Field Museum has an online chocolate knowledge feast Chocolate: The Exhibition. And the US Food and Drug Administration has a page (from which the image of chocolates above is taken) on its standards for chocolate.
More learn nodes at: learnodes.com
Posted on 23rd October 2007 by Judy Breck in biology | health | sciences
bacteria, disease, drug-resistant, MRSA, wash_hands
This learn node illustration is from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s course on Public Health Biology: page 26 of Lecture 5 (PDF). The Johns Hopkins course is an excellent source for learning about how diseases infect us, how they make us sick. and how they can become resistant to drugs. A particularly lethal bacteria is very much in the news for its drug resistance: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). An excellent primer on MRSA can be found at the online Mayo Clinic.
We all want to know how to keep the bacteria from finding us and making us sick – or even killing us. Today the New York Times published answers to many of our questions about how to stay well as this superbug bacteria gets more resistant and more wide-spread.
As you have probably been hearing and reading, washing our hands is a key way to keep safe from the superbugs. Below are links to webpages reviewing how and why do to that. One of the things I learned from finding them is to use the towel I dry with to turn off the faucet: it protects from reinfecting my hands (makes sense).
How To Wash Your Hands (video)
The National Food Service Management Institute
Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Caught Dirty-Handed MicroWorld games
More learn nodes at: learnodes.com
