A Grain of Sand

If even you aren't into geology, you're going to want to look at Dr. Gary Greenberg's "A Grain of Sand Picture Gallery" at geology.com. He's taken microscopic photographs of grains of sand, with amazing results.

These photos are a sample of what are included in his book "A Grain of Sand: Nature's Secret Wonder." His website for the book is here. While you're there take a look at some of his other microscopic subjects. The flowers are awesome.

Dr. Greenberg gives one a different view of some of nature's beauty.

Understanding Science at Berkeley

The beta version of Understanding Science, created by the UC Museum of Paleontology of the University of California at Berkeley, is up and running.

This is going to be a great resource for lifelong learners and teachers. The official launch will be after the first of the year, most certainly to coincide with the beginning of the Year of Science 2009. But, don't wait for January to roll around, go check it out now.

Be sure to subscribe to receive updates.

Impact of Global Warming in Alaska

"While the earth has warmed approximately 1°F in the last 50 years, according to the National Assessment Synthesis Team, Alaska has warmed approximately 4°F during this same time period. In many ways, Alaska is the “Paul Revere of Global Warming”, and serves as a sentinel for the impacts of global warming."

Sounds like something we want to find out more about doesn't it? Lifelong learners should find this article, Impact of Global Warming in Alaska, and its associated content very interesting. As usual Deborah L. Williams has done an excellent job explaining about "early warning" area.

Getting Ready for Year of Science 2009

The Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) Year of Science 2009 is a great resource for lifelong learners and offers a way for us to get involved in the promotion of science in our society.

Don't miss the COPUS Blog. And you can sign up for updates from COPUS.

Also, launching in October 2008 is Understanding Science at the University of California at Berkeley. According to Understanding Science, speaking of the first phase of this project, "This content will be appropriate for teachers themselves and for the general public and will clarify what science is, how it works, and misconceptions about science. Concepts will be illustrated with both historical and modern exemplars."

Looks like something to keep an eye through the Year of Science.

Ground Water at USGS

Ground-Water Availability in the United States was published in July 2008 by the USGS. You can now download the 79-page pdf.

This report provides a wealth of information on our most important resource. From USGS: "This report examines what is known about the Nation's ground-water availability and outlines a program of study by the U.S. Geological Survey Ground-Water Resources Program to improve our understanding of ground-water availability in major aquifers across the Nation. The approach is designed to provide useful regional information for State and local agencies who manage ground-water resources, while providing the building blocks for a national assessment. The report is written for a wide audience interested or involved in the management, protection, and sustainable use of the Nation's water resources."

This should prove valuable to most lifelong learners.

Beyond the Human Genome Project

We recently talked about the Royal Society podcasts. So just an update here. Check out Beyond the human genome project by Eric Lander. It's listed under Chemistry & Biology, but I can't link directly to the video.

I've had some really positive feedback on this one. The lecture provides insight into the breakthroughs in DNA sequencing and the possibilities for the future.

Sounds like biology students are going to have some very interesting years ahead of them in fighting the some of the worst diseases we face.

Aldo Leopold at Earth Portal

Earth Portal's Topic of the Week is Environment in Focus: A Voice in the Wilderness by William Cronon. This article written in 1998, is introduced thus, "William Cronon pays tribute to a remarkable man and his book that altered forever the landscape of the environmental movement."

Cronon describes Sand County Almanac:

"Sand County is very different, which is probably why it feels as fresh today as it did when it was written-the mark of a true classic. To the first-time reader, it presents itself as an unprepossessing collection of nature writings, brief essays offering reminiscences of landscapes and encounters in natural places, all cast in a spare, lucid prose that is far more elegant and literary than polemical.

Only as one reads more deeply into the book does one begin to recognize the arguments and insights that lie almost between the lines, or appreciate the quiet passion that informs its call for a new human sense of moral responsibility toward the natural world. The voice is that of a first-rate scientist and naturalist, a cool-eyed observer not just of nature but of the human condition, and the tone is far more meditative and ironic than polemical or belligerent. One gets the sense that the author would be much happier getting out into the woods with his dog than finding himself mounting the barricades on behalf of a political cause.

And yet these little essays bespeak nothing less than a revolution in ways of thinking about the human place in nature - a revolution as yet unfinished, but very near the heart of environmental politics in the second half of the 20th century and beyond. By putting into words the deep questions and concerns that would persuade millions of Americans to join the environmental movement in the years after its author’s death, A Sand County Almanac earned itself an indelible place in history."

In addition to the moving essay by Cronan, you will find many links to supplemental reading, related News in Focus articles and website links. Please be sure to follow the link to the Aldo Leopold Archives at the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections.

There is a wealth of study material here for the lifelong learner looking for environmental history resources. Enjoy!

Impacts on Native American Lands

This is a very good collection of study materials from Carleton College, Integrating Research and Education, called Impacts of Resource Development on Native American Lands.

It covers six case studies:

• Uranium Mining on the Navajo Nation
• Gold Mining and the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation
• Coal Bed Methane and the Crow Reservation
• Water Resources and the Nez Perce Indian Reservation
• Gold Mining and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
• Resources of the Pribilof Islands

This actually just one part of many sections of Integrating Research and Education, including one on Hurricane Katrina and the Yellowstone Geoecosystem.

I think lifelong learners will find this to be a very nice addition to their study resources.

Serendipity at Darwin College

What a wonderful find! This 2008 series about Serendipity is truly a delight to listen to. These lectures provide insight into the part that serendipity has played in astronomy, archaeology, biology, a writer's life, politics, physics and anthropology. They are made available by Darwin College at Cambridge University.

Please note that the first lecture is Serendipity's Guide to the Galaxy by Andy Fabian, so they are listed in reverse order on the Darwin Lecture Series - Podcast page. I mention this because, the introduction to Andy Fabian's lecture provides a bit of background about the lectures.

The speakers also include Richard Leakey and Simon Winchester. I won't diminish your enjoyment of Simon Winchester's The Unanticipated Pleasures of the Writing Life by telling his first story, but you will enjoy it.

This is an extremely enjoyable, as well as educational, resource for lifelong learners.

A.P. European History

This course from historyteacher.net is not a college course, but a high school Advanced Placement European History course. However, it contains an enormous amount of study material.

Many, many primary document links are most welcome. Plus links to appropriate subject websites are mostly active--only a few broken. Some great PowerPoint slides are also available.

You'll be glad you checked this one out. Have fun.

UC Berkeley Podcast Schedule Up

Now we know which Fall 2008 courses Berkeley has chosen to podcast. In fact, the first lectures are already online. This time frame between lecture and posting is much-improved over previous years.

So, what's available? Check it out here. You will find biology, chemistry, computer science, cyber culture, economics, education, electrical engineering, engineering, English (literature), geography, history, international studies, law, mechanical engineering, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, public health, sociology and statistics.

Of course, as you see, my favorites professors, George Brimhall and Nathan Sayre, are no where to be found. I'm hoping they will be back on the list soon.

California History Lectures

Take a look at these Bancroft Library (UC Berkeley) lectures. They're one-hour audio lectures about the history of California--seven of them:

• The California Mission as Symbol and Myth
• Like America Only More So: The Origins and Power of California's Image
• Heaven on the Half-shell: Mark Twain in California
• California's Greatest Thirst: A Glance at the Contentious History of California's Water
• An Entrepreneurial Genius: Henry J. Kaiser
• Kick Out the Southern Pacific
• A Library for California

This is an exceptional collection to supplement any lifelong learner's California history resources.

International Relations at University of Oregon

Here's an interesting course taught by Professor Ronald Mitchell, PS205: Introduction to International Relations, at the University of Oregon.

What's available? Excellent resources, including:

• Syllabus
• Lecture notes for 20 class sessions
• Case study assignment, including a pdf of materials for assignment and links to use (great assignment for lifelong learners)
• Targeted links to websites pertinent to the course

This is definitely a course you will want to add to your independent learning resources for understanding how our world works today.

History of Science at Princeton

Take a look at History 398 Technologies and Their Societies: Historical Perspectives, taught by Professor Michael S. Mahoney.

This 2006 course website offers an enormous amount of information on the history of science, focusing on technology. Almost all of the links are active, though sadly, a few are broken. Each week has extensive readings and links to material pertinent to the current topic.

One link of note is to The Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850 - 1920 at Duke University. I was not familiar with this archive that contains over 9,000 images in this one collection, plus many more collections. One area which I found very interesting was the collection of advertising cookbooks from 1878 to 1929.

Lifelong learners should find this course an interesting addition to learning resources.

Geobiology at MIT

One of MIT Open Courseware offerings is 12.007 Geobiology. This course uses Steven Stanley's Earth System History and additional readings are recommended. Lecture slides (pdf's) and text lecture notes are available. Several assignments give lifelong learners guidance on how to structure learning projects. "Take-home" exams top off the materials offered.

The course home page uses this description: "The interactive Earth system: Biology in geologic, environmental and climate change throughout Earth history. Since life began it has continually shaped and re-shaped the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and the solid earth. Introduces the concept of "life as a geological agent" and examines the interaction between biology and the earth system during the roughly 4 billion years since life first appeared. Topics include the origin of the solar system and the early Earth atmosphere; the origin and evolution of life and its influence on climate up through and including the modern age and the problem of global warming; the global carbon cycle; and astrobiology."

Even without podcasts, which we are always expecting in our courses now, this is an excellent independent scholar's resource.

Just a side note: The image used on the course home page is one of Ron Blakey's great maps. See this post on The Coconino Chronicles.

Seeing in the Dark

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific has a great e-newsletter called The Universe in the Classroom. The archive contains a lot of good overview material on astronomy topics.

The Fall 2007, Special Issue: Seeing in the Dark, is about the PBS special done by Timothy Ferris which aired on September 19, 2007. In the program Ferris explores amateur astronomy and highlights some of the contributions that those amateurs have made and are making to our body of astronomical knowledge.

The PBS companion website, in addition to information about the program, the people behind it and its filming, has several study topics listed, appropriately enough, under "Astronomy Topics."

It's a good starting point for lifelong learners wanting to add amateur astronomy to their learning projects.

The Ancient Olympics

Since the 2008 Olympics is taking place right now, here's a nice little diversion for you from the Perseus Digital Library Project, called The Ancient Olympics.

It's a really easy read, but quite a few "just so you know" bits of information, like the different views on how the Olympics got started. It's a little dated on the modern side as it talks about the "coming Atlanta games." But, since it focuses on the ancient games, that really isn't a problem.

Take a peek and see if you can find a little lifelong learner's nugget about the Olympics that you didn't know. Oh, and enjoy the remainder of the 2008 modern Games.

Natural History at Dickinson College

Romantic Natural History: A website designed to survey relationships between literary works and natural history in the century before Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) is not a course, but it is a nice resource for lifelong learners interested in natural history.

Most of all it is a visual feast and it will only get better, since it is a work in progress, with materials added often.

This is one resource to visit again and again. Ashton Nichols and student researchers are doing a great job at Dickinson College.

Romantic Natural Histories--the book was published in 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Conservation Biology at UIUC

IB 451 (ENVST 420, CPSC 436) Conservation Biology is Professor Ken Paige's Spring 2007, course at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His course website contains excellent lecture slides and lab readings. All resources are accessible. The lectures are in PowerPoint, with lecture notes in Word, and the readings are pdf's, so they're all easy to download.

He uses the textbook: Principles of Conservation Biology, Martha J. Groom, Gary K. Meffe, C. Ronald Carroll, 3rd edition.

All in all, lots of good information for lifelong learners studying conservation biology.

Introduction to General Astronomy

Alex Filippenko says that his class, Astro C10 / LS C70U Introduction to General Astronomy, is a description of the entire cosmos. He also says that this is one of the golden ages of astronomy because there are so many discoveries being made.

This is an excellent overview of the universe and introduction to Astronomy.

This course has video podcasts, as well as mp3's. Each video presents excellent slides in addition to the instructor's powerful lecture. This is one case where you can say, "He knows his astronomy so thoroughly that he wrote the book." Literally, he is the co-author, with Jay M. Pasachoff, of the textbook used in this course, The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium.

The companion website to this book provides some additional study materials, plus a link out to Jay Pasachoff's Astronomy 101 The Cosmos course at Williams College. I just discovered this additional resource while preparing for this post, so I have not yet looked at any of these videos. This will be interesting to see the difference in the presentations of these two professors. Let's rethink this--after further review, it appears both of them may be doing these lectures. I'll update this post after I have time to explore these lectures.

So far, I have not found a course website for either of these.