Hi there! Sit down and smell the coffee… Inhale… breathe out… inhale… breathe out. Good. Now that we’ve done our exercise for the day, let’s get on with it! Extremophile is the word for today. My mother considers me to be an extremophile because I choose to live on the other side of the world. What’s so extreme about that, eh? Now, those Lolita girls in Japan, wowie! You’d almost have to class them as extremophiles, wouldn’t you think? Or maybe it’s the boys they hang out with.
Extremophiles are microbes that have adapted to extreme environments, such as Utah's Great Salt Lake. But new microorganisms can be found in everyday places, and scientists are showing school kids how to discover and name their own new species.
Thanks to advances in computer technology and DNA testing, scientists are identifying new species faster than ever. There are literally millions and millions of animals, plants and other living creatures all around us.
Elin Kelsey, a science writer, says, "Scientists are discovering more new species today than at any other time in history." She has written a science for kids book called “Strange New Species” and published by Maple Leaf Press in Toronto.
Among the latest extremophile discoveries are tiny microorganisms. Hundreds fit on the head of a pin, yet they're tough enough to survive in Utah's Great Salt Lake. "They've all figured out how to be able to survive in very high salt," says Lynn Rothschild, an astrobiologist at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.
"It's so salty; it's 10-times saltier than the sea," Kelsey tells DBIS. This new organism is an extremophile, which means it likes to live in extreme environments. Sounds to me as though they need some Tequila-philes to go along with all that salt, eh!
Kelsey wants kids to learn about the new species that micro- and astrobiologists are discovering and to get involved. "I hope they really take away the wonder of the world, you know, that there are so many places in which life can exist and does exist," she says.
She shows kids how to find new species using things they have a home. "It really just stretches the idea of where life can exist on Earth and where life could exist, perhaps, in the universe."
Neat stuff, I say. Let’s turn the kids into scientists. Give them each one of those mini-notebooks, an Internet connection, a microscope and a dictionary of weird names. That ought to keep the little devils bust for a few years. There, see…I’ve already done your Christmas shopping list for you!
Since scientists seem to name their discoveries after themselves, I wouldn’t be surprised to soon see Ashley ants, Tiffany tites, LaVon lizards, Miquel mosquitoes and Vuong Vampire mice. I have no idea what a ‘tite’ is. Go ask Ashley. She discovered the darn thing!
Bob
Comment from Wayne in Valleyfield, Quebec:
Hi Bob,
I couldn't find a link to leave a comment Re: the Grey Wolf in Egypt.
So here is my comment.
Near Coteau du Lac, Quebec along the '#20 ' highway is a weigh scale for trucks and the snow removal crew piles up snow in the corner of the parking lot ( Sometimes 12-15 feet high ).
Ocassionally at day break there is a long lean Timber Wolf standing on the pile of snow watching the traffic go by. A very majestic sight indeed.
Wayne 'Bones' Clifford
Bob’s reply:
Just email me your comments, as you did Wayne, and I’ll post them. Blogposts are also on my SalubriousDay http://wwwsalubriousday.net website and there is a comment form there... and it is also run separately as a Blogger blog: http://coffeewithbob.blogspot.com/
Just for the ‘halibut’ as they say in the Maritimes, I also publish several other blogs in my spare time. Scroll down...
Bob
Comment from Paul in Tokyo:
How did you get on our campus to take photos?
There is another term here, るりいーごん which reads as "Loli con" and refers to a Lolita complex. The Lolita Fashion kids are a lot more innocent that the ones with the Lolita complex......many of whom seem to be aging high school teachers who get caught doing weird things a couple of years before retirement.
There is also a group here with "Mazza Con," Mother Complex, but I haven't even had my coffee yet. Too early to deal with that.
Cheers.
Bob’s Reply:
Opening up a Lolita Fashion shop in Thailand sounds like a great entrepreneurial venture for Neng. If it catches on, WOW! But the clothes would have to be made of much lighter material. Black T-shirts are in but Gothic black overcoats…? I can see the umbrellas catching on quickly since Thais love to stay out of the sun.
Stop by my other blogs, eh...
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