Vernier Probeware, Chess and Science Education

Here is an excerpt from a grant that I wrote for Vernier Probeware.  Wish me luck as it is worth $10,000 in lab equipment.

"Innovative Lessons:  One such innovative lesson will be an interdisciplinary and physiological study of athletics and intellectual sports in a real situation.  I am currently a soccer and chess coach for our school and this provides a unique opportunity to measure physiological characteristics of each athletic type.  There is a widely held view that chess is not a physical activity.  The athletes would be the control group.  My plan is to engage the physiology students in a real, scientific investigation from initial hypothesis formation to research article publishing in the study of physiological changes in athletes and chess players during competitions. Research from Harvard and other universities have demonstrated the physical nature in brain wave patterns of chess players through MRI and PET scans, however, I have not found any research on other physiological characters such as temperature, heart rate, respiration, etc.  One such study did demonstrate that chess players may lose up to ten pounds during tournaments!  Vernier probes would be an integral part of the data collection and analyzing process, as the current equipment is cumbersome, awkward, and does not reflect the sensitivities needed for such research by students."

Imagine some probes hooked up to this player - EKG, heart rate, respiration, temperature probes, etc.

Coffee News

Pseudomonas putida

Methinks I must have been a bacterium in another life:  Pseudomonas putida.  Many species in this genus persist in a variety of habitats and have a diverse diet.  Some species of Pseudomonas are found feeding on a variety of substances including meat, decaying food, peteroleum oil, cyanide, toluene, geothermal features, and sometimes on humans and other beasts.  One species produces the characteristic rainbow effect on deli cut roast beef.  Don't worry though, as the critter is harmless to you or I (unless it is one of the parasitic species of Pseudomonas aeruginosa - the second most common infection in hospitals!).  So, why not live on coffee?  The little guy is a chemoautotroph that lives on the aromatic compounds in coffee including caffeine.  This makes perfect sense as caffeine is a molecule that contains carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen.  The prime ingredients in living systems.  More on this newly discovered bacteria is at Scientific American.

Caffeine

Eagle Cam

Here is a science link to the live eagle-cam.  This is a great link to just keep running on your computer and occasionally tune in to see how the little eaglets are.  http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles