Welcome to the Table, Nihonium, Moscovium, Tennessine & Oganesson!

It's time to buy a new periodic table for the science lab!
Those four new elements officially recognized last December have been named!




Wonder how these names were chosen?  Read about it HERE

From Junk to Art

I'm back in the USA (Minnesota) and went to the coolest place last week.  It's called House of Balls.

This artist takes junk and makes art, using his impressive imagination and some tools I sure wish we had in our Innovation Lab!

The artist (Allen Christian) and me modeling his wacky helmets.

This is a plasma cutter.  It can cut through steel effortlessly and makes sparks go flying!

Allen is using the plasma cutter to make a design on an old kitchen pan.

The finished project!

A collection of old brushes used to make a face.  

Weird stuff was mounted everywhere.

Any guess what this used to be?

This is carved from the same type of object as the one above...Any ideas??

You'll never guess what Allen took apart to harvest all these colorful wooden parts.

Doesn't it seems fun to try making a doll from odds and ends at home?
Do it!

Some Six-Legged Spectacles of the Andean Cloud Forest

I saw vivid and unusual insects (especially butterflies and moths) every single day at Yanayacu.  Is there anything on Earth more beautiful and delicate than the wings of insects?

See those clear windows in the Atlas moth's wings?

This one is like one of those velvet paintings!

This insect is camouflaged to look like an old leaf.

Those spots are meant to trick predators into thinking the moth has enormous eyes.

This is a moth who mimics a wasp to avoid being eaten.

Moths and butterflies rested on every surface imaginable.

Take a look at this grasshopper's jumping legs! 

A well-camouflaged grasshopper.

Rhinoceros beetle with a giant horn.

This moth's wings look like an artist's painting of the solar system.

Take a look that the length of this moth's proboscis 

So many of the moths were fuzzy.

I pinned these for the collection. 

This photo and the ones below were taken inside a butterfly garden in Quito's Jardin Botanico.

Clear wings!

Gorgeous chrysalis.

This boy and his butterfly were too cute not to take a photo!

Lego Galileo's Mission to Jupiter

Read all about it here.

Birdwatching

Every morning the most colorful and exotic birds I've ever seen put on a great show. 

The hummingbirds appeared to have no fear of humans.
I could hear, and even feel, their beating wings.

And the forest was teeming with them.

Hope this little clip will play for you.

Birds darted in to feast on the moths who rested on the white sheet.

This guy was staying at Yanayacu just to take bird photographs.
(His camera was a LOT better than my iPhone.)

While I saw all these birds, the pictures below are professional photographs I pulled from the web.

Wouldn't it be amazing to know how to take photos like these?

Long Tailed Sylph Hummingbird
I gasped out loud when I saw this one flit by.

Masked Trogon (male)

Masked Trogon (female)

Male birds are usually much more colorful than females.

Like all adaptations, the unique colorations increase survival and reproduction rates.

 Why would it be advantageous to have more colorful males and less colorful females?

Beryl Spangled Tanager

Collared Inca Hummingbird

Inca Jay
This one was a loudmouth!

Northern Mountain Cacique
Check out those blue eyes!