Ecogeeks : Untamed Science Video Podcast

Why is water special? Water is the only common substance that naturally occurs in three different states: solid, liquid and gas. Between the water molecules are weak bonds, called hydrogen bonds, that hold the molecules together. These bonds are the reason why water has many special properties.

Black bears are one of the few large mammals in North America whose populations are increasing. Populations have been growing steadily since the 1980's and now wildlife managers are faced with difficult questions - what to do with bears when they interact with humans. We've taken the approach that education is the key. People need to know more about bears. In the short web page (search Black Bear Untamed), we created a bunch of short videos for educators to use in the classroom after visiting the eastern black bear workshop in NC. Check it out. http://www.untamedscience.com/biodiversity/animals/chordates/mammals/carnivorans/bears/ursus/american-black-bear

It's spring and love is in the air! Flowers are blooming, bees are buzzing and we humans seem to have gotten a little dose of this love potion too! If you didn't know, being in love has a lot to do with chemistry. When we meet someone we are attracted to, special love molecules are released in our body, and they make us feel and act funny. For example, do you feel your heart rate increase and your palms start to sweat when you bump into that special one? Maybe you're just feeling happy and euphoric? We can thank the molecules adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin for these strange and wonderful feelings we have when we are in love.

The Ocean's Climate is changing ... what are you doing?

This short segment was produced for the Pearson Interactive Science curriculum, set to be released in August of 2011. It's going to be an amazing program that we're excited to show you all!

The ocean looks blue because red, orange and yellow (long wavelength light) are absorbed more strongly by water than is blue (short wavelength light). So when white light from the sun enters the ocean, it is mostly the blue that gets returned. Same reason the sky is blue.

The bony-tongued fishes make up the order Osteoglossiformes. This order is a relatively primitive or basal order of ray-finned fishes. The group contains a wide variety of fishes from the giant arapaima of the amazon the tiny feather-fin knife-fishes and freshwater butterflyfish. The classification of the order comes from a few morphological similarities. In particular, most fish in this group have a kind of bony-tongue. Often this tongue has teeth on it and is used to crush down against the teeth on the top of the mouth.

In March 2011, Jonas and Louise, with the help of Rob and Haley Nelson headed off into the forests of Sweden to learn a bit more about where paper comes from, and what chemistry is doing to help this industry. We visited the plant of EKA chemicals and found out that there really is a lot of chemistry involved. Read more here: http://www.untamedscience.com/year-of-chemistry/april.php

We stopped by to see shark researcher Nick Whitney and learn about his study on shark behavior using accelerometers.

Mote Marine Labs in Sarasota Florida are one of the best places to study sharks. In the next episode we show some of the important research that staff scientist, Nick Whitney is doing with accelerometers.

Jonas, Rob, and Haley take the streets of Boston to make a music video about electricity!

So we keep hearing about changing climates and global warming. But what is the chemistry behind all this? Well, it turns out that in almost every step of the climate discussion, there are interesting chemical stories to be explored. In this video, we learn that chemistry has helped us to understand climate change over thousands of years by analyzing ice cores from glaciers. By looking at the ice, scientists have discovered that global temperatures are currently increasing at a tremendous rate. But thanks to chemistry, there are many new cool solutions that can help us to solve our energy needs.

Plant form and function with Untamed Science.

Why Gortex Works

A short bio video about Louise Fornander