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How is digital data stored and transmitted?
Next Generation Science Standards ask us to teach about digital transmission and storage of information:
Evaluate questions about the advantages of using digital transmission and storage of information.
Clarification Statement: Examples of advantages could include that digital information is stable because it can be stored reliably in computer memory, transferred easily, and copied and shared rapidly. Disadvantages could include issues of easy deletion, security, and theft.
From sfu.ca/~gotfrit/ZAP_Sept.3_99/d/digital.html
As a science teacher who enjoys learning about technology, I wholeheartedly agree. The questions are: How much about this should students learn? In what grades, and in what classes should they learn this? Will the school leadership support interdisciplinary collaboration between science, mathematics, and computer teachers in the district, to allow for the best possible pedagogy?
My informal survey of teachers reveals that many school districts don’t have much collaboration between middle-school and high-school teachers, nor much between HS teachers in different departments, Currently the only way that many students learn about these ideas is when a teacher, on their own, adds this topic as enrichment – within an already over-packed curriculum.
I suggest that we set up meetings between science, math, and coding teachers. And while we’re at – restore computer programming (“coding”) classes to the mainstream middle school curriculum!
Why Johnny Can’t Code. By David Brin
With such collaboration we can develop interesting lessons and resources. The basic ideas could be taught in 7th or 8th grade; they’d be reinforced in high school.
To be clear, not everyone needs to learn computer coding, hardware design, etc. Rather, all NGSS Standards say is that it is reasonable & important for citizens to understand the digital world in which we live. Our lives revolve around computers; the internet; smartphones; news, articles, and books readable on E-readers, tablets or computers; streaming audio, and streaming video.
As such, I would want students leaving high school to have some basic grasp of these ideas:
What are binary numbers?
Why do computers use binary at all? Why not just use “regular,” base 10 numbers?
Why do computers use base 2 instead of base 10? Base 10 Computers did use to exist
and
Why-do-computers-use-binary-numbers?
How are letters and words stored in digital form?
How can binary numbers represent non-numbers such as letters and symbols? Khan Academy
and
httHow does a computer convert text into binary or 0’s and 1’s?
and
Representing text, images and sound
How is audio and video stored in digital form?
How Digital Audio Works: From a list of numbers to the magic you hear
How is data physically stored?
(e.g. How does information get written to a hard drive, USB stick, DVD, etc.?)
Hard Drives: How Do They Work? TechBytes U Mass Amherst
How hard drives work. Computer Hope
How is data transmitted from one place to another?
How is data put on radio waves?
Is data – information – something physically real?
As it turns out, yes. All data has physical reality.
Is data physically real? Does data have mass?
Where did computers originally come from?
Their history goes back much further than most people realize.
Where did computers come from? A short history
NGSS Learning Standards
NGSS HS-PS4-2
Evaluate questions about the advantages of using digital transmission and storage of information.
Clarification Statement: Examples of advantages could include that digital information is stable because it can be stored reliably in computer memory, transferred easily, and copied and shared rapidly. Disadvantages could include issues of easy deletion, security, and theft.
Science and Engineering Practices: Asking Questions and Defining Problems
Asking questions and defining problems in grades 9–12 builds from grades K–8 experiences and progresses to formulating, refining, and evaluating empirically testable questions and design problems using models and simulations. Evaluate questions that challenge the premise(s) of an argument, the interpretation of a data set, or the suitability of a design.
Disciplinary Core Ideas – PS4.A: Wave Properties
Information can be digitized (e.g., a picture stored as the values of an array of pixels); in this form, it can be stored reliably in computer memory and sent over long distances as a series of wave pulses.
Crosscutting Concepts
Stability and Change: Systems can be designed for greater or lesser stability.
Connections to Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science
Influence of Engineering, Technology, and Science on Society and the Natural World
* Modern civilization depends on major technological systems.
* Engineers continuously modify these technological systems by applying scientific knowledge and engineering design practices to increase benefits while decreasing costs and risks.
NGSS Evidence Statements
Students evaluate the given questions in terms of whether or not answers to the questions would:
i. Provide examples of features associated with digital transmission and storage of
information (e.g., can be stored reliably without degradation over time, transferred easily, and copied and shared rapidly; can be easily deleted; can be stolen easily by making a copy; can be broadly accessed);
In their evaluation of the given questions, students:
i. Describe the stability and importance of the systems that employ digital information as they relate to the advantages and disadvantages of digital transmission and storage of information; and
ii. Discuss the relevance of the answers to the question to real-life examples (e.g., emailing your homework to a teacher, copying music, using the internet for research, social media).
When buildings collapse: analysis of structural failures
Engineering is the use of physics to safely design buildings, vehicles, or infrastructure.
Basic idea: Loads on architectural and civil engineering structures
Structural loads are an important consideration in the design of buildings.
Building codes require that structures be designed and built to safely resist all actions that they are likely to face during their service life.
Minimum loads are specified in these building codes for types of structures, geographic locations, usage and building materials.
A famous example of why we need to understand and calculate forces correctly is the Ponte Morandi (Morandi Bridge) bridge collapse. This was a bridge in Genoa, Italy, constructed in the 1960s over the river Polcevera. In 2018, it collapsed during a rainstorm. 43 people died. This led engineers to engage in extensive analysis of the structural failure.
This diagram shows how engineers use physics – forces and vectors – to model the stress and load on every part of a structure.
from the New York Times article, Genoa Bridge Collapse:
The Road to Tragedy. 9/6/2018
Structural loads are split into categories by their originating cause. In terms of the actual load on a structure, there is no difference between dead or live loading, but the split occurs for use in safety calculations or ease of analysis on complex models.
We have to take many kinds of loads into consideration:
Dead loads, Live loads, Environmental loads,
Changes in loads due to
• Foundation settlement or displacement
• Fire
• Corrosion
• Explosion
• Creep (tendency of a solid material to move slowly or deform permanently under the influence of persistent mechanical stresses)
• Impact from vehicles or machinery vibration
• Construction loads
(This section adapted from Structural load, Wikipedia.)
As science teachers we can use news events about structural collapse to illuminate NGSS Phenomena; this is a storyline approach to teaching physics.
Such phenomenon tie into:
Dynamics – the study of forces and their effects on motion. In high school we learn about this as “Forces” and “Newton’s laws of motion.”
Vectors are ways of showing the magnitude and direction of forces.
Mechanical equilibrium: If civil engineering was religion, the first commandment would be: “Thou shalt always have static equilibrium.” The principle is simple: the sum of all the forces acting on a structure should come to zero.
Free body diagrams – The simplest way to understand how objects are affected by forces: free body diagrams.
Surfside Condominium Florida collapse, 2021
‘Something Off’: Miami Collapse Complex Had Issues, Justin Rohrlich and Zoe Richards, The Daily Beast, 6/25/2017
The Champlain Towers complex was the subject of at least one lawsuit, and it attracted the attention of scientists alarmed over land erosion.
9/11 terrorist attack and destruction of the World Trade Center, 2001
The September 11 attacks, often referred to as 9/11, were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Wahhabi Islamist terrorist group Al-Qaeda against the United States. This occurred on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
FEMA Chapter 2. World Trade Center Building Performance Study: Data Collection, Preliminary Observations, and Recommendations. FEMA 403, May 2002
Image above from FEMA Chapter 2. World Trade Center Building Performance Study: Data Collection, Preliminary Observations, and Recommendations. FEMA 403, May 2002
Engineering analysis of the destruction. Addressing conspiracy theories
Boston, Massachusetts area events
2000 Commonwealth Avenue collapse (in 1971)
Failure case studies – 2000 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Collapse of 2000 Commonwealth Avenue: Punching Shear Case Study
Punching shear is usually the critical failure mechanism for flat slab reinforced concrete structures. This mechanism is illustrated in Fig. 5. With this type of failure, the column and part of the slab punch through the slab as it moves downward.
The force acting on the slab around a column overcomes the resistance and the slab falls down around the column. A portion of the slab is left around the column, but the remainder of the slab falls to the next floor. If the lower slab is unable to hold up both floors, then a progressive collapse will begin.
Also, punching shear redistributes forces acting on the failed slab to other columns. If the other columns cannot carry the added weight, then the slab will start punching through the surrounding columns as well. Punching shear at one column can initiate a complete failure of a building.
When the Pickwick Club Collapse Killed 44 in Boston; the Charleston Took the Blame, event in 1925, New England Historical Society
Related articles
Making a Difference when Disaster Strikes: Structural Engineering Emergency Response
William C. Bracken, Structure magazine, 2/2018
Learning from Disasters, Jessica Mandrick, Structure magazine, 11/2016
Structural integrity and failure, Wikipedia
Learning Standards
2016 Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework
HS-PS2-1. Analyze data to support the claim that Newton’s second law of motion is a mathematical model describing change in motion (the acceleration) of objects when acted on by a net force.
HS-PS2-10(MA). Use free-body force diagrams, algebraic expressions, and Newton’s laws of motion to predict changes to velocity and acceleration for an object moving in one dimension in various situations
2016 High School Technology/Engineering
HS-ETS1-1. Analyze a major global challenge to specify a design problem that can be improved. Determine necessary qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions, including any requirements set by society.
HS-ETS1-2. Break a complex real-world problem into smaller, more manageable problems that each can be solved using scientific and engineering principles.
HS-ETS1-3. Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, aesthetics, and maintenance, as well as social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
HS-ETS1-4. Use a computer simulation to model the impact of a proposed solution to a complex real-world problem that has numerous criteria and constraints on the interactions within and between systems relevant to the problem.
HS-ETS1-5(MA). Plan a prototype or design solution using orthographic projections and isometric drawings, using proper scales and proportions.
HS-ETS1-6(MA). Document and present solutions that include specifications, performance results, successes and remaining issues, and limitations.
A FRAMEWORK FOR K-12 SCIENCE EDUCATION: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas
PS2.A: FORCES AND MOTION
How can one predict an object’s continued motion, changes in motion, or stability?
Interactions of an object with another object can be explained and predicted using the concept of forces, which can cause a change in motion of one or both of the interacting objects… At the macroscale, the motion of an object subject to forces is governed by Newton’s second law of motion… An understanding of the forces between objects is important for describing how their motions change, as well as for predicting stability or instability in systems at any scale.
Influenza vaccine
“Flu” is short for “influenza virus”.
How are influenza vaccines made?
The US CDC and other labs partner with the World Health Organization (WHO) to choose certain virus strains to send to private vaccine manufacturers.
The flu can mutate and strains can change each year, meaning new vaccines are needed for every flu season.
The selected virus is injected into a fertilized hen’s eggs, where it incubates and replicates for a few days — just as it would do inside a human host.
Scientists then harvest fluid containing the virus from the egg.
They inactivate the virus so it can no longer cause disease, and purify it, leaving scientists with the virus antigen.
The antigen is the crucial element — it’s a substance released by the virus that triggers your immune system to respond. That’s how the vaccine prepares your immune system for a real infection.
The entire process, from the arrival of the egg to the publicly available vaccine, takes at least six months, according to the CDC.
Graphic by Jason Kwok, CNN article, with info from US CDC
Why does the flu vaccine seem to make some people sick?
Vaccines merely stimulate our immune system, which temporarily creates non-specific responses. For example, redness, swelling, small increase in body temperature.
These are not a sign of infection. Rather, they are the normal signs that your body is developing defenses against the antigen.
How effective is the influenza vaccine?
How effective are influenza vaccines?
No one claims that vaccines are 100% effective. No medical technique is 100% effective. Most vaccines are very effective, usually over 90% effective.
However, that is not yet the case for flu vaccines. The flu virus evolves through natural selection, like all viruses and life, and it happens to evolve very quickly.
“CDC conducts studies each year to determine how well the influenza (flu) vaccine protects against flu illness. While vaccine effectiveness can vary, recent studies show that flu vaccination reduces the risk of flu illness by between 40% and 60% among the overall population during seasons when most circulating flu viruses are well-matched to the flu vaccine. In general, current flu vaccines tend to work better against influenza B and influenza A(H1N1) viruses and offer lower protection against influenza A(H3N2) viruses.”
Vaccine Effectiveness – How Well Does the Flu Vaccine Work? CDC (Centers for Disease Control)
So if it isn’t perfect, why use this vaccine at all?
Excerpted from the CDC article:
Keeps you from getting sick with flu.
Reduces risk of flu-associated hospitalization, including among children and older adults.
Flu vaccination lowers rates of some cardiac (heart) events among people with heart disease
Reduces chances of being hospitalized among people with diabetes (79%) and chronic lung disease (52%).
Helps protect women during and after pregnancy. Getting vaccinated can also protect a baby after birth from flu. (Mom passes antibodies onto the developing baby during her pregnancy.)
Vaccination reduced the risk of flu-associated acute respiratory infection by about one half
Significantly reduces a child’s risk of dying from influenza.
It can make your illness milder even if you do get sick.
Most importantly, it protects people around you, including those who are more vulnerable to serious flu illness, like babies and young children, older people.
.
Why don’t we yet have a vaccine for HIV/AIDS?
Intro – What is HIV?
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that attacks cells that help the body fight infection, making a person more vulnerable to other infections and diseases.
It is spread by contact with certain bodily fluids of a person with HIV, most commonly during unprotected sex (sex without a condom or HIV medicine to prevent or treat HIV), or through sharing injection drug equipment.
HIV leads to the disease AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).
The human body can’t get rid of HIV and no effective HIV cure exists. So, once you have HIV, you have it for life.
from HIV.Gov
HIV infecting a human cell. Credit: NIH Image Gallery
HIV/AIDS vaccine: Why don’t we have one after 37 years, when we have several for COVID-19 after a few months?
Ronald C. Desrosiers writes
HIV has evolved an ability to generate and to tolerate many mutations in its genetic information. The consequence of this is an enormous amount of variation among strains of the virus not only from one individual to another but even within a single individual.
Let’s use influenza for a comparison. Everyone knows that people need to get revaccinated against influenza virus each season because of season-to-season variability in the influenza strain that is circulating.
Well, the variability of HIV within a single infected individual exceeds the entire worldwide sequence variability in the influenza virus (*) during an entire season.
What are we going to put into a vaccine to cover this extent of strain variability?
HIV has also evolved an incredible ability to shield itself from recognition by antibodies. Enveloped viruses such as coronaviruses and herpes viruses encode a structure on their surface that each virus uses to gain entry into a cell.
This structure is called a “glycoprotein,” meaning that it is composed of both sugars and protein.
But the HIV envelope glycoprotein is extreme. It is the most heavily sugared protein of all viruses in all 22 families. More than half the weight is sugar.
And the virus has figured out a way, meaning the virus has evolved by natural selection, to use these sugars as shields to protect itself from recognition by antibodies that the infected host is trying to make. The host cell adds these sugars and then views them as self.
These properties have important consequences relevant for vaccine development efforts. The antibodies that an HIV-infected person makes typically have only very weak neutralizing activity against the virus.
Furthermore, these antibodies are very strain-specific; they will neutralize the strain with which the individual is infected but not the thousands and thousands of other strains circulating in the population.
Researchers know how to elicit antibodies that will neutralize one strain, but not antibodies with an ability to protect against the thousands and thousands of strains circulating in the population. That’s a major problem for vaccine development efforts.
HIV is continually evolving within a single infected individual to stay one step ahead of the immune responses. The host elicits a particular immune response that attacks the virus. This puts selective pressure on the virus, and through natural selection a mutated virus variant appears that is no longer recognized by the individual’s immune system. The result is continuous unrelenting viral replication.
Life cycle of HIV
Source: HIV/AIDS vaccine: Why don’t we have one after 37 years, when we have several for COVID-19 after a few months? By Ronald C. Desrosiers, TheConversation.com, 5/17/2021
(*) Evolutionary and immunological implications of contemporary HIV-1 variation
Bette Korber, Brian Gaschen, Karina Yusim, Rama Thakallapally, Can Kesmir, Vincent Detours
British Medical Bulletin, Volume 58, Issue 1, September 2001, Pages 19–42, https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/58.1.19
Learning Standards
Massachusetts Comprehensive Health Curriculum Framework
Students will gain the knowledge and skills to select a diet that supports
health and reduces the risk of illness and future chronic diseases. PreK–12 Standard 4
8.1 Describe how the body fights germs and disease naturally and with medicines and
immunization
8.2 Identify the common symptoms of illness and recognize that being responsible for individual health means alerting caretakers to any symptoms of illness.
8.5 Identify ways individuals can reduce risk factors related to communicable and chronic diseases
8.6 Describe the importance of early detection in preventing the progression of disease.
8.7 Explain the need to follow prescribed health care procedures given by parents and health care providers.
8.8 Describe how to demonstrate safe care and concern toward ill and disabled persons in the family, school, and community.
8.13 Explain how the immune system functions to prevent and combat disease
Interdisciplinary Learning Objectives: Disease Prevention and Control
8.a. (Law & Policy. Connects with History & Social Science: Geography and Civics &
Government) Analyze the influence of factors (such as social and economic) on the treatment and management of illness.
Benchmarks for Science Literacy, AAAS
The immune system functions to protect against microscopic organisms and foreign substances that enter from outside the body and against some cancer cells that arise within. 6C/H1*
Some allergic reactions are caused by the body’s immune responses to usually harmless environmental substances. Sometimes the immune system may attack some of the body’s own cells. 6E/H1
Some viral diseases, such as AIDS, destroy critical cells of the immune system, leaving the body unable to deal with multiple infection agents and cancerous cells. 6E/H4
Vaccines induce the body to build immunity to a disease without actually causing the disease itself. 6E/M7** (BSL)
This website is educational. Materials within it are being used in accord with the Fair Use doctrine, as defined by United States law.
§107. Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Fair Use. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phone records or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use, the factors to be considered shall include: the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; the nature of the copyrighted work; the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. (added pub. l 94-553, Title I, 101, Oct 19, 1976, 90 Stat 2546)
Glycans (polysaccharides and oligosaccharides)
Glycans are polymers of individual sugar molecules (monosaccharides)
Here’s a glucose, a simple sugar monomer (single unit.) Note that there are also many other types of sugars.
What’s the difference between monomers and polymers?
Living things can link many sugars together into a polymer – a glycan.
Here’s one example:
Glycans are made by all living things and by many viruses.
Glycans can be free (not bonded to anything else.) In this state they are often used to store chemical energy, or as building blocks for plant cell walls.
Glycans can be bonded together with a protein or a lipid. In such cases they have specific jobs.
• When bonded with a protein they’re called glycoproteins.
• When bonded with a lipid they’re called glycolipids.
Types of glycans
Cellulose – glucose monosaccharides linked to one another in a long, linear chain.
Used for structural support in cell walls of plants and algae.
Trees and plants use these glycans as building blocks.Here we see them linking together until they build the structure of a leaf, a stem, or branch.
From Direct evidence for α ether linkage between lignin and carbohydrates in wood cell walls, Hiroshi Nishimura et al, Scientific Reports volume 8, Article number: 6538 (2018)
Starch is made in plants. This molecule is used for energy storage.
Glycogen – used for energy storage in fungi and animals.
Comparison of cellulose, starches, and glycogen
from coredifferences.com
Uses of glycans in the body
In breast milk
Human milk oligosaccharides are found in breast milk.
Human milk oligosaccharides(HMOs)
On cell membranes
They are found in cell membranes (lipid bilayers) as glycans attached to proteins – glycoproteins.
Gly-tech.com
Immune system
I don’t know if any glycoproteins evolved to be part of the immune system, but I do know that they became a part of the immune system – various pathogens can recognize some glycans and use them as part of a pathway to infect a cell. Some antibodies interact with them.
Uses in bacteria
We find peptidoglycan in bacterial cell walls.
From Prescott’s Microbiology, McGraw Hill
Medical uses
They are valuable diagnostic and therapeutic targets.
How to draw glycans, the exact way
On the left we see a skeletal drawing of a single sugar molecule, glucose. In the middle we see two sugars bonded together to make a sucrose molecule. (disaccharide, i.e. a molecule with 2 sugars.)
On the right we see a starch, which is a more complex structure of several sugars covalently bonded.
On the bottom we see a much more complex assembly of sugar molecules bonded together N-Glycan, in this case mostly a bunch of sucrose molecules bonded together.
The advantage of drawing glycans this way is that we see their exact structure.
The disadvantage of of drawing glycans this way is that it is super difficult to do when drawing freehand, it ain’t that even easy when using an app, and finally – being “exact” isn’t always an advantage! Look at that last molecule. Yes, if you look at it long enough you might figure out that it is a bunch of sugars.
But what about complex molecules like this that are made of many different types of sugars? It would be very difficult to interpret a drawing. Thus we have developed an easier way to visually represent them!
from GlyTech, Inc
How to draw glycans: the easier way
There is a standard Symbol Nomenclature for Glycans (SNFG).
It is from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Super easy to read, each color and shape represents a different sugar.
On the top is an example of a glycan in which we draw the name of each sugar. Technically correct but hard to read.
So below it we show the easier way to draw and color the glycan, so we can see which sugars it is made of.
from National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine
Another example: Here are seven sugars (monosaccharides.)
And here they are linked together. The atom by atom details are not necessary.
from glytech-inc
Articles
Recent Advances in Nutritional Sciences: An Overview of Glycans and miRNAs, Marcello Menapace
Ecology and Biology in Science Fiction
Ecology and Biology in Science Fiction
Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 by Magic Dragon Multimedia. All rights reserved Worldwide. May not be reproduced without permission. May be posted electronically provided that it is transmitted unaltered, in its entirety, and without charge.
We examine both works of fiction and important contemporaneous works on non-fiction which set the context for ecological Science Fiction and Fantasy. Some questions that we study include:
- How do living organisms grow and reproduce? (Tribbles, TV: Star Trek)
- What forces shape the evolution of species, including our own? Could humans evolve into something very different? (novel: Galapagos, by Kurt Vonnegut)
- What kind of planet is needed for living things and ecosystems to evolve? (novel: Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson)
- What would a desert planet look like? (novel: Dune, by Frank Herbert)
- How does genetics create us–and recreate living things? (novel: Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton)
- Could genetics make us immortal? (novel: The Children Star, by Joan Slonczewski)
- What if an alien invader tried to do us in–from within? (novel: Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton)
- What if the aliens decide they like us–too well? (novel: Dawn, by Octavia Butler)
Biology in Science Fiction: Syllabus by Prof. Joan Slonczewski. Prof. Joan Slonczewski describes her required reading list as follows (the hotlink shows the color art for each book):
- Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials, by Wayne Douglas Barlowe [New York: Workman Publishers, 1979] “In his classic guide, Wayne Douglas Barlowe’s brilliant portraits bring to life 50 aliens from science fiction literature: Larry Niven’s Thrint and his Puppeteer, Arthur C. Clarke’s Overlord, Frank Herbert’s Steersman, Robert Silverburg’s Sulidor and more. Humanoids, insectoids, reptillians-even protoplasmic, gaseous, and crystalline life forms-are all faithfully and naturalistically depicted so that you can now visualize what could only before be imagined.”
- The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells [New York: Bantam Books, 1895] “When the Time Traveler courageously stepped out of his machine for the first time, he found himself in the year 802,700 — and everything had changed. In another, more utopian age, creatures seemed to dwell together in perfect harmony. The Time Traveler thought he could study these marvelous beings — unearth their secret and then return to his own time-until he discovered that his invention, his only avenue of escape, had been stolen.”
- Galapagos, by Kurt Vonnegut [New York: Dell Publishing, 1985] “Galapagos takes the reader back one million years, to A.D. 1986. A simple vacation cruise suddenly becomes an evolutionary journey. Thanks to an apocalypse, a small group of survivors stranded on the Galapagos islands are about to become the progenitors of a brave new, and totally different human race. Here, America’s master satirist looks at our world and shows us all that is sadly, madly awry-and all that is worth saving.”
- Dune, by Frank Herbert [New York: Ace Books, 1965] “Set on the desert Planet Arrakis, a world more awesome than any other in literature, Dune begins the story of the man known as Muad’dib-and of a great family’s ambition to bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream…”
- The Children Star, by Joan Slonczewski [Analog magazine serial; New York: Tor Books, 1999] “The Children Star — A world so alien that only children can be lifeshaped to live there. The Children Star features mind-bending genetic engineering, and tire-shaped creatures that evolved with triplex DNA and exotic amino acids. And which of the many circular- shaped life forms is actually an intelligent species with its own plans for the human colonists?”
- Dawn, by Octavia Butler [New York: Warner Books, 1987] “Xenogenesis: The birth of something new-and foreign. Lilith Iyapo awoke from a centuries long sleep…and found herself aboard the vast living spaceship of the Oankali. Alien creatures covered in writhing tentacles, the Oankali had saved every surviving human from a dying, ruined Earth. They healed the planet, cured cancer, increased human strength and disease resistance, and were now ready to help Lilith lead her people back to the Earth. But for a price. For the Oankali were genetic engineers. DNA manipulators. Gene traders. They planned to give us their alienness. They planned to take our humanity. They planned to interbreed. And there was no way to stop them.”
- Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson [New York: Bantam Books, 1993] “For eons, sandstorms have swept the barren, desolate landscape of the red planet. For centuries, Mars has beckoned to mankind to come and conquer its hostile climate. Now, in the year 2026, a group of one hundred colonists is about to fulfill that destiny. John Boone, Maya Toitovna, Frank Chalmers, and Arkady Bogdanov lead a mission whose ultimate goal is to give Mars an Earth-like atmosphere. They will place giant satellite mirrors in Martian orbit to reflect light to the planet’s surface. Black dust sprinkled on the polar caps will capture warmth and melt the ice. And massive tunnels, kilometers in depth, will be drilled into the Martian mantle to create stupendous vents of hot gases. Against this backdrop of epic upheaval, rivalries, loves, and friendships will form and fall to pieces — for there are those who will fight to the death to prevent Mars from ever being changed.”
- Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton [New York: Ballantine Books, 1990] “An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now, one of mankind’s most thrilling fantasies has come true. Creatures extinct for eons now roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery and all the world can visit them-for a price. Until something goes wrong…”
- The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton [New York: Ballantine Books, 1969] “What if there was a virus so lethal, it could kill people as quickly as they took a breath? What if it spared some people from instant death…but drove them hopelessly insane instead? What if the swiftest acting, deadliest, virus ever known to humankind could be spread, by no more than a gust of wind, from the remote desert site of its first massacre to the busiest cities in America…and the world? What, if anything, could stop it?”
- The Cartoon Guide to Genetics, by Larry Gonick and Mark Wheelis [New York: Harper Perennial, 1991] “Have you ever asked yourself: Are spliced genes the same as mended Levis? Watson and Crick? Aren’t they a team of British detectives? Plant sex? Can they do that? Is genetic mutation the name of one of those heavy metal bands? Asparagine? Which of the four food groups is that in? Then you need “The Cartoon Guide to Genetics” to explain the important concepts of classical and modern genetics.”
- Brain Plague, by Joan Slonczewski [New York: Tor Books, 2000] “What if alien microbes could give us whatever our brains imagined–at a price? ‘Brain Plague’ gives new epic meaning to hearing voices inside your head. Tune in or you’ll be sorry.” — Eva, Fantastica Daily
Joan Slonczewski's Book List
The following list is selected, permuted, and edited from: Themes/Genres in Science Fiction: An idiosyncratic and woefully incomplete list, by Kay Fowler ©All the material in this website is copyrighted to Kathleen L. Fowler unless explicitly indicated otherwise. Permission is granted to use and distribute this material freely but please attribute properly by retaining the full header information. 11/16/99 "This list has been constructed over time based on a list and categories originally constructed by the late Professor Ted Michelfeld and owing debts to a number of other sources including The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. It is still under construction and by no means complete but it is a starting place. The categories are by no means as distinct as is suggested here. Most every one of these works could appear in multiple categories and in many cases I have assigned them rather arbitrarily to one of the many choices they might occupy."
Plagues/Disease/Epidemics:
- Mary Shelley. The Last Man (1826)
- Jack London. The Scarlet Plague (1915)
- George Stewart. Earth Abides (1949)
- Michael Critchton. The Andromeda Strain. (1969).
- Sherri Tepper. Grass (1989); Raising the Stones (1990) Sideshow (1992). Earth has become “Sanctity” controlled by fundamental relgionists. Rich exploration of themes of religion, ecology, social relationships, etc.
Agricultural/Ecological/Population Disasters:
- George Griffith. Olga Romanoff (1894) comet strike and alien invasion.
- M. P. Shield. The Purple Cloud (1901). poisonous gas.
- Arthur Conan Doyle. The Poison Belt (1913) the Earth passes through a poisonous ether
- J. J. Connington. Nordenholt’s Millions (1923) agricultural disaster
- S. Fowler Wright. Deluge (1928). flood.
- Philip Wylie. When Worlds Collide (1932). dying sun on collision course with Earth. Film: When Worlds Collide (1951).
- John Wyndham. The Day of the Triffids (1951) Venomous Plants.
- Isaac Asimov. Caves of Steel (1954) overpopulation — and a great mystery story
- John Christopher. The Death of Grass (a.k.a. No Blade of Grass) (1957)
- Robert Silverberg. Masters of Life and Death (1957). overpopulation.
- J. G. Ballard. “Billenium” (1961) population
- J. G. Ballard. The Drowned World. (1962). flood
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Cat’s Cradle (1963) Ice-9
- J. G. Ballard, The Drought (aka The Burning World) 1965.
- Harry Harrison. Make Room! Make Room! (1966). Film: Soylent Green (1973).
- William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson.Logan’s Run (1967). Film: Logan’s Run (1967) Overpopulation; destruction of those over 30.
- Lee Tang. The Wind Obeys Lama Torus. (1967). From India. Overpopulation.
- John Brunner. Stand on Zanzibar. (1968). Young adult novel on overpopulation.
- James Blish. A Torrent of Faces (1968)
- Fred and Geoffrey Hoyle. The Inferno (1973). Cosmic radiation
- Nancy Bond. The Voyage Begun (1989). Young Adult. In a near future Cape Cod, dwindling resources, unemployment, and ecological damage combine to make the Cape a dangerous, and forlorn world.
- David Brin. Earth. (1990). Black hole.
- Karen Hesse. Phoenix Rising (1994). Young adult. A young girl on a farm in Vermont copes with the consequences of a nuclear accident in Massachusetts. Dedicated to the children of Chernobyl.
- Monica Hughes. Invitation to the Game. 1996. Young Adult. overpopulation and shrinking resources leave most unemployed and without hope — unless they can get into “the game”
- Jack McDevitt. Engines of God. (1997) Alien artifacts related to ancient mass destructions on a number of planets. Should we be worried?
- Mary Sullivan. Earthquake 2099. (1997) Young adult.
Using Science Fiction to Understand Biological Concepts by Tamsen K. Meyer and Cheryl H. Powers ©1994 Woodrow Wilson Biology Institute "Integration of disciplines that involve science, social issues, and literature is an increasingly attractive alternative in curriculum development today." "Science fiction has great appeal to many students who do not necessarily think of themselves as readers nor as the stereotypical 'math/science student.'" "The following is a resource list of science fiction short stories and novels that might be used either as an interdisciplinary teaching unit for teachers, an enrichment exercise in your biology course, or possibly a summer reading list for students entering your course the following year." "It also can serve as a starting point for students to create their own science fiction stories if only selections from these novels or short stories are read. "Students can demonstrate their understanding of complex biological concepts by writing their own short science fiction stories on topics such as 'The Day Diffusion Stopped.' What a difference a gene makes: food in the future, medicine in the future, eugenics revisited, and restoring extinct species are possible genetics ideas that could be developed." "Readings are listed by title rather than author because titles seem more useful. Titles were submitted by several Woodrow Wilson participants. A content summary is included for most of the selections and if there is a film version of the book, the notation FVA (film version available) is added in the following bibliography.
- Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton. 1969. New York: Knopf, Random House. A returning space capsule releases an alien virus on the earth. FVA
- The Beast, Peter Benchley. 1991. New York: Random House. Coral reef ecology is disturbed and a giant squid picks man as his new prey.
- Blade Runner, The, Alan E. Nourse. 1974. New York: D. McKay & Co. In a future of increased human longevity, doctors struggle to cope with problems of overpopulation, hereditary disorders, and virulent new diseases. FVA [The Ultimate Science Fiction Web Guide says: actually, the title is used in a film based on Philip K. Dick’s ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”; see below]
- Boys from Brazil, The, Ira Levin. 1976. New York: Random House. Dr. Mengele attempts to produce cloned copies of Adolf Hitler, but in order to do so he must reproduce the environmental factors which made Hitler the evil genius that he was; deals intelligently with the fashionable subject of cloning. FVA
- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley. 1946. New York: Harper and Bros. Reproductive technology as imagined in the 30’s – this famous satire about a technologically stratified world six centuries in the future helped define 20th-century humanity’s view of itself. FVA
- Clan of the Cave Bear, The, Jean Auel. 1980. New York: Crown. Human evolution at the level of the Cro-Magnon/Neanderthal junction. FVA
- Congo, Michael Crichton. 1980. New York, Knopf: Random House. Animal behavior, primate evolution: near future thriller of African exploration involving a tribe of talking gorillas.
- Deathworld Trilogy, Harry Harrison. 1974. Garden City: Nelson Doubleday. Coevolution and adaptation: mysteries of a planet where every life-form appears to be implacably hostile to human colonists.
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick. 1968. Garden City: Doubleday. After World War Terminus, the Earth is an underpopulated wasteland where people keep electronic animals as pets; killer androids come from off-Earth where most economic activity takes place. Filmed as The Blade Runner.
- Dorsai, Gordon R. Dickson. 1976. New York: Dow Books. Themes of human development and the purpose of life; originally published as The Genetic General.
- Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey. 1968. New York: Ballantine. A well crafted tale of a planet threatened by spores from space which can only be defeated by taming fire-breathing dragons; first of Dragons of Pern series.
- Dune, Frank Herbert. 1965. Philadelphia: Chilton. Planetary environment and system of cultures much like that which would be present on Earth if Earth had no water. FVA
- Earthclan: Startide Rising, David Brin. 1987. Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday. Genetic manipulation, origin of man: intelligent dolphins and chimpanzees cooperate with man in the exploration of space.
- Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card, 1985. New York: Tor, A Tom Doherty Association Book. Interstellar war, aliens and genocide.
- Fantastic Voyage, Isaac Asimov. 1988. New York: Doubleday and Co. Microminiaturization is used to explore the human body; written originally as a screenplay for the movie of the same name. FVA
- Frankenstein, Mary Shelley. 1980 (1818). James Kinsley and M.K. Joseph eds., Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. Gothic horror story about a medical student who creates an artificial man; first English science fiction novel. FVA
- Galapagos, Kurt Vonnegut. 1985. New York: Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence. An observant ghost haunts the Galapagos Islands for a million years and watches as the descendants of a few marooned humans devolve into a new species – furry, finned, and small of brain; a sadly funny Darwinian fable.
- Genesis Quest, Donald Moffitt. 1986. New York: Ballantine. A species of intelligent starfish in another galaxy use genetic engineering to recreate the extinct human race.
- Human Error, Paul Preuss. 1985. New York: Tor. Scientists produce a biochip or living microcomputer.
- Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton. 1990. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. This fictional account of a theme park featuring dinosaurs cloned from DNA in mosquitoes fossilized in amber lends itself to many interesting discussions of genetic engineering, ethical issues, and chaos. FVA
- “Last Question, The,” Isaac Asimov. 1959. in: Nine Tomorrows: Tales of the Near Future. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Themes of artificial intelligence and definition(s) of intelligence.
- Mortal Fear, Robin Cook. 1988. New York: G.P. Putnam and Sons. Eyedrops accelerate the aging process.
- Mutants: Eleven Stories of Science Fiction. Robert Silverberg, ed. 1974. Nashville: Thomas Nelson. Anthology of collected works.
- Plague Dogs, The, Richard Addams. 1977. London: Allen Lane, Rex Collings. Issues of animal experimentation, epidemics.
- “Rendevous with Rama,” from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur Clarke. 1985. London: Octopus. Ecosystems necessary for terraforming are described.
- Ringworld, Larry Niven. 1970. New York: Ballantine. Complex artificial world is the main focus of this popular book.
- Science Fiction Adventures in Mutation, Groff Conklin, ed. 1956. New York: Vanguard Press. An anthology of collected works. [the referenced site misspell’s Groff’s name]
- “Sound of Thunder, The,” Ray Bradbury. 1966. in: Science Fiction for People Who Hate Science Fiction, Terry Carr, ed. New York: Doubleday. Ecology, human impact on the environment.
- Sphere, Michael Crichton. 1987. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. The discovery of an ancient spacecraft deep in the ocean is the focus of a scientific probe. [FVA]
- Time Machine, The, H.G. Wells. 1931 New York: Random House. Ecological splitting of society leads to human evolution. FVA
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne. 1908. London/New York: J.M.Dent. Underwater adventures with sea creatures, technology of sea exploration.
- Watchers, The, Dean Koontz. 1987. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Ethics of genetic engineering and issues of animal welfare.
- West of Eden, Harry Harrison. 1984. New York: Bantam Books. Imagine a world where dinosaurs did not die but survived to develop their own civilization; their culture comes into conflict with an emergent human race.
"An excellent resource for short summaries of works of science fiction is:
The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction,
David Pringle. 1990. Grafton Books, London; Collins Publishing Group."
"Numerous anthologies of science fiction short stories are available in libraries and science fiction magazines have many interesting
short pieces. Omni, Amazing Stories, Fantasy in Science, and Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact are four that are recommended."
This is by no means a comprehensive list of science fiction that could be used at the secondary level. Hopefully, teachers will use this as a
springboard to generate their own annotated bibliographies that might also include favorite biological literature (books, poems, stories, and essays)
and film resources that are not science fiction."
"A sample writing exercise that might be done after students have read 'The Andromeda Strain':
Support the truth of these quotes as demonstrated by events in the book:
"The survival value of human intelligence has never been satisfactorily demonstrated."
"Increasing vision is increasingly expensive."
In the acknowledgments Crichton states, "We can expect more crises on the pattern of Andromeda." How much truth exists in the novel?
What evidence do you see to support his prediction? (Thanks to Susan Terry for these questions.)
Miscellaneous ecological novels:
BLOOM by Wil McCarthy [New York, Del Rey, 1998, paperback, 303 pages, cover art by Rick Berry] [A New York Times Notable Book] A science fiction book featuring nanotechnology. Reporter John Strasheim, Captain Wallich, bioanalyst Renata Baucum, and the rest of the small crew of the space ship Louis Pasteur travel on a dangerous mission from Jupiter's moon of Ganymede and the Immunity, visiting the Gladholders in the asteroid belt, to the inner solar system, including Earth, which has been taken over by the feared Mycosystem. From the back cover: "Mycora: technogenic life. Fast-reproducing, fast-mutating, and endlessly voracious. In the year 2106, these microscopic machine/ creatures have escaped their creators to populate the inner solar system with a wild, deadly ecology all their own, pushing the tattered remnants of humanity out into the cold and dark of the outer planets. Even huddled beneath the ice of Jupiter's moons, protected by a defensive system known as the Immunity, survivors face the constant risk of mycospores finding their way to the warmth and brightness inside the habitats, resulting in a calamitous 'bloom'" But the human race still has a trick or two up its sleeve: In a ship specially designed to penetrate the deadly Mycosystem, seven astronauts are about to embark on mankind's boldest venture yet -- the perilous journey home to infected Earth. Yet it is in these remote conditions, against a virtually omnipotent foe, that we discover how human nature plays the greatest role in humanity's future." Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club SCIENCE FICTION BOOK SELECTION
Miscellaneous Biological novels/films:
- Fantastic Voyage, film based on novel by Isaac Asimov, where an (impossibly) miniaturized submarine explores the interior of a living human body.
- Them, film: radiation makes ants grow (impossibly) large.
- The Thing, film (and remake of film) from short novel “Who Goes There” by John Campbell; an alien creature terrifies antarctic expolors with its ability to change shape. How do you know that your partner is not an alien morphed to resemble a human?
- Film: It Came from Beneath the Sea
- Film: Jaws
MANY MORE: {to be done}
Academic Papers on Ecology and Science Fiction "From Earth to Ecosphere: Science Fiction, spaceships, and ecology", by Mark Rich pages 373-93 of: "Science et science-fiction", Actes de 4eme colloque international de science-fiction de Nice, 3-6 Apr 1991, Ed. Denise Terrel, Metaphores, #20-21-22 (sep 1992), 2 vols., 653 pages, 180 ff. Order from J. Emiliana, UFR Lettres, BD Herriot, 06007 Nice Cedex, France
What is chaos? The butterfly effect explained
Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics focusing on chaos.
Chaos is a behavior of any dynamical systems which appear to have random change and irregularities, but which actually follow simple underlying patterns and deterministic laws.
The butterfly effect describes how a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. There is nothing random or mysterious – just a very sensitive dependence on initial conditions.
A metaphor for this behavior is that a butterfly flapping its wings in one place can eventually cause a hurricane someplace else.
The discovery of the butterfly effect comes from the work of mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz. He discovered that the details of a tornado (exact time of formation, exact path taken) is very influenced by minor perturbations, such as, just say for example, a distant butterfly flapping its wings several weeks earlier.
Lorenz discovered the effect when he observed runs of his weather model with initial condition data that were rounded in a seemingly inconsequential manner. He noted that the weather model would fail to reproduce the results of runs with the unrounded initial condition data. A very small change in initial conditions had created a significantly different outcome.
Basic idea: Whenever we look at something in the real world – or even in a computer simulation! – we always have either errors in measurements, or problems due to rounding errors in numerical computation.
This leads, over time, to widely diverging outcomes of these systems, making long-term specific prediction of their behavior impossible.
This is true even though such systems are deterministic and is fully determined by their initial conditions, with no random elements involved.
In other words, the deterministic nature of these systems does not make them predictable.
Explainer: What is chaos theory?
Chaos Theory, The Butterfly Effect, And The Computer Glitch That Started It All
What is Chaos? a five-part online course for everyone
Chaos is something that shows up in any complex, classical system.
We can never know the initial conditions of an object (position, speed, momentum, etc.) with complete accuracy.
So small uncertainties over time lead to large uncertainties as time goes by.
IMAGE FROM WIKIPEDIA, DOUBLE-COMPOUND-PENDULUM.GIF
This is an animation of a double compound pendulum showing chaotic behaviour.
The two sections of the pendulum have the same length and mass. The mass is distributed evenly along the length of each section, and the pivots being at the very ends.
Here we see that even planetary orbits are not stable forever.
Chaos orbit of 6Q0B44E orbit around Earth data from NASA’s Horizon’s system.
Prof. Rory Barnes animations of chaos in planetary orbits
See What defines a stable orbit?
History of the field
Joshua Sokol writes
The story of chaos is usually told like this: Using the LGP-30, Lorenz made paradigm-wrecking discoveries. In 1961, having programmed a set of equations into the computer that would simulate future weather, he found that tiny differences in starting values could lead to drastically different outcomes.
This sensitivity to initial conditions, later popularized as the butterfly effect, made predicting the far future a fool’s errand. But Lorenz also found that these unpredictable outcomes weren’t quite random, either. When visualized in a certain way, they seemed to prowl around a shape called a strange attractor.
About a decade later, chaos theory started to catch on in scientific circles. Scientists soon encountered other unpredictable natural systems that looked random even though they weren’t: the rings of Saturn, blooms of marine algae, Earth’s magnetic field, the number of salmon in a fishery.
Then chaos went mainstream with the publication of James Gleick’s Chaos: Making a New Science in 1987.
Before long, Jeff Goldblum, playing the chaos theorist Ian Malcolm, was pausing, stammering and charming his way through lines about the unpredictability of nature in Jurassic Park.
… Yet two women programmers played a pivotal role in the birth of chaos theory. Their previously untold story illustrates the changing status of computation in science. Ellen Fetter and Margaret Hamilton were responsible for programming the enormous 1960s-era computer that would uncover strange attractors and other hallmarks of chaos theory….
The Hidden Heroines of Chaos, Quanta Magazine
Videos
Chaotic Solar System
Chaotic Planets MinuteLabs.io
Apps
Gravity Simulator TestTubeGames
Chaotic Planets app MinuteLabs.io
Articles
The Butterfly Effect: Everything You Need to Know About This Powerful Mental Model
When the Butterfly Effect Took Flight, MIT News Magazine
Chaos Theory, The Butterfly Effect, And The Computer Glitch That Started It All
Edward Norton Lorenz, biography, University of St Andrews, Scotland
The Hidden Heroines of Chaos, Quanta Magazine
How to draw elliptical orbits lab
Here’s an easy to do lab that just requires paper, a pencil, some string, thumbtacks, and cardboard to lay the paper on. With this we can demonstrate the path of objects around the sun.
Basic idea: A circle is just a special case of an ellipse!
How to draw elliptical orbits
The next few paragraphs are from “Science Curriculum by Aaron Keller”
Pictures of the Solar System tend to show all the orbits of the planets as circles centered on the Sun [but] no orbit in the solar system is perfectly round.
In reality, the planets orbit the Sun traveling along an oval path. The mathematical term for this shape is an ellipse.
Notice that the Sun in this picture is not right in the center. The Sun is at one of the two ‘centers’ of the ellipse. These are called foci (plural for focus). The closer these foci are together, the more circular the orbit. The orbit of Venus is the closest to a circle of any planet in the Solar System.
Scientists have a name to describe just how much like an ellipse an orbit is. This is called eccentricity and is a measure that uses numbers between 0 and 1.
If an orbit has an eccentricity close to 1 then the ellipse is so long as to be more cigar-shaped than round.
Comets tend to have very elongated, high-eccentricity orbits.
The closer the eccentricity is to zero, the more circular the orbit.
Ellipse = the big oval shape.
Has a major axis (the longer axis) and a minor axis (the shorter one).
Has two foci: in the case of planetary orbits one focus is the Sun.
All the points in an ellipse are defined in relation to the foci.
The sum of the distances from each point on the ellipse to both foci is constant for all points on the ellipse.
Point on an orbit nearest the Sun is called perihelion.
Point farthest from the Sun is called aphelion.
Here is a similar image from a different source.
From Brian Ventrudo, One Minute Astronomy, Kepler’s laws
External links
Introductory Astronomy: Ellipses
Learning Standards
Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for Mathematics
Expressing Geometric Properties with Equations G-GPE Translate between the geometric description and the equation for a conic section.
3. (+) Derive the equations of ellipses and hyperbolas given the foci, using the fact that the sum or difference of distances from the foci is constant.
MA.3.a. (+) Use equations and graphs of conic sections to model real-world problems.
Expressing Geometric Properties with Equations G-GPE Translate between the geometric description and the equation for a conic section. 3. (+) Derive the equations of ellipses and hyperbolas given the foci, using the fact that the sum or difference of distances from the foci is constant. MA.3.a. (+) Use equations and graphs of conic sections to model real-world problems.
Analytic geometry. The branch of mathematics that uses functions and relations to study geometric phenomena, e.g., the description of ellipses and other conic sections in the coordinate plane by quadratic equations.
2016 Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework
8.MS-ESS1-2. Explain the role of gravity in ocean tides, the orbital motions of planets, their moons, and asteroids in the solar system.
HS-ESS1-4. Use Kepler’s laws to predict the motion of orbiting objects in the solar system. Describe how orbits may change due to the gravitational effects from, or collisions with, other objects in the solar system.
ESS1.B Earth and the solar system – The solar system contains many varied objects held together by gravity. Solar system models explain and predict eclipses, lunar phases, and seasons.
Teaching ecology and science with Lovecraftian speculative fiction
In this lesson students read passages from classic American science fiction and horror authors such as H. P. Lovecraft; see scenes from related movies; and delve into a collaborative fiction and art project based on these ideas.
In doing so students
* learn about the concept of superorganisms
* learn how to take notes on an organism’s biology and environment
* We then extend the critical thinking skills used here to real life organisms and ecosystems.
Introduction to the project
Mystery Flesh Pit National Park began as a much-loved exercise on r/Worldbuilding. The brainchild of Redditor u/StrangeVehicles, aka designer, illustrator, and writer Trevor Roberts, it has since evolved into a series of imaginary NPS effluvia showcasing the monstrous attraction.
Roberts describes the MFPNP as such:
The Mystery Flesh Pit is the name given to a bizarre natural geobiological feature discovered in the permian basin region of west texas in the early 1970s.
The pit is characterized as an enormous subterranean organism of indeterminate size and origin embedded deep within the earth, displaying a vast array of highly unusual and often disturbing phenomena within its vast internal anatomy.
Following its initial discovery and subsequent survey exploration missions, the surface orifice of the Mystery Flesh Pit was enlarged and internal sections were slowly reinforced and developed by the Anodyne Deep Earth Mining corporation who opened the Pit as a tourist attraction in 1976. In the early 1980s, the site was absorbed into the National Park System which operated and maintained the Mystery Flesh Pit until its sudden closure in 2007.
This section quoted from Welcome to Mystery Flesh Pit National Park, One Redditor’s Colossal Feat of Worldbuilding, Stubby the Rocket, Tor.com
A sample paragraph from this project:
“”While the rural areas of west Texas are known for their sparse populations, one tourist attraction seems to continually generate a steady stream of visitors around vacation seasons. The titular “Mystery Flesh Pit” has been a wellspring of fascination for geologists, biologists, sociologists, engineers and the general public alike. Guests are advised to book age-appropriate tours and activities well in advance of their visit, as only small groups are permitted into the orifice at any given time. That said, pheromonal discharges and the overall aggression level of the MFP can vary with short notice, so visitors should be advised to be prepared for changes in schedule & availability.””
Here’s a realistic period brochure from the US National Park service: Mystery Flesh Pit National Park
You can see the other contributions from this collaborative project here: https://mysteryfleshpit.tumblr.com/archive
* maps
* scientific papers
* advertisements aimed at tourism
*advertisements for the research corporation studying it.
* Newspaper clippings, both mundane, but also revealing dangerous events.
Anatomy & Physiology
This superorganism isn’t real. Yet we ask students to speculate what kind of organs a creature like this would or wouldn’t have, based on the available information.
We can create analogies to real biological phenomenon.
GIF made by SSACC and hosted on imgur.com
Students could work in groups to come up with answers – and they show their mastery of ideas in anatomy, biology, ecology, and physics, when they try to scientifically justify their conclusions.
For instance, they might claim that –
* the organism has, or hasn’t, a skeleton
* the organism has, or hasn’t, its own internal or external parasites
* the organism is or isn’t still growing
* the organism gets energy and/or nutrition from [….]
* it does/doesn’t have a circulatory system, nervous system, brain, etc.
Students learn about superorganisms
What is an organism?
What is a superorganism?
What is a colonial lifeform?
Our resource – colonial animals and superorganisms.
Here are a couple of real, Earthly colonial lifeforms:
What constitutes the difference between life and non-life?
In real life science, as well as in science fiction and horror, an active topic of interest is what is the line between life and death? When do some organisms become dormant? When do they re-emerge from dormancy?
In the works of American author H. P. Lovecraft we read about these ideas in relation to the fictional creations in his mythos. The Great Old Ones such as Cthulhu have lurked in dim places of the cosmos since the beginning of time:
That is not dead which can eternal lie
And with strange aeons even death may die.
– Abdul Alhazred, Necronomicon
Students can consider
What does it mean for an organism to be dormant?
For how long can organisms survive in a dormant state?
Why do some organisms spend time in a dormant state? How does this effect their need for food, and their production of waste metabolites?
How could an organism like this get the power necessary to live?
How would an organism like this affect the stability of our ecosystem if it became more active?
How does this relate to the idea of sustainability?
How do causes relate to impacts across various size and temporal scales?
How would humanity react to global environmental/existential crisis?
How would you talk to a student going through an existential crisis about the impacts of superorganisms possibly affecting all life on earth?
This is of real-world relevance: Devastating, catastrophic worldwide environmental disasters have indeed occurred:
Consider megacalderas, supervolcanoes, megathrust earthquakes, comet or meteor impacts, and large igneous provinces.
ELA connections
This project is inspired by the fiction of HP Lovecraft, and the later school of writers who created new books inspired by his works.
A couple of Lovecraftian quotes for those familiar with this literature:
“Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah-nagl fhtagn”
The Shadow Over Innsmouth, H. P. Lovecraft, Written 1931, published 1936
“That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die.”
“The Call of Cthulhu” H. P. Lovecraft, 1928
Related articles
Could there be a shadow biosphere here on Earth?
search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI)
External resources
https://mysteryfleshpit.tumblr.com/
https://www.reddit.com/r/FleshPitNationalPark/
PBS NOVA The search for superorganisms
Natural History – Superorganisms
Learning Standards
This unit addresses critical thinking skills in the Next Generation Science Standards, which are based on “A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas”, by the National Research Council of the National Academies. In this document we read
“Through discussion and reflection, students can come to realize that scientific inquiry embodies a set of values. These values include respect for the importance of logical thinking, precision, open-mindedness, objectivity, skepticism, and a requirement for transparent research procedures and honest reporting of findings.”
Next Generation Science Standards: Science & Engineering Practices
● Ask questions that arise from careful observation of phenomena, or unexpected results, to clarify and/or seek additional information.
● Ask questions that arise from examining models or a theory, to clarify and/or seek additional information and relationships.
● Ask questions to determine relationships, including quantitative relationships, between independent and dependent variables.
● Ask questions to clarify and refine a model, an explanation, or an engineering problem.
● Evaluate a question to determine if it is testable and relevant.
● Ask questions that can be investigated within the scope of the school laboratory, research facilities, or field (e.g., outdoor environment) with available resources and, when appropriate, frame a hypothesis based on a model or theory.
● Ask and/or evaluate questions that challenge the premise(s) of an argument, the interpretation of a data set, or the suitability of the design
Science and engineering practices: NSTA National Science Teacher Association
Next Gen Science Standards Appendix F: Science and engineering practices
Common Core, English Language Arts Standards » Science & Technical Subjects
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.1 – Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts, attending to the precise details of explanations or descriptions.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.2 – Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; trace the text’s explanation or depiction of a complex process, phenomenon, or concept; provide an accurate summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.4 – Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.5 – Analyze the structure of the relationships among concepts in a text, including relationships among key terms (e.g., force, friction, reaction force, energy).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.6 – Analyze the author’s purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text, defining the question the author seeks to address.
Opinion: Teachers should require our students to use textbooks
There is a growing trend in schools to ditch textbooks, and have students rely instead on videos, lectures, handouts, and free online texts.
While every way of learning has its place, what would be the result of students leaving high school without learning how to read books and take notes on what they have read? What impact will this have on their ability to do well in college?
KaiserScience 
