Science Department

The Amazing (and evil) Mantis Shrimp

drnorris25 — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 21:58:09 +0000

Link to Mantis Shrimp amazingness.

Ambergris?

drnorris25 — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 17:05:16 +0000

What is it? Well here you go!

Fish with clear blood – article

drnorris25 — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:16:42 +0000

Link to PopSci article

We love our wonderful CFCC Marine Tech Program!

kmroman416 — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 21:30:01 +0000

Recently, I took my Bio 112 students out on the Cape Fear River on board one of our school’s research vessels. Jason Rogers, the chair of CFCC’s marine tech department was the leader of our trip. He gave us this opportunity for a hands-on field trip where we learned about different species of fish, crustaceans (the very delicious shrimp and crabs), and even invertebrate parasites! It was an amazing experience that we are very grateful for and we are now more educated about the importance of marine research and the benefits of maintaining healthy aquatic ecosystems.

The Scale of the Universe

kmroman416 — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 01:03:37 +0000

Want to know how big Proxima Centauri is compared to an LCD pixel? Or how about the size of a human egg compared to say, the hepatitis virus? Check out this amazing interactive website that shows the relative size of things as you travel from the largest to the smallest objects in the known universe, and perhaps beyond….

P.S. make sure your sound is on – the music is epic!

http://htwins.net/scale2/

Field trips are not just for fourth graders!

kmroman416 — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 00:33:39 +0000

“Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books” John Lubbock

Every semester, I take my students to various “outdoor classrooms” where we can appreciate not only individual organisms but also the beauty of natural ecosystems that are all around us. Visiting these areas allows me to teach students that all of life is interconnected and that we have a responsibility to care for our Earth.

The following photos were taken at Airlie Gardens.

Osprey hunting fish – video

drnorris25 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:19:32 +0000

Thank you Johnny Hardison for the heads up.

My, what large teeth you have!

kmroman416 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:41:17 +0000

One of my students last semester brought in this gem, an exact replica of the front tooth of a T-rex! The detail, size, and weight of the tooth was so realistic, I felt like I was holding a real fossil! This tooth belonged to a famous T-rex named “Stan” (named after its discoverer) that was excavated in the Black Hills in 1987. Imagine a whole mouthful of these large serrated flesh-tearing teeth biting into your leg and now you’ll understand why that guy in Jurassic park screamed so loudly – wait, nevermind, that was movie magic Anyway, the student who brought it in graciously donated it to me to share with my students. Show-and-tell is one of my favorite past times, so if you really dig dinos, come to the science department and see it!

Hickory Horned Devil

kmroman416 — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:08:41 +0000

I needed to clean up a lot of debris in my yard after hurricane Irene passed in the fall of 2011. Underneath the large limb of a sweetgum tree, I found this! I was surprised because I had never seen one before - you know, it is very exciting for a field biologist to see something new in the wild for the first time! And so I was introduced to this bizarre creature, nicknamed the “hickory horned devil” obviously inspired by the large red horns Believe it or not, this is a caterpillar, the larval stage of a moth (Citheronia regalis). This moth, the regal moth, is the largest moth species in the United States. The caterpillars munch on sweetgums and other trees until they are this size. Then they crawl down the host tree and burrow underground. They may remain there for up to two years in this pupal stage until they are ready to emerge as a beautiful moth. Click on the link below to see it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Citheronia_regalisPCCA20040718-3494AB.jpg

Food Links

drnorris25 — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 23:46:35 +0000