Category Archives: Science

Per Anhalter durch Deutschland

HitchBOT – A robot exploring the world

“I am hitchBOT – a robot from Port Credit, Ontario. From July 27, 2014 to August 21, 2014, I hitchhiked over 6,000 km from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Victoria, British Columbia. In just 26 days I hitched a total of 19 rides to reach my final destination – Victoria, British Columbia. […] This February, my adventure continues as I explore Germany. My journey will begin in Munich on February 13, 2015 and conclude in Munich on February 22, 2015. […] Join me as I learn more about Germany, including the people, language, and culture.”

I’d love to give HitchBOT a ride if he visits Palatinate!

View from the ISS

Did you know that the ISS has a webcam? You can see the live stream on Ustream or on the NASA website (oder bei der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR).

You can also see the ISS overhead at night. When? Look it up at Spot the Station on the NASA website.

If you’d like to see where on above earth the ISS is right now, check this page, which gives the ISS’s position and velocity as well as the time until the next sunset. Similar information is available at ISSTracker.com.

NASA also offers a lot of other live information, for example crew timelines, science timelines and live console displays.

Inspiration Watching the world turn bei Pharmama.

Cephalopods

I watched a great documentary about cuttlefish today: Kings of Camouflage (YouTube).

Cuttlefish (German: Sepien) on Wikipedia:

“Cuttlefish are marine animals of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda, which also includes squid, octopuses and nautiluses. ‘Cuttle’ is a reference to their unique internal shell, the cuttlebone. Despite their name, cuttlefish are not fish but mollusks.
Cuttlefish have large, W-shaped pupils, eight arms, and two tentacles furnished with denticulated suckers, with which they secure their prey. They generally range in size from 15 to 25 cm (5.9 to 9.8 in), with the largest species, Sepia apama, reaching 50 cm (20 in) in mantle length and over 10.5 kg (23 lb) in weight.

Cuttlefish eat small mollusks, crabs, shrimp, fish, octopuses, worms, and other cuttlefish. Their predators include dolphins, sharks, fish, seals, seabirds, and other cuttlefish. Their life expectancy is about one to two years. Recent studies indicate cuttlefish are among the most intelligent invertebrates. Cuttlefish also have one of the largest brain-to-body size ratios of all invertebrates.”