%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 Items to fit into your overhead compartment |
|
Carrion Luggage  Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem. This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it. It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans. It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier." I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination. |
| I never saw a spotted lanternfly in my area before this year. Didn't even know what they were, or what they looked like. Now, they're everywhere, and people are saying they need to be destroyed. Smithsonian is here to show us one way to do that. This High Schooler Invented an A.I.-Powered Trap That Zaps Invasive Lanternflies  Using solar power, machine learning and her family’s patio umbrella, 18-year-old Selina Zhang created a synthetic tree that lures the destructive species Apparently, they destroy grapevines, and since grapevines produce grapes and grapes make wine, yeah, they gotta go. A New Jersey native, Selina Zhang is no stranger to the spotted lanternfly, an invasive species that has ravaged the Garden State’s local agricultural industry for years. I know what you're thinking. "New Jersey? Agriculture? I thought they only grew refineries there." No, no, there's at least one farm, I assure you. But the spotted lanternfly’s alluring looks, with bright red underwings peeking out from black polka-dotted forewings, can be deceiving. They are kinda cool-looking, in several stages of their life cycle. Still, they're messing with my wine supply. I know I still have beer, but it's nice to have options. “As I got older, I wanted to take concrete action,” says Zhang. “I wanted to build an innovative solution that took into account my personal perspective and existing research to target this bug in ways we haven’t before.” You know the old expression, "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door?" This is like that. To sidestep these negative consequences, Zhang drew inspiration from chess boards and “Dance Dance Revolution.” But I have it on high authority that games can only rot kids' minds. Combined with weeks of extensive field observation, deep algorithmic programming and an umbrella seized from her family’s patio, the teenager built ArTreeficial, a solar-powered, self-cleaning, artificial-intelligence-driven “tree” that entices the spotted lanternfly and eliminates the bug using an electronic mesh. I will forgive the name of the device in this case, because the concept is cool, and my naming abilities were weak when I was that age, too. Also, I'm not sure that my idea, "Bugs-B-Gon," is any better. The article goes into detail, which is helpful and all, but kind of too bad because she'll miss out on the "making money" part of technological innovation. “The project uses A.I., it uses chemistry, it’s dealing with climate change and solar power. It’s a whole amalgam of the interdisciplinary nature of science and engineering in this project,” says Maya Ajmera, the president and CEO of Society for Science, which hosts the talent search. “That’s what makes it stand out for me.” This is important to note. Not all kids are useless, whiny layabouts. Some are combining science disciplines to find new, innovative ways to kill things. Can she do mosquitos next? As an award-winning violin player who has performed at Carnegie Hall and a member of the Science Bowl and USA Biology Olympiad at North Hunterdon High School, Zhang has no shortage of talent and ideas. Okay, there's smart, and then there's overachieving. Maybe tone it down just a tad? "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long." But maybe it'll torch a few lanternflies in the process. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
