Iowa City Darwin Day celebrates science, evolution, and Darwin’s birthday this week! Sharon DeWitte and Ana Duggan will give talks about their research into epidemics and infectious diseases. Jeanne Serb will speak about the evolution of vision in animals, and Nicholas Strausfeld will present on the evolution of insect brains. There will be cake at Darwin’s birthday party on Saturday! The events will wrap up with a screening of the movie Contagion at FilmScene and a discussion led by Black Death expert Sharon DeWitte.
The UI Libraries offers numerous books, movies, and articles pertinent to Iowa City Darwin Day! We have the movie Contagion on DVD/Blu-ray, the Greatest Show on Earth and other works on evolution, the complete works of Charles Darwin and the graphic adaptation of On the Origin of Species, and much more in our Iowa City Darwin Day guide!
In this workshop you will learn how to use EndNote to:
Collect references for articles, books, websites, and other sources using Google Scholar, InfoHawk+, and popular databases like Web of Science and Scopus;
Organize your references into groups and share your reference library with collaborators;
Use the Cite While You Write plugin for Microsoft Word to insert citations into your papers and format them into thousands of different styles.
EndNote Web is available for free to all members of the University of Iowa community. EndNote Desktop is available for free to all UI graduate students, faculty, and staff.
In this workshop you will learn how to use EndNote to:
Collect references for articles, books, websites, and other sources using Google Scholar, InfoHawk+, and popular databases like Web of Science and Scopus;
Organize your references into groups and share your reference library with collaborators;
Use the Cite While You Write plugin for Microsoft Word to insert citations into your papers and format them into thousands of different styles.
EndNote Web is available for free to all members of the University of Iowa community. EndNote Desktop is available for free to all UI graduate students, faculty, and staff.
If you’re interested, but unable to attend these workshops, private appointments and webinars can be arranged. If you have any questions or if you’d like to request a workshop for your class or group, please contact Laurie Neuerburg (319-467-0216 or laurie-neuerburg@uiowa.edu) for more information.
The Sciences Library will be closing on Tuesday, January 29 at 5 PM due to extremely cold temperatures. We will remain closed all day on Wednesday, January 30. We will re-open at 8:30 AM on Thursday, January 31. Stay warm, everyone!
In 1869, chemist Dmitri Mendeleev discovered patterns among elements that led him to arrange elements according to their properties into the very first periodic table.
Several years later in 1885, the Periodische Gesetzmässigkeit der Elemente nach Mendeleiff was created, which was recently found at the University of St Andrews. This is thought to be the oldest surviving periodic table in the world!
Image credit: European Chemical Society. https://www.euchems.eu/euchems-periodic-table/
Elements marked with gray are from conflict minerals, all of which are used in smartphones. Elements in red are the most at risk of running out. Would you miss any of these elements if they were gone? Is there more that we can do to recycle and reuse these naturally-occurring elements?
Here is the most up-to-date version of the Periodic Table:
There are now 118 elements, and the newest elements are nihonium (Nh), moscovium (Mc), tennessine (Ts), and oganesson (Og). These four new elements were created synthetically.
Interested in a competing for a limited edition Periodic Table signed by a Chemistry Nobel Laureate? Take IUPAC’s Periodic Table Challenge and enter their Nobelium Contest for a chance to win!
It’s fun to catch snowflakes on your tongue, cut out paper snowflakes, and shovel snowflakes—oops, no. Starting again—it’s fun to catch snowflakes on your tongue, cut out paper snowflakes, and we’re featuring scientist snowflakes in our new exhibit!
Can you find the following scientists hidden in the snowflakes?
Marie Curie
Thomas Edison
Benjamin Franklin
Rosalind Franklin
Jane Goodall
Stephen Hawking
Katherine Johnson
Nikola Tesla
Dorothy Vaughan
If you would like to cut out your own scientist snowflakes, you can find the patterns from the Franklin Institute!
We have supplies on hand at the Sciences Library so you can add your own snowflake design to our service desk.
Brush up on snow ecology, building snow shelters, and the science of snow with Snow, Ice and Other Wonders of Water: A Tribute to the Hydrogen Bond & other books in our Snowflakes & Snow exhibit!
During Finals Week, Chauncey reviews his notes, gets enough sleep, and studies with friends at the Sciences Library. He creates his own study guides and asks himself questions that might be on his exams. When he gets tired, he finds it helpful to take short breaks.
Luckily, Chauncey discovered that the Sciences Library provides cookies, coffee, tea, and fun for short breaks! While he likes the Legos, K’Nex, and games, Chauncey’s favorite activity has been cutting out paper snowflakes. He had a lot of fun creating an Erlenmeyer flask snowflake! Join Chauncey at the Sciences Library to study for finals. He’ll show you where to find the cookies, coffee, and snowflake patterns!
On this day in 1964, the Mariner 4 spacecraft launched and completed the first Mars flyby, marking today as Red Planet Day. Mariner 4 took snapshots of the surface of Mars and gave us our first up-close view of the planet. While Mariner 4 was meant to capture data only for a few months, it stayed in orbit collecting solar wind data for several years.
Just two days ago, NASA landed the InSight spacecraft on Mars. InSight will go under the surface of Mars to learn more about its interior structure by measuring its temperature and seismic activity. Knowing more about the Mar’s interior structure will help us learn about its geological formation. As the geology and climate of Mars match most closely to Earth’s of all the planets, Mars stands out as the most promising planet for possible human settlements and the most likely place to search for signs of alien life!
Celebrate Red Planet Day with some of our books about Mars!
In celebration of Mole Day on Oct. 23 and National Chemistry Week, Chauncey invited all of his mole friends over to hang out at the Sciences Library. Now the moles have taken over the library! Find a mole hidden at the Sciences Library during National Chemistry Week (Oct. 22-26) and bring it to the Sciences Library service desk for a treat!
In Dr. Hendrix’s talk “Protecting Iowa’s Wild Bees: Your Backyard Counts,” we learned that honey bees are the only type of bees that are social. Most bees are solitary bees! Solitary bees create nests in holes in wood, bamboo, or in the ground. These solitary wild bees are important pollinators of almonds, berries, and other crops. Wild bees are more effective at pollination than honey bees because when wild bees visit flowers, the wild bees typically stay for a longer amount of time compared with honey bees. There are over 300 species of solitary wild bees in Iowa!
We learned a little about what life is like for bees who live in Iowa City! What spaces have a lot of greenery and flowers? Where are they located? How does the supply for bee foraging compare with demand?
And, finally, we learned what we can do to help bees thrive!
Bees will flock (or buzz?) to native prairie plants, so it helps to plant the following:
Zizia aurea (golden alexanders)
Dalea purpurea (purple prairie clover)
Amorpha canescens (leadplant)
Ratibida pinnata (grayhead coneflower)
The four plants listed above are known to be exceptional at attracting bees. However, planting any species of native flower will be helpful! Size doesn’t matter—even small gardens and potted plants will help!
You can create nesting spots for bees, such as this bee house:
You can reduce your use of lawn chemicals to help bees. You can even let your lawn grow a little longer and take a break from mowing. You can leave stems and be a little less tidy! The bees will like this, and you will too!
We appreciate everyone who came out to learn about Iowa’s wild bees! Thank you to Dr. Hendrix for sharing the scoop on Iowa’s wild bee population with us!
