YES

You might not know this about me but I have a Black Labrador Retriever named Ninja. One of his most favorite things to do is chase squirrels in the park on his daily walks. Usually at this time of year he starts to get fat because there aren't many squirrels to chase, but since this winter has had such mild temperatures he's been getting thisclose to catching himself quite a few furry friends. So yesterday morning I started thinking about what these mild temperatures might mean for all the hibernating, or dormant, species come spring time. Will Ninja have more squirrel friends to chase because they'll start mating earlier? What if it gets really cold again and there's another frost? The squirrels' food sources might die and then they could starve to death...or start dining alfresco more often from the dumpsters in the alleys. 

Climatologists, scientists who study weather patterns and their effect on the ecosystem, say that this warmer weather trend is likely to continue into April and it could very well effect food sources and hibernation patterns. In fact, Black Bears are expected to come out of hibernation in a few weeks, earlier than when their internal alarm tends to go off in March. When they wake up their fat reserves will have been depleted and they'll be really hungry. Most of their diet is plant based, so since there isn't a ton growing right now (as there would be more in March)  they'll be searching around human generated food sources, like bird feeders or garbage bins.

Ever heard of an action potential (Clue: It has little to do with the likelihood that a person will become the next Bruce Willis)? On Saturday, January 28th, 2012, 15 teens from across the Saint Louis area gathered at the Saint Louis Science Center's Taylor Building for a competition called the Brain Bee to see who knew the most stuff about neuroscience.

Senior Nathan Nguyen from John Burroughs won the competition after a top-ten finish on his written exam and a victory in the oral exam.

Some pictures are already up for the event on Flickr, and look out for a full photo story on SciJourner.org!

The Brain Bee Champs:

College prep was really fun today and it is really helping me get prepared for college. We finshed up our fafsa and we strated work on our scholorships on fastweb. Going to college prep really keeps me on track with the things that I need to be doing for college and making sure I have a plan for getting money for college and money for staying on campus to have food to eat and to do other things that i want to do while im in college. it also helps me manage my money.

http://www.sciencecheerleader.com/2009/04/a_new_way_for_gamers_to_be_scientists_in_their_spare_time/ Video games are everywhere these days! And so, the next time you go to pick up your Wii controllers or log on to your favorite World of Warcraft server, take an hour or so to put your gaming skills to a more scientific use. Scientists at the University of Washington are exploiting our societal love of video games to advance their research on protein folding by creating the game Foldit. Though this program appears to be just a game based on logic, each “move” in the game is actually determining protein structure, one fold at a time. So why should you dedicate your hour of free time folding proteins instead of getting a new high score on Mario Kart? Proteins are biology’s workforce: they drive all of the reactions that make biology work, and comprise all of the structural elements that hold biology together. Proteins self-assemble into specific shapes, or folds, in order to carry out their designated function. When proteins fold incorrectly, they can clump together into aggregates that promote diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, cystic fibrosis, and Mad Cow. And so, by understanding the folding process for particular proteins linked to these diseases, scientists can also begin to predict where folding mistakes may occur and how to avoid them. To get started, download the free Foldit program and take the 20 minute tutorial on the rules of the game. There are also beginner puzzles you can try to familiarize yourself with how the program works. From there, it’s happy folding! A special thank you to JT Lewis, for bringing the Foldit project to my attention. (Reporting on citizen science projects is much easier to do with the help of our readers — this means YOU! Please report any projects you hear about using our form on the main webpage!)

Every Lab within my component (Plant Biochemistry) has been very interesting and fun. Today we had another lab, which was making yogurt. Not only in this lab did i just follow the directions and made the yogurt, but i learned new things as i went along. I learned that when making yogurt you have to steralize a glass jar in boiling hot water for five minutes. You can not touch the rim of the glass when it has been steralized or you will contaminate the yogurt and other bacteria can grow in your yogurt.I'm so excited to see what happens and how it looks and taste!.

solar system models were made today. science science science!!!

today was the first time i made a solar system! it was exciting. first time for everything lol