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skeletal system

Muscles Don't Push

It has been a while since I did a biology related experiment, so this week we are going to take a look at how your muscles work. In particular, we are going to examine the muscles that move your arm, to see what is really involved in moving your body.

Catching Money

This experiment is one that I was reminded of while presenting a teacher workshop on hands-on science in the classroom. We were going over some of the easy, spur of the moment things that you can do for science, and one of the teachers reminded me of this one. It is fun and a bit amazing too.

Cat Wiggles

If you have ever watched a cat preparing to pounce on its favorite toy, you may have seen it wiggle its back legs from side to side just before it leaps. Why do they do that? It would seem that the movement would alert their prey, so there has to be a good reason for the behavior. To understand that, we need to learn a bit about muscles and tendons.

Thoughts on an Exoskeleton

Tarantula and molt
My Brazilian Salmon Pink Bird-eating Tarantula (Lasiodora parahybana)

My pet tarantula molted this week, which started me thinking about exoskeletons. While we have our skeletons on the inside, other creatures, such as spiders, insects, and crabs wear their skeletons on the outside of their bodies. What would it be like to have your skeleton on the outside instead of the inside?

Bendable Bones

With the Thanksgiving holiday just around the corner, I thought it would be fun to do an experiment with a turkey. I have read that Ben Franklin used live turkeys in several of his electrical experiments, I won't go that far. Instead, I thought we would revive an old but "classic" experiment that you can try with the leftover bones.

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Red Bellied Watersnake
I photographed this fellow at Ginny Springs in Florida. How can snakes swim without any fins or legs?

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Sanderling
These tiny birds scurry up and down beaches all over the world. What about their feet lets them run so fast?

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