E-Comet Newsletter of the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association |
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Dear Friends of the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association:
Our July calendar is packed with events, and it really feels as though summer is here!
The Science Speaker Series kicked off in June, and continues this month. The free lectures are held virtually on Wednesdays from 7-8pm EST. In the last week of July, we are excited to feature inventor Gitanjali Rao, TIME’s 2020 Kid of the Year.
Our second annual Nantucket Green Crab Week begins Monday, July 12th. During Nantucket Green Crab Week, we are collaborating with the Nantucket Land Council and will be presenting live lectures, and other educational opportunities, to learn more about this invasive species, and what we can do to combat it.
Our facilities are open! Come visit us at the Aquarium, the Mitchell House, the Research Center, and at Loines Observatory for Open Nights. We also have a full schedule of programs so you can plan interactive family outings and explore the outdoors. You can learn about sea creatures on a Marine Ecology Field Trip, start your day with a calming Morning Meditation in Nature, or participate in a Tree Walk at Mill Hill, identifying species along the way.
Finally, if you’d like to continue learning at home (or have an activity on hand for a rainy day), pick up one of our free Everyday Science Kits. The first hands-on experiment in this series is all about tide pools.
Again, please come visit us this summer– we look forward to seeing you!
Warm Regards,
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Jason Bridges
Interim Executive Director
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Barn Owl Spring Survey Results |
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The Maria Mitchell Association’s 2021 Spring Barn Owl Nest Box Survey took place at the end of May. Dr. Bob Kennedy, Ginger Andrews, and Mitch Blake checked fifty-five nest boxes on a very tight schedule, with the help of indefatigable volunteers, Kim and Tom Griswold, and Neil Foley.
We now have fifty-five adopted nest boxes in the Maria Mitchell Association Barn Owl Program, more than ever before. We were disappointed to find that only ten of those boxes actually had nesting owls, with an additional seven boxes used as roost boxes where we found only male owls. This is the poorest reproduction that we have found in years. The ten active nest boxes contained thirty young all less than four weeks old. We banded twenty of the young that were old/large enough to band. Potentially, there are eleven more young to come from the eggs that had not hatched.
Why so few owls? During the spring, Ginger Andrews received reports and followed up on many dead owls across the island. We in fact found two additional dead owls in nest boxes during the survey. Also, this spring, a live owl found sick was rescued by the Marine Mammal Alliance Nantucket team and sent to the Cape Wildlife Center on Cape Cod. We have been concerned about what appears to be the increased use of rodenticides on Nantucket and what the impact might be on the Barn Owl and other raptor populations.
To read the full survey, please visit our website here. Our Barn Owl team has been busy for the last week of June re-surveying all active nest boxes from the Spring survey and banding any previously unbanded young. Our summer interns were able to join for this research! Stay tuned for the August e-Comet with results from the Summer Survey.
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Upcoming Science Speaker Series Presentations |
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Dark Matter in the Disordered Cosmos
with DR. CHANDA PRESCOD-WEINSTEIN
WEDNESDAY, JULY 7
7-8PM | ZOOM
In this talk, Dr. Prescod-Weinstein will describe her efforts to understand the nature of mysterious dark matter. She will provide an overview of the general problem, and then describe her current approach to it, which is to characterize the behavior of a proposed dark matter particle, the axion. She will give some insight into how she is using a range of tools – model building, computation, and high energy astrophysics – to get at the basic question of, “If the axion is the dark matter, what does that mean for our universe?” Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an assistant professor of Physics and Astronomy and core faculty in Women’s and Gender studies at the University of New Hampshire. Read more about Dr. Prescod-Weinstein and her presentation here.
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Taking Their Water for Our City: Archaeology of New York City’s Watershed Communities
with DR. APRIL BEISAW
WEDNESDAY, JULY 21st
7-8PM | ZOOM
The New York Times regularly runs articles explaining why New York City has “the champagne” of city tap waters– it comes from pure and rural mountains. But there is nothing natural about NYC’s water. To create the water system, thousands of people lost homes and businesses, and had to sue the City for compensation. Dr. April M. Beisaw is an associate professor of Anthropology at Vassar College in New York’s Hudson River Valley. Over the last nine years, Dr. Beisaw and her Vassar College students have hiked portions of the city-owned watershed to document the ruins of lives cut short by a distant City. Read more about Dr. Beisaw and her presentation here.
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The Role of Science and Technology as a Catalyst for Social Change
with GITANJALI RAO
WEDNESDAY, JULY 28th
7-8PM | ZOOM
Gitanjali Rao was recognized as America's Top Young Scientist and received an EPA Presidential Award for inventing her device "Tethys"– an early lead detection tool. Rao is also the inventor of “Epione”– a device for early diagnosis of prescription opioid addiction using genetic engineering, and "Kindly"—an anti-cyberbullying service using AI and Natural Language processing. Rao was honored as Forbes “30 Under 30 in Science” in 2019 and TIME’s “Top Young Innovator” and "TIME Kid of the Year" for her innovations and STEM workshops she conducts globally, which has inspired over 46,000 students in the last two years across four continents. Read more about Rao and her presentation here.
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Looking for a fun and interactive science activity? With many thanks to the ReMain Nantucket Fund, we are excited to announce the launch of our Everyday Science kits. Beginning in July, each week the MMA will provide 125 FREE Everyday Science kits for pick-up at various locations. Kits will be focused on a different science topic with age-group specific curriculum. Pick-up locations will be determined depending on each kit and announced on social media and our website. See a sneak peak of our first kit below!
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“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.”
-Edith Andrews
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Keep Calm and Bird On
By Ginger Andrews
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To the human, vacationing world, July is the beginning of summer. But in the Arctic, June 21st, the Summer Solstice, marks the beginning of fall. For tundra-nesting birds, the days are shortening; the sun, rather than just barely grazing the horizon with 24 hours of daylight, is actually beginning to set. And with the reminder of night, comes the urge to migrate once more. So, July marks the start of Shorebird watching. |
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Our local beach-nesting birds such as Piping Plovers, American Oystercatchers, and Least or Common Terns are active, still busy raising their families. But they will soon be joined by migrants from further north. Ruddy Turnstones and Black-bellied and Semipalmated Plover are among the first. Soon afterwards, Short-billed Dowitchers will be stitching their way along the flats, slurping up marine worms, tiny mollusks, and crustaceans. Following them will be Greater Yellowlegs. Whimbrel, their elegant down-curving bills identifying them, stalk the marshes in search of fiddler crabs. By the middle of the month, Sanderlings will begin to trickle in.
Some birders complain, “Shorebirds are hard!”
Yes, many of them are greyish-brownish above, whiteish below. But it is good practice to take special note of size, bill shape, leg color, and attitude. It must be admitted, a good telescope is a huge help. But, by keeping a casual, respectful distance, pausing or just being still, and not staring like a predator, it is possible to sneak closer. All too often some unaware human will come along and flush the birds under observation. But be grateful for the other beach-lovers, as without them there would be no beach, only houses and seawalls.
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MMA Named an Official Host for NASA's Webb Space Telescope Community Events Initiative |
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The Maria Mitchell Association is excited to announce that we will be an official host for NASA's Webb Space Telescope Community Events initiative. The James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) will be the largest, most powerful and complex space telescope ever built and launched into space. To celebrate the launch of this incredible telescope, NASA is supporting museums, science centers, and other related non-profits to host special events communicating this important achievement. To read more about this initiative, please visit this page.
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The Maria Mitchell Association is thrilled for the business sponsorship support of Hanley Development.
Hanley Development envisions and creates distinctive residential properties primarily on Nantucket Island. Hanley Development oversees the development process from the perspective of an owner and investor and conducts in-depth market analyses to meet or exceed investment objectives. Their success stems from their unique design solutions, construction knowledge, development experience, strategic relationships, and dedication to the craft. Their team of seasoned professionals has over 100 years of combined construction knowledge and technical expertise across a wide range of Nantucket property types and design. From inception to completion, their team is involved every step of the way: pre-construction planning and design, obtaining entitlements, budget development and execution, scheduling, contract procurement, and close-out. Thank you to Hanley Development for their continued support of the Maria Mitchell Association!
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Did you miss a recent Science Speaker Series presentation? You can watch the recordings on our YouTube channel!
Watch the lecture, "Real-Life Death Stars: Measuring the Composition of Rocks on Alien Planets by Tearing Them Apart" with Dr. JJ Hermes, following the link below.
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Learn more about Maria Mitchell and the MMA with "Maria Mitchell's Attic," a blog written on a weekly basis by the MMA's Deputy Director and Curator, Jascin Finger. While its focus is mainly on Maria Mitchell, the Mitchell family, and life at 1 Vestal Street, the blog also highlights the archives, collections, MMA properties, the history of the MMA and its people, and aspects of the MMA that are lesser known.
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Listen to the latest episode of "Looking Skyward," a podcast with MMA Director of Astronomy, Dr. Regina Jorgenson, on WCAI. In this episode, Dr. Jorgenson discusses two new planned missions to Venus.
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MARIA MITCHELL ASSOCIATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Helene Weld, President
Judy MacLeod, First Vice President
Frances Symes, Second Vice President
Curt Burwell, Treasurer
Joseph E. Santucci Jr., Clerk
MEMBERS
Richard Bard
Beverly Barlow
Margaret Falk
Chris Griffiths
John Hartner
Carolyn Holt
Toni McKerrow
Michael Nelson
Molly Paiement
Mary Archibald (Bebe) Poor, D.V.M., M.S.
Katherine Rhode, Ph.D.
Brian Sullivan
Jane Tausig
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HONORARY MEMBERS
Howard Blitman†
Sally Charpie
John Daniels
Daniel Drake
Joan Gulley
Judith Lee
Malcolm MacNab, M.D., Ph.D.
Eileen McGrath
Nathaniel Philbrick
Anne P. Strain
Edward Symes, III†
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The Maria Mitchell Association creates opportunities for all to develop a life-long passion for science through education, research, and first-hand exploration of the sky, land, and sea of Nantucket Island. |
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