October is Energy Action Month.
What safe, renewable energy sources will be available to you in the future? Some researchers think that one day clothes--your T-shirt and jeans--may be able generate electricity. This electricity could be used to power devices e.g. cellphones.
That sounds far-fetched but scientists at University of California at Berkeley have been working on this idea since 2010.
At the University of Georgia, Zhong Lin Wang and his team are trying to create a fabric that can harvest energy from the sun as well as motion.
Fabric that generates energy based on movement will use triboelectric nanogenerators. Fabric that generates solar energy would require photo anodes.
Are we headed to a brave new world where our clothes will power our devices?
More information about Energy Action Month for students and teachers can be found here,
http://www.need.org/content.asp?contentid=175
http://www.energy.gov
The Gracekeepers by Kristy Logan is a magical realistic novel that addresses rising sea levels--an event that will happen if the climate continues to change.
After the sea levels have risen, colonies of people called "Damplings," permanently reside on ships. They are ostracized by "Landlockers" who trade with them but do not want to socialize with them.
A third more mysterious group of people, the
"Mer" people are forced to hide their existence. Landlockers kill "Mer" babies, who have gills or webbing between their fingers, out of fear.
Logan pits one of these Mer people, Callanish, against the Landlocker culture that wishes to obliterate her kind. Logan also juxtaposes North, the "bear girl" from a dampling circus troupe, with Callanish.
This is a novel that expertly explores how prejudice, fear, and superstition can harm society.
Logan reserves her most biting criticism for her criticism of each group's religious affiliations. The Landlockers worship the World Tree, a kind of pagan worship, that involves processions. The damplings worship gods of the sea.
Logan paints Christian "revivalist" ships, in a particularly gloomy light. She also decries the revivalist's image of a Virgin in blue robes.
Though there are few missteps, her overt distaste of religion, this is a captivating, powerful novel with intriguing characters that should not be missed.
There was still something unfinished around her eyes; she wasn't done yet. She was a story, not an epilogue.
Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire.
Sy Montgomery a naturalist who writes for children and adults alike explores the minds of invertebrates in The Soul of an Octopus.
Montgomery writes that O
ctopuses are highly intelligent and curious creatures, even if their minds are wired differently.
Montgomery discovers that octopuses, like dogs and other mammals, often have the desire to play.
Octopus display emotion by changing colors and can taste with their tentacles. They can solve problems--undo locks, create shelters, fool predators, and recognize human caretakers.
Their minds are so similar to ours that they even succumb to a similar decline in old age.
While they live relatively a short period of time--three or more years as compared to a human's life span of seventy or more years--they undergo similar changes during the aging process.
Before she dies, an octopus Montgomery has gotten to know well lays eggs. Though this is a bittersweet moment--all female octopuses die after laying eggs--the author feels proud of her "friend."
Though she frequently cites philosophers and scientists, Montgomery adds her own heartfelt observations.
Montgomery has a great deal of empathy for the animals she studies. She also has a great deal of admiration for the interns, volunteers, and scientists that work with marine life.
The Soul of an Octopus is one of several recent books highlighting animal intelligence:
Boysen, Sally. The Smartest Animals in the World.
Hauser, Marc D. Wild Minds.
Virga, Vint. The Soul of All Living Creatures.
Waal, Frans. Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
In Marlena by Julie Buntin, Cat becomes captivated by her magnetic, yet tragically vulnerable next door neighbor, Marlena. After her Dad leaves them, Cat and the rest of the family move to Silver Lake, a small Northern Michigan community, where they hope to start over.
Cat is soon spending every minute with her new neighbor and friend, Marlena. Older and more sophisticated, Marlena takes Cat down a typical wormhole of drugs and alcohol.
An older wiser Cat narrates the story while flashbacks tell the story of her fifteenth summer. This dual perspective novel shows how complicated friendships can have lasting repercussions.
www.juliebuntin.com
The Zookeeper's Wife is beautifully shot and acted. Director, Niki Caro, used real animals and real cages rather than CGI. The rapport between Antonina (Jessica Chastain) and the animals is genuine. This in itself must have been incredibly hard to film.
The story arc is beautiful; In the beginning, Antonina wishes to save only one Jewish friend, Magda. The risks are incredible to take in even one. Nazi troops patrols the zoo in the mornings and afternoons.
Antonina and her husband rescue 300 Jews from certain death in tunnels under her zoo. She maintains a friendship with one of Hitler's most trusted men, Lutz Heck, and devises an ingenious plan.
Chastain portrays the character's duality-- her intensity and equanimity--in such a unique way.
"The snow had been falling for three days above six thousand feet, but it has been gentle and hte lines stayed up. At this point in the season, after a long Montana winter that showed no sings of breaking, Sabrina Baldwin considered this a gift...Then, on the fourth day, the wind rose. And the lights blinked."
Rise the Dark, Michael Koyta.
