{"id":17431,"date":"2009-09-23T12:26:08","date_gmt":"2009-09-23T19:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=17431"},"modified":"2015-08-17T14:55:34","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T21:55:34","slug":"nau-scientists-and-engineers-showcase-their-world-with-all-their-mites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/nau-scientists-and-engineers-showcase-their-world-with-all-their-mites\/","title":{"rendered":"NAU scientists and engineers showcase their world with all their mites"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Join the activities at NAU<\/strong>
\nMountain Campus Science and Engineering Day will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, with most activities in the High Country Conference Center. It is part of the Flagstaff Festival of Science, in which all activities during the 10-day event are free. For information, log on to\u00a0www.scifest.org<\/a>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Are you a good mite or a bad mite? That\u2019s one of the questions scientists are asking with the help of Northern Arizona University\u2019s powerful electron microscope on display at Mountain Campus Science and Engineering Day on Saturday, Sept. 26.<\/p>\n

Magnified at 10,000 times its true size, even a good mite looks pretty scary. It\u2019s a creature that lives on bark beetles and eats their eggs. A bad mite is one that grooms bark beetles and keeps them healthy.<\/p>\n

Bark beetles have wreaked havoc on the drought-stricken ponderosa and pinyon pine forests of the West in recent years, killing thousands of trees and increasing the risk for catastrophic wildfire. Researchers are trying to figure out how the beetles know when a tree is stressed and how they communicate with one another.<\/p>\n

“Students and scientists are looking at how bark beetles make sounds,\u201d said\u00a0Marilee Sellers<\/strong>, assistant director of NAU\u2019s Imaging and Histology Core Facility. \u201cIf we can learn how to re-create the sounds or the pheromones that are attracting swarms of beetles to a tree, we can create a trap like a bug zapper to get the bugs before they get to the trees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the many displays, interactive exhibits\u2014some with live unusual creatures\u2014and fun exploding science activities like Alka-Seltzer rockets, Sellers will be showcasing some of the bugs that look particularly fierce when magnified 50 to 100 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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An ant magnified 50 times larger than it’s normal size looks a bit more intimidating than usual.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

If you can imagine a stink bug or cockroach gold-plated like jewelry, you may be able to imagine the kind of odd display she will have. She\u2019ll be asking participants to vote for the ugliest bug, which she will have \u201cblown up\u201d to 50 or 100 times their normal size.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Ugly Bug Contest is lots of fun,\u201d\u00a0Marilee Sellers<\/strong>, assistant director of NAU\u2019s Imaging and Histology Core Facility, said. \u201cIt allows adults to be children again, and kids get interested in science by reading the descriptions of the bugs and learning about the electron microscope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides the monstrous magnified bugs, Mountain Campus Science and Engineering Day offers a mesmerizing Physics Magic Show, super-mileage and human-powered vehicles and robots.<\/p>\n

“These robots are created and demonstrated by high school teams like Coconino High School\u2019s Coconuts and the Verde Valley\u2019s Sporks,” said Verde Valley Robotics board member Allison Kipple. \u201cOur local teams have been super successful; the Coconuts have gone to nationals the last two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

“One thing that I am grateful for is the faculty involvement in Mountain Campus Science and Engineering Day,\u201d said\u00a0Deb Larson<\/strong>, associated dean of the College of Engineering, Forestry and Natural Sciences. \u201cIt\u2019s a great example of how much our faculty members care about science and engineering and getting the community involved while engaging tomorrow\u2019s scientists and engineers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Join the activities at NAU Mountain Campus Science and Engineering Day will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, with most activities in the High Country Conference Center. It is part of the Flagstaff Festival of Science, in which all activities during the 10-day event are free. For information, log on to\u00a0www.scifest.org. Are…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-happenings"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}