Science discovers what every kid knows...

As entertainment, science is some of the best - and most expensive fun we can have with our collective money (i.e., taxes). The current issue of Science Magazine, which is published by the American Association of Science has, for example, of how a seed from a tree in your front yard can sprout a maple seedling in a fencerow next to your rented ground three miles down the road.

Well, it seems that maple "whirlybirds," to use their technical name, start spinning as they fall from the tree. In spinning, they create tornado-like vortexes that give them more lift than airplane wings, helicopter wings or just about any other manmade device. The same kinds of vortexes are found in the wings of bats and hovering insects.

The researchers who studied the maple seeds used oversized models of whirlybirds spinning through a solution of glass beads suspended in oil, and then used real whirlies falling through a smoke chamber. Are there practical applications to finding out how how whirlybirds generate lift?
Improved helicopter blades and better parachutes and two possibilities.

And you might come up with some more thoughts after you watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce2HUKizMTw

What happens in Lancaster County, stays in Lancaster County. At least that's what Harry Campbell would like to see when it comes to chicken manure. With the help of an $800,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Federation, chicken manure from some of the county's laying hens has been composted by Terra Gro, a Peach Bottom firm, into a dark, fluffy, nearly odorless nutrient-rich soil amendment. Because the compost stays in place, it does not flow to the Chesapeake Bay. This is a sign of hope for the Pennsylvania office of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, where Campbell works as a scientist. A story about the composting project appears in the Ag Innovations section of Lancaster Farming due in your mailbox Saturday.