Galileo
Coming to Concord!
Come to the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium on Friday, January 2nd and meet
Galileo Galilei! 2009 has been declared the International Year of Astronomy
in honor of Galileo’s first observing the heavens through a telescope in
1609. “Galileo” will be here in person to talk about his curiosities and
discoveries! Celebrate as we kick off this significant astronomical year
with Galileo Impersonator Paul Manning.
Following the program will be a FREE Skywatch with the New Hampshire
Astronomical Society. Telescope viewing begins at dusk (weather permitting).
Recommended for ages 8+, children under 13 must be accompanied by an adult.
$8 Adult, $5 Child (3-12), $7 Student/Senior. Free for Members.
Interstate 93 to exit 15E. Call (603) 271-STAR for more information.
CASA of NH
Seeks Artists’ Submissions
Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of New Hampshire invites all state
artists and photographers to participate in its 2009 holiday card
fundraising project by donating use of their original artwork by February
16th. Selected artwork by amateur, professional and child artists (send in
your child’s winter/holiday drawings) will be part of a very popular series
of cards selling 50,000 to 75,000 annually to support the mission and
operating budget. While being a wonderful publishing opportunity, it
provides a means whereby talented individuals can use their art to benefit a
worthy cause.
CASA of NH is a statewide, private non-profit organization that recruits,
trains, and supervises volunteers who speak in court on behalf of abused and
neglected children. Currently, over 400 unpaid CASA guardians ad litem
advocate for 1000 young victims.
For information, selection guidelines, and a full-color brochure of 2008
CASA Holiday Cards, please call Bonnie (603) 626-4600 or visit
www.casanh.org. CASA of NH is also seeking citizens from around the
state who want to advocate for children in District and Family Courts.
“Snow, Water,
Ice”
By Suzy Martin, Master Gardener
UNH Cooperative
Extension
Remember those soft little snowflakes falling from the sky, attaching to
your eyelashes, mittens, and tongue during those snowy days when you were
growing up? Oh, how my friends and I loved to get up and out when the
announcement came, SNOW DAY. NO SCHOOL!
Remember sitting outside by yourself and listening to the snow fall, how
quiet and secure it made you feel?
Growing up in the fifties and sixties, I never really understood why
snowflakes were so wonderful or why the water they’re made from is so
powerful. How could the substance in those delicate little flakes from my
childhood float on the top of a pond, move mountains, and kill living plant
tissue?
I never really made the connection between liquid water and ice until I was
studying to teach Advanced Placement biology. I had a wonderful instructor
whose job it was to bring all of us pre-1963 high school science teachers up
to date.
This class brought me one of those “aha” moments when things suddenly come
together and begin to make sense. My moment of enlightenment came when our
instructor explained water and all its properties.
We began with the structure of the simple H2O molecule everyone knows by its
chemical formula: two hydrogen atoms (H) and one oxygen atom (O). The way in
which the hydrogen and oxygen atoms bond and by which the molecules attach
to each other causes liquid water molecules to attach and break apart
constantly, giving water its familiar fluid appearance.
But what about ice? How does water become ice and float?
The unique bonding properties of the water molecule also account for ice. As
liquid water begins to lose its heat and freeze, the molecules attach to one
another in such a way as to keep each molecule at arm’s length from its
neighbors, creating the rigid lattice structure we know as ice. This ice
lattice creates space between the molecules, making ice less dense than
water and causing it to expand and float.
Also due to this shape, when liquid water flows between rocks and down into
cracks in rocks and freezes, the ice lattice expands to nine percent more
than the water’s liquid shape and exerts a tremendous force on the
surrounding rock. This expansion causes fractures along the rocks’ natural
weak points. Adding gravity explains why the Old Man in the Mountain was
doomed to fall in spite of the valiant attempts to hold it in place.
Now as fall fades and the woods turn white with snow, what caused those
maple leaves to shrivel and fall and your geraniums to turn to brown mush
and begin to rot, but doesn’t damage evergreen shrubs and trees? It seems
water and freezing temperatures again are the culprits.
Leaves on deciduous trees die as part of a plan.
As sunlight and temperatures decrease, photosynthesis slows and the tree
begins to use more energy than its leaves produce. These are the clues for
the tree to reduce its energy budget and remove all those things causing a
negative draw on its energy stores. Trees drop their leaves and take a long
winter’s nap.
But many of our cold-tolerant evergreen trees and shrubs have adapted to
freezing temperatures by moving water out of their cells to spaces between
the cells, allowing the cells to survive by lowering their freezing points.
When the temperature rises, melting occurs, water moves back into the cells,
and the plant resumes its growth activities, though there may be some cell
damage. But not all trees survive, as the drying winds so common here in
winter can kill a tree by drying out the water between its cells.
That explains how trees may (or may not) survive, but what about geraniums?
Geraniums and other summer-flowering annuals, due to their genetics, don’t
transport water out of their cells, so ice forms in their cells and kills
the plants.
So, as daylight decreases and gardens are put to sleep, I look out my window
at the frozen pond, the surrounding trees and shrubs, and the deflated,
brown vegetation of the flower garden, and I think: I now understand why ice
floats, snowflakes form, leaves die, and The Old Man in the Mountain fell.
It’s all because of the simple structure of ice-crystal lattices created as
liquid water freezes.
And, as winter advances, snowflakes fly, and the woods look dead, I know
that even in winter, plant cells in my trees and shrubs are performing tiny
miracles, preparing for spring.