Hello everyone and welcome back to Page Turn: the Largo Public Library Podcast. This is Episode Seven.
I am your host Hannah. Today's Library Tidbit is a Science Experiment. You will find a list of needed supplies below above the experiment directions.
The Spanish Language Book Review begins at 10:26 and ends at 15:00
The English Language Transcript can be found below
But of course, we start with Reader's Advisory
The Reader's Advisory for Episode Seven is Pulse by Jeremy Robinson. If you like Pulse you should also check out: The Ghost Brigade by John Scalzi, Vulcan's Forge by Jack du Brul, and The Lost City of Z by David Grann.
My personal favorite Goodreads list Pulse is on is Monstrous Biology.
Today's library tidbit comes to us from Mr. Joe over in the children's department.
Today’s tidbit is about geology and fossils. One way that scientists date rocks and fossils is using stratigraphy.
Stratigraphy is a branch of geology that focuses on the study of rock layers. There are two main subsets of stratigraphy: Lithostratigraphy, and Biostratigraphy. In today's tidbit we are going to focus on biogstratigraphy.
Biogstratigraphy is used to give relative ages to fossils and rock layers using what are known as index fossils. Meaning that other fossils found in the same layer as an index fossil are assumed to be of around the same age as that index fossil.
To be useful in stratigraphy index fossils should be: Independent of their environment, Geographically widespread, have rapid evolution, Abundant (easy to find), Easy to preserve, and Easy to identify.
A fossil can be formed in different ways Permineralization (where mineral rich water invades a buried organism and all the empty space in that organism is replaced with minerals), Casts and molds (where an organism leaves behind an imprint of itself or a portion of itself), Replacement and recrystallization (where the tissue of an organism is replaced by minerals).
These are rather simplified definitions and the list is not exhaustive. Check out Dewey Decimal number 560 for more information.
The List of Supplies Needed for the Experiment:
4-6 Paper Cups
Baking Soda
Food Coloring
Black & Colored Beads
Deep Dish
Pipette
Vinegar
Colored Pencils/Crayons/Markers
Piece of Paper
Directions for the Experiment:
Take a paper cup, pour a small amount of baking soda into the bottom, add a small black bead and a small red bead. Pour in a small amount of colored water, which ever color you want, just enough to wet the baking soda, push down on the baking soda really hard using the second paper cup and your fingers, this stimulates the pressure needed to create a fossil. Add another small black bead and pour in enough baking soda to cover the bead. Pour in another small amount of water making sure to use a different color this time and press down hard again. Keep going making sure that every layer you add at least one black and at least one (or more) colored bead(s) as you go until you run out of beads or you have filled your cup. Making sure to press down really hard in between layers.
You can alternate between two different colors of water or use a bunch of different colors.
Once you are ready carefully rip away the paper cup. What you should be left with is a colorfully stripped sediment sample. Those different layers represent different strata or sediment layers. The farther down the sample the older the layer! Place the sample into a deep dish.
Make a quick drawing of your sample, making sure to color your drawing just like you see it. Can you see any beads from the outside? Make a note of which layer that bead is in on your drawing.
Once you have it drawn take a very small amount of vinegar in the pipette and coat the top layer evenly. You should start to see the layers dissolve. As the beads are revealed make a note on your diagram of which color the beads were found in.
