Wednesday, 18 May 2016

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10 Places to Visit in the Solar System

Photo NASA/JPL/Caltech (NASA photo # PIA00014)
Having a tough time deciding where to go on vacation? Do you want to go someplace with startling natural beauty that isn’t overrun with tourists? Do you want to go somewhere where you won’t need to take a passport or get vaccinations? If you look up in the night sky, you’ll see a few of these places. All you’ll need is a fast rocket and enough food, water, and air for the trip, which could take months or even years.

10Caloris Basin, Mercury

About 4 billion years ago, the inner solar system was being cleared of the remaining debris left over from its formation. During this period, which is called the Late Heavy Bombardment, a large asteroid like those that created the “seas” on the Moon crashed into the planet Mercury and formed the Caloris Basin, one of the largest such features in the solar system with a diameter of 1,550 km (960 miles). The interior of the basin is filled with high ridges and deep fractures that radiate outward from the centre. The basin is surrounded by Mercury’s highest mountains towering 3 km (2 miles) above the plains and many lava vents, which point to a period of active volcanism. Bring your sunscreen; you’ll catch about 7 times more rays than you do on Earth because you’re so much closer to the Sun.

9Apollo 11 landing site, Sea of Tranquility, Moon

The solar system isn’t all stark craters and majestic vistas; humanity has scattered its artifacts among the planets and interplanetary space. If you had to choose one such historical site to visit, make it the Apollo 11 landing site at the Moon’s Sea of Tranquility, where on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on another world. There you will see the lower part of the lunar module Eagle. But be careful where you step. Your footprints and those left by Armstrong and Aldrin will last for millions of years.

8Valles Marineris, Mars

Photo NASA/JPL/Caltech (NASA photo # PIA00422)

Arizona’s Grand Canyon is very impressive. It’s 450 km (280 miles) long and about 2 km (1 mile) deep. However, when set next to the Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars, it is a mere ditch. Discovered in 1971 by Mariner 9 (for which it is named), Valles Marineris stretches 4,000 km (2,500 miles) across the planet. Typical canyons are 200 km (125 miles) across and have walls 2–5 km (1–3 miles) deep. The center of the canyon system is a depression 600 km (375 miles) across and 9 km (5.6 miles) deep. It has been speculated that Valles Marineris may be a fault system separating two continental plates. If so, Mars and Earth would be the only planets with surfaces shaped by plate tectonics.

7Olympus Mons, Mars

Photo NASA/JPL/Caltech (NASA photo # PIA01476)

Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system. It is 700 km (435 miles across and rises 22 km (14 miles) above the surrounding Tharsis plain. The edge of Olympus Mons is a cliff 10 km (6 miles) high. From there it is a shallow slope to the central craters, which are 85 km (53 miles) across. The largest such volcano on Earth, Mauna Loa in Hawaii, is 120 km (75 miles) across and 9 km (6 miles) high, although much of it is hidden beneath the ocean floor.

6Great Red Spot

The Great Red Spot is Jupiter’s largest surface feature, a swirling red oval storm twice the size of Earth. It has been continuously observed since 1878 and shows no signs of abating. The entire system rotates every seven days, with wind speeds at the edge of 400 km (250 miles) per hour. It floats above Jupiter’s main cloud layers, and it is unknown how far it extends into Jupiter’s interior. The spot itself sometimes changes color from an orange-red to gray, when it is covered by white clouds at a higher altitude. What makes the spot red is unknown, and speculation has ranged from sulfur and phosphorous compounds to organic material such as carbon compounds produced by lightning or chemical reactions with sunlight.

5Io

Jet Propulsion Laboratory/National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Jupiter has four large moons, called the Galilean satellites because they were discovered by Italian astronomer Galileo in 1610. Because Io is the closest to Jupiter, tidal effects squeeze the moon like a rubber ball, heating the interior. This energy is released in spectacular volcanic eruptions of silicate lava. Io’s volcanoes were discovered by the American probe Voyager 1 in 1979, making the moon the first place beyond Earth where active volcanoes were observed. These eruptions are so numerous that Io is entirely resurfaced every few millennia. The surface is mottled in orange, white, and yellow hues from sulfur and sulfur compounds.

4Europa

Europa is another of the Galilean satellites, but it is covered by ice. The surface is smooth with few impact craters, indicating that it is very young. In fact, the surface may be so young that resurfacing is currently happening on Europa. What is below the surface of ice is an interesting question. The ice is probably about 150 km (95 miles) thick, but below that may be an ocean of liquid water. Scientists have speculated that if such an ocean exists, it may harbor life with the heat energy coming from the tidal flexure of Europa (which would be less extreme than that suffered by Io, but still noticeable). If the cracks seen in Europa’s surface are much thinner parts of the crust, it may be possible for a submarine probe to melt its way down through the ice and travel the hidden waters of the subsurface ocean.

3Saturn’s Rings

The rings of Saturn are one of the most distinct planetary features in the solar system. They have a diameter of 270,000 km (170,000 miles), but they are astonishingly thin, with a thickness of only 100 meters (330 feet). The rings are made up of many particles of rock and dust and lie within what is known as the Roche limit, the radius within which a large moon would be torn apart by the great tides that Saturn would exert upon it. These tidal forces also prevent the particles in the rings from agglomerating into a larger body.

2South Polar Geysers, Enceladus

The brightest moon of Saturn, Enceladus, has a smooth, almost featureless surface covered with ice. However, at the south pole is the tiger stripe region, several ridges from which gigantic geysers spew water thousands of kilometers out into space and form one of Saturn’s rings. The geysers likely come from an ocean of liquid water underneath the ice. Where there is water and energy, there may be life.

1Hawaii

After touring the solar system from the vast chasms of Valles Marineris to the frigid geysers of Enceladus to the immense storm of the Great Red Spot, you might want to end your vacation in a place with a breathable atmosphere and plenty of surface liquid water. Luckily Earth is full of such beautiful places, such as the volcanic island chain of Hawaii in the middle of the planet’s largest ocean, the Pacific. The volcanoes there are not as large as Olympus Mons and are not as numerous as those on Io, but they are conveniently located near paved roads, nice hotels, fine restaurants, and fabulous beaches. Have a good trip!

Uninvited Guests: The 7 Worst Parasitic Worms

7Guinea worm

The Carter Center/Centers For Disease Control and Prevention

Transmitted when a person drinks water containing infected water fleas, or Cyclops, guinea worms cause incapacitating pain when they gnaw their way out of their human hosts in order to lay their eggs. Luckily, infection by these horrific creatures has substantially diminished as a result of eradication efforts by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

6Tapeworm

Dr. Mae Melvin/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)(Image Number: 1515)

There are about 5,000 species of these intestinal parasites, but only three—the pork, beef, and fish tapeworms—regularly set up shop in the human body. If you think it couldn’t get any worse than having one of these ghastly creatures affix itself to your intestinal wall, think again. If you accidentally consume an embryo, the larva may burrow into your muscles, skin, eyes, or brain.

5Pinworm

The pernicious pinworm is the most common of its brethren to infect humans in the United States. While their hosts are asleep, mother pinworms make the slog from their home in the large intestine to the anal opening, where they lay their eggs, a process that causes an itching sensation. Eggs are picked up under the fingernails and reingested by the victim. There’s a reason why this parasite is most common among children.

4Heartworm

Heartworms can live for five to seven years. Years. In your dog’s heart. Transmitted in larval form by mosquitoes, the foot-long worms can eventually cause cardiovascular blockages. Monthly preventive treatment is essential, even for indoor animals. Cats can get them too and are even more severely affected than dogs. Oh, and they have been found in human brains, eyes, lungs, and testicles.

3Ascaris

A huge proportion of the world’s population is infected with this large nematode worm. Some estimates place the number of infections—mostly in developing countries—at over a billion and the number of deaths each year in the tens of thousands. These large inhabitants of the intestine—which, according to Britannica, are “characterized by a mouth surrounded by three lips”—are transmitted when eggs are accidentally ingested, usually via soil contaminated by feces.

2Whipworm

Close to a billion people are infected by whipworms, which are relatively tiny—about four centimeters long—and disgustingly fecund. Mature females may lay thousands of eggs every day in the colons of infected people.

1Toxocara

Dogs and cats each have their very own species of Toxocara. Like many of the above parasites, they are transmitted by the consumption of eggs from either the soil or from a prey animal that is infected. The canine species can also be transmitted in utero. About 14 percent of Americans have at least been exposed to, if not infected by, this worm, according to studies of antibodies.

5 ways to show up first in YouTube searches

Sometimes, trying to make sense of Internet user patterns can feel like one big game of luck; does anyone really know what makes a video go viral or why some memes take the Internet by storm while others fall flat? For a lot of people, the art of using SEO tags successfully is another one of those famed Internet mysteries. While NMR can’t solve all the mysteries of the Internet age, we wanted to at least take a stab at solving the mystery of how to optimize searchability.

We enlisted the help of our in-house Internet marketing guru and CEO, Benny Luo, to help YouTubecreators and new media artists create titles for their content that are SEO (Search Engine Optimization) friendly and are sure to bolster searchability:

NMR’s tips for becoming more searchable:

1. Utilize Title Tags

Google uses the first 40-50 characters of each result on their search and YouTube pages and give priority to the words that are listed first in the title. This means that in order to optimize searchability, you should list all of your important keywords first on your title tags for your webpages and videos. The first words in the title will be picked up for ranking purposes and be turned into the direct link to your content on Google’s search results.

2. Be strategic

It is important to think strategically when planning the order of keywords to integrate into your content titles. Here is a good example:

Although many people don’t notice little details like this, when optimizing title tags for SEO, it is important to list the most searched terms first. In the case of the video above, which search terms will naturally be searched more: “Brian McKnight interview” or “NMR Behind the Scenes?” You need to always remember to take little details like this into consideration for SEO. For example, if your name is Joe Schmoe and you are doing a cover of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance,” it makes more sense to use “Lady Gaga – Bad Romance Cover by Joe Schmoe” as opposed to “Joe Schmoe, Lady Gaga – Bad Romance Cover.”

3. Utilize Google/YouTube Keyword Tool

Google provides users with a unique tool that allows them to look up a keyword to find out how many searches that word gets on a monthly basis. Using this tool to determine what words are the most attention-grabbing on Google search can help you understand what words are worth including in your title. Use words that receive the most searches for enhanced searchability!

4. Organize Your Content

Make sure all your content is listed in the same format for easy navigation. If you post a lot of music cover videos on YouTube, the best format is <insert artist name followed by song title> Cover By <insert cover artist name>. Listing the song title first will help you drive organic search views, while the name after will help promote you in case they want to search your name for the rest of the cover videos you’ve posted in the past. One of the most important things to remember when it comes to Internet marketing is that the smallest details count, so do not skimp on anything that would organize your content better for easier navigation for the viewer.

5. Use WooRank and/or HubSpot

These two free tools are awesome for generating a report on how your site looks regarding SEO. While you shouldn’t necessarily be changing and adding everything these sites tell you, it is a good source that allows you to see the improvements that could be made in order to optimize your chances of being a top result in an organic search.

4 Ways to Rank Higher in YouTube Search Results

Do you want more people to see your YouTube videos?

Have you optimized your videos for search?

If people can’t find you, they can’t watch your videos or subscribe to your channel, which hurts your search ranking.

In this article you’ll find four ways to tweak your videos to rank higher in YouTube search.

Why is YouTube Search Important?

Every minute, 100 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube. The site gets up to 30 million visitors each day. If you want to find a video, the first place you go is probably YouTube.

Besides being the largest video resource online, YouTube is also the second-largest search engine (right behind its parent company, Google).

If you can tap into the traffic and publicity YouTube offers, you could instantly shoot to the top of YouTube’s search engine results. But I won’t lie: competition is fierce. There are millions of high-quality, impeccably edited videos with carefully crafted SEO.

Like Google, YouTube uses ranking factors to determine which videos end up at the top of each search results page (SERP). YouTube looks at your video’s number of views, how long users watch it and how many positive ratings and comments it has.

For good measure, they also throw in the number of channel subscribers, how many times your video appears in a user’s playlist, how often it’s added to a favorites list or playlist and how many times it’s been embedded on a website.

To get the high numbers YouTube is looking for, you need to optimize your content so people click through and push Play. And I’m not just talking about your video content. What matters here are your keywords, title, description and tags.

It’s a lot to consider if you’re trying to get your YouTube channel on the front page of YouTube search. But hey, now that you know what they’re looking for, you can give it to them.

Below are four ways to get your YouTube videos ready for Prime Time.

#1: Choose Strong Keywords

You’re familiar with how important keywords are. Choosing the right keywords can be the difference between high visibility and page five of the SERPs (and you know nobody gets all the way to page five).

While YouTube can do a lot of things, it can’t search the content within your video to find keywords, so you’ll have to add them yourself. If you need help choosing the best keywords, use the YouTube Keyword Tool to find out which ones don’t have a lot of competition.

Your keywords help YouTube determine if your content is relevant, and they help your audience know what your video is about. Be sure to include them in your title, description and tags.

As a general rule, use about 10 tags that include the video category, video content, shoot location and names of anyone in the video.

#2: Include Keywords in Your Title

Your title should tell viewers exactly what they can expect to see in your video. That can be harder than it sounds.

Is your title too long? People lose interest and ignore you. Is your title too short? People don’t know if it’s what they’re looking for and they ignore you.

Ideally, your title should have around 120 characters—enough to tell people what they’re watching, but not so much they overlook it.

For instance, a video entitled My Cat won’t really grab users’ attention because it’s fundamentally uninteresting. (I mean, how many cat videos have you seen in your lifetime?)

A title with a more accurate description of your video’s content—My Cat Trying to Eat a Shoe—encourages users to click over and watch. The titles above are examples of good, clear titles.

As you craft your title, add a keyword phrase at the beginning, especially if you’re doing a series. For example: “Healthy Cupcakes: Gluten-Free Bananas Foster,” “Healthy Cupcakes: Sugar-free Cinnamon,” “Healthy Cupcakes: How to Avoid Cracked Tops” and so on.

#3: Optimize the Description With Keywords

When writing your video description, weave in your vital keywords naturally. As long as the description flows and isn’t forced, you’ll be OK.

If you overuse your keywords in a spammy way (that’s called stuffing and it’s poor etiquette), you’ll hurt your chances of climbing up YouTube’s SERPs.

In the example below, the description uses several keywords, but they work together without feeling forced.

As you’re writing your video description, be sure to include a link to your website or blog. For Google ranking purposes, a YouTube link to your website is considered a backlink (which means more Google juice for your website).

The description of a YouTube video gets cut off at around the third line, so be sure to put the link at the top of the video description.

#4: Customize the Video Thumbnail

Your video thumbnail is the face of your video. It’s the first thing viewers look at when your video comes up in search, so it really has to wow them.

Customized video thumbnails outperform YouTube’s automatically selected screenshot every time. Grainy screenshots from the middle of your video don’t instill faith in viewers that your video is the one to click on.

Take the time to create a custom, attractive thumbnail that conveys what your video is about. For best results, your thumbnail should have a 1280 x 720 resolution with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Wrapping Up

Choosing the right keywords; incorporating them into your title, description and tags; and customizing your video thumbnail make a big difference in your YouTube traffic and success.

You can get even more traffic by promoting your video across all of your social media profiles to reach as many people as possible.

Making your video accessible from multiple sources helps influencers find your video and, fingers crossed, promote or source it on their own platforms. Those links and embeds tell YouTube (and Google) that your content is popular, which pushes you up the SERP ladder and into higher YouTube search results.

Now all you need is good content, but that’s the easy part, right?

What do you think? Have you optimized your YouTube channel? What worked best for you? Leave your advice and comments below.

Tuesday, 17 May 2016

Playing with Wildfire: 5 Amazing Adaptations of Pyrophytic Plants

A blazing inferno is moving quickly in your direction. You feel the intense heat and the air is clogged with smoke. Deer, snakes, and birds flee past you, even the insects attempt to escape. You would run too if you could, but unfortunately, you are a plant. The fire begins to lick at your leaves and you wait... While no one likes the sight of a burned forest, fire is important for the functioning of a number of ecosystems and many plants are specially adapted to these fire-prone habitats. Read on to discover some of the amazing ways plants survive—and even thrive—in the face of wildfire.

5Fire-activated Seed

Perhaps the most amazing fire adaptation is that some species actually require fire for their seeds to sprout. Some plants, such as the lodgepole pine, Eucalyptus, and Banksia, have serotinous cones or fruits that are completely sealed with resin. These cones/fruits can only open to release their seeds after the heat of a fire has physically melted the resin. Other species, including a number of shrubs and annual plants, require the chemical signals from smoke and charred plant matter to break seed dormancy. Some of these plants will only sprout in the presence of such chemicals and can remain buried in the soil seed bank for decades until a wildfire awakens them. The image shows lodgepole pine seedlings growing next to the charred remains of their parent plants following the 1988 Yellowstone National Park fires.

4Thermal Insulation

Some plants are able to survive wildfires due to a clever layer of thermal insulation provided by their bark, dead leaves, or moist tissues. Certain trees, including larches and giant sequoias, have incredibly thick, fire retardant bark and can be directly burned without sustaining damage to their vital tissues (though they will eventually succumb to intense fires). Other plants, such as the Australian grass tree and South African aloes (pictured) retain dense, dead leaves around their stems to serve as insulation against the heat of a wildfire. Additionally, some plants have moist tissues that provide both thermal insulation and protect against dehydration during a fire. This strategy is common in a number of Proteaspecies which have corky tissues to protect their buds from desiccation.

3Resprouting

Though wildfires inevitably kill and injure many organisms in their path, a number of plants have adapted to resprout if they are damaged in a blaze. Some of these resprouters, including several Eucalyptusspecies, have specialized buds that are protected under the bark of their trunks. When the trees are burned, these buds emerge to produce new leaves and branches. Other plants rely on underground structures for regrowth, which allows them to “come back” even if the above-ground portion has been destroyed. SomeBanksia species and other shrubs have swollen stem bases or underground woody organs known as lignotubers from which new shoots can emerge. Similarly, many herbaceous plants have fleshy bulbs, rhizomes, or other types of underground stems from which green shoots rapidly develop in the wake of a fire.

2Prolific Flowering

© Hans Reinhard/OKAPIA/Photo Researchers

To take advantage of the ash-fertilized soil, some plant species are able to flower prolifically after a fire. The Australian grass tree (pictured) is a well-known example of this adaptation. Its conspicuous flower spikes are often the first sign that the plant survived a blaze and individuals grown in greenhouses are often subjected to blowtorching to encourage flowering! Other fire-stimulated species often bloom simultaneously a few weeks after being burned, creating lush landscapes of colorful flowers. This is especially common in annual plants that emerge rapidly from the post-fire soil seed bank. Several members of the fire lily genus (Cyrtanthus) only flower after fires and have an extremely fast flowering response to natural bush fires. One species can even reach full flowering stage in just nine days following a fire!

1Tall Crowns

A tall crown and few to no lower branches is a strategy a number of tree species employ to reduce wildfire damage. In keeping their leaves and vital growth tissues far above the reach of most flames, these trees can often survive a fire with only minor charring to their trunks. This adaptation is common in several pine species as well as in many Eucalyptus species. Some of these trees, such as the ponderosa pine, have even evolved a “self-pruning” mechanism and readily remove their dead branches to eliminate potential sources of fuel.