Pacemaker

 Side by side, two variants of the same device. The autosal is a laboratory instrument used by oceanographers in the measurement of salinity. Its counterpart at left is a portasal, simply a more portable version.

Western society has a long tradition of astronomy, with names for stars, constellations, and other phenomena taken from Greek and Arabic roots. The same stars seen in the northern skies were seen by indigenous tribes in North America, who called constellations by their own names. 

Wintermaker is the Ojibwe name for what we call Orion, and it fits, as it starts returning to the northern skies in late August and stays through to the spring. 

Much of what appeals about this museum is its hands-on quality, especially looking through microscopes and seeing things in a whole different way.

I moved over into another area, which concentrates on technology that is wearable. And in a manner of speaking, a pacemaker is precisely that, worn on the inside, regulating the heart and keeping people alive and well in a way that was impossible a century ago.

An early external model is seen here, alongside a contemporary version.

Every once in awhile people get hurt. Splints and braces might be used to assist recovery. Multiple examples of them are seen here.

These are examples of prosthetics that have been customized to look different, to stand out, to be expressive. They certainly accomplish that.

Odds And Ends

I have some odds and ends from the last few weeks today. I start in late September, when I was walking away from the War Museum. A flock of Canada geese were on the lawn, having lunch. No doubt migrants from points further north, heading south.

In early October, I attended a couple of football games at Lansdowne Park. One was a CFL game, where the resident Redblacks have had a rough season, plagued by injuries. Post-game, fans are allowed on the field.

A couple of days later, an annual tradition. The Panda Game is a football game between Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, held here at Lansdowne each year, drawing in students, alumni, and staff from both universities. It is a busy ingress at each of the stadium's gates.

I walked around a bit during the game. This year, Carleton won, which is a good thing. 

A few nights later, I was back at Lansdowne, on a quiet night, where I took this shot from the east end of the property, towards the stadium.

Then I looked south, taking in the familiar sight of the Orion constellation. Its characteristic line of three stars, representing the belt of the mythological hunter, is the easiest way to find it in the night sky. It starts appearing in the northern hemisphere in the fall, and stays through the winter until dropping below the horizon. Seeing it for the first time in the fall is like seeing an old friend.

And here we have the Aberdeen Pavilion at night.

I was in Centretown one day, and decided to walk to make my bus connection. Along the way, I came to Dundonald Park to photograph fall colours, and came across this. I had seen work in the park last year on a section of the park fenced off, and then a number of weeks ago saw some pictures on social media.  This is in fact a splash pad, with two works of art at either end, by the artist Christopher Griffin, who works with concrete. Here we have a beaver.

And here we see a bear.

My last shot, taken early one morning, is of the Canadian Museum of Nature. The rising sun was illuminating the south face of the building, which I don't recall photographing before.

Tectonics

 Aside from being interesting in and of their own right, meteorites can give us information about the composition of our own planet.

The Big Bang started it all, bringing the universe into being.

Earth in its early stages was a hot planet, not capable of supporting life until it could cool down.

Plate tectonics- the moving of continental crust over the interior mantle- explains much of how the world works today, and how it gradually changes. 

A central video display looks at plate tectonics and its most visible  feature- volcanoes.

Earthquakes tend to happen along the edges of plates, though not exclusively. At their worst, they are the most violent force of nature.

Earth Gallery

A reminder to members of City Daily Photo that the theme for February 1st is Motors. 

The Earth Gallery is the next space within the Museum of Nature. Three display cases at the entrance hold a sample of the three main types of rock. The first is sedimentary.

The second is metamorphic- rock that is changed by heat and pressure into a new kind of rock.

And the last is magmatic rock- rock that was magma and cools down into a solid shape.

Another thing by the entrance is very old, and has traveled further than anything else in the Museum. It's a piece of the Moon, brought back by the Apollo astronauts.

The process of the Earth formation- with the solar system and the universe before it- is explored here.

Part of that process has involved the presence of meteorites.

This is a piece of the Canyon Diablo meteorite, which fell to Arizona some fifty thousand years ago and created Meteor Crater.

This is a piece of the Buzzard Coulee meteorite, which fell over the Canadian west in November 2008.