This weekend we celebrate Independence Day, July 4, the day in 1776 when the United States became an independent country. In honor of this event, Friday is a government holiday.

I’ll be back on Monday. Have a great weekend!

Image by Sarah-fiona Helme

'Summer Stripes,' a finalist in the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition.

This stunning image shows a flower fly (or hover fly, as it is commonly called in the United Kingdom) on a gazania flower.

Last week was national pollinator week here in the United States, but it’s always a good time to discuss the importance of pollinating insects.

Flower flies live on every continent except Antarctica and are pollinators of major economic significance. “In some agroecosystems, such as orchards, they outperform native bees in pollinating the fruits,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Flower flies look like wasps and bees, but can’t sting. This is a great example of Batesian mimicry, where a harmless species imitates a harmful species. In this case the harmless flower fly has evolved coloration that mimics the more dangerous stinging wasp or bee. The flower fly looks like a stinging insect, hopefully deterring predators, but without expending energy on developing and maintaining a stinger.

Congratulations to photographer Sarah-fiona Helme of South Lanarkshire, Scotland, who captured this image in her garden. Her photograph was a finalist in the 2009 International Garden Photographer of the Year competition.

‘Summer Stripes’ is on display at Kew Gardens near London until September 13, 2009.

Image by Cornell University

Timothy J. DeVoogd, professor of psychology and neurobiology, Cornell University

Wednesday, July 1, from 11:00 to 12:00 EDT (1500 - 1600 GMT) scientist Timothy DeVoogd is hosting a webchat on scientific collaboration in North and South America.

Tim is a Jefferson Science Fellow here at the State Department. Like me, he’s a scientist who is taking a year away from the lab to work in the State Department. Also like me, Tim is a neuroscientist (he studies song birds, I study zebrafish).

Scientific collaboration leads to new insights. Such interactions also form lasting friendships (I’m still friendly with a scientist in Germany, we worked together in Los Angeles in 1999). This webcast will explore how to build such interactions among people in North and South America.

Ham the chimpanzee in his space suit in the nose cone of the Mercury-Redstone 3 rocket that took him on a 1,500 mile journey in 1961.

As we approach the 40th anniversary of humans landing on the moon (July 20, 1969), let’s remember the decades of animals in space that led to this tremendous accomplishment.

The first primates to travel to space and return to Earth alive were monkeys: Able, a rhesus monkey and Miss Baker, a squirrel monkey, who successfully made the trip on May 28, 1959.

40 years ago the first multi-day monkey flight began. Bonnie, a pig-tailed macaque, flew on Biosatellite 3 from June 28 through July 8. The mission was supposed to last 30 days, but was cut short due to Bonnie’s deteriorating health. Bonnie died soon after landing.

The first animals intentionally sent into space? The United States launched fruit flies aboard a V2 rocket in 1947. The flies were recovered alive.

Image by Stars of Science

'Stars of Science,' a new reality TV show where 16 aspiring Arab innovators are competing to have their ideas selected for further development and commercialization.

Reality TV has reached new heights with ‘Stars of Science,’ billed as the first Arab TV show that turns science and technology ideas into reality.

16 aspiring Arab innovators are competing to have their ideas selected for further development and commercialization. The Qatari show allows viewers to see the innovation process “from idea to launch,” according to the show’s Web site.

The winner receives $300,000 and support to market his or her idea; the runner-up receives $100,000.

Like a typical reality show, the contestants live and work together under constant video surveillance. Each week a three-member jury of experts eliminates half of the projects, but in an unusual twist the eliminated innovators join one of the remaining teams, until only two teams remain.

The public will select the winning team by voting via phone and text message. The final episode airs live from Doha on June 26.

The 16 ideas include a way for people to watch two different programs on the same television simultaneously (using an external device and smart goggles), a device that can automatically tune any Arabic string instrument, a way to control a wheel chair by converting brain activity into motion commands and an underwater device that captures and stores wave energy and converts it into power.

The show received 5600 applications from “young innovators of Arab origin living across the globe.” Casting occurred in 22 Arab countries. A committee invited 100 applicants to pitch their ideas to the Stars of Science jury, who selected 16 people to compete on the show. Each of the 16 own the sole rights to his or her innovation ideas. “The program does not have any commercial objectives,” according to the Web site.

The 16 contestants, ranging in age from 22 to 31, include two women, from Bahrain and Algeria. The other contestants are from Qatar, Syria, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Sudan and Saudi Arabia. There are two contestants each from Lebanon, Palestine and Tunisia.

‘Stars of Science’ is produced by the Qatar Foundation and will be broadcast by public and private TV stations throughout the Arab world. Founded in 1995 by the Emir of Qatar, the foundation supports education, scientific research and community development. Its goal is to make Qatar “a leader in innovative education and research.”

California’s almond growers, which produce 80 percent of the world's supply, are facing a bee shortage.

June 22 - 28 marks National Pollinator Week, when we “appreciate the hard working  animals that help pollinate over 75 percent of our flowering plants and nearly 75 percent of our crops,” according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Flowering plants require pollination, the transfer of pollen grains between flowers of the same species, in order to reproduce and bear fruit. Birds, bees, bats, butterflies, moths, beetles and even the wind transfer pollen among flowers.

Honeybees in particular are central to pollination. Farmers frequently rent commercial honeybee colonies: bee colonies are driven to the farms, allowed to pollinate crops and then removed. Commercial colonies can be driven around the country to pollinate multiple farms.

One of the primary causes of honeybee death worldwide is Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), characterized by a nearly complete absence of adult bees with little or no dead bees in and around the colony. Without adult bees to work, the colony is doomed to collapse.

Scientists are unsure as to the causes of CCD. A 2007 study found a correlation between collapsed colonies and infection with the Israeli acute paralysis virus, a virus of unknown origin first identified in Israel and found throughout the world. However, researchers did not show that the Israeli acute paralysis virus causes CCD.

In February, scientists in Spain reported two cases of apparent CCD associated with a parasite infection (the microsporidium Nosema ceranae). No other significant pathogens or pesticides were detected, but this is not proof that Nosema infection causes CCD.

Perhaps a combination of factors, such as poor nutrition, pesticide exposure and mite and viral infections leads to CCD.

Image by TWW

TWW's house in Brazil, with a white roof, stands out among the neighbor's darker roofs.

Last week I discussed the science behind Secretary of Energy Steven Chu’s comment that making roofs white will conserve energy and reduce global warming.

This photo depicts this scientific principle in action: TWW in Brazil painted her roof white. It looks great, even among a sea of dark colored roofs.

Many thanks to TWW and other readers for submitting their comments. I’m working on a series of features explaining the science behind climate change, so stay tuned!

Image by NASA

Insignia of the Apollo Soyuz Test Project

Even at the height of the Cold War, when tensions ran high between the United States and the Soviet Union, U.S. and Soviet scientists cooperated and shared technical data. Some of the first contacts between the United States and Russia occurred among scientists.

This relationship will be celebrated June 17 and 18, as the U.S. National Academies and the Russian Academy of Sciences mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of the first agreement on scientific cooperation between the two organizations.

Formal scientific cooperation between the United States and Soviet governments came in 1972.

These agreements paved the way for the 1975 Apollo Soyuz Test Project, when U.S. and Soviet space capsules docked in orbit.

In the 1990s, Russians hosted American astronauts on the Mir space station. Scientists from both countries continue to cooperate on the international space station.

U.S. and Russian scientific cooperation extends far beyond space, and includes chemistry, materials science, biology, geology, seismology, earth and atmospheric sciences, physics, engineering and medicine and health science.

In one example, researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture exchanged and studied samples of microbes and insects with Russian scientists.

In another example, in 1981 a U.S. historian and a Russian geophysicist devised a mathematical formula to predict U.S. presidential elections. Their formula has correctly predicted the winner of the popular vote of the last seven elections, a feat unmatched by pollsters and pundits.

Who would have thought that a Russian scientist living under a communist government would provide such insights into democratic elections?

Image by Satre Stuelke

A CT scan of a McDonald's Big Mac sandwich.

Check out Stuelke’s Web site for more radiology art.

Don’t believe me? Just look at this picture of squid embryos, taken by scientist Celeste Nelson. This image won first prize in the 2009 Art of Science exhibition.

This image was taken at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in the summer of 2007.

Nelson said, “I was staring at these beautiful embryos under the microscope and wanted to capture an image of them to share with my colleagues and family. The embryos do continue to develop completely in the laboratory and will eventually hatch in the Petri dish.”