Category — Science

In the Los Angeles Times, Hugo Martín writes about Precision Dynamics’ microchip wristband, which has uses at places like the Disney resorts.

The wristbands use the same technology as electronic tollbooths, security key cards and the newest U.S. passports. But at Precision Dynamics, this sophisticated electronic know-how has found its niche at theme parks, where the high-tech wristbands act as high-security admission passes, cashless debit cards, hotel room keys and a form of identification to reunite lost children with parents.

Check out the story, which includes a quote from a privacy watchdog.

Microsoft Research and Disney*Pixar have joined together to create a virtual tour of the universe! The tour is hosted by Wall-E, and is narrated by Academy-Award winning director Andrew Stanton. You might have seen the teaser for the tour on the DVD or Blu-ray Disc. Now you can experience it in full by going to http://www.worldwidetelescope.org.

WorldWide Telescope is a rich Web application that brings together imagery from the best ground- and space-based observatories across the world to allow people to easily explore the night sky through their computers. WorldWide Telescope has been embraced by the astronomical and education communities as a compelling, astronomical resource for students and lifelong learners.

Buzz Lightyear’s dream of going “to infinity and beyond” will finally come true this weekend when Disney Parks and NASA send the 12-inch-tall action figure to space aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-124 launching from Kennedy Space Center on May 31 at 5:02 p.m. ET (subject to schedule changes).

The launch coincides with the opening of Toy Story Midway Mania at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s new “edu-tainment” program the “Space Ranger Education Series”. Disney, Pixar and NASA have teamed up to get school children excited about the sciences. The series, hosted at www.nasa.gov, will be available throughout 2008.

The folks at Disney are deservedly proud of this achievement. I’ve received this story from four separate sources at the Mouse House. It’s a pretty great program and hopefully will inspire many of today’s students to become tomorrow’s scientists.

A short video schools can use to highlight the program and the full press release is below the cut:

[Read more →]

• OSHA report contradicts Disney World story on death of cast member at Primeval Whirl in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Fines have been levied for infractions related to the death and other incidents.
• Want to become a Toy Story Midway Mania Master? Then head on over to Kevin Yee’s Ultimate Orlando Blog where Kevin has posted a series of spoilers on how to get to some of the higher point score targets.
• The OC Register has video and photos of the Indiana Jones Stunt Show at Disneyland. Very nice, wish I could be there myself. (Although shouldn’t Indy be a bit older?)
• Here’s a nice trip report from Mary who was bringing her family to Disneyland for the first time. Definitely a different perspective. (She’s also from Portland and I remember making those Disneyland trips yearly.)
• I wanted to make sure I pointed out this song covering “That’s How You Know” from Disney’s Enchanted by Demi Lovato. Lovato is rumored to be in the process of being groomed by Disney to replace Miley Cyrus should she ever depart the Mouse House. Btw, the Covering The Mouse blog continues to impress.
• Today marked the grand re-opening of Gatorland’s new gift shop and administration building. The park’s iconic Jaws survived a devastating fire 18 months ago. I wish I had made it over there, but the Orlando Sentinel did and has pictures of the Gator Jaws and a report on the re-opening.
• If there is one thing I love as much as Disney, it’s food. So when the two combine I am extra happy. This June the Food Network will air a Cake Challenge episode where four professional cake artists compete to create the best Pixar-themed cake. I’m just guessing, but I bet WALL-E will figure in some how. Set your reminders now.
• Also check out the Disney Movie Surfer’s look at the making of Pixar’s WALL-E.

Finally, as today’s Video Bonus Round click below the cut to check out this rare 1979 commercial advertising Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland.
[Read more →]

Next to his own most intimate self-concerns, man is most fascinated by creatures of the animal kingdom.
– Walt Disney

In 2006, two white rhinos, both born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, became the first-ever to repatriate from the United States to Africa. The two white rhinos joined four others at the Ziwa Sanctuary in Uganda to re-establish a population that became extinct in 1972 due to civil unrest in the region.

The rhinos, Nande and Hasani, were born in 1999 and 2001 respectively at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Nande, a female, weighs approximately 3800 pounds and Hasani weighs approximately 3500 pounds. To get them to Uganda they first had to be trained to enter into a crate. Note the Rhino Reintroduction Program sign on the crate.

They were then shipped to Uganda and trucked to the Ziwa Sanctuary. They don’t accept crates of Rhinos every day so some ingenuity was used to get them out of the truck and into the transitional pen.

But everything went smoothly and soon the pair were resting quietly in their new home.

They took a 30 hour journey to the Ziwa Sanctuary in Uganda, Africa on Monday, August 21st with two animal care experts and a veterinarian from Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Just this year, veterinarians, scientists and animal care experts from Disney’s Animal Kingdom returned to Uganda to follow-up and monitor them.

The goal now is to assist the Uganda Wildlife Authority and Rhino Fund Uganda with the establishment of a breeding facility for rhinos that can be reintroduced to the wild. There are now just over 11,000 white rhinos remaining in the world but very few in the wild.

Disney is justifiably proud of their White Rhino breeding program. So far they’ve had six births in eight years.

Disney World’s collaborative commitment to conservation and rhinos goes beyond this first-ever rhino transfer as well. Additionally, the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund has supported more than $100,000 in Rhino protection and research projects in partnership with non-profit organizations throughout the world.

10 Years Of Caring at Disney’s Animal Kingdom:

• Operation Migration
• Elephant Population Control
• Lioness Examination

Fair warning to the men in the room you may want to avert your eyes in sympathy for our fellow mammalian males during this story.

Southern Africa has an elephant over population problem. Specifically in South Africa and Botswana Elephant overpopulation in wildlife parks and reserves can have devastating effects on the natural landscape and other animal species. Because no proven method of permanent contraception previously existed for elephants, wildlife officials in many countries have considered killing herds of elephants in order to minimize the damage caused by growing elephant populations.

But veterinary experts led by Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s Dr. Mark Stetter have perfected a method of performing laparoscopic vasectomies on elephants while in the wild. This effectively sterilizes male elephants with little trauma or side effects and has given African herd managers an option other than culling.

Dr. Mark Stetter with his graying hair and boyish good looks is the Dr. Ross, or Dr. McDreamy if you prefer an ABC reference, of the animal veterinary care world. Dr. Stetter explains that operations in the wild are different from the controlled environment of a zoo. They have to find the elephants, make them go to sleep, then have them wake up and go right back out to the wild.

They use a helicopter to find and then dart the animals. They bring them to a clearing where a truck and other equipment can be brought in. Once the elephant is asleep a crane-truck is used to lift them to a standing position. It’s legs are braced and it essentially stands up next to the truck for the surgery.

There is another trick with an elephant vasectomy. Unlike most mammals you may be familiar with, elephant testes are located on the interior of the body (near the upper back of the abdomen) right next to the kidney. So an 3-foot long elephant laparoscope was developed to perform this surgery. Disney’s Animal Care program has the only working version of this tool.

Of course, the nice thing about elephant skin is that it’s already wrinkly, so the incision is hardly noticeable.

Each animal is then collared for tracking purposes to make sure the stitches don’t come out or other complications arise.

Over the course of several years Dr Stetter and his team have perfected the operation. Now they can perform two surgeries a day and should be able to perform 10 additional vasectomies when they return this year.

“We are pleased that the laparoscopic vasectomies have been successfully performed and that wildlife officials are investigating its utility in elephant management for parks in South Africa,” said Dr. Mark Stetter, director of Veterinary Services and Disney’s Animal Programs and leading this effort. “This is a collaborative project that brings together conservation groups, universities and private industry to address a complex and controversial wildlife issue. As an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) we are committed to finding or creating innovative solutions to issues facing all wildlife.”

This is another example of how Disney’s Animal Kingdom takes wildlife conservation seriously. Not only is the theme park an active and important participant in maintaining a healthy and active elephant breeding program in the North American zoo system, but they take the knowledge they learn and use it to make a difference around the world. Thanks for caring, Disney.

Read more about the project at the Elephant Project Newsletter from 2006 (so it’s a bit out of date) or watch this video prepared by Disney.

10 Years Of Caring at Disney’s Animal Kingdom:

• Operation Migration.
• Repatriating White Rhinos.
• Lioness Examination.

Back in July, Inhabitat reviewed The Land pavilion at Epcot to which I replied with some comments. Now the Orlando Sentinel has an in depth look at some of the actual biotech science going on in the labs of The Land.

Visitors’ only brush with science there might involve Epcot’s programs to grow lettuce in water or to shape vegetables like Mickey Mouse. Yet more complex, far-less-known, potentially more practical and possibly controversial work has been going on side by side with those show projects for years.

In some of those tiny dishes, within microbiology laboratories walled off from the public, one of Epcot’s primary missions is being cultivated specimen by specimen, cell by cell, gene by gene.

The Sentinel story answers one of my earlier questions. Is there Genetic Engineering going on inside the pavilion. Now we know the answer is yes! But it doesn’t* It also answers the corollary — does any of this genetically modified food make it into the Disney Restaurant food that reportedly comes from those giant biodome gardens? No, Disney never serves anything from the genetic labs. (Read)

*Thanks to DizWiz for the catch…

A follow up to the my comments on the Inhabitat article about Epcot. There’s a meme spreading through the blogosphere that Disney is growing Genetically Modified food in the greenhouses at ‘The Land’ pavilion. This might be a concern to some, since a big part of the pavilion is that the food grown there is served at various Epcot restaurants. Disney may be performing some crop modification, but I don’t think they’re talking about gene splicing or Genetically Modified Food as defined at wikipedia. This is more about breeding for selection of beneficial properties.

For instance, only the tomato plant seeds that show promise of growing into a giant tomato tree will be harvested for future plantings of said tree. Same with seeds from plants that react better to hydroponics; they’re more likely to replant with those seeds than from plants with a low harvest, etc. Part of the experiment is to find ways to increase crop harvests in developing nations.

I asked Disney World for an official comment, but so far no one has gotten back to me. However, I doubt there is any one is in a back room with a gene splicing machine crossing tomatoes with dog hair (or other genes) to provide a better product.

The only possible exception to this is the NASA space crop experiments (which I believe are actually performed elsewhere and we just see a sample on the attraction). I’ll see if I can find out more on this on a future visit. Frequently not mentioned is the curious seedless plant reproduction process. The boat tour completely skips over it now, but the ‘laboratory’ window features the technology.

To add to the confusion, Disney recently switched from having a live host on the boat ride "Living With The Land" to a recorded spiel. This gives a more consistent show, but the over all show suffers because there will be less frequent ’set changes’ in the greenhouse and no personal contact with the agri-tech interns. This means questions like those raised in the Inhabitat article discussion go unanswered

Via Wikipedia we see a summary of the debate over the safety of GM food. Since the verdict is still out over the potential long term health affects, if there is GM food in use at WDW, it would be nice to provide a clear warning to guests who would choose not to eat those products. For that matter, how about providing an ‘organic’ line of meals available at each dining establishment. I know my family is trying to eat more organic foods at home, it would be nice to have that choice at our favorite entertainment destination as well.