bushwells

C'mon, Mr. Wasp. You know you want it. You know you do. Many thanks to my longtime (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) Internet friend for getting this past the porn filters on my computer. This lovely orchid resides at the Krohn Convervatory in Cincinnati, OH.

After all my previous squawking about women reading science fiction and fantasy, OK, I mean hottus scientificas chicas who do or do not read the genre, I can't believe I missed this. Well, maybe I can. I am a near geriatric, after all. Here are the various responses from my SciBlings: Most…

Long time no see. I took something of a hiatus from the hootacular environs of the Refuge due to the Most Wonderful Time of the Year at DOPI:* performance reviews for 2006 and objectives setting for 2007. I know. I shouldn't whine and bitch about this, seeing how much work you academics put into…

I took a pretty circuitous path to becoming a biochemist. When I was six, I wanted to be a paleontologist, influenced by the "dinosaurs are cool" factor and my older (much older) sister's college textbooks which I attempted to read, trying to get a grasp of evolution. Then, I wanted to be a…

As the grizzled matriarch of the Chimpanzee Refuge, it behooves me to call attention to tonight's Nova: The Last Great Ape. Our close cousins, Pan paniscus, the bonobos, are featured. The PBS site's interview with Frans de Waal is worth checking out, and if you have yet to read his book, Our…

These otherworldly blossoms have no genus and species so I'll reach back to my plant taxonomy class and name them Chihuliensis fabulosa. These were spotted at the Dale Chihuly exhibit in the New York Botanical Garden last fall. For more realistic glass flowers, if you're in Cambridge MA, be…

Mr. Beck's evocative text... Then the overdressed fitness-jogger types carrying gallon jugs of water or grog, huffing like crazy and staring grimly at the ground. I'm not sure if I was last, but I do know that my not-so-novel strategy of trying to escape my morass of perambulatory incompetence by…

There's a little corner of the Internet which I stumbled across several weeks ago, a personal blog in which a young writer, her educational background in biopsychology, recently dissected an expansive and bizarre post-modern Milgram-esque experiment which occurred at fast-food chain restaurants…

Way back when I had a time to maintain a freshwater aquarium (pre-career and pre-children), my favorite fish were a pair of firemouth cichlids, Thorichthys meeki. This happy couple reproduced and guarded their eggs faithfully, only to have the plecostumus hoover 'em up when Mr. and Mrs. Meeki…

Last Sunday, my son, who is home for his rapidly waning semester break, and I met a couple of friends in New York City where we enjoyed breakfast at good enough to eat followed by a visit to the nearby American Museum of Natural History. We dedicated ourselves to the fossil halls on the fourth…

I just can't get enough of arachnids these days! Maybe I am unwittingly engaged in exposure therapy for my phobia. This parody gives a nod to Peter Witt's research on spiders' web weaving abilities while under the influence. For a legit example, see A. Christiansen et. al (1962), "Changes in…

Let's see, the Biz shot its right foot with the Vioxx debacle, then its left foot with Zyprexa (and others, but that's a recent one), so now it must look for another site for further damage of its tattered n' shattered image. Hmmm, how about lobbing off a couple of fingers? The FDA's approval…

As an arachnophobe (see Do I Get a Badge for This?), the title alone, Spider Cries Out During Sex, was enough to give me a powerful case of the heebie jeebies. Then I started reading the article from Live Science: While mating, female Physocylus globosus spiders emit high-frequency squeaks to let…

Here's a belated follow-up on my previous yammering about the SciFi Network's series Eureka. As I expected, the show blends the quirkiness of Northern Exposure with the Big Science of the Manhattan Project. I watched most of the episodes and would rank it in the "OK, I guess" category of…

All this needs is a wakka chikka wakka chikka soundtrack... This Paphiopedilum lowii was filmed by sameoldmike.

I moved from Cambridge MA about two and a half years ago but stay in touch with friends who still reside there. I try to visit my old 'hood a few times a year. Cambridge is right up there with Madison WI as my city to which I'd most like to return. I was not only one of the many biotechies who…

Jingle my bells, baby! Figuring out what plant this floral naughty bit belongs to should be about as difficult as knocking back a hot steaming cup of solstice glog. Here's the full photo of the showy bracts of the Euphorbia pulcherrima which surround small central flowers. The history and…

With the latest Big Pharma debacle ("Hey, let's shoot ourselves in the other foot") from the Prozacasaurus' overmarketing of Zyprexa (see Grrl's, Jake's, and David's (addendum, 12/21) blog entries on the subject), this recent (and free access) article from PLoS Medicine: Educating Health…

From the Despair.com do-it-yourself motivational poster generator, here's a follow-on to the "Harsh Criticism: Help or Hindrance?" Ask a Science Blogger query. Thanks to my expatriate physicist friend, "Ludwig 'The Swinger' Boltzmann", for allowing me to use his "game face" for this.

Re: Ask a Science Blogger - Harsh Criticism, Did It Help or Hinder? Warning. My response contains offensive material. Oh, you're not surprised? Well, OK, this is the Chimp Refuge. You already know that there are piles of bonobo scat everywhere. So let's get to steppin' and squishin'...…

This fearsome beast is a Puya raimondii, a member (har) of the pineapple family. The specimen was photographed by an unknown (to me) botanist in the high Andes of Peru. Hat tip to my wandering co-blogger, Kevin "Just Me, My Banjo, and My Bonobos" Beck, for sending this along.

Wait! Don't answer that just yet. Please allow me to give myself a little Q&A pertaining to issue of "proportionately fewer hot women read sci-fi and fantasy." Q1. So tell me, Me, do you read sci-fi & fantasy? A1. Well, not so much lately. Q2: How about your past flirtations with the…

Peter Doherty (no, not that Babyshambles creature, but the Nobel Laureate) laments the use of pop music to teach science in the Australian school system. That and other mushy encroachments in the Queensland science curriculum, as reported in Pop songs are weird science would make it appear that…

Ever the provocateur, Christopher Hitchens tells us Why Women Aren't Funny in the January 2007 Vanity Fair. Mr. Hitchens believes that humor in men serves as an attractant to women, sort of a laff riot version of the male peacock's tail: Why are men, taken on average and as a whole, funnier…

I don't care if what kind of mono-, pan-, or a-theist you are. This here is funny. Thanks to my best friend, who originally hails from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, for calling my attention to boymongoose's new video.

Hat tip to Keith N. for calling my attention to Isabel Cuadrado's lovely photos.

I'm a card-carrying member of the Wisconsin Alumni Association, and as such receive the glossy production, On Wisconsin, quarterly. Usually, the mag offers light reading and occasional updates on faculty, staff and fellow former classmates. However, an article published in the Summer 2006…

A follow-on to Kevin's Krisped Kringle: See Tim Kreider's "The Pain" in our links to the left (Humor category); the original is in the archives, Dec. 21, 2005.

These meat puppets are some sorta Sarracenia, and reside in the Haupt Conservatory at the NY Botanical Gardens. Check out The International Carnivorous Plant Society's web site for more tasty tidbits.

There. That banal neologism has been rattling around in my cranium for a few days like errant bb shot, and I needed to get it out there. Sometimes, a loathsome word must be purged from the brain before it causes too much damage. "Meme," which makes me cringe when I read it let alone write it,…