Hedwig Pöllöläinen
grrlscientist
Posts by this author
January 29, 2007
Some of you, my readers, have sent money to me via Paypal or Amazon. I just wanted to tell you that even though most of these funds have been dedicated to keeping my birds and me housed and fed and me medicated, I did spend a little of it on a gift that I know all of you would want to have given me…
January 29, 2007
Moon over Chimney Rock Pueblo, Colorado.
The photographer was fortunate to visit on Jan 2, 2007, the date of the full moon rising between the spires of Chimney Rock and Companion Rock, an event associated with the major lunar standstill and the winter solstice. This occurs only every 18.6 years,…
January 29, 2007
tags: Barbaro, horse racing, thoroughbreds, horses, leg injuries
Goodbye Barbaro, thanks for the memories.
Image source.
Tragic news, everyone: The gallant racehorse, Barbaro, was euthanized today.
I have always had a love/hate relationship with horseracing. I love working with thoroughbreds and…
January 29, 2007
Wood Duck drake, Aix sponsa.
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Arthur Morris, Birds as Art.
Birds in Science
The ancestors of modern birds are thought to have been small, feathered, dinosaurs, the theropods. One of these small feathered dinosaurs is Microraptor gui…
January 29, 2007
tags: spiders, jumping spiders, arachnids, vision research
Female ornate jumping spider, Cosmophasis umbratica.
Some of you know that I am afraid of spiders, but in spite of this phobia, I am nonetheless fascinated by jumping spiders because they have interesting behaviors and a superb visual…
January 29, 2007
Below the fold is a video of cellular vesicles "walking" along microtubules inside a cell. I thought that the assembly of the microtubules was especially interesting to watch, particularly since my students often could not understand the dynamics of this process.
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tags: vesicles, microtubules,…
January 28, 2007
Birdbrained? Who says? Many people either think all birds are stupid or that they carry bird flu. However, a 17 year-old Indian Ring-necked parrot, Psittacula krameri, is showing people how clever birds are. This bird, named AJ, visited Martha Stewart on her program to show her a few tricks, such…
January 28, 2007
Bluebottle jellyfish, Physalia utriculus
Also known as the Portuguese Man O' War.
It is not a true jellyfish.
It appears that jellyfish numbers are increasing in various oceans of the world. This includes a recent increase in giant Nomura's jellyfish in Japan, rafts of jellyfish that swamped…
January 28, 2007
A flower -- can anyone identify the species? (I have a guess as to its identity but I might be wrong).
Image: David Harmon.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind…
January 28, 2007
The Personal Development blog carnival is now available. I am not sure how I was included in this carnival, but I am glad that I was!
January 28, 2007
I ran across a quiz that identifies what sort of book reader you are. My own results are below the fold and I hope that you share yours with me too, along with your opinion of the questions they used;
There was one question that bothered me. It was question six; Which set of books have you read ALL…
January 27, 2007
Yesterday, I received a rejection letter from the clinic I was trying to set up "after care" with -- so .. not only do I receive rejection letters from every job I've applied for, but now I am receiving rejection letters from shrinks! This means that I have no way to obtain the meds that I am…
January 27, 2007
The underside of a bracket fungus.
Image: David Harmon.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a…
January 26, 2007
This is another streaming video that reveals how 6 feet of DNA is meticulously packed into the nucleus of each of your cells. In addition, it shows how DNA strands are replicated prior to a cell dividing into two.
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tags: streaming video, DNA packing, cell nucleus
January 26, 2007
A photograph of Comet McNaught, taken by Tony Virgo in southern Australia. The comet is passing close to the Sun, and solar radiation pressure and heat take material off the comet, giving it a big and visible "debris field". It is no longer visible in the Northern Hemisphere.
Image: Tony Virgo…
January 26, 2007
This streaming video, below the fold, was old when I was an undergrad, but it never lost its instructive nor entertainment value in the classroom. As an added bonus, one of my biochemistry professors, who developed knockout mice, was a character in this film. More info on this film;
Directed in…
January 25, 2007
Do humans respect viagra enough? Methinks, not: There is an iguana who now is in danger of having his penis amputated after innocently consuming viagra. Yeow! It's a good thing that iguanas have hemipenes instead of one penis.
Mozart, an iguana with an erection that has lasted for over a week,…
January 25, 2007
Herring Gull, Larus argentatus, eating a starfish.
Image: Drew Weber.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that…
January 25, 2007
tags: cancer, p53,tumor suppressor, gene, oncology
Image modified.
When I was an undergrad, I worked in a lab that studied p53, a gene that acts as a tumor suppressor. At that time, it was thought that most cancers resulted from a defective form of p53 or after p53 had inadvertently been…
January 25, 2007
Image: Photo illustration by John Blackford; original photograph by Cameron Davidson.
A good argument for building UP instead of OUT: It looks like a lot of people will be going to work via water taxis in the future.
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tags: Manhattan, global warming,sea level
January 24, 2007
The 41st edition of I and the Bird is now available. I and the Bird is a blog carnival that focuses on wild birds in the blogosphere; ornithology, birding and bird photography.
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tags: birds, blog carnival
January 24, 2007
Titanis Walleri, Terror bird.
artist's rendering.
Image: University of Florida.
University of Florida paleontologist Bruce MacFadden said his team has determined that a prehistoric 7 foot tall flightless "terror bird," Titanis walleri, arrived in North America from South America long before a…
January 24, 2007
A paleontological treasure trove of fossils was discovered recently in a cave in the Nullarbor Plain in southern Australia. This discovery includes mammals, birds, reptiles and a marsupial lion, Thylacoleo carnifex (pictured), and 23 species of kangaroo, including eight of which are new to science…
January 24, 2007
tags: Y chromosome, genetics, Britain, African
A study of the human Y chromosome found that seven men with a rare Yorkshire surname carry a rare genetic signature found only in people of African origin. Researchers Turi King and Mark Jobling from Leicester University found that the men appear to…
January 24, 2007
Bacteria species.
Image: burningmonk.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a world out there that…
January 23, 2007
Rogue MTA notice.
Image: David Harmon.
The text reads;
All trains will be running at the normal unsatisfactory rate, along with track diversions and problems with closing the doors, which will make you late for any appointment or job you have. We sincerely do not apologize for any inconvenience…
January 23, 2007
The lava lizard, hitching a ride on the marine iguana was on Isabela Island in the Galapagos.
The photographer says, "I think the iguana is saying 'scratch a little to the right, little more, YES! Perfect.' "
Image: Annie.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I…
January 23, 2007
tags: Microraptor gui, microraptor, biplane, bird flight, evolution
The ancestors of modern birds are thought to have been small, feathered, dinosaurs, the theropods. One of these small feathered dinosaurs is Microraptor gui, a feathered dromaosaur that lived 125 million years ago in what is now…
January 22, 2007
Normally, I receive somewhere between 900-2500 hits per day (green on above graph) with slightly more than like twice as many page views (purple on above graph), but last week, one of my articles from nearly a year ago about global warming was Dugg, producing nearly 50,000 hits in the span of a…
January 22, 2007
The humping tortoises were spotted in the highlands of Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands.
The male didn't seem at all put off by having half a dozen voyeurs taking photos. The
female was totally unimpressed by everyone, including the male, and wanted to go
back to sleep.
Image: Annie.
As long as you…