Hedwig Pöllöläinen
grrlscientist
Posts by this author
March 31, 2006
Canada Goose, Branta canadensis, with reflection.
Click image for larger view in another window.
Photo: TFlockhart.
Avian Mysteries
Hundreds of the seabirds known as rhinoceros auklets, Cerorhinca monocerata (pictured, left), have died and are washing up on the southern Oregon coast, but…
March 31, 2006
"I'll pray for you."
How many times in your life have you heard that comment? Have you ever wondered what, if anything, prayer actually accomplishes? Have you occasionally felt somewhat .. uncomfortable? .. or threatened, perhaps? .. knowing that complete strangers were praying for you? A…
March 30, 2006
As some of you know, I live with a large group of cockroaches that boldly infest my apartment, along with those of all my neighbors. Call me crazy, but it always seemed to me that the smaller, more numerous, German cockroaches, Blattella germanica, made decisions together, or they appeared to at…
March 30, 2006
Ivory-Billed Woodpecker trio, Campephilus principalis,
by John James Audubon.
Hey everyone, it might surprise you to learn that I saw ivory-billed woodpeckers in NYC recently! Even better, I saw a trio, and I stood so close that I could have reached out and touched them! I clearly saw the…
March 30, 2006
The newest edition of I and the Bird, the "bird.icio.us!" edition, is now available at Bootstrap Analysis. I and the Bird is a blog carnival that celebrates the best writing about wild birds recently published on a blog and this issue includes a piece that I wrote.
tags: bloog carnival
March 29, 2006
Fossilized mosasaur skull (source linked from image).
Mosasaurs are marine reptiles, not dinosaurs.
But the reason I show this fossil here will (hopefully) become more obvious after you read the story.
A 2 kilometer-long treasure trove of fossilized bones, teeth and claws from dinosaurs and…
March 29, 2006
A new study will be published tomorrow revealing that, on average, human brains mature later in those people who have the greatest intelligence. This research was done using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to visualize the regions of children's brains as they matured (example of an MRI pictured,…
March 29, 2006
The 50th edition of the long-running blog carnival, the Tangled Bank, is now available at Island of Doubt. As always, TB is packed full of great information about science, nature and medicine, including a piece that I wrote (and forgot that I'd submitted).
tags: blog carnival
March 26, 2006
62.5 %
My weblog owns 62.5 % of me.
Does your weblog own you?
I am especially curious to know what my blog siblings scored on this quiz. I think my results are skewed since I am unhappily unemployed, which means that I have no meaningful life whatsoever, outside of my blog, that is. And depending…
March 25, 2006
You Passed the US Citizenship Test
Congratulations - you got 10 out of 10 correct!
Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?
How did you do? I almost missed one of the questions (more below the fold)
Question 5; the year that the Constitution was written was .. 1787, but I went back and forth…
March 25, 2006
Looking for an unusual exotic pet? Why not get a pet Madagascar giant hissing cockroach, Gromphadorhina portentosa? Unlike most cockroaches, this one is bedecked with the finest Austrian Swarovski crystals, it has a leash to prevent it from running amok and, as an added bonus, this species is…
March 25, 2006
Here's a little pronounciation quiz that diagnoses if you are a Yankee (northern USA) or a Rebel (southern USA). The Alpha Dictionary will compute your score and tell you where you're coming from: are you (all) speaking Dixie English or are you(se) a Yankee Doodle Dandy? The higher your score,…
March 24, 2006
This cartoon, by blogger Stephanie McMillan, sums up the situation in South Dakota quite nicely regarding the general stupidity of women and their inability to make their own choices. Oh, did women also help to vote Bill Napoli into office? Well, I rest my case!
Incidentally, the phone numbers…
March 23, 2006
Great Horned Owl nestling, Bubo virginianus.
Photo copyright by Bill Hilton Jr.
Contact Bill to purchase this and other photos, the sales of which support the
wonderful work done by Hilton Pond Center.
People Helping Birds
The chimney swifts are coming! Have you seen them yet? If so, Chimneyswifts…
March 23, 2006
Animalcules, Issue 4 is now available. Animalcules is a small but growing bi-weekly blog carnival that focuses on all things microbial and, as usual, it includes some really fine writing. This issue, the first one to travel through the blogopshere, is being hosted by my blog pal, Bora, author of…
March 22, 2006
Female red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis, Lola, with her landing gear retracted.
Photo courtesy of Lincoln Karim.
Click image for larger view in its own window or go to PaleMale.com to purchase it.
Those of you who care about Pale Male and Lola will be outraged to learn that they are once again…
March 22, 2006
Circus Colors of Chemistry.What happens when aqueous sulfate salts of cobalt, nickel and copper mix together?
Solids of flamboyant colors separate into riotous domains and boundaries that only nature can conceive.
Photo courtesy of chemistry graduate student, Jack Hess.
Click image for a larger…
March 22, 2006
The 183rd edition of The Carnival of the Vanities is now available. This blog carnival does not cater to any particular topic or field; rather, its focus is to draw the public's attention to the very best writing about any subject or issue that has been recently published on a blog. This edition of…
March 22, 2006
I had meant to write more about my experiences at NYU last night, dear readers, but that will have to wait a little while because I went home early last night (tired) and because I have been struggling with a pinched nerve in my back that acts up whenever I become exceptionally stressed out (or…
March 22, 2006
I am working on my course syllabus for my conservation genetics course today. I have a deadline Thursday that I must meet. But before I start, I wanted to share this graphic with you. This graphic explains how your computer works in one easy to understand "Where's Waldo" type picture. Presumably,…
March 21, 2006
Horrors! The Martian Landers, Spirit and Opportunity, are filming on the planet Mars RIGHT NOW with their electron microscope-cameras, but not sharing this important information with us. However, my army of spies found a classroom biology documentary from the future that you will enjoy (follow the…
March 21, 2006
The sun and the moon over the North Pole.
Photographer: Unknown.
I am teaching a graduate journalism class at NYU today, so I won't be back at the keyboard until this afternoon or evening. Today's lecture? The wonders of writing about science on a blog. This will be an interesting experience for…
March 20, 2006
Do your eyes deceive you? Can you really trust your senses, or do they sometimes deceive you? Take this quiz to find out! It's a lot harder than you think. This quiz also includes an explanation for each question that helps you understand how your brain is "tricked" by your senses.
My score: 14/…
March 20, 2006
So, dear readers, it appears that there is a movement underway to convene a congressional hearing to investigate the current administration's hostility towards scientists whose data are not in harmony with the party line. Do you know of any examples of scientists who have been muzzled by the…
March 20, 2006
The Good News: Not extinct -- YET!
Portrait of the Sumatran Rhinoceros, Didermoceros sumatrensis.
Photo by Alain Compost (WWF-Canon).
For those of you who like to read about endangered species that have somehow managed to survive despite our best efforts to exterminate them, I have some good news…
March 20, 2006
The Seed Media Offices recently sent a book to me to review. This book, What We Believe But Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty (2006, Harper Perennial) is edited by John Brockman, publisher of Edge. The book is a collection of essays written by more than 100…
March 19, 2006
This graph shows what two links from Daily Kos and one link from Instapundit in the span of two days can do for your blog traffic. For those of you who don't know, Daily Kos is a high-traffic politically liberal team-written blog, whereas Instapundit is a high-traffic politically conservative…
March 19, 2006
This was sent to me by a friend so I rewrote it a little and posted it here because I thought it might be useful to my blog sibling, Afarensis, in particular;
Anyone who has been job-hunting will probably agree that the interpretations for these bullet items (written in bold) that you typically…
March 19, 2006
Do you remember how, at some point in the recent past, I wished that the Harry Potter online quizzes were more challenging? Well, someone heard me. Because this Harry Potter quiz relies on questions written by readers, it nicely confirms my working hypothesis that the most difficult quiz/exam that…
March 18, 2006
This is another in a long line of on-line quiz silliness.
You Are New York
Cosmopolitan and sophisticated, you enjoy the newest in food, art, and culture.
You also appreciate a good amount of grit - and very little shocks you.
You're competitive, driven, and very likely to succeed. (GrrlScientist…