voltagegate
Posts by this author
May 24, 2007
A bit more ecological data has been uncovered regarding Crenarchaeota, a phylum of archaea known for their mostly acido/thermophilic nature and hallowed place in as the probable forerunners of all life.
A new study led by University of Georgia researchers and announced on Wednesday at the American…
May 23, 2007
Linnaeus on systematics:
"I can not understand anything that is not systematically ordered."
-from a letter to a friend
"There are as many varieties as there are plants produced by the seed of the same species."
-quoted by Gunnar Eriksson
Clashing with theology and human origins:
"I ask you and the…
May 22, 2007
Amazing video. Lionesses snag a water cape buffalo calf and fight over it with crocs until the herd returns to scare them off.
A Brawl In The Safari - Watch more free videos
May 22, 2007
I've always been conflicted about vegetarianism. I have known many vegetarians and vegans in my life and it is a lifestyle choice that I can respect for its intent. I genuinely dislike factory farming of any food product, animal or plant. We take it for granted that our supermarket shelves will be…
May 22, 2007
About a week or so back I actually checked my MySpace account to find an invite from a new conservation organization called EDGE: Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered, sponsored by the Zoological Society of London. NGOs nowadays are a dime a dozen, valuable but virtually identical. EDGE…
May 21, 2007
Between upcoming graduation and finals this week, I've been a bit slow to do my share of the final counts from the Blogger Bioblitz (B3), but I finally found some time this morning.
First, some meta data:
50 bloggers signed up for the event
32 posted about their bioblitz
17 data sheets for analysis…
May 21, 2007
I'm reading an excellent book right now called In the Company of Crows and Ravens (review pending) and found a couple of uncanny videos illustrative of their capacity for ingenuity. The first involves modified tool use and the second, from Attenborough's Life of Birds, shows how crows can use human…
May 18, 2007
Dave asked the scienceblogging community to show off our coffee mugs in order to reveal personality quirks, stir up a story or two, or uncover plans for world domination.
More specifically:
1. Can you show us your coffee cup?
2. Can you comment on it? Do you think it reflects on your personality?…
May 16, 2007
"This is the first age that's ever paid much attention to the future, which is a little ironic since we may not have one."
-Sir Arthur C. Clarke
May 16, 2007
This post discusses an article published in PLoS Biology reviewing Cornell Ecologist Josh Donlan's idea of importing African analogs of extinct North American vertebrates like the American lion and the mammoth in the hopes that filling these niches will restore and stabilize lost ecosystems. Two…
May 15, 2007
I can't wait to see these guys again. Freakin' amazing guitar work and just sloppy enough to avoid pretension. They're touring with the Deftones this summer.
Me and my ex-music editor (*sniffle*), Steph saw them last July at the Ottobar in Baltimore. Tom Erak, the lead singer is a very cool guy.…
May 15, 2007
Welcome to the 5th edition of Oekologie, the 'sphere's only blog carnival focusing on ecology and environmental science. We are always looking for hosts (especially for October) and contributors, so please check out those tabs if you're interested in either.
Some of you may know that I have a…
May 14, 2007
Oekologie #5 will be published here tomorrow late morning early afternoon. If you've written anything about ecology and/or environmental science (I stress the science bit; politics to a minimum here) please send in your submissions via e-mail: thevoltagegate [at] gmail.com.
The theme will be…
May 14, 2007
"The most important thing is to actually think about what you do. To become aware and actually think about the effect of what you do on the environment and on society. That's key, and that underlies everything else."
-Jane Goodall
May 13, 2007
Found this on TED the other day. Edward Burtynsky presents some staggering images, especially of China's growing industry.
May 12, 2007
I was pointed to an interesting video experiment this morning called Ecolanguage, which attempts to describe complex systems - societal, economical and ecological - through the use of simple animations and symbols. It's a neat idea, up to date, and well researched, but I suppose that the specific…
May 12, 2007
James (I should say Dr. James...) deserves some grats; he has officially finished his "PhD journey."
Go over to Direction Not Destination and give him some props.
May 12, 2007
From Ontario to Greece to Panama, what are participating bloggers finding out in the field? This thread will be constantly updated throughout the week, blog carnival style, compiling all of the bioblitzes that are being conducted. Please contact me if you have something up; I'll make sure I add it…
May 12, 2007
We are still "in the lab" so to speak with the final results of the Blogger Bioblitz. All of the data crunchers and digital cartographers are involved in academia in one way or another and this is crunch time. So, stay tuned and we'll have the final tabulation in the next week or so.
In the…
May 12, 2007
The second edition of Learning in the Great Outdoors, a new blog carnival about environmental education, is up at Alone on a Limb. For number two, Terrell takes us on a nature walk through school, even giving Oekologie a shout out. Thanks, all.
Have you written anything about environmental…
May 10, 2007
The final issue of The Bottom Line came out yesterday, the last one with my name under "editor in chief" on the tombstone.
This past weekend, I got a phone call from Jared, one of our own choose-your-adventure style serial fiction writers (Q.U.E.S.T. - don't ask me what it stands for...) at TBL. I…
May 10, 2007
Not according to the Bay Journal:
The annual winter dredge survey, which is used to estimate blue crab numbers in the Bay, suggests that the crab population still shows no sign of rebounding from the low level of abundance that has marked most of the last decade.
The total number of crabs estimated…
May 9, 2007
Global warming is not only stripping corals of their food source, it is opening the door to rapid, widespread infection.
A group of researchers (led by a Dr. John Bruno) published a paper in PLoS Biology this week looking into a possible correlation between the spread of white syndrome among…
May 8, 2007
Send me your best ecology and environmental science posts from the past month and I'll compile 'em in the first themed edition of Oekologie. I've been reading about the early botanical and zoological writings of ancient civilizations lately, particularly Arabic and Greek, and I thought it would…
May 8, 2007
Science Daily posted a few stories on climate change in the past two days, all three of equal interest.
The first study looks to the melting of the ice sheets that once covered the British Isles and how that affected ocean currents thousands of years ago. Will the same be true of Greenland's…
May 8, 2007
Heather* has been working on a few politically charged editorial comics for the Union of Concerned Scientist's second annual Science Idol contest:
We're looking for your creative take on the issue of political interference in science. Submit one-panel or multi-panel print cartoons that address the…
May 7, 2007
"We then try to justify what we do by trying to make it sound as if it has some "useful" application. But, really, we do it because it is fun. Nature is entertainment-the greatest show on earth. And that is not trivial, because what is life, if it isn't fun? I think that the greatest contribution…
May 7, 2007
As part of a school project, these students took the chapter on biomes in their biology text and produced a series of videos about biomes, but not just any biomes. These students chose to present the biomes of the Lord of the Rings.
Join Gandalf and Frodo below the fold as they revisit a not-so-…