grrlscientist | February 13, 2008tags: shark, elasmobranch, great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, Image of the Day
This is the most amazing wildlife image I've ever seen. If you don't agree with me, then you have to show me what's more amazing than this!
Kayaking with a Great White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias.
Image: Thomas P. Peschak [purchase this image].
The photographer writes; To capture this image I tied myself to the tower of the research boat Lamnidae and leaned into the void, precariously hanging over the ocean while waiting patiently for a white shark to come along. I wanted to [take] a photograph that…
grrlscientist | February 13, 2008tags: luminescent marine animals, Deep Sea, Deep Blue, streaming video
Scenes and music are from the movie "Deep Blue", rearranged to make this little video, which shows mostly luminescent creatures that are living in the deep sea. These animals are bioluminescent, but to see that, you'd have to turn the lights out, and then they'd glow a bluish-white. However, these animals glow with rainbow colors due to diffraction by their bodies of the light that is being shown onto them for the purposes of photography. Imagine: we know more about the moon than we know about the deep sea! [1:15]
grrlscientist | February 12, 2008tags: Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Living Bird magazine
The quarterly magazine, Living Bird, that is published by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, is now available online for free. It includes stories (some are "web only"), streaming video and lots of wonderful images for you to enjoy.
grrlscientist | February 12, 2008tags: blog carnivals, Carnival of Speculative Fiction
The 1st edition of the new blog carnival, Carnival of Speculative Fiction, is now available for you to read and enjoy. They included a piece that I wrote, so of course, I am pleased.
grrlscientist | February 12, 2008tags: Darwin, Darwin's Birthday, images
The Definitive Darwin.
Image: The Nonist.
A century and a half after Darwin's most important work was published, people still seem to have a hard time wrapping their minds around its implications, or are made nervous and upset by them. The authors at The Nonist thought it was high time that Darwin's image was updated and his ideas put into less technical terms which everyone can understand. With that in mind they modified Bob Peak's poster for Every Which Way But Loose, creating an image better fit to reach the doubtful American public.
grrlscientist | February 12, 2008tags: giraffe weevil, Trachelophorus giraffa, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife
A giraffe weevil, Trachelophorus giraffa,
as portrayed in tiles on the walls of the NYC uptown subway stop (A-B-C)
at 81st and Central Park West. (ISO, no zoom, no flash).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [wallpaper size].
Read more about the AMNH tile artworks and see the AMNH tile artworks photographic archives -- with all the animals identified.
grrlscientist | February 12, 2008tags: birding, online games, eagle eyes, Audubon Society
Eagle Eyes is a fun online game that focuses on teaching you to see minor differences between two seemingly identical images, such as those shown above. I earned my "Eagle Eyes" ranking (25/25) and am going to try more demanding versions of the game now. How did you do?
grrlscientist | February 12, 2008tags: James Watson, racism, sexism, genetic engineering, seed media group, scienceblogs, Adam Bly
James Watson, 1962 Nobel Prize winner
for co-discovering the structure of DNA along with
Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins.
Yesterday, Adam Bly, founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Seed Media Group, was interviewed by Carol Goar for an editorial about the Canadian government's dismissal of its national science adviser, Arthur Carty.
"Science is driving our global culture unlike ever before," Bly is cited as saying. "Now is not the time to send a signal -- domestically and internationally --…
grrlscientist | February 12, 2008tags: birds, Greater Sage-Grouse, Centrocercus urophasianus, ornithology, Image of the Day
Okay, I have to brag a little bit. I have been invited to Manhattan, Kansas, to go birding with Dave Rintoul and his ornithology students for one week at the end of March. I am almost beside myself with excitement right now as I look through Dave's many bird images -- which remind me of my own years of springtime birding on the west coast of this country. How I miss those days, and those birds!
This is the seventh and last (for a little while) image in this series of Dave's beautiful pictures. Dave and…
grrlscientist | February 12, 2008tags: Egg in a bottle, air pressure, streaming video
I was reading the New Scientist book last night, called How to Fossilize Your Hamster and this was one of the very experiments I read about, while wishing I was in a pub instead of my bed (although I would instead be making Tia Maria and cream disappear instead, snert) And heyyyy, doesn't that cream formation look like Jesus Christ? [3:48]
The explanation for this weird phenomenon is "saludal convection" where liquids of two densities mix together. If I am not mistaken, this experiment is even more interesting if you use Kahlua instread of…
grrlscientist | February 11, 2008tags: beetle, insect, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife
The tiger beetle, Cicindela formosa,
as portrayed in tiles on the walls of the NYC uptown subway stop (A-B-C)
at 81st and Central Park West. (ISO, no zoom, no flash).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [wallpaper size].
Read more about the AMNH tile artworks and see the AMNH tile artworks photographic archives -- with all the animals identified.
grrlscientist | February 11, 2008I am so frustrated. Today is, in effect, another day wasted at the hospital, trying to get my meds. Except today, they informed me that they want a bazillion pieces of paper from me so they know how to "stabilize my fee scale." Of course, this required me to wait for hours in many many lines, just to learn this tiny piece of information. I really really wanted to ask them why they aren't interested in all the paperwork for those lawsuits for my many emergency room bills .. apparently, they don't want those, they only want to know how much money I am bringing in each week, and they don't care…
grrlscientist | February 11, 2008tags: birds, Canvasback, Aythya valisineria, ornithology, Image of the Day
Okay, I have to brag a little bit. I have been invited to Manhattan, Kansas, to go birding with Dave Rintoul and his ornithology students for one week at the end of March. I am almost beside myself with excitement right now as I look through Dave's many bird images -- which remind me of my own years of springtime birding on the west coast of this country. How I miss those days, and those birds!
This is the sixth image in this series of Dave's beautiful pictures. The elegant Canvasback are one of my most favorite ducks…
grrlscientist | February 11, 2008tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
The White-crested Elaenia, Elaenia albiceps, on Texas' South Padre Island.
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Erik Breden, who retains the copyright to the image [larger view and More pictures of this bird]. [call notes of this bird, linked from Martin Reid, who recorded it onsite (mp3)].
The really hot bird news in the United States is the presence of a White-crested Elaenia on Texas' South Padre Island. This is the first time this species has been seen in North America, so there are…
grrlscientist | February 11, 2008tags: Egg in a bottle, air pressure, streaming video
This is an amusing video demonstration of how to get an egg into a bottle (and then, how to get it out again) without breaking anything -- neither the egg, nor the bottle, nor anything in your parents' kitchen [2:18]
grrlscientist | February 10, 2008I am really excited; I have been working on tomorrow's Birds in the News and this issue is very special because I have managed to get an image and sound file of the White-crested Elaenia, Elaenia albiceps, that is currently in Texas, on South Padre Island. This is the first North American sighting for this species, which is normally found throughout much of South America. Some evidence (recorded call notes) suggests that this particular individual is from Chile! Not bad for a bird that doesn't migrate long distances (and many populations don't migrate at all; they are year-round residents).…
grrlscientist | February 10, 2008tags: earth, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife
Journey to the center of the earth, view #3,
as portrayed in tiles on the walls of the NYC downtown subway platform (A-B-C)
at 81st and Central Park West. (ISO, no zoom, no flash).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [wallpaper size].
Read more about the AMNH tile artworks and see the AMNH tile artworks photographic archives -- with all the animals identified.
grrlscientist | February 10, 2008tags: birds, yellow-headed blackbird, Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus, ornithology, Image of the Day
Okay, I have to brag a little bit. I have been invited to Manhattan, Kansas, to go birding with Dave Rintoul and his ornithology students for one week at the end of March. I am almost beside myself with excitement right now as I look through Dave's many bird images -- which remind me of my own years of springtime birding on the west coast of this country. How I miss those days, and those birds!
This is the fifth image in this series of Dave's beautiful pictures. Like with all my "life list birds…
grrlscientist | February 9, 2008tags: Gavial, Gharial, Gavialis gangeticus, reptiles, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife
I think this is a Gharial (also known as a Gavial), Gavialis gangeticus,
as portrayed in tiles on the walls of the NYC uptown subway stop (A-B-C)
at 81st and Central Park West. (ISO, no zoom, no flash).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [wallpaper size].
Read more about the AMNH tile artworks and see the AMNH tile artworks photographic archives -- with all the animals identified.
grrlscientist | February 9, 2008tags: caecilian, amphibian, parental care, flesh-eating amphibians, behavior, evolution, streaming video
The Purple Caecilian, Gymnopis multiplicata,
is native to Costa Rica, South America.
Image: WildHerps.com
What is that peculiar creature in the above image? Did you guess that it is a worm? Many people do, never realizing that there are strange subterranean vertebrates that resemble worms, but are actually amphibians. So far, only 114 species of these creatures, known as caecilians [seh SEE lee ans], have been identified, but because they rarely come to the surface of the earth, the…