grrlscientist | September 27, 2007tags: lepidoptera, moths, Melanchroia chephise, White-Tipped Black Geometrid, Image of the Day
White-Tipped Black Geometrid, Melanchroia chephise, Houston, Texas.
A diurnal moth, this one was photographed on the Katy Prairie NABA Butterfly Count about 30 miles NW of downtown Houston, Texas, on September 3, 2007.
Image: Biosparite [larger view].
This is a White-tipped Black Geometrid, Melanchroia chephise, although it resembles some of the wasp mimics in the Tiger Moth Family. [read more about it]
grrlscientist | September 27, 2007tags: blog carnivals, nature, science, medicine, tangled bank
Good news, everyone; the 89th edition of The Tangled Bank blog carnival is now available for you to enjoy. Sorry I am late with this announcement, but you know, shit is what happens as you try to life your life.
grrlscientist | September 27, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, Seychelles warbler, Acrocephalus sechellensis, birds, evolution, social behavior, helping behavior, grandmothers
Seychelles warbler, Acrocephalus sechellensis.
Image: J. Komdeur.
When talking about evolution, some people have wondered aloud about why grandmothers exist in human society since they clearly are no longer able to reproduce. However, these people are conveniently overlooking the fact that grandmothers perform a valuable service; they help their relatives, often their own children, raise their offspring -- offspring that are genetically related to…
grrlscientist | September 27, 2007tags: book review, neuroscience, neurobiology, body maps, Sandra Blakeslee, Matthew Blakeslee
As a biologist who reads both widely and deeply about a number of scientific topics, it is very rare when I read a popular book that adds depth and nuance to my understanding of a biological phenomenon, but The Body Has a Mind of Its Own By Sandra Blakeslee and Matthew Blakeslee (NYC: Random House; 2007) is that book. This quiet but well-written book explores the interconnection between the environment, the body and the brain; discusses that the body is more just than a container for the brain and a…
grrlscientist | September 26, 2007tags: hymenoptera, bees, Augochlora species, Metallic Green Native Bee, Image of the Day
Metallic Green Native Bee, Augochlora species.
This tiny and very fast-moving, alert bee is hard to photograph. I found it nectaring on Eupatorium serotinum, a/k/a late-flowering boneset, in the West 11th Street Park in the Heights section of Houston, Texas, on September 23, 2007.
Image: Biosparite [larger view].
The Green Metallic Bee in the genus Augochlora, in the Halictid Family. According to the Audubon Guide: the "Female digs nest of many branching burrows in dead wood or uses pre-existing…
grrlscientist | September 25, 2007tags: book review, entomology, insects, household pests, Joshua Abarbanel, Jeff Swimmer
I am dismayed to reveal that my apartment is home to uncounted numbers of freeloaders. In fact, every evening, when I turn the lights on, I witness these tiny marauders' mad dash for the cracks in the walls and the space under the refrigerator. I am talking about the East Coast plague: cockroaches. You know; vile, disgusting, nearly ubiquitous bugs. However, I feel much better knowing that everyone's home, regardless of how sterile it is, is occupied by a vast collection of invertebrate roommates. In fact…
grrlscientist | September 25, 2007tags: odonata, dragonflies, wandering glider, Pantala flavescens, Image of the Day
Wandering glider, Pantala flavescens. Houston, Texas.
Image: Biosparite [wallpaper size].
grrlscientist | September 24, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, social behavior, evolution, Psittacosaurus, ornithischian dinosaur
Triceratops.
Image: Dinosaur Collector
Triceratops are among the most recognizable dinosaurs because of their distinct appearance. They had a large and elaborate bony shield around the back of their head, horns that jut out from the top of their head and nose like spears, and bony knobs on their cheeks. Because these large structures are energetically expensive to grow, they had to serve a purpose and this purpose was likely the establishment of social hierarchies. Thus, these ornaments provide…
grrlscientist | September 24, 2007tags: blog carnivals, books, book reviews
The Books Carnival is now available for you to enjoy. This blog carnival is filled with essays about books and reading as well as lots of book reviews. You can't say that you can't think of a decent book to read after you've read through this blog carnival! Interestingly, this is a bilingual carnival (Spanish), too.
grrlscientist | September 24, 2007tags: blog carnivals, women bloggers, feminism
The All Women Blogging Carnival is now available for you to enjoy. This is a new blog carnival for me, and it's a big one too, so this is a great opportunity to discover some interesting blogs that are new to you.
grrlscientist | September 24, 2007Well, I haven't forgotten about it, but I have had wifi problems over the weekend once more. In an effort to circumvent those problems, I crawled out of bed early this morning and trekked in to Lincoln Center where they have free wifi so I could work on Birds in the News for a couple hours before my laptop battery ran down completely. I sat in the bright sun (so bright that I could barely see my computer screen) between the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Opera. Even though I logged in to the Lincoln Center wifi connection, I was still unable to access the internet! WTF? So I instead…
grrlscientist | September 24, 2007tags: symbiosis, humor, The Onion
Those of you who haven't noticed this yet, The Onion has a really amusing article about symbiosis that you have got to read .. it might even make a really amusing "extra reading" for the classroom!
Devouring horsefly larvae embedded in her 3,000-pound partner's back, the tickbird seemed to agree that there was little fire left in their symbiotic relationship. At worst, she said, it feels like she and the rhino have been trapped in the same dead-end symbiosis for "countless millions of years."
"We just go through the motions, and there's hardly any…
grrlscientist | September 24, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, velociraptor, Dromaeosauridae, dinosaur, feathers, paleontology, evolution
Velociraptor skull.
Velociraptors were small dinosaurs, weighing only about 15kg and approximnately 1.5m long.
Image: M. Elison, AMNH. [larger view]
According to a research paper that was published late last week, the Velociraptor probably had feathers. A closer look at a fossil Velociraptor ulna (forearm) that was found in Mongolia in 1998 revealed a series of small bumps along its length. These bumps are known as "quill knobs" because they are found in most modern birds where they…
grrlscientist | September 24, 2007tags: encephalon, brain, behavior, cognition, neurobiology, blog carnival
The last frontier: The brain.
Orphaned Image. Contact me so I can provide credit and linkage.
Several months ago, I was invited to host Encephalon, probably because I send so many submissions to this blog carnival and possibly also because I am fairly good at sending traffic to the contributors of those blog carnivals that I host. Unfortunately, I have not had wifi for the past two days, so I hope that you appreciate my modest efforts on behalf of this blog carnival. So, without further ado, I present to you the 32nd…
grrlscientist | September 21, 2007It is important to me to be included in the book, OpenLab 2007. So I am asking you to help me write a kick-ass essay that will be good enough for this little book. The only reason (I think) that I was included in the inagural edition of this book was because the editor was a great fan of one essay that I wrote. So I need to write another essay that will also be competitive for inclusion in this year's book.
I think the best approach is to rewrite an essay that I've already written or to combine and rewrite several essays on closely related topics that I've already written, but I am asking…
grrlscientist | September 21, 2007tags: gender issues, gender disparity, blogosphere, science blogs, life science blogs
PZ asked his students these questions on an exam that he was recently writing;
14. Hey! Have you noticed the lack of women scientists so far? Briefly speculate about why they're missing.
15 (2 pts extra credit). Name a female scientist of any era.
So .. in addition to those questions, I pose these questions for you regarding female scientists;
Can you name any? Who?
Who is the first woman scientist who comes to mind?
Do you have a "favorite" woman scientist?
My answers to these additional questions are…
grrlscientist | September 21, 2007tags: health insurance, medicine, Families USA report, medicaid
I haven't had health insurance since the middle of 2004. Since 2004, I have held numerous part-time temporary positions, and I was employed for one full year as a full-time professor of anatomy & physiology at a local university, yet even then, I still wasn't provided any health insurance. Further, I was unable to afford health insurance on the wages I was paid as a full-time "temporary" professor (nevermind that I can barely afford peanut butter and jelly as a PT temp). I am still uninsured, but now I am mostly unemployed…
grrlscientist | September 21, 2007tags: birds, Moluccan Red Lories, Eos bornea rothschildi, Green-naped Rainbow Lorikeets, Trichoglossus haematodus haematodus, Seram, Indonesia, Image of the Day
A pair of Moluccan Red Lories, Eos bornea rothschildi (upper right and lower left (upside down)), and a pair of Rainbow Lorikeet, Trichoglossus haematodus haematodus (center; one bird is hanging upside down), near the north coast of Seram, Indonesia.
Image: Kevin Sharp [wallpaper size].
More about this image below the fold.
These photographs were taken recently on the Island of Seram, in Maluku Province, Northern Indonesia. Shown…
grrlscientist | September 21, 2007tags: blog carnivals, Friday Ark, animal images
This week's edition of the Friday Ark is now available. This is a linkfest that focuses on sharing animal images with the public, so if you are in the mood to look at animal pictures (some accompanied by essays), this is the place to go!
grrlscientist | September 21, 2007Just for all my bird-loving pals, the 58th edition of I and the Bird blog carnival is now available for you to enjoy. This blog carnival was written as a conversation between the author and Doctor Who. Who? As usual, there are plenty of birdalicious links for you to explore, so be sure to pop in and check them out!