grrlscientist | April 13, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, Tyrannosaurus rex, dinosaurs, birds, fossils
Repeated analysis of proteins from a fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex reveal new evidence of a link between dinosaurs and birds: Of the seven reconstructed protein sequences, three were closely related to chickens.
Image: NYTimes
It was once thought impossible to obtain actual soft tissue, such as proteins, from fossils, but the impossible has happened and now, two research teams who published reports in this week's Science describe their findings: the closest relative to the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex is .. a chicken.…
grrlscientist | April 13, 2007
A grey heron, Ardea cinerea, searches for food in Frankfurt, Germany.
Source: The Guardian.
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 is populated by millions of unique species. We are a part of this world whether we like it or not: we have a choice to either preserve these species or to destroy them in search of short-term monetary gains. But if we decide to destroy these…
grrlscientist | April 13, 2007According to a congressionally-mandated study by Mathematica Policy Research Inc., preaching sexual abstinence -- or more popularly, "just say no" -- to this nation's youth has been absolutely ineffective. Big surprise, no? Apparently, participation in abstinence programs had no effect upon the average age when a child first had sex (14 years and nine months) nor upon the total number of sexual partners they had. The federal government currently wastes, er, spends about $176 million annually on its puritanically-motivated abstinence-until-marriage program.
"I really do think it's a two-part…
grrlscientist | April 13, 2007Is this the same way that one "accidentally" invades a country, "accidently" sets up offshore subsidiaries to avoid US law, and "accidently" profits off the misery and death of the poor and unfortunate? I think that Rove needs to be "accidentally" deleted from his job. He is, afterall, employed by the people of this nation -- or so the rumor goes.
Below the fold are details of how the White House is "accidentally" stretching the boundaries of credulity ...
Karl Rove's lawyer on Friday dismissed the notion that President Bush's chief political adviser intentionally deleted his own e-mails…
grrlscientist | April 13, 2007tags: Liberalism, liberals, politics
This essay was sent to me by a friend and I thought you would appreciate reading it. I am posting it here intact, except for a few editorial improvements.
Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised.
All but $10 of his…
grrlscientist | April 13, 2007The Carnival of the Dogs is now available for your reading pleasure. Dogs? You ask. Yes, I submitted a piece about dogs to this carnival, and they liked it very much.
grrlscientist | April 13, 2007If you think things look bad now, what do you suppose the devolved future looks like? Scary, that's what!
grrlscientist | April 12, 2007Not only has Wolfowitz dragged the US into that quagmire known as the Iraq War, thereby causing Americans and Iraqis much unnecessary grief, but he also is embarassing America in front of the world since, as head of the World Bank, he gave his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, a job that has a very generous compensation and pay raises. He apologized to the World Bank, but when will he apologize to the families of the 3270+ dead American soldiers and millions of Iraqis who are suffering because of his colossal f*ck-up?
Of course, the White House is stubbornly (and stupidly) voicing its support for this…
grrlscientist | April 12, 2007
The United States Navy is planning on constructing a jet landing field in eastern North Carolina within 3.5 miles of the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, one of the most critical wintering grounds for waterfowl in the Atlantic flyway and home to endangered red wolves.
This would be a disaster for the refuge and the hundreds of thousands of waterfowl that winter in the area, as well as the many sportsmen, birdwatchers and wildlife enthusiasts who regularly enjoy the refuge. The landing strip would not only put wildlife at risk. It would also pose unacceptable risks to the safety of…
grrlscientist | April 12, 2007Great, now the rethuglicans are apparently missing a bunch of emails that pertain to the dismissal of the eight US attorneys -- sort of like Nixon's "18 minute gap" in the White House telephone conversation tape recordings. But Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, will not be ignored: he threatened further action in response to the news. "Those e-mails are there, they just don't want to produce them," he said. "We'll subpoena them if necessary."
At issue is how the White House complies with two seemingly competing laws. One is the 1978 Presidential Records Act, which…
grrlscientist | April 12, 2007A group of 20 endangered Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits, Brachylagus idahoensis (pictured), were reintroduced to the wilds of Washington state last month but only four of the rabbits are still alive. The native rabbits, which are small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand, were released at the Sagebrush Flat Wildlife Area, said David Hays, pygmy rabbit coordinator for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Hays said two males were removed earlier this month and will be returned at the end of April. The other 14 rabbits are believed to have fallen victim to predators, mainly coyotes, but…
grrlscientist | April 12, 2007I hate to say this, but I have often wondered about the future of the human species .. we will certainly keep our technology, but our overall intelligence and ingenuity will diminish, as this video reveals. (clips from the Mike Judge movie, Idiocracy).
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tags: streaming video, evolution, Idiocracy
grrlscientist | April 12, 2007
Taken in downtown Helena, as this flock of English Sparrows took off into the light.
Image:
Martin Richard.
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 is populated by millions of unique species. We are a part of this world whether we like it or not: we have a choice to either preserve these species or to destroy them in search of short-term monetary gains. But if we decide to…
grrlscientist | April 12, 2007
Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007.
I was saddened this morning to learn that another one of my favorite writers, Kurt Vonnegut, died. He died last night in Manhattan after suffering a head injury several weeks ago. Like another one of my favorite authors who recently died, William Styron, Vonnegut struggled with depression, and survived a suicide attempt in 1984. But despite this challenge, he still managed to publish 14 novels, three collections of short stories, five plays and five works of non-fiction. His last book, Man Without a Country, was a collection of essays published in 2005, and was a…
grrlscientist | April 12, 2007I just wanted to thank you, dear readers, for showing me that you are thinking of me by sending me books -- many of which were sent anonymously. So many books arrived on the same day that the post man decided it was Christmas in April for me! I received the following books from you this week;
Living Terrors: What America Needs to Know to Survive the Coming Bioterrorist Catastrophe by Michael Osterholm and John Schwartz.
Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War by Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, and William Broad.
Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological…
grrlscientist | April 11, 2007One of the biggest challenges to producing flu vaccine lies in the fact that so far, scientists have had to grow it in hens' eggs. Not only is this process cumbersome and slow, but it is often difficult to get the vaccine to grow as one wishes, and further, each egg only yields enough of the flu virus to make a single dose of vaccine. Additionally, problems could potentially be encountered if the bird flu epidemic spreads to those very flocks that provide eggs that produce the vaccine. Clearly, an alternative to hens' eggs was necessary.
"When you need hundreds of millions of fertilized eggs…
grrlscientist | April 11, 2007Vice President Dick Cheney was recently invited to be the commencement speaker at Brigham Young University, but this invitation has triggered a protest at the ultra-conservative Mormon university. It seems that some of the faculty and students -- who are devoutly Republican -- are offended by Cheney's lack of integrity and character, and his generally scummy behavior. For example, several students mentioned that they were appalled by Cheney's use of an expletive on the Senate floor in a June 2004 exchange with Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont.
"The problem is this is a morally…
grrlscientist | April 11, 2007tags: bipolar disorder, mania, manic mouse, psychiatric research
Some of you, like me, suffer from bipolar disorder or might know someone who does, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to write a little about the creation of a mouse model to study the genetics that are thought to underlie the manic phase of bipolar disorder -- a phase that has not been well understood so far.
Bipolar disorder, or manic-depressive illness, is a psychiatric condition that affects a person's moods. Typically, a person who suffers from a classical bipolar disorder (Also known as bipolar affective disorder,…
grrlscientist | April 11, 2007
Yellow-crowned night heron at Sheldon Lake State Park during the Houston Lakes Butterfly Count.
Source: Biosparite.
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 is populated by millions of unique species. We are a part of this world whether we like it or not: we have a choice to either preserve these species or to destroy them in search of short-term monetary gains. But if we…
grrlscientist | April 11, 2007There was a program on TV a few nights ago called "Rethinking the Dinosaurs". This special program documented how Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History dismantled its entire collection of dinosaur bones and is reassembling them based on advances in our scientific knowledge. Previously, our ideas about dinosaurs were reflected by what one saw in old films -- huge, lumbering beasts, dragging their tails on the ground. However, in recent years, scientists have decided that dinosaurs were probably much more energetic and agile, and that most fossils were displayed incorrectly.
"…