grrlscientist | January 5, 2007
Prince Baskettail dragonfly, Epitheca princeps, resting in shady spot.
Image: Bev Wigney.
I am receiving so many gorgeous pictures from you, amigos bonitos, and I am overwhelmed by the beauty of these images and the creatures and places depicted. If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image (I prefer JPG format) that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image and how you'd like it to be credited.
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tags: Prince Baskettail dragonfly, entomology
grrlscientist | January 4, 2007I have been running into people I know from graduate school all day long, and thus, haven't gotten to attend as many talks and posters as I'd like. Hopefully, I will be able to catch up with my grad school colleagues sometime during the next few days. I also have some talks and posters to tell you about, mostly about birds, but right now, I am somewhat nervous about the panel discussion, so will put that off until later tonight, when I can concentrate a little better.
For those of you who are attending SICB ("sick bee"), our panel presentation will be between 7-9pm tonight in the Curtis…
grrlscientist | January 4, 2007
A juvenile Eastern Milk Snake Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum,
photographed near Mississagagon Lake in eastern Ontario.
Image: Bev Wigney.
Happy Holidays to everyone.
I am receiving so many gorgeous pictures from you, amigos bonitos, and I am overwhelmed by the beauty of these images and the creatures and places depicted. If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image (I prefer JPG format) that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image and how you'd like it to be credited.
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tags: Eastern Milk Snake,…
grrlscientist | January 3, 2007Well, folks, PZ has arrived and is in fine spirits, although not as fine as me, considering that I have had a beer and already met some people I know from graduate school. I was also told that my dissertation advisor is here, and according to rumor, he is out birding somewhere so he may not show up at the hotel for awhile. I am looking forward with great anticipation to seeing my advisor again since I want to introduce him to PZ and John. Oh, and speaking of John, well, that boy is a slacker, pure and simple, because he is still not here!
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tags: SICB, evolution, biology, zoology
grrlscientist | January 3, 2007
Mystery moth species, Houston, Texas.
20 December 2006.
I use the zoom macro feature on the Finepix to take the photo from about three feet away since if I get close with the standard macro, I get lots of flash-back. I rarely get to photograph a moth with natural light. The wingspan on this lep was just under an inch. I have been observing moths in this breezeway in Houston for three years, and I still see species new to me.
Image: Biosparite.
Can you identify this species of moth, which was found in Houston, Texas?
Update: this species is Diaphania modialis.
I am receiving so many…
grrlscientist | January 3, 2007Yes, my peeps, I have arrived in Phoenix, I have investigated the surroundings and am settled into my room on the 19th floor of the Hyatt Regency hotel. My room has a great view of the city, and of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the distance, which are currently obscured by a layer of smog. My earlier trepidations about the meeting have somewhat abated, thanks to some anti-anxiety medications that were given to me by my doctors, and now I am drinking a chai, courtesy of Starbux, which is across the street.
Besides its humongous rooms (by NYC standards), perhaps the greatest feature of this…
grrlscientist | January 2, 2007A new research study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry revealed that people who were either physically abused or neglected or both when they were children have as much as a 75% chance of suffering from major depression when they reach adulthood;
Physically abused and neglected children are much more likely to grow into severely depressed adults, a finding that researchers said points to an urgent need to test abused children for depression early on.
Physically abused children have a 59 percent increased risk of lifetime major depression compared with similar children who were…
grrlscientist | January 2, 2007
White-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, fawn
found sleeping next to a hiking trail at Foley Mountain
near Westport, Ontario.
Image: Bev Wigney.
Happy Holidays to everyone.
I am receiving so many gorgeous pictures from you, amigos bonitos, and I am overwhelmed by the beauty of these images and the creatures and places depicted. If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image (I prefer JPG format) that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image and how you'd like it to be credited.
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tags: deer fawn, biology
grrlscientist | January 2, 2007So I've mentioned this before, but SICB is almost upon us. I am boarding my plane tomorrow at 630 in the morning (to avoid the NYC morning gridlock) to attend SICB. I should arrive in Phoenix before noon. There will be several get-togethers with our readers that you are invited to attend;
Friday January 5th at 6:00pm: A casual get-together at Seamus McCaffrey's Irish Pub, which is close to the Hyatt hotel, where we will be staying. This is open to the public.
Saturday January 6th at 5:30-800pm: Phoenix-area skeptic Jim Lippard has kindly offered to throw his house open to rabble like us.…
grrlscientist | January 1, 2007
Anticrepuscular Rays Over Florida
What's happening over the horizon? Although the scene may appear somehow supernatural, nothing more unusual is occurring than a setting Sun and some well placed clouds. Strangely, the actual sunset was occurring in the opposite direction from where the camera was pointing. Pictured above are anticrepuscular rays. To understand them, start by picturing common crepuscular rays that are seen any time that sunlight pours though scattered clouds. Now although sunlight indeed travels along straight lines, the projections of these lines onto the spherical sky are…
grrlscientist | January 1, 2007Scientists are predicting that 2007 will be the hottest year ever recorded, due to the combined effects of El Niño and global warming. As a result, they predict that Indonesia will probably experience drought while California will receive excessive rain;
The warning, from Professor Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, [UK] was one of four sobering predictions from senior scientists and forecasters that 2007 will be a crucial year for determining the response to global warming and its effect on humanity.
Professor Jones said the long-term trend…
grrlscientist | January 1, 2007How was your New Year's celebration last night? Are you feeling the after effects today? This is because the body converts alcohol into acetaldehyde, a toxic chemical that causes headaches and other side effects of drinking to excess. According to the Royal Society of Chemistry, the way to lessen the effects of a hangover is to have some toast and honey, not raw eggs or more alcohol or other remedies;
Feeling delicate this morning? Headache? Upset stomach? Sense of guilt over last night's alcohol-lubricated festivities? Time for some toast and honey. According to the Royal Society of…
grrlscientist | December 31, 2006
Dogday Harvestfly cicada. Tibicen canicularis
Found along the K&P Trail near Snow Road Station in eastern Ontario.
Image: Bev Wigney.
I love cicadas because they are so interesting and also because they remind me of Tokyo, Japan, where I first was introduced to them.
Happy Holidays to everyone.
I am receiving so many gorgeous pictures from you, amigos bonitos, and I am overwhelmed by the beauty of these images and the creatures and places depicted. If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image (I prefer JPG format) that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to…
grrlscientist | December 30, 2006Today, I managed to drag myself out of my apartment where I've been hiding for the past four days, so I could pick up my mail from the post office. It turns out that I received several Christmas gifts from my peeps; a one year subscription to one of the top peer-reviewed journals, Science magazine (YIPPEE!), and another book by Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (New York: Crown; 2006). Already, I am more than halfway through Obama's first book, which is very well-written -- so well-written that Obama could make a living as a writer, in my humble…
grrlscientist | December 30, 2006
Turritella perattenuata fossil, next to a nickel (for scale).
Caloosahatchee fm[1]., Brandtley quarry, near Highway 31, Florida.
This is a Caloosahatchee fossil, the remarkably elongate and now-extinct Turritella perattenuata. The Caloosahatchee is said to straddle the Plio-Pleistocene boundary, which, according to the Geological Society of America Geological Time Scale, occurs at 1.8 Myr. The Caloosahatchee fauna is tropical, but the Lower Pleistocene Bermont formation above it in the South Florida section shows temperate elements.
Image: Biosparite.
I am receiving so many gorgeous…
grrlscientist | December 29, 2006There will be a social event during the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) conference where you can meet me, PZ and John. It will take place in the evening of 6 January, 2007, from 530pm-800pm. For more details and to RSVP, check out the link provided.
grrlscientist | December 29, 2006
Soldier Fly, Hermetia illucens.
One does not ordinarily think of a soldier fly as a pollinator, but this one, with some green
camoflauge, was sipping from a Philadelphia fleabane last year at Anahuac NWR, Texas
on 2 April 2005.
Image: Biosparite.
I am receiving so many gorgeous pictures from you, dear readers, that I am overwhelmed by the beauty of the images and the creatures and places in them. If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image (I prefer JPG format) that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image…
grrlscientist | December 29, 2006
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This study, carried out by Cancer Research UK, showed that women who did 16-17 hours of housework per week cut their risk of breast cancer by 20% for postmenopausal women and 30% for premenopausal women. Further, it was housework specifically that has this beneficial effect, not other forms of physical activity;
Women who exercise by doing the housework can reduce their risk of breast cancer, a study suggests.
The research on more than 200,000 women from nine European countries found doing household chores was far more cancer protective than playing sport.
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Out of all of the…