grrlscientist | March 31, 2006
Canada Goose, Branta canadensis, with reflection.
Click image for larger view in another window.
Photo: TFlockhart.
Avian Mysteries
Hundreds of the seabirds known as rhinoceros auklets, Cerorhinca monocerata (pictured, left), have died and are washing up on the southern Oregon coast, but scientists haven't settled on an explanation for their deaths. Beach observers say that hundreds of carcasses -- as many as 20 to 30 per mile -- were reported last week. Explanations include a storm that killed lots of birds as they were gathering for breeding season and warming ocean waters that are…
grrlscientist | March 31, 2006"I'll pray for you."
How many times in your life have you heard that comment? Have you ever wondered what, if anything, prayer actually accomplishes? Have you occasionally felt somewhat .. uncomfortable? .. or threatened, perhaps? .. knowing that complete strangers were praying for you? A scientific study will be published next week that examines these questions regarding the so-called power of prayer.
This research studied 1800 heart bypass surgery patients. Heart bypass surgery is a procedure where a clean artery is removed from the patient's leg and is used to "bypass" an artery in the…
grrlscientist | March 30, 2006As some of you know, I live with a large group of cockroaches that boldly infest my apartment, along with those of all my neighbors. Call me crazy, but it always seemed to me that the smaller, more numerous, German cockroaches, Blattella germanica, made decisions together, or they appeared to at least consult with each other before hauling off my refrigerator as a well-organized team. But several scientists confirmed my suspicions today when they published their research suggesting that cockroaches are democratic group thinkers.
Cockroaches cannot communicate vocally, but it's known that they…
grrlscientist | March 30, 2006
Ivory-Billed Woodpecker trio, Campephilus principalis,
by John James Audubon.
Hey everyone, it might surprise you to learn that I saw ivory-billed woodpeckers in NYC recently! Even better, I saw a trio, and I stood so close that I could have reached out and touched them! I clearly saw the spectacular iridescent flash of red from the male's crest, the two nearly parallel white stripes down the birds' backs, the snowy wings, and the huge pale bills. After such a close look at them, there was no mistaking these birds for anything other than ivory-billed woodpeckers.
How did I manage to see…
grrlscientist | March 30, 2006
The newest edition of I and the Bird, the "bird.icio.us!" edition, is now available at Bootstrap Analysis. I and the Bird is a blog carnival that celebrates the best writing about wild birds recently published on a blog and this issue includes a piece that I wrote.
tags: bloog carnival
grrlscientist | March 29, 2006
Fossilized mosasaur skull (source linked from image).
Mosasaurs are marine reptiles, not dinosaurs.
But the reason I show this fossil here will (hopefully) become more obvious after you read the story.
A 2 kilometer-long treasure trove of fossilized bones, teeth and claws from dinosaurs and ancient reptiles was recently unearthed on the Chatham Islands, approximately 850 kilometers (530 miles) east of New Zealand (see map, below), proving that dinosaurs also inhabited South Pacific islands.
Jeffrey Stilwell, a US-born fellow in palaeontology at Melbourne's Monash University, said he…
grrlscientist | March 29, 2006A new study will be published tomorrow revealing that, on average, human brains mature later in those people who have the greatest intelligence. This research was done using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to visualize the regions of children's brains as they matured (example of an MRI pictured, right. Source linked from image). The scientists' data show that the outer portion of the brain, the cortex -- or the thinking part of the brain -- thickens and then thins during early childhood years, when the children were approximately 6 years old. However, they found that kids with greater…
grrlscientist | March 29, 2006The 50th edition of the long-running blog carnival, the Tangled Bank, is now available at Island of Doubt. As always, TB is packed full of great information about science, nature and medicine, including a piece that I wrote (and forgot that I'd submitted).
tags: blog carnival
grrlscientist | March 26, 2006
62.5 %
My weblog owns 62.5 % of me.
Does your weblog own you?
I am especially curious to know what my blog siblings scored on this quiz. I think my results are skewed since I am unhappily unemployed, which means that I have no meaningful life whatsoever, outside of my blog, that is. And depending upon whom you speak to about the relative value of blogs, even that assertion is suspect.
tags: online quiz
grrlscientist | March 25, 2006
You Passed the US Citizenship Test
Congratulations - you got 10 out of 10 correct!
Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?
How did you do? I almost missed one of the questions (more below the fold)
Question 5; the year that the Constitution was written was .. 1787, but I went back and forth between that date and 1786. I finally just guessed that it was 1787.
tags: online quiz
grrlscientist | March 25, 2006Looking for an unusual exotic pet? Why not get a pet Madagascar giant hissing cockroach, Gromphadorhina portentosa? Unlike most cockroaches, this one is bedecked with the finest Austrian Swarovski crystals, it has a leash to prevent it from running amok and, as an added bonus, this species is rather talkative, too.
My question, what do you do about all those little black turds on your white lapel??
Thanks, Dawn!
tags: cockroaches, jewelry, pets
grrlscientist | March 25, 2006
Here's a little pronounciation quiz that diagnoses if you are a Yankee (northern USA) or a Rebel (southern USA). The Alpha Dictionary will compute your score and tell you where you're coming from: are you (all) speaking Dixie English or are you(se) a Yankee Doodle Dandy? The higher your score, the deeper from the south you are coming; the lower your score, the more northern you are.
What's your score?
My score: 25% Dixie. I am a Yankee Doodle Dandy.
This makes sense since I am a true northern bicoastal grrl, and have been so my entire life (well, I've lived farther south on the west…
grrlscientist | March 24, 2006
This cartoon, by blogger Stephanie McMillan, sums up the situation in South Dakota quite nicely regarding the general stupidity of women and their inability to make their own choices. Oh, did women also help to vote Bill Napoli into office? Well, I rest my case!
Incidentally, the phone numbers in the cartoon are real, taken from the South Dakota Senate web site. You should try them out tonight as you plan your dinner menu for your family. After all, isn't that why Bill is a public servant; to provide his constant and enlightened guidance to ensure that we all do the right thing, always?…
grrlscientist | March 23, 2006
Great Horned Owl nestling, Bubo virginianus.
Photo copyright by Bill Hilton Jr.
Contact Bill to purchase this and other photos, the sales of which support the
wonderful work done by Hilton Pond Center.
People Helping Birds
The chimney swifts are coming! Have you seen them yet? If so, Chimneyswifts.org would like to hear from you! This is an organization that promotes the conservation of Chimney Swifts, Chaetura pelagica (pictured), through public education, preservation of existing habitat and creation of new nesting and roosting sites. It appears that they have been doing the project for…
grrlscientist | March 23, 2006Animalcules, Issue 4 is now available. Animalcules is a small but growing bi-weekly blog carnival that focuses on all things microbial and, as usual, it includes some really fine writing. This issue, the first one to travel through the blogopshere, is being hosted by my blog pal, Bora, author of Science and Politics. Surprisingly, and unknown to me until this morning, he included a little something from Scientific Life, too.
tags: blog carnival
grrlscientist | March 22, 2006
Female red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis, Lola, with her landing gear retracted.
Photo courtesy of Lincoln Karim.
Click image for larger view in its own window or go to PaleMale.com to purchase it.
Those of you who care about Pale Male and Lola will be outraged to learn that they are once again being harassed by the human residents of the building at 927 Fifth Avenue, where these birds nest. Apparently, the building's human residents sent workmen onto the roof overlooking the nest today, where they proceeded to drop ropes over the side of the building and into the nest, despite the fact…
grrlscientist | March 22, 2006
Circus Colors of Chemistry.
What happens when aqueous sulfate salts of cobalt, nickel and copper mix together?
Solids of flamboyant colors separate into riotous domains and boundaries that only nature can conceive.
Photo courtesy of chemistry graduate student, Jack Hess.
Click image for a larger version in its own window.
I discovered this stunning photo at Flickr's Laboratory Photo Pool. (I also store my photos at Flickr). I wrote to Jack Hess, the (currently blogless) photographer, seeking permission to use this photo here, and I received a gracious reply from him within 20 minutes. I…
grrlscientist | March 22, 2006The 183rd edition of The Carnival of the Vanities is now available. This blog carnival does not cater to any particular topic or field; rather, its focus is to draw the public's attention to the very best writing about any subject or issue that has been recently published on a blog. This edition of The Carnival of the Vanities features a story about the Chinese blogger, Wu Hao, who was recently arrested, and it also links to a lot of writing about the war in Iraq that you will want to read. I am pleased to tell you that the host included my contribution in his "Pick of the Week" category.…
grrlscientist | March 22, 2006I had meant to write more about my experiences at NYU last night, dear readers, but that will have to wait a little while because I went home early last night (tired) and because I have been struggling with a pinched nerve in my back that acts up whenever I become exceptionally stressed out (or whenever something good happens to me). This time, my little demon decided to awaken me from my sleep at 203 AM, and refused to respond to one pain pill, so 45 minutes later, I took a second one, which did the trick. As you might imagine, at the moment, I am floating around mindlessly in a cloud of…
grrlscientist | March 22, 2006I am working on my course syllabus for my conservation genetics course today. I have a deadline Thursday that I must meet. But before I start, I wanted to share this graphic with you. This graphic explains how your computer works in one easy to understand "Where's Waldo" type picture. Presumably, there is sound with this too (I checked; it's a wav file), but I can't hear it on my computer.
Update: the graphic-plus-sound version for all non-IE browsers can be accessed here (it's rather loud, so be ready to turn the volume down a little).
Thanks, Dawn!
tags: silliness