cwilcox | March 15, 2010Octopuses* and their cephalopod relatives are some of the smartest animals on the planet. Accordingly, many scientists want to understand how their mind works. To gain insights into the complex minds of cephalopods, researchers have been studying behavior in individual animals for years by presenting different animals with various visual stimuli. But many of the methods have downsides - for example, if you want to see how an octopus reacts to another octopus, you can add an octopus to the tank, but doing so introduces other variables. There may be variation in response based on how the…
cwilcox | March 8, 2010During the summer, strange formations can be found on some species of Goldenrod. The stems become enlarged and form a hardened golf-ball like object called a gall. Cut into this weird sphere and you'll quickly find what causes the plant to create such a strange object: the larvae of the Goldenrod Gall Fly.
The Goldenrod Gall Fly (Eurosta solidaginis) is a parasite which uses the Goldenrod for protection and nutrition for a whole year while it grows and pupates. When it does, it can seriously damage the Goldenrod, even prevent the plant from flowering and producing seeds. This is a serious…
cwilcox | March 6, 2010Often, the cutest things come in small packages. Not so with Ralph - at 42 lbs, he's a record-breaking rabbit. Ralph comes from a huge family - both his mother and father previously held the world records for largest rabbit in length and weight. And though he's already the biggest bunny in the world, Ralph is still growing! No one knows how immense this ball off fluff will get, but however big he ends up being, he's sure to still be 100% adorable.
cwilcox | March 4, 2010First off, the e-mails have been sent, and if you're a member of ResearchBlogging.Org, then you should haev a vote to cast in the ResearchBlogging Awards! So go vote for Observations of a Nerd for the best lay-level and biology blog as well as best research post of the year *cough* *cough* your favorites!
If you aren't a member, then I guess you'll just have to wait to see what happens. Good luck to all the contestants!
Anyhow, I've been awful busy this week starting my last rotation in a whole new lab, so I've been lagging on the goods. If you follow my twitter, you've gotten a little more,…
cwilcox | March 2, 2010Remember those perhaps gross but cool insect jewelry artists I mentioned before? Now, their incredible tube-making skill might be used in an entirely different field: medicine.
Dr. Russell Stewart, an assistant professor at the University of Utah, has been studying natural adhesives for years. He was drawn to the caddisfly because it's one of the few creatures in this world to have accomplished a very difficult feat: it sticks things together underwater.
Creating an adhesive that works when wet isn't easy - just think of what happens to your average band-aid in the shower. But the caddisfly…
cwilcox | February 28, 2010It's almost a given that, during any discussion about male infidelity, someone will throw out some variation of "men are biologically programmed to spread their seed."
Why is there this theory that men are more driven to cheat? Part of it has to do with the size of their gametes. If bigger is better, then men are pathetic, for their little sperm are 1/100th the size of a woman's egg. Because women have such a greater investment in each offspring right from the get-go, the assumption is that women are pickier when it comes to who they allow to fertilize their eggs. Men, since it doesn't cost…
cwilcox | February 27, 2010I awoke this morning at 5:50 am because of a nightmare, only to hop online and find out another one had occurred in Chile. An 8.8 magnitude earthquake had struck. Ten minutes later, the first tsunami warning siren sounded.
It was deafening.
I remember when I was a little kid growing up in Hawaii Kai, there was a tsunami warning. In the end the water only raised by a few inches. In the past few months since I'd started my PhD, there have been a couple other tsunami watches, none of which resulted in anything of interest. But there's something about a haunting siren at 6 am that makes you…
cwilcox | February 25, 2010 I know you've been on pins and needles waiting to hear, so I'm happy to report that the finalists are out! Congrats to everyone! There are some fantastic blogs in the running for some nice sums of cash. In a week or so, voting will open to allow research blogging members to vote for their favorites in a bunch of categories.
I am so honored that Observations of a Nerd was chosen as a finalist not only in the "Best Blog -- Biology" and in the "Best Lay-Level Blog" categories, but one of my posts was chosen to compete for "Blog Post of the Year"! The judges were apparently very impressed with…
cwilcox | February 21, 2010On the easternmost end of Oahu there is a fun, 2-mile hike to the top of Makapu'u point, where there sits a cool little lighthouse that was built in the 1900s. The way is steep at times, but it's nicely paved, and it's an excursion just about anyone can enjoy. Once at the top, you get a stunning view of the windward side of the island. The first time I hiked it, the day was almost perfect. It was stunningly sunny and clear, and the views were truly breathtaking:But there were two things wrong with an almost-perfect day: first off, it was summer, and one of the main reasons to hike up to the…
cwilcox | February 19, 2010It's really hard for me to write about sharks. It makes me angry. Unlike with so many species under the threat of extinction, when I try to talk to people about sharks, the message just doesn't get through. Show them a movie about Taji and they get infuriated. Have them look into the eyes of a tiger cub and they are overwhelmed with emotion. Maybe it's that sharks aren't warm and fuzzy enough - maybe if they had hair, people wouldn't be so leery of them. Maybe it's too many childhood memories of late-night Jawsfests. But when I try to explain to people that sharks are in trouble, that they…
cwilcox | February 18, 2010
See? Cartoon cute.
It may be easy to put a kitten up as the weekly dose of cute, but look at him - he may be the cutest kitten ever. Cuter, perhaps, than even that little ocelot kitten, which, until now, has earned the title of cutest kitten ever. I mean, look at him! His eyes are cartoon adorable. I didn't know cat eyes could actually look like Puss N Boots! How could I resist showcasing this unbelievable exhibition of pure cuteness?
Anyhow, this six-week-old cutest kitten competitor was born at Australia's Adelaide Zoo (there are actually three of them!). Servals (Leptailurus serval) are…
cwilcox | February 18, 2010I know I have failed on delivering you your weekly/monthly parasite posts. It's not for a lack of fascinating, sci-fi worthy parasites, but for a lack of time on my part. I'm afraid these posts keep slipping to the back burner, then getting forgotten about altogether as deadlines for grants, papers and all the rest set in. So, I think it's time to retire the Sci-Fi Worthy Parasites, at least for awhile. I will continue to post any cool new studies involving my favorite little critters, though - I promise!
I would hate for those of you who adore reading about twisted little menaces to feel…
cwilcox | February 16, 2010I love the show Psych. For those who don't know the show, it's about a guy named Shawn Spencer (actor James Roday) whose uncanny powers of observation allow him to convince the Santa Barbara Police Department that he's a psychic. He's adorable, eccentric, and totally awesome in mostly every way. But I found myself yelling at my television (ok, my computer - I watch it on Hulu every week) while watching the most recent episode. I was really, truly pissed.
Let me explain. In the show, Shawn and company were tracking down evidence for a murder that was committed five years earlier to prove that…
cwilcox | February 12, 2010These little bejeweled cases might look strange, but they're incredible. No, they're not some kind of special modern art. They're incredible because they're made by an insect.
I'm not much of a bug lover, but this is simply one of the coolest things I've ever seen (in a totally-bio-nerdy kind of way). Hubert Duprat, a french artist, had the genius if not a little out there idea to turn caddisfly larvae into artists. In the wild, caddisfly larvae create elaborate protective tubes from materials like stones, sticks, and whatever else they can find. When Duprat carefully removed their original…
cwilcox | February 11, 2010You may not have heard of the American Pika. Pika are small little rodent relatives most closely related to rabbits, though they look chinchilla-esque. They're native to colder climates all over the world, including Asia, Europe and North America, and they tend to live on rocky mountain slopes where they can hide in small crevices. Because they are adapted to cold mountainsides, the pika are particularly at risk is the global climate warms, as changing temperatures could push them further and further up the slopes until they can go no higher. Indeed, studies have shown that the pika are…
cwilcox | February 7, 2010Think of something wonderful - something someone said to you that made your day, or the happiest moment you can remember. Go ahead, take a moment. Now, what are you doing? Odds are, you're smiling.
It takes 12 different muscles in our faces to produce the easily-recognized expression. But smiling is far from a tough feat for our facial muscles. Smiles are so hard-wired into the human condition that babies have been known to smile before birth. Smiling is as instinctual to us as breathing.
Why do we smile? In part, smiling is a social action. We smile to let others know how we feel. Facial…
cwilcox | February 3, 2010Eureka has come out with a list of the 30 best science blogs, including greats like Not Exactly Rocket Science and Neurotopia. Congrats! Everyone should go check out the top 30!
While you're at it, though, be sure to tell Eureka YOUR favorites - they're looking for a top 100, and they want to know which ones they missed. Just send an e-mail to eureka [at] thetimes [dot] co [dot] uk with "Best Blogs" in the subject to submit observations of a nerd your picks for the best science blogs not on that list!
cwilcox | February 2, 2010A little proof that the mini version of just about anything is cute:
Photo credit: Julie Larsen Maher/WCS via Zooborns
These little tykes are the Bronx Zoo's newest arrivals: baby Kihansi Spray Toads (Nectophrynoides asperginis). While they might just look like any other toad, this species is unique. Females give birth to fully-formed babies, not eggs like most amphibians. There are no tadpoles here - baby toads come right out of mom looking like mini versions of their parents.
Unfortunately, you can't observe this amazing phenomena in the Kihansi Gorge of Tanzania, where these toads are from…
cwilcox | January 27, 2010As soon as you put more than one species in an ecosystem, you have species interactions. There are many kinds of these relationships, each defined by what each side gets out of the deal. Many of these you've heard of, though you might not have strict definitions for, like Competition or the Antagonism of predator and prey. One of the most fascinating relationships animals can have, though, is what is called Mutualism, where both sides benefit from the interaction.
Mutualism is very common: the classic example is the relationship pollinators and their plants. Around 70% of land plants require…
cwilcox | January 26, 2010Man's best friend is much more than a household companion - for centuries, artificial selection in dogs has made them prime examples of the possibilities of evolution. A century and a half ago, Charles Darwin recognized how the incredibly diverse dogs supported his revolutionary theory in his famous book On The Origin Of Species. At the time, he believed that dogs varied so much that they must have been domesticated from multiple canine species. Even still, he speculated that:
if... it could be shown that the greyhound, bloodhound, terrier, spaniel and bull-dog, which we all know propagate…