Life Science and Physical Science Weekly Channel Highlights

In this post: the large versions of the Life Science and Physical Science channel photos, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week.

Life Science. From Flickr, by Artiii

Physical Science. Ice crystals on a frozen window. From Flickr, by *clairity*

Reader comments of the week:

On the Life Science channel, Bora of A Blog Around The Clock is excited to hear about Okapi in NC! The North Carolina Zoological Park will soon add the African animal, a cousin of the giraffe, to its grounds.

Reader brtkrbzhnv, however, has eyes only for one type of animal:

Well, yeah, okapis are pretty cool, I guess, but they're no match for the viscacha! Which animal other than the vizcacha can look so dignified yet so cute? (Hint: none.)
http://google.com/images?q=viscacha

Caviomorpha really don't get the recognition they deserve; though I did notice that Richard Dawkins has a chinchilla (it's on YouTube), and there are some capybara posts on ScienceBlogs; but when a species as boring and ugly as the dog gets more attention than the entire parvorder of the wonderful caviomorpha, something is clearly horribly wrong! (Yet another nail in the coffin of the idea of a benevolent and omnipotent creator!)

In Physics Made Magical, Steinn Sigurðsson compares disciplines of physics to Harry Potter characters:

6. Quantum Gravity is Neville.
It is whacky, full of missteps, but brings surprising insight when least expected and possesses hidden power.
And, deep down, you always have to think that maybe really QG is the ultimate answer.

7. Cosmology is Luna.
Ignored and mocked for so long, comes into its own as the other fields have matured.
Interesting, but a magnet for whacky ideas of all kind, but, hey you never know if maybe some of these crazy notions are really the way things are...

Reader Phoenix Woman points out:

Of course, quantum gravity and cosmology are a REALLY dangerous combination. (And with that I'd better go skipping madly away.)

Some other Life Science posts we thought were cool this week were:

Will The Great Animal Migrations Disappear Forever?

Male fish deceive watching rivals about their top choice of females

This food doesn't taste right...or is it me?

'Montauk Monster?' You Decide

Smalles Known Snake Discovered on Barbados

And from the Physical Science channel:

Nothing But Uncertainty

Bangladesh gaining land area

Sail Away

Sunday Function

Rocket Science: Still Hard

Look for highlights from other channels coming up!