biology
grrlscientist | November 27, 2006
False Crocus Geometer Moth, Xanthotype urticaria.
Photographed at my farm in eastern Ontario
Image: Bev Wigney.
I am receiving so many gorgeous images from you, dear readers, that I am overwhelmed by the beauty of the images and the creatures and places in those images. 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: moth, False Crocus Geometer moth, insect, Lepidoptera, zoology
grrlscientist | November 26, 2006
Spotted Salamander, Ambystoma maculatum.
Photographed when a friend and I were out looking for
herps and spiders in south of Ottawa, Ontario in Sept. 2005.
Image: Bev Wigney.
I am receiving so many gorgeous images from you, dear readers, that I am overwhelmed by the beauty of the images and the creatures and places in those images. 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: salamander, spotted…
grrlscientist | November 25, 2006
Pallid Bat, Antrozous pallidous,
Big Bend National Park, summer 2006.
The photographer writes that she is a research assistant in the mammalogy department at Auburn University and that she took this picture while carrying out biodiversity studies at Big Bend National Park. In the photographer's opinion, the pallid bat is among the most beautiful of all bat species.
Image: Anne-Marie.
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 (…
grrlscientist | November 25, 2006This is an amazing video that would work incredibly well in a biology classroom -- it shows the life cycle of an individual cell. It is accompanied by some fabulous music, too!
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tags: streaming video, cell biology
grrlscientist | November 24, 2006tags: Cinerocaris magnifica, Nymphatelina gravida, ostracod, arthropoda, crustacean, fossil, zoology, biology
Recently, geologists made a stunning discovery: hard boiled eggs that are over 425 million years old! The scientists, who are from the USA and the UK, discovered a female from a new ostracod species, Nymphatelina gravida -- a minute relative of the shrimp -- complete with a brood of approximately 20 eggs and 2 possible juveniles inside her body. Other parts of her soft anatomy were also preserved, including legs and eyes.
"Ostracods are common, pin-head sized crustaceans known from…
grrlscientist | November 24, 2006
Passiflora lutea.
This is a companion photo to an upcoming Gulf Fritillary picture. This photo is of Passiflora lutea, one of the native host species for the Gulf fritillary. Notice the prettily lobed foliage.
Image: Biosparite.
I am receiving so many gorgeous images from you, dear readers, that I am overwhelmed by the beauty of the images and the creatures and places in those images. 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…
grrlscientist | November 23, 2006
Tiger moth, Grammia geneura.
The Grammia geneura or "wooly bear" caterpillar sacrifices food quality to imbibe a
witches' brew of toxins from various plants to make itself unpalatable to predators and
resistant to parasitoids. [AmNat PDF]
Image: Biosparite.
I am receiving so many gorgeous images from you, dear readers, that I am overwhelmed by the beauty of the images and the creatures and places in those images. 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…
revere | November 23, 2006Since it's Thanksgiving I was going to do a shortish post about the tryptophan hypothesis being the cause of sleepiness after a turkey dinner, but the real expert on sleep cycles, my ScienceBlogs comrade Coturnix, beat me to it by a day. Which is good because without his excellent post I would certainly have made a science fool of myself. Which of course I would blame on being tired after eating a big turkey dinner. I won't repeat most of his post. You should read it foryourself. It is extremely interesting. But I will give you a bit to whet your appetite (sorrry!) and take the opporutninty…
grrlscientist | November 22, 2006
Mount Rainier.
Orphaned image. Please contact me for proper creditation.
I am receiving so many gorgeous images from you, dear readers, that I am overwhelmed by the beauty of the images and the creatures and places in those images. 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: mountain, Mount Rainier, Seattle, Volcano
evolgen | November 22, 2006I've got another pet-peeve-itch to scratch, so I'm picking up a tall glass of haterade.
I'm walking down the stairwell in my building, and I encounter someone heading upstairs carrying a styrofoam container (I can't tell what's in it, but it's probably filled with ice and something worth keeping cold). We approach the door to the floor we both work on. She gets there first and extends her hand to open the door -- a hand ensconced in a rubber glove.
When doing lab work, we wear gloves for two reasons:
To protect our samples from contamination from ourselves.
To protect ourselves from…
grrlscientist | November 21, 2006
River Jewelwing damselfly Calopteryx aequabilis.
Photographed hile I was doing some stream survey work on
a tributary of the Jock River near Ottawa, Ontario, in July 2004.
Image: Bev Wigney.
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 and how you'd like it to be credited.
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tags: butterfly…
evolgen | November 21, 2006John Hawks reports that the gene that, when mutated, can turn male flies gay and females into lesbians can also make boy flies fight like girls and vice-versa. This research will be published in an upcoming edition of Nature Neuroscience. And be sure to check out the videos from the fruit fly Drosophila Fight Club.
tfk | November 21, 2006The Journal World points out how turkey populations are changing in Kansas:
In the 1950s the only places where turkeys could be found in Kansas were along the southern border where they had crossed over from Oklahoma, [small game coordinator for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks] Pitman said.
“It’s my understanding that before we had regulated hunting seasons, they were just shot to extinction,” he said.
Kansas began bringing in turkeys from other states, but it wasn’t until the 1990s that the turkey population showed a dramatic increase, Pitman said.
“It just takes a while to reach…
grrlscientist | November 20, 2006
Green Frog, Rana clamitans.
Photographed while I was doing some frog pond surveys as a volunteer working with grad a university in eastern Ontario
Image: Bev Wigney.
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 and how you'd like it to be credited.
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tags: frog, green frog, amphibian,…
evolgen | November 20, 2006One of the potentially most interesting, yet untapped, area of study in population biology is that of intra-individual variation. One thing we do know, however, is that this variation can contribute to cancers. When cells accumulate mutations, some of these cell lines become cancer cells due to changes to genes involved in regulating the cell cycle. It would be especially interesting to apply the theory from population biology to this somatic variation within individuals.
If any of that stuff sounds interesting, you should check out this paper from Nature Reviews Cancer. The authors summarize…
jlynch | November 19, 2006
We bought one of these for my daughter yesterday - a Venus Fly Trap, Dionaea muscipula. Of course, the one we bought doesn't look as good, probably due to mishandling by the retailer. I hadn't realized that Dionaea only naturally grows in southern North Carolina and our big problem is finding a place that will give the plant six or so hours of sunlight without frying it in the Arizona heat. I may have to make a terrarium.
The species was discovered by Arthur Dobbs, Governor of North Carolina between 1754 and 1765, who called it "the great wonder of the vegetable kingdom." Over a hundred…
grrlscientist | November 18, 2006
Hairy Woodpecker, Picoides villosus,
Hairy woodpecker at a suet feeder who could probably do with a napkin.
The photo was taken at Sullys Hill National Wildlife Preserve, North Dakota.
Image: justawriter.
This is another image sent to cheer me up and to brighten your day, too!
I am receiving so many gorgeous images from you, dear readers, that I am overwhelmed by the beauty of the images and the creatures and places in those images. 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,…
evolgen | November 18, 2006Most of the DNA sequenced from the Neanderthal genome projects came from the microbes that decomposed the dead fella'. This poses a problem for the human geneticists who are only interested in the Neanderthal DNA. But you could probably do some interesting things with the non-Neanderthal DNA. John Hawks says:
I suppose if you were interested in the long-term microbial decomposition of fossil bone, you could do your dissertation on those. For the rest of us, the final step is to let the computer spit out the humanlike sequences, which are assumed to be the Neandertal DNA plus some proportion…
evolgen | November 18, 2006After a month-long hiatus, a new edition of Animalicules is available at Baumhaus (I think the name means tree house). Animalicules has posts from around the blogosphere about microscopic living things. Check it out.
evolgen | November 17, 2006 . . . and so does the current grant review system. And manuscript review sucks, too. And your argument is based on flawed data.
A couple of months ago I posted on an article in Cell that drew parallels between the NIH grant review process and the TV show American Idol. As someone new to the grant writing game (and who has never seen what happens when they get reviewed), I wasn't sure if the metaphor was appropriate or not. Michele Pagano's article also advocated prescreening proposals, switching to an electronic system, and holding review panels over teleconference. These suggestions are…