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dr. dolittle | February 24, 2015 Photo by: Leif Richardson, Dartmouth College
I came across this neat press release from the University of Massachusetts:
AMHERST, Mass. – Researchers studying the interaction between plants, pollinators and parasites report that in recent experiments, bees infected with a common intestinal parasite had reduced parasite levels in their guts after seven days if the bees also consumed natural toxins present in plant nectar.
In this early and most comprehensive study of its kind, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Dartmouth College studied hundreds of eastern bumblebees…
oracknows | August 18, 2013I've made no secret of my opinion of Jenny McCarthy. To put it mildly, I don't think that much of her, particularly her flaming stupid when it comes to her promotion of dangerous antivaccine nonsense. To her, vaccines are chock full of "toxins" and all sorts of evil humors that will turn your child autistic in a heartbeat if you let those horrible pediatricians inject them "directly into the bloodstream" and in general "steal" your "real" child away from you the way she thinks vaccines "stole" her son Evan away from her. Indeed, among other "achievements," she's written multiple books about…
dr. dolittle | December 5, 2012
House sparrow in Mexico City. Photo Credit: © Víctor Argaez
Researchers Suárez-Rodríguez et al., observed house finches (C. mexicanus) and sparrows (P. domesticus) on the National University of Mexico campus in Mexico City routinely pulling apart cigarette butts to obtain the filters. The birds were found to incorporate the filters in their nests leaving researchers to speculate the purpose of used cigarette butts. Using heating elements to attract parasites, they found that probes covered in "used", i.e. artificially smoked, cigarette butts attracted fewer ectoparasites than those that…