Out 'n About
evolgen | November 4, 2008If you hold on until the end of the post, you'll see that it's got science content. But you'll have to wait until the end.
First, here's how it starts. I had an optometrist appointment at 8am this morning. I could have voted prior to the appointment, but the polling place is in between the optometrist's office and work, so I figured I'd vote after getting my eyes checked. Big mistake. The eye doctor dilated my pupils, which, much to my surprise, made me far-sighted (I'd never had both pupils dilated simultaneously before). I did not realize this until, when checking out of the office, I could…
evolgen | July 26, 2008So, I'm just hanging out here by the side of the water waiting for my lunch. Sure, I could go in the water and get my lunch. But that's not how I roll. I wait patiently for my prey to get within striking distance, and then I attack. So, here I am just hanging out by the side of the water.
Click to enlarge.
There they are. Just a bunch of cichlids waiting to be eaten. By me. Lunch would be good right now. But they won't get close enough. So I'll just hang out here with my jaw agape.
And I can see them. They're not too far away. Maybe one of them will swim close enough to the shore. And then I'…
evolgen | July 25, 2008Last month I mentioned that I had been in Barcelona at the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution conference. I arrived in Spain early in the morning, and, after I got checked in to my hotel, I went with a couple friends to the Barcelona Zoo. This zoo is famous for housing Snowflake, the albino gorilla who lived at the zoo from the mid-1960s until he died in 2003. They still have an impressive collection of primates despite the loss of the zoo's icon.
Additionally, the zoo has a roaming band of peafowl. The peacocks and peahens have free reign of the grounds, and you'll often see them…
evolgen | June 15, 2008
If you check the archives of this blog (which I know all of you do on a fairly regular basis), you'll see that I haven't posted anything in over two weeks. Those kind of blog hiatuses can't be good for traffic, but I have a legitimate excuse: I was out of the country. Readers with a keen eye for international architecture will recognize the picture attached to this post. Those without, may not. Either way, I figure I should tell you that it's one of the facades of Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi's best known unfinished church.
Why post a picture of this famous tourist spot? Because I was in…
evolgen | May 28, 2008Chad's in town for the DAMOP meeting. What that means isn't all that important in the grand scheme of things. But it did give us a chance to have a blogger meet-up. So, I grabbed Professor Steve Steve and Kevin (of Deep Sea Nudes and the Unimportant 95%), and we met Chad for some dinner and beers.
Kevin's posted another version of the picture.
evolgen | September 12, 2007As I was making my way back from a seminar on skin color genetics yesterday, I noticed a couple of bugs perched on the outer wall of my building. This wouldn't be a blog worthy moment, except that the bugs were huge . . . and in mid coitus. I hurried inside and ran upstairs to grab my camera. I returned -- with both my camera and another grad student -- to find the bugs in the same position as when I left them.
This wasn't exactly a high energy sexual encounter. In fact, the male appeared to be just sitting on the back of the female -- as if he were in the process of pinning her in some kind…
evolgen | June 23, 2007When this post appears, I'll be on the road to Halifax for the SMBE meeting. That's right -- on the road. As in an 18 hour drive. I'm not doing it alone, mind you. It's me and ten other grad students and post-docs packed into two vans. And we're not doing the whole thing in one stretch -- not everyone is hardcore enough for that -- so we're spending Saturday night in Bangor, Maine. I guess that's probably for the best because it would totally suck if we're already burnt out by the first day of the meeting.
Anyway, for those of you going to the meeting, I'll see you in Halifax. We're planning…
evolgen | March 15, 2007This post is part of a series documenting Professor Steve Steve's recent visit to Philadelphia for the Drosophila Research Conference (aka, the Fly Meeting).
Professor Steve Steve had a wild Saturday night. He was quite happy to have met leaders in the fields of evo-devo, population genetics, and genomics. Of course, Steve Steve is a pioneer in popula-devo-geno-metrics, so everything that came up in discussion was old-hat to him. That said, it was definitely a night to remember. And a morning to forget.
Pictures of Steve Steve at the Sunday plenary session and on the drive home can be found…
evolgen | March 14, 2007This post is part of a series documenting Professor Steve Steve's recent visit to Philadelphia for the Drosophila Research Conference (aka, the Fly Meeting).
In the previous two installments of Steve Steve in Philly, we finally managed to meet up despite the best efforts of the staff at the Marriott to prevent our rendezvous, and we got Steve Steve up to date on the newest developments in fly pushing and Drosophila genetics. It had been quite a tiring day, so we ventured down to the hotel bar for a few drinks. Some of us were ready to hit the sack, but Steve Steve would have none if it; he…
evolgen | March 13, 2007This post is part of a series documenting Professor Steve Steve's recent visit to Philadelphia for the Drosophila Research Conference (aka, the Fly Meeting).
After tracking down Steve Steve in the lobby of the hotel on Saturday, we picked up some food at the Reading Terminal Market -- a permanent sort-of-farmers-market next to the Philly Convention Center. The place was pretty packed, due in part to the Flower Show going on next door. Steve Steve was a little bummed that he didn't have time to check out any of the garden displays -- being an amateur horticulturalist and developer of the…
evolgen | March 12, 2007
What a weekend! Professor Steve Steve and I returned from Philadelphia on Sunday after hanging out with the Drosophilists. Steve arrived in Philly on Thursday morning on a direct flight from Iowa City, but the staff at the Philadelphia Marriott couldn't understand his thick accent when he asked that they notify me of his arrival. The little guy wandered the lobby of the hotel until Saturday morning, when I found him nibbling on the flamboyant floral display. That wasn't the only thing the Marriott screwed up.
More stories and pictures can be found below the fold.
Why the Marriott sucks:…
evolgen | March 6, 2007Alex claims I do cowboy science because my protocol for DNA isolation requires cutting plastic with hot razor blades. But before we ever get to cut any plastic, we need to grind up the flies. I don't have any pretty pictures of this process, but I can capture the essence in words (picture may come later). It starts with "homogenizing" about two grams of flies in a few milliliters of buffer. We end up with a Drosophila shake -- kind of like a milk shake, only without milk and you probably don't want to drink it -- which has a bunch of particulate matter (pieces of exoskeleton, wings, legs,…
evolgen | February 14, 2007In honor of all the snow being dropped on the Northeast US, I give you "Things that rock & things that suck." Cue the theme music...
Things that rock: Snowfall measured in feet.
Things that suck: Freezing rain.
Things that rock: Showing up to class/work on cross-country skis.
Things that suck: Cancelled classes.
Things that rock: Watching ill-prepared undergrads try to navigate an unplowed path or snow drift.
Things that suck: Navigating an unplowed path or snow drift.
Things that rock: Riding your bike in the snow.
Things that suck: Snow removal services that plow snow onto bike…
evolgen | November 4, 2006For all you runners and cyclists out there, I give you a toy you're sure to enjoy: Gmaps Pedometer.
Ever had a ride or run you wanted to do, but weren't sure how long it was or the elevation change? Enter Gmaps Pedometer. It works with the Google Maps interface, by far the best online maps application. You tell it where you want to start, enter checkpoints by double clicking, and that's it. It tells you mileage, elevation change, and you can save your routes.
There is a website that has good information on local rides in my area, but it gets boring doing the same routes every time. I started…
evolgen | November 2, 2006A couple of days ago I showed you pictures of where we can find Drosophila in the Southwestern United States. Today, I'll show you some pictures of those flies. Below the fold are flies with racing stripes and others with fancy colored testicles. That's right: fly balls only a click away. You know you want it.
Before we get to the red and yellow testicles, I've got some striped flies to show you. Now, these guys aren't Drosophila, but they are members of a closely related genus. Well, closely related as far as insects go. The two genera diverged at least 50 million years ago. Here is a dorsal…
evolgen | October 31, 2006As promised, I'll be posting some pictures of flies we caught in and around Tucson, Arizona. But before we can talk about the flies, we need to talk about the local flora. The host plants for these flies serve as a restaurant, discotheque, bedroom, and nursery. In Arizona, those plants tend to be cacti. Below the fold I have posted a picture of a cactus that met a sad fate: it was struck by a bold of lightning. But from the ashes of the dead saguaro came a diverse collection of Drosophilids.
Drosophila are NOT true fruit flies (see here), and they prefer rotting plants to fresh fruit. For…
evolgen | October 29, 2006Big ups to the grad students in the Ecology and Evolution Department at the University of Arizona for putting on a killer Halloween party and letting a couple of uncostumed drosophilists share in the festivities. That's the good.
The bad: US Airways. I just found out my last flight (of three) on my way home was canceled. Instead of arriving home at 9:30am, I won't get there until the early afternoon. There goes my plan to get work done on Monday.
Said drosophilists who were treated to vast amounts of ethanol by the Arizonans also got to see some really cool looking flies. I took some pictures…
evolgen | October 25, 2006I'm currently waiting to board my third flight of the day (for this trip), sitting in the Las Vegas airport. The Las Vegas airport has free wireless! That's a good thing. It's also packed with slot machines going "bleep-bleep", "ding-ding", and "do-do-do-do". That's kind of annoying.
The southwest is sunny and warm. That's also a good thing. Considering that this is what I left this morning:
And this is where I'm going to be tonight:
evolgen | October 25, 2006
At the same time this post is scheduled to go up on ScienceBlogs I should be a few thousand feet above Middle America. I'll be spending the rest of this week in Tucson, Arizona (which I like to pronounce "Tuck-Sun", like how we pronounce Phoenix "Pa-Ho-Nix") learning about Drosophila. Sure, I already know a bit about these pomace flies, but after this weekend I'll have mad Drosophila skills. They should provide an excellent complement to my chicken-head-eating skills.
This is my way of saying posting will be light -- kinda like the weight I push -- over the next few days.
evolgen | September 23, 2006I saw him again at the supermarket today. This is the second time I've seen him at the supermarket -- and third time overall. But this is the first time I was stealth, without any identification of my alma mater.
In case you're late to the game, this guy is an emeritus professor at my current university, and he also graduated from my alma mater. I've run into him twice around town, both times I had something that gave away my former school (either a hat or a license plate holder). Like the last time I saw him in the supermarket, we were both in the produce section. However, today I was…