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grrlscientist | December 26, 2006I received several packages in the mail today. The first was the very well-written book by Barack Obama, Dreams from my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1995). The other package had two Indian music CDs in it. Thanks! I can hardly wait to learn more about Barack and listen to the CDs (I enjoy so-called "world music").
grrlscientist | December 25, 2006Last night, the neighbors were blasting their very loud stereo until the wee hours, and this morning I woke up to the lovely smell of a dead mouse. There's nothing like spending Christmas day searching for dead mouse bodies in your apartment ..
cmcclain | December 25, 2006You may remember from high school or college chemistry that temperature affects the rate of chemical reactions. A reaction between two molecules can only occur if those two molecules collide with sufficient energy (collision theory). Heating causes molecules to gain energy, increasing their velocity (kinetic theory). A higher velocity increases the probability of two molecules meeting thus increases the reaction rate.
In the oceans, temperature decreases with increasing depth with the deep sea usually around 3-4ËC. Whereas this basic pattern holds, regional differences in current…
tqa | December 24, 2006Merry Christmas.
"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere…
grrlscientist | December 24, 2006
The nice thing about email is that, like Owl Post, I can receive mail on weekends and holidays. This is a card I just received this evening. This painting is by a drinking pal of mine, artist Carl Buell, who also keeps a blog.
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tags: christmas, holidays
cmcclain | December 24, 2006At one of this holiday's events, someone asked when I knew I wanted to be a marine biologist. It was college when I realized I could make a living by 'playing' in the ocean. However, I have always wanted to explore new frontiers both intellectually and physically. A quote from my favorite movie of all time from an explorer's heart,
"You don't like coconuts! Say, brainless, don't you know where coconuts come from? Lookit here - from Tahiti - Fiji Islands, the Coral Sea!"
He pulls a magazine from his pocket and shows it to her.
"A new magazine! I never saw it before."
"Of course you never.…
sb admin | December 24, 2006The Pump Handle is taking the remainder of the year off.
We wish all of our readers and friends a healthy, peaceful 2007.
grrlscientist | December 24, 2006
I love playing with this snowglobe .. I especially am amused by the exploding snowman.
cmcclain | December 24, 2006
The series continues! Chris Mah and Peter's recent and wonderful posts have goaded me into next segment of the 25 Things You Should Know About The Deep Sea (the last post in this series links to all the previous). The beginnings of deep-sea science in the late 1800's was dominated by two ideas about deep-sea life, the azoic and living fossil hypotheses. The later of these was the abyss sheltered animals through previous extinction events and general catastrophes leading to a repository for fossil taxa. Louis Agassiz and T.H. Huxley, both scientific leaders of the time, were hopeful to…
cmcclain | December 23, 2006I personally love doing this series because it allows me to explore and solidify a variety of ideas I mull over on daily basis. Previously in this series I have discussed the difficulty of sampling, the variety of habitats, linkages to the oceans surface, body size, conservation, undiscovered species, biodiversity, unexplored regions, the large spatial extent, and the very definition of the deep sea. For #11 in the series I will discuss who the movers and shakers are in deep-sea environments going all the way from fish to bacteria. We typically think of the deep-sea benthos (seafloor habitats…
tqa | December 23, 2006When the time came to schedule this European odyssey that we're currently on, I discovered two things. First, that it was going to be a hell of a lot cheaper to fly on the 18th of December than on the 22nd, and second that it really is cheaper to book a regular round trip ticket than a multi-city ticket. That was all good, though, since it let me schedule a couple of days in London at the start of the trip.
Or so I thought.
When I'm on the road, I've got this habit of ignoring the news. There are just so many better things to do while traveling than waste time learning about the various…
tqa | December 22, 2006"The scientific spirit is of more value than its products, and irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.
--Thomas Henry Huxley
"The Coming of Age of the 'Origin of Species'"
goodmath | December 22, 20061. **Lunasa, "Feabhra"**: My favorite traditional Irish band. These guys are *really* traditional
instrumental Irish - Uillean pipes, flute, guitar, bodhran, and bass. The pipe player is
without doubt one of the best, if not *the* best in the world. I thought that I hated all kinds
of bagpipes until I saw Cillian Vallely performing live (before he joined Lunasa).
2. **Darol Angers Republic of Strings, "Bluebird"**: A track from Darol Angers latest project. Pretty much anything Darol does is gold; this isn't one of my favorite tracks, because I don't
like the singer, but it's got red-hot…
grrlscientist | December 22, 2006To continue this conversation about the state of science, here is an article that discusses the breakthroughs of 2006, starting with an award given to a mathematician for solving a 100-year-old mathematical mystery;
The work of a reclusive Russian mathematician who solved a 100-year-old mystery has been voted Breakthrough of the Year by Science, one of the world's leading scientific journals.
Grigori Perelman published three articles on the internet more than three years ago claiming to have solved Poincare's conjecture, a mathematical puzzle first identified in 1904 by the French…
grrlscientist | December 22, 2006I think that my 2006 was the worst year of my entire life, and believe me, I've had several poor years prior to this one, but I am not the only one having a bad time: it appears that science in general has been having a rough time as well;
Astronomers feuded about calling Pluto a planet. Ornithologists clashed over whether a magnificent woodpecker really did come back from extinction.
A top scientific journal made a red-faced retraction over fraudulent claims about stem cells. And the nation's top food and drug regulator ended up in court, admitting he owned stocks in businesses his agency…
cmcclain | December 22, 2006
How separated is Architeuthis and Kevin Bacon you ask?
As you might remember although the Giant Squid had some cameos in previous B movies, it really was not until 1954 in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea that Mr. G. Squid hit the big time. In this movie, the Giant Squid shared the screen with Kirk Douglas who played Ned Land.
Kirk Douglas was in Tough Guys (1986) with Eli Wallach
Eli Wallach was in Mystic River (2003) with Kevin Bacon
cmcclain | December 22, 2006I declare today all Kraken day! I bet Kevin Bacon is happy. In case you have not got your fill, browse these old post for fun.
Kraken Attack in Virginia
Known and documented attacks of the Kraken.
Giant Squid Popsicles
New Specimen of Giant Squid From Fishing Nets
Beg Your Pardon?
Father, Son, and Nephew Collect Giant Squid
I have a squid crush!
Giant Squid Overthrown As Largest Squid in a Molluscan Coup d'Etat
Deep-Sea Squids Have Sex Then Attack Canadians
Followup on the Colossal Squid
The Giant Squid is 7 Degrees Seperated from Kevin Bacon
More on The Giant Squid Caught in the…
cmcclain | December 22, 2006The new squid diva is 24ft long. How does she measure up? I just happend to have data setting on my computer to address that issue. Don't ask...I lay awake a night thinking about the body size of marine organisms. Below is a histogram of every documented Architeuthis capture before 1997 (data are from The Search for the Giant Squid).
You can see the new caputre follows slightly below the average. Molluscs (clams, oysters, scallops, chitons, tusk shells, squid, octopods, nautilus, snails, slugs) are fascinating group in general with respect to body size. Body sizes vary over 12 orders of…
cmcclain | December 22, 2006
PZ beat me to the punch (I really think he should be penalized for the time zone difference). Japanese researchers, the same group that caught the photographs in 2004, have filmed a live giant squid. The research team, led by Tsunemi Kubodera, videotaped the giant squid at the surface as they captured it, on squid bait, off the Ogasawara Islands south of Tokyo, earlier this month. The squid was a female juvenile of about 24ft which falls shy of the 60ft record.
CNN video is here.
Video from Reuters (best and no plugins required)
cmcclain | December 22, 2006Besides the typical divisions we make for deep-sea habitats based on depth, it is important to note that the deep sea is not a homogenous landscape. Rather a variety of unique habitats, each with a specialized set of organisms, create a mosaic across the seafloor.
1. Soft-bottom benthos is the largest habitat and comprises those areas generally characterized by 'soft' sediments of silt, clay, or biogenic ooze. A variety of factors (disturbance from seafloor storms and erratic currents, patchiness in food input, sediment type, and depth) can lead to a further subset of micro- and…