On the art of being interesting

freshphotons: jtotheizzoe: disorderedbits: Monsters of Grok I...

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:33:38 +0100

jtotheizzoe: disorderedbits: Monsters of Grok

I was just about to write up this post and now I don’t have to!

You can buy these … all of them!

And then send them to ME!

Introducing: the new Scientific American blog network! | The Network Central, Scientific American Blog Network

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 13:18:42 +0100

Introducing: the new Scientific American blog network! | The Network Central, Scientific American Blog Network:

For those of you interested in reading more blogs and such, the Scientific American has just launched it’s new Blog Network! Click the above link to find a list of summary of what they’re all about. I’ve been a long term reader of some of these blogs and am sure they will continue to feature on this feed-blog.

Nature has invented nuts and screws long before us, for example...

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:01:05 +0100

Nature has invented nuts and screws long before us, for example here in the leg of a weevil.

mothernaturenetwork: Prepare yourself for the cutest thing...

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 08:00:06 +0100

mothernaturenetwork:

Prepare yourself for the cutest thing you’ll see today: 16 unlikely (and adorable) animal friendships

Warning: These photos and stories might elicit some lengthy ‘awwwws.’

yumnaolivia: The Kingdom which is seldom visited known as...

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:18:06 +0100

yumnaolivia:

The Kingdom which is seldom visited known as Karakorum, Pakistan.

The Karakoram and the Himalaya are important to Earth scientists for several reasons. They are one of the world’s most geologically active areas, at the boundary between two colliding continents. Therefore, they are important in the study of plate tectonics.

A significant part, 28-50% of the Karakoram Range is glaciated, compared to the Himalaya (8-12%) and European Alps (2.2%). Mountain glaciers may serve as an indicator of climate change, advancing and receding with long-term changes in temperature and precipitation.

Picture Credit: Unknown.

In humans, we associate getting older with cobwebs of the mind;...

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 16:00:05 +0100

In humans, we associate getting older with cobwebs of the mind; in spiders, it’s the cobwebs themselves that suffer.

geneticist: X-Ray of an obese individual compared to the X-ray...

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 08:00:06 +0100

geneticist:

X-Ray of an obese individual compared to the X-ray of an average individual (source)

jtotheizzoe: Humans and animals both enjoy getting...

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:00:06 +0100

jtotheizzoe:

Humans and animals both enjoy getting stoned

Animals in the wild will also voluntarily and repeatedly consume psychoactive plants and fungi. Birds, elephants, and monkeys have all been reported to enthusiastically seek out fruits and berries that have fallen to the ground and undergone natural fermentation to produce alcohol. In Gabon, which lies in the western equatorial region of Africa, boars, elephants, porcupines, and gorillas have all been reported to consume the intoxicating, hallucinogenic iboga plant (Tabernanthe iboga). There is even some evidence that young elephants learn to eat iboga from observing the actions of their elders in the social group. In the highlands of Ethiopia, goats cut the middleman out of the Starbucks business model by munching wild coffee berries and catching a caffeine buzz.

(via The Compass Of Pleasure )

Suit Seeks Redress for a Start-Up Package Gone Sour

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 08:00:06 +0100

Suit Seeks Redress for a Start-Up Package Gone Sour:

A female researcher is suing her university for failing to provide the promised start up package. She demands an apology while the university insists they’ve done nothing wrong.

(main article behind paywall)

Major new clues to the appearance of fossilised birds have...

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 16:01:06 +0100

Major new clues to the appearance of fossilised birds have emerged from X-ray scans, which reveal which parts of their plumage contained the black pigment eumelanin. The same technique could theoretically be applied to fossils of any animal, providing new insights into their appearance.

The scans show that the earliest-known beaked bird – the roughly 120-million-year-old Confuciusornis sanctus – had extremely dark plumage on the neck, breast and body.

ohyeahdevelopmentalbiology: Section of a normal mammary gland...

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 08:00:06 +0100

ohyeahdevelopmentalbiology:

Section of a normal mammary gland that has been stained to find the terminal duct zones that are enriched for mammary stem cells (red) and to visualize a Notch signaling pathway (green). Impairing the Notch pathway caused malignant breast cancer cells to revert to a normal phenotype.

Internet has been down for a few days but I’ve left Uni, so hopefully I should be back to business as usual.

I’m without internet for two weeks (stupidly unexpectedly) and haven’t stocked my que up enough so posting might be a bit sparse for a while.

jtotheizzoe: “It suddenly flashed upon me … in every generation...

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 12:00:06 +0100

jtotheizzoe:

“It suddenly flashed upon me … in every generation the inferior would inevitably be killed off and the superior would remain — that is, the fittest would survive.” - Alfred Russel Wallace

Today July 1, in 1858, modern biology was born. It was on this day that Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace had a paper presented to the Linnaean Society of London. In that paper, the idea of natural selection as the driving force behind the variation among species was first heard in public.

It didn’t cause riots, fainting spells, or even a great murmur, but it marks the starting point for essentially everything we know about biology today. Darwin almost got scooped by the younger Wallace, had they not decided to submit this paper together. His magnum opus On the Origin of Species wouldn’t come out until the following year.

If you’re feeling historical, you can check out the original paper from these two “indefatigable naturalists” at the Linnaean Society archives.

(via Wired.com)

Yeah, this was a few days ago… however, it is notable that neither Darwin nor Wallace were there for this momentous occasion (even if it went largely forgotten). Wallace has away in Asia and didn’t even know that his paper was being presented. Darwin couldn’t attend as it coincided with his son’s funeral (who had died of scarlet fever).

(via Meerkat Kits at Paignton Zoo! - ZooBorns)

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 12:00:06 +0100

(via Meerkat Kits at Paignton Zoo! - ZooBorns)

Did you watch the Polar Bear Episode of Inside Nature’s...

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:00:06 +0100

Did you watch the Polar Bear Episode of Inside Nature’s Giants? If you’re in the UK or otherwise have access to this, it’s worth watching!

Warning: contains controversial material, such as the killing of polar bears. (I withhold my own opinion for now)

(via Inside Nature’s Giants - The Polar Bear - Channel 4)

And this is why I would never go to the USA for a...

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 16:01:06 +0100

And this is why I would never go to the USA for a PhD…

jtotheizzoe:

The Long and Winding Road to a PhD

I have to laugh at this. Because if I don’t laugh, I will cry.

ohyeahdevelopmentalbiology: scipsy: Wings of the adiastola...

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 08:00:06 +0100

ohyeahdevelopmentalbiology:

scipsy:

Wings of the adiastola subgroup of picture wing flies (via Edwards Lab Hawaiian Drosophila Page)

Early mammals were brainy and nosy

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:00:06 +0100

Early mammals were brainy and nosy :

The early Jurassic might be famous as the point in prehistory that dinosaurs began to grow into giants, but something else was growing larger at that time too: the brains of early mammal-like animals. That could be because smell and touch were vital for their survival during the age of the dinosaurs.

In the 1980s, palaeontologist Timothy Rowe visited the fossil collection at Harvard University with an earnest request: could he please crack open a rare, 190-million-year-old skull of a tiny mammal to determine the shape of its brain? The eyes of Harvard’s curators widened behind their spectacles; their lips pursed; their brows wrinkled.

“The standard response was, ‘No way! Sit on your hands and be patient, and sooner or later we’ll have non-destructive techniques to answer those questions,’” Rowe recalls. “It was so frustrating because I really wanted to know what the brain was like, but these fossils were treated like a Rembrandt or a Vermeer.”

Three decades later, Rowe’s waiting is over. His team at the University of Texas at Austin recently used high-resolution X-ray computed tomography (CT) to create 3D maps of the skulls of two ancient mammals, faithfully reproducing the shapes of the brains they once contained. The digital moulds suggest that their brains evolved to meet the need for acute senses of smell and touch.

fuckyeahpaleontology: Stunning photo of a whale museum

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 08:00:06 +0100

fuckyeahpaleontology:

Stunning photo of a whale museum

ohyeahdevelopmentalbiology: When a cell reaches the blastocyst...

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:05:06 +0100

ohyeahdevelopmentalbiology:

When a cell reaches the blastocyst stage (approx 100-150 cells) embryonic stem cells can be removed from the inner cell mass. It is these stem cells that give rise to the whole embryo as they have near unlimited differential and prolific prowess. The trophblast cells, which surround the inner cell mass and the blastocyst cavity (blastocoele), later develops into the placenta.

(picture via IVF-infertility.com, words via me)

Hydroponics is about growing plants without soil. Because plants...

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 08:00:06 +0100

Hydroponics is about growing plants without soil. Because plants actually only need the nutrients in the soil, it is possible to grown them without. This is a necessary technique for growing plants in space - you don’t want to have to lug all those tons of soil around! - and is also useful in research as it allows precisely controlled nutrient conditions.