Animal Time TravelersApril 02, 2007 – You may have read not long ago about birds that can plan for the future. The occasion was a paper that came out in the journal Nature detailing some experiments on scrub jays. I found the paper fascinating, not just for the results themselves, but for the many other studies on mental time travel that […]
It's sex week on the LoomJuly 26, 2010 – Birds do it, bees do it, even educated viruses do it. And for some reason my stack of interesting scientific papers is particularly heavy at the moment with research on the evolution of sex. So let’s not be shy. All this week, I will blog about sex. [Image: mating sand wasps, Alex Wild]
Book Review: Man the HuntedJune 14, 2009 – The skull of the Taung child (Australopithecus africanus); the fragmentary remains of Orrorin; the scattered bones of Homo erectus from Dragon Bone Hill; a skullcap of a young Paranthropus from Swartkrans, South Africa. What do all these hominin fossils have in common? They all bear the tell-tale marks of predators, from birds of prey to […]
Jim Henson’s Fantastic WorldSeptember 23, 2008 – When I was a kid, I grew up so addicted to “Sesame Street” that I was pretty well convinced that television existed for the sole purpose of showing off the antics of Bert and Ernie, Big Bird, and Oscar the Grouch. But looking back, I now credit a large swath of my cultural literacy to…
Singing Wings, Or Natural Selection’s Lesser Known SiblingAugust 01, 2005 – I’ve been on hiatus for quite a while, in part because of some surgery (more on that later), but I just wanted to write a quick post to point you to my latest article in tomorrow’s New York Times, about how birds can sing like cricket. It’s a wonderful example of how sexual selection can […]
The Adventure Life with Steve Casimiro Environment: How to Give Plastic Bags the SackApril 22, 2008 – Text and photos by West Coast Editor Steve Casimiro You get it, right? Both plastic and paper shopping bags are bad. Plastic is an easier villain. It lasts for centuries, kills hundreds of thousands of birds and water creatures a year, and is made from petroleum. Plus, only a small fraction of the 80 billion…
The Adventure Life with Steve Casimiro Environment: How to Give Plastic Bags the SackApril 22, 2008 – Text and photos by West Coast Editor Steve Casimiro You get it, right? Both plastic and paper shopping bags are bad. Plastic is an easier villain. It lasts for centuries, kills hundreds of thousands of birds and water creatures a year, and is made from petroleum. Plus, only a small fraction of the 80 billion…
Discoveries: Googled EarthJune 11, 2009 – Text by Ryan Bradley In the past two years, people staring at computer screens have made some astonishing finds: a rare fringing coral reef off Australia and a crater in the middle of the outback, an ancient fish trap near Wales, and seven species of birds in Mozambique—all via Google Earth. The program, which layers…
The Dog That Didn’t Bark In the NightMarch 22, 2004 – Last week I wrote about an important new study showing that three very different groups of species–plants, butterflies, and birds–have all been declining at the same alarming rate for over 40 years in Great Britain. The authors concluded that if the pattern is global, it may mean that we are entering one of the biggest […]
ArchaeopteryxFebruary 17, 2008 – “Here is my archaeopteryx, the ‘missing link’ between birds and reptiles. It comes in handy as a visual tool during debates with creationists that like to visit campus sometimes! Yes, I know structural pigments probably had not evolved by this time…” –Jeremy Batten Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.
Understanding Extinct [Science Tattoo]February 20, 2010 – Cecilia writes, “I am working on my PhD in wildlife population genetics, and I can trace my passion for my research to a moment when I was in elementary school and we learned about the extinct dodo bird from Mauritius Island. At first, I could not understand what “extinct” meant, but as the concept sunk […]
Pharyngula on penguinsMarch 19, 2006 – Check out Pharyngula on the new paper that uses penguin fossils to time the evolution of living bird groups. In October I posted this picture of a reconstruction of the penguin in question, which now has a name: Waimanu. I’d just add to PZ’s run down that this fossil is also important because it is […]
Canada Moves to Protect Polar BearsDecember 14, 2009 – Photo by Norbert Rosing/NGS Manitoba, Canada announced plans late last week to create two wildlife sanctuaries in the boreal forests along the northern section of Hudson Bay, a move they say will help aid in the protection of polar bears, beluga whales, caribou, ringed and bearded seals, and numerous bird populations. The two locations, known…
Penguin PlacesMarch 06, 2009 – IT Contributor Andrew Evans offers an all-inclusive guide to all things penguin. Penguins are never passé. Be they marching or tapping their happy feet toward another sequel, the little black and white birds are still very much in everybody’s minds and hearts. I also imagine that kids who play with plastic penguins in their Happy…
The Ever-Surprising Swine FluFebruary 16, 2010 – Last March a new kind of flu came on the scene–the 2009 H1N1 flu, a k a swine flu. Hatched from an eldritch mingling of viruses infecting humans, birds, and pigs, it swept across the world. Here in the United States, the CDC estimates that between 41 and 84 million people came down with swine […]
Science On Shoals Is LiveAugust 19, 2009 – I’ve posted the first two stories from students in my science writing class over at Science on Shoals. (plus an explanatory introduction). One piece is about the mysteries of bird migrations, and the other’s on a new technology for seeing skeletons in motion in 3-D. And there’s plenty more to come. Check it out.