Forget origami where you can make animals that only sort-of look like the creature. Instead, why not fold and glue up a rare animal over at Yamaha's website (of all places). They give you an overview of the animals and their habitats and even include a stand with its scientific name for your finished creation. So go fold a Coelacanth today.
They even have a stag beetle for the entomologists on a different page.
31 October 2007
Rare animal paper sculptures
29 October 2007
The future of human evolution, in the media
I've been seeing this topic come up over and over again lately in various places. The idea that humans are "de-evolving" or that:
"The human race will one day split into two separate species, an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures, according to a top scientist."(from the Daily Mail)
This "top scientist" is actually evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry from the London School of Economics. Yes, Economics!
Both Boing Boing and Bad Science mention this story. Follow the link to Bad Science if you want to read the press release and see the predictions for humans 1,000, 10,000, and 100,000 years from now.
(If all of that weren't sensational enough, this was a commissioned report for a TV station.)
Well, that's the latest incarnation of this idea, but I've seen it lots of other places recently, see them below the fold...
Owl Pumpkin
Well, I carved this year's Halloween pumpkin, trying to bridge the gap between spooky and biological. So this year, I carved an owl.
I didn't make this pattern, but it looks like a Great Horned Owl to me.
26 October 2007
Scientific Pumpkin Carving
The weekend before Halloween is here, and it got me to thinking about scientists out there carving dorky yet awesome pumpkins. However, after scouring the internet it seems that there are few scientists, or science lovers, who also share my love of pumpkin carving (or at least, they aren't making science designs).
I myself am guilty of only carving one science related pumpkin in the past few years, featuring a DNA strand, leaves, and an insect to represent various interests in my department:
The few jack-o-lanterns I did find I'll post below the fold...
25 October 2007
Science Tattoos
So the blogosphere is full of links to links to links, so excuse my long list of relevant sources.
This post started at my seminar on science blogs, The Reluctant Geek, where we were looking at ant blogs. One ant blog, The Ant Room, links to a entry about science tattoos over at The Loom.
Anyway, Carl Zimmer started a Flickr page [Update: Now its own website] where you can post pictures of your science related tattoos. While discussing it in my class we could come up with a few examples of people in EEB here at UConn with science tattoos, so go and post your pics! And if you do, leave me a comment here.
Some tattoos I think are cool are below:
Sea Urchin embryo development & a Tree of Life
And this is my favorite, as it combines Darwin, and a reference to an R.E.M. song (my favorite band).
UPDATE:
It appears this is no longer just a Flickr page, it has its own website. All the science tattoos pics can now be found Here.
24 October 2007
Scientists in Sitcoms?
My previous post about Friends got me thinking, are there other sitcoms that have scientists as characters? If you know of one, let me know via comments.
I think doctors, lawyers, and police officers are overrepresented, especially doctors.
...
A Google search revealed that the BBC is now filming "Lab Rats" a sitcom about a university research lab. You think that will ever make it to BBC America?
I also discovered that CBS has a sitcom about physics grad students, called "The Big Bang Theory" - I'm tuning in this Monday (it also appears that you can watch episodes over at CBS's website).
Evolution among Friends
I don't like to work in silence, so I often have the TV on in the background. The other day a re-run of Friends came on, and what do you know, they were talking about evolution.
Ross, for non-watchers of the show, is a scientist who studies dinosaurs, and during the episode he tries to convince Phoebe, the resident skeptic, that evolution is a scientific reality. Thanks to the countless people out there obsessed with Friends, a transcript of the episode "The One Where Heckles Dies" exists, so I'll paste in the relevant parts below the fold...
22 October 2007
19 October 2007
TV versions of evolution (and creationism)
Here is this week's video:
Someone out there also seems to be paying attention when animated sitcoms mention evolution and creationism, and spliced together this video comparing them. The Simpson's version of evolution is pretty awesome, and fairly comprehensive.
16 October 2007
Gummy Tapeworm
Well, it's official, I've spotted my first displays of Christmas items for sale (before Halloween this year even). So, for your winter holiday gift giving occasion, why not give a gummy tapeworm from Archie McPhee.
Not only good for your parisitologist friends, but anyone brave enough to eat its gummy proglottids. Or if you're like me and would rather not be thinking about the commercialism of December already, why not buy some and give them out to trick-or-treaters.
13 October 2007
Bacterial Art
In a search for a image to use as a header for this blog, I came across this awesome art made from colorized bacteria grown on petri dishes.
From Echel Ben-Jacob's website:
"The colony structures form as adaptive responses to laboratory-imposed stresses that mimic hostile environments faced in nature. They illustrate the coping strategies that bacteria have learned to employ, strategies that involve cooperation through communication. These selfsame strategies are used by the bacteria in their struggle to defeat our best antibiotics. Thus, if we understand the mechanisms behind the patterns, we can learn how to outsmart the bacteria - for example, by tampering with their communication - in our ongoing battle for our health."
12 October 2007
Purple loosestrife
It's the (youtube) video of the week:
Okay, really this is a pretty bad song, and I wish who ever edited this included actual pictures of purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), but I see this as a great karaoke song at a meeting of botanists.
Purple loosestrife is a very aggressive introduced plant invading wetlands all over the U.S. (and elsewhere).
(insert bad segue here)
Speaking of songs botanists would enjoy however, check out my link for Songs about Plants (over there in my links bar), and send me suggestions of popular songs that include references to plants (although please, not songs about roses).
11 October 2007
Alton Brown and Good Eats
If you're a foodie and a scientist (like me) you are probably a follower of Alton Brown's cooking show, Good Eats. If not, and you have the Food Network on cable, it's a can't miss.
Alton Brown is a chef and a science nerd!
Highlights include a demonstration of how squid chromatophores work on "Squid Pro Quo II" (using balloons) and I learned a lot about avocados in the episode "Curious Yet Tasty Avocado Experiment". Such as, did you know avocados only ripen after they are picked from trees? So, growers just leave them on trees until they are needed - and that is why we can buy avocados year round. Now, if only the price of avocados weren't so darn expensive in CT.
I mention Good Eats now because episodes full of biology goodness will in no doubt warrant comments on this blog in the future.
06 October 2007
Insular dwarfism
This comic from Dinosaur Comics is a great comic summary of insular dwarfism:
The insular dwarfism wiki article has some great examples. And don't forget the opposite phenomenon of island gigantism, the removal of predators (and other constraints) on islands often can result in animals being able to grow larger after many generations. I learned something new, who knew that the dodo is just a giant form of a pigeon? Would that make Mr. Dodo the vice-mayor of Gigantic Towne? I think so.
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