February 12th is Darwin's birthday and February 14th is Valentine's Day. To celebrate both, why not give your special someone a Darwin Valentine designed by Ironic Sans.
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
11 February 2009
A Darwin valentine
03 November 2008
I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween on Friday.
Not biological, but this year I carved a headless horsemen pattern I got from Zombie Pumpkins.
And of course, if you live in the U.S., remember to vote tomorrow!
I know the election is drawing near, as the number of campaign fliers I get in my mailbox steadily increases.
28 October 2008
Stomate Costume
Halloween is almost here! And if you're planning on going to a costume party this year its not too late to start crafting a costume.
I decided to look for cute science and biological costume ideas, but I can't seem to find many pictures. Black cats and and bats are animals its true, but it's much harder to find things not generally associated with Halloween decor.
By happy accident, I just finished grading a huge stack of lab reports on transpiration (the loss of water by plants). Then I found this photo on Flickr of someone dressed up as a plant stomate! Stomata are pores on the surface of leaves on plants, and they open and close to regulate the intake of carbon dioxide into the plant and the release water and oxygen into the atmosphere. Actually, this costume is part of a whole set of photos of students dressed up as their favorite adaptation. What a great costume party theme for nerdy graduate students or any group of science enthusiasts.
If you have pictures of people dressed up in biological or science finery, post links in the comments below!
15 February 2008
All we need is love?
In honor of Singles Awareness Day today (and Valentine's Day yesterday), I thought I'd link to a entry over at The Science Creative Quarterly. Charlie Hatton wrote a very funny piece about disproving common romantic idioms/sayings in a "scientific" manner. Check it out here.
10 December 2007
Bio-Christmas Carol
Well, this is two blog entries in a row about the Science Creative Quarterly, but I promise something different next time.
To get you in the proper holiday mood, Vince LiCata submitted a great Bio-Christmas Carol featuring Dr. Scrooge and his graduate student Bob Cratchett. Not forgetting of course the spirits who visit Dr. Scrooge: Past (a Developmental Biologist), Present (a Biochemist), and Future (an Evolutionary Biologist).
Now if only we could get this version turned into a movie starring some Muppets.
06 December 2007
Silverfish
While decking your halls, why not sing biology inspired carols such as O Chromosomes and this song I found over on Ugly Overload, about silverfish.
Silver Fish
(to the tune of Silver Bells)
City cellars
Moldy cellars
We have just ventured down
To the basement to get things for Christmas
Lots of boxes, stacks of boxes
I think this one's the tree
As we move them we're likely to see...
Silver fish, Silver fish
Its Christmas time in the cellar
Centipedes, race with ease
Soon it will be Christmas Day
Strings of webbing
Spider webbing
We're disturbing their lairs
As we track down our holiday treasures
Its disgusting
These need dusting
'fore we take them upstairs
And along for the ride there will be
Silver fish, Silver fish
Its Christmas time in the cellar
Centipedes, race with ease
Soon it will be Christmas Day
The song is correct, silver fish most often feed on polysaccharides (aka complex sugars like cellulose and starch) including book bindings, glue, hair, and paper. The wikipedia article points out that
"The damage caused by silverfish is negligible and they have no direct effect on human health beyond psychological distress to those who are frightened or disgusted by their appearance."Here, here, they sort of give me the heeby jeebies too.
29 October 2007
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...
An awesome brain pumpkin carved by a brain surgeon.
Flasks of a science nature.
Some really cool jelly fish.
So come on biologists, by next Halloween I want to see lots of science pumpkin carvings.
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