tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59803222626789061002011-11-27T18:44:11.780-06:00James Larson's blogJLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.comBlogger1761100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-24598834262978893302011-11-21T07:19:00.000-06:002011-11-21T07:20:20.326-06:00

Where have I been?  I've been in Daytona Beach Florida, where the 2011 Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation's Biennial conference was held.     But wait!  What am I doing at a coastal/marine conference?  Excellent question.  I've been working for the last year plus on Great Lakes rivermouth ecosystems, which are the freshwater analogs to estuaries on the coasts.  In fact, they really are

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-2702087697479378782011-10-28T09:10:00.000-05:002011-10-28T09:11:15.613-05:00

I wrestle quite often with whether or not to use this blog space to criticize individual papers or presentations.  On the one hand, I feel that scrutiny is a critical part of science, and we should point out all the problems with studies that make them questionable.  On the other hand, actual people are really sensitive to criticism.  I most cases, irrationally sensitive.  I can't count the

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-87961879781374863372011-10-25T09:00:00.000-05:002011-10-25T09:00:06.673-05:00

   I highlighted this paper a few days ago as looking interesting, but after reading it, I felt like expanding a bit.  The paper is by Rubbo et al (2011, Aquatic Sciences) and is entitled "Species loss in the brown world:  are heterotrophic systems inherently stable?"    Before I get into this paper, I think it is probably worthwhile to put this in some sort of perspective.  There are a few

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-69960277605609905342011-10-19T08:51:00.000-05:002011-10-19T08:52:24.300-05:00

I think I mentioned before, but the North American Benthological Society elected to change its name during the last annual meeting (last Spring).  I don't think changing the name was a horrible idea by any means (the "North American" part is semi-ridiculous and "Benthological" doesn't cover everything the society/journal covers), but it feels really weird to think of NABS as now being SFS (

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-38057689488507397862011-10-17T16:11:00.000-05:002011-10-17T16:12:11.663-05:00

I'm not going to lie.  This paper, on how increasing temperature affects nutrient ratios, is in my queue, but I haven't read it yet.  So I shouldn't try to briefly tell you how amazing it looks or that I think it is great...because theoretically it might not be.  But here I am, telling you I think it looks really interesting and I can't wait to read it! I'm fascinated by predator effects that

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-2684946824992210462011-10-17T07:00:00.000-05:002011-10-17T07:00:10.080-05:00

I recently had a paper from a co-worker (Jason Veldboom) come across my semi-ridiculous RSS feed.  This paper does something a little bit different than any other publication I've seen:  Follow the elemental composition of a population and its (presumably) primary food resource through time.   The study is straight-forward, in that the authors simply sampled a filter feeding caddisfly larvae

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-6152411320413659232011-10-13T15:27:00.000-05:002011-10-13T15:28:01.254-05:00

I saw Mary Power talk last night at UW-La Crosse.  Dr. Power is famous for having demonstrated the effect that trophic cascades can have on aquatic ecosystems.  She did this study where she showed adding fish to a mesocosm can decrease algal production, even though fish preferentially feed on algal grazers.  The reason is that fish aren't very good predators on these algal grazers (they hide

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-47844421013799495852011-10-12T19:19:00.000-05:002011-10-12T19:20:34.867-05:00

Sometimes management with the best intentions can result in active detriment to an intended beneficiary.  Take this example of supplemental feeding for a European eagle:  The supplemental feed contained pharmaceuticals, so the eagles that were given the supplemental feed were actually worse off than those who weren't.  I haven't read this paper on DOM dynamics in large rivers yet.  But I

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-72555738865385569422011-10-11T22:29:00.001-05:002011-10-11T22:31:28.689-05:00

So on October 5th, this article by Liao and Kannan entitled “Widespread Occurrence of Bisphenol A in Paper and Paper Products:  Implications for Human Exposure” popped up in my google reader (from the journal Environmental Science and Technology).  Hmm... I glanced over the article, there’s a bit more exposure risk than I thought apparently.  Then, October 10th...5 days later...a comment/

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-10085676861776712502011-08-09T20:43:00.000-05:002011-08-09T20:43:23.516-05:00

This story about "DNA" being found on rocks from space is really hard to wrap my head around.  The headlines generally seem to be wrong:  They didn't find DNA on a space rock.  If they had, that would have been really amazing.  What they found was molecules that go into building DNA.  Is that even surprising?  Even the official release from NASA is pretty unclear as to why this is so amazing.  

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-10970026659497873672011-07-28T13:45:00.000-05:002011-07-28T13:45:10.656-05:00

Bad Astronomy brought to my attention the discovery of an asteroid in one of the Earth's stable Lagrangian points.  At some point in the future, I imagine these points are going to be valuable real-estate. Sport hunting is considered a very minimal impact to lots of North American game species that are in need of conservation (e.g., Lesser Prairie Chickens), but apparently the role of hunting is

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-73035518162500255532011-07-10T08:49:00.000-05:002011-07-10T08:49:56.156-05:00

When it comes to the bounty of the ocean, the only thing that appears to be capable of causing the collapse of fisheries is human appetite.  As humans, we've managed to eat our way through a massive assortment of marine species.  So it is no surprise that when it comes to invasive species, people tend to put two and two together and decide:  "Hey, maybe we can eat all the invaders to reduce their

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-38771537432173232902011-06-29T21:55:00.000-05:002011-06-29T21:55:43.374-05:00

Every day, we seem to learn more about animals that lived tens of millions of years ago.  Including the approximate body temperature of sauropods.  This feeds into the story about dinosaurs being warm blooded or cold-blooded, but to me the real question is how an organism so large kept its body heat down.   I think hyenas are really interesting (and apparently so do others).  Did you know they

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-69754136732210244702011-06-24T21:48:00.000-05:002011-06-24T21:48:59.957-05:00

I don't know if anyone else does this, but when I get online, there's a certain sequence of sites that I run through. My way of getting to know what's happened in the world that I care about. So in case anyone else is interested, here is my "Science Path" for exploring science news online: The New York Times Science Section:  Started reading this because of Carl Zimmer's articles.  I think

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-8771835872815331132010-11-07T21:13:00.000-06:002010-11-07T21:13:58.430-06:00

Once again, my blog went defunct!  Let me give a quick explanation: 1.  I changed jobs.  I decided to get out of regulatory work and back into research.  There are a lot of reasons for this, which I would be happy to discuss in person if we ever meet.  The short version is:  I missed research. 2.  I'm now working for the U.S. government.  I'm not totally clear on how this affects my ability to

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-11961714202734904582010-07-08T09:41:00.000-05:002010-07-08T09:41:30.360-05:00

Happy Birthday Sis! This isn't exactly a wonderfully fun story.   Squirrels are actually pretty interesting.  Although we typically think of invasive species as annoying and frustrating, there's something sorta amazing about a species that can be this successful. Humans where in Europe a lot longer than previously thought.  Or maybe just a lot earlier? I'm just going to repeat the title of this

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-67862127034397980912010-07-07T08:53:00.000-05:002010-07-07T08:53:27.094-05:00

More about perennial grains.  I agree, it would be great if we could have them.  I don't know why we don't.   A fairly interesting look at the food preferences of man-eating lions (obviously, they don't only eat people). Ants with worms...broadly speaking ants with mind-control worms. Holy cow, I can't believe this is a problem.  Because of some unexpected storms, a hydro plan in the Pacific NW

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-15464481315758419262010-07-01T08:38:00.000-05:002010-07-01T08:38:55.079-05:00

2.1 billion year old multicellular life.  At least, it looks mutlicellular, hard to tell really.  But wouldn't early multi-cellular life essentially just be unicellular organisms stuck together and liking it? Quantum effects at the macro scale.  Although very interesting, I was expecting a lot more 'macro' effects from the reddit headline "Dartmouth researchers describe one example of the

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-90889928042830303102010-06-29T09:34:00.000-05:002010-06-29T09:34:42.836-05:00

The evolution of cats is interesting, even if the image accompanying the article doesn't make any sense. Generalists go extinct too.  Not sure I really buy the idea that they might be less like to. Allen's rule is about the length of extremities in tropical and temperate animals.  Apparently there's now some evidence that temperate/cold weather animals have shorter limbs (or at least, shorter

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-12281726153356818552010-06-28T09:00:00.009-05:002010-06-28T09:10:49.681-05:00

Tet Zoo talking about turtles.  I ended up going through about 10 old Tet Zoo articles on turtles. Interesting bit of detective work to try and determine how the Stellar's Sea Cow went extinct. Genetically engineered salmon are on their way.  Take a look at the picture accompanying the article.  No wonder the industry is investigating this. Small mammals eating dinosaurs.  Presumably after they

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-90032192781863336832010-06-25T09:18:00.001-05:002010-06-24T09:19:08.276-05:00

Yes.  Confirmation bias is real.  Or am I only seeing evidence for it because of...confirmation bias?  Uh...down that path lies madness. I'm not sure what to make of the absence or reduced abundance of sunspots.  Does this mean something? The strange and somewhat wonderful story of a man who woke up with a stroke, and without the ability to read. The world of information is a jungle.  I like that

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-35922582069393081872010-06-24T09:00:00.000-05:002010-06-24T09:00:05.728-05:00

Road kills are really hard on certain species.  Especially those with low reproductive rates. That whole komondo dragon and bacteria story is still interesting, even with venom playing a major role. Interesting question:  Why did dinosaurs have all those horns and spikes and armor and etc.?  Interesting info about influenza and how swine and human interactions are likely to preserve certain

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-55644202153911065432010-06-23T09:00:00.000-05:002010-06-23T09:36:36.083-05:00

Birth control pills fueled the sexual revolution, but who could have envisioned at the time that they would also fuel a pervasive problem to fish sexuality.  Come to think of it, a lot of people probably saw that coming. White-nose syndrome is really going to end north American bats if it continues at this rate.  That's not an exaggeration.  And now it's extended into Oklahoma, a huge range

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-34928291037413764382010-06-22T09:00:00.000-05:002010-06-22T09:00:02.146-05:00

I'm constantly hearing claims on reddit of really high rates of inaccurate paternity.  This fits with reddit's general attitude towards reproduction and male rights issues.  However, I've never seen any actual evidence.  This article nicely sums up the available evidence, and seems to fit much more closely with what my expectations would be. The fight aging website may deserve some detailed

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-42875191861427915962010-06-21T10:05:00.001-05:002010-06-21T10:42:05.362-05:00

Faster than light travel...kinda.  The author of this post asks you to consider dominoes.  If you tip one domino, it slowly tips, and falls into the next, and then into the next, and so on.  However, you could (if you wanted to) run your hand along the dominoes and knock them down faster than they would if you just allowed each domino to fall into the next.  Now, imagine that instead of dominoes,

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-38438614219312871832010-06-18T09:47:00.000-05:002010-06-18T09:47:14.780-05:00

Heat stroke sucks.  Apparently it sucks way more than I thought.  This isn't good news for me, as I've experienced this twice. A Q and A with a researcher attempting to quantify financially ecosystem services.  Very interesting, and very frustrating. And my work just blew up.  So I guess that's it for today.

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-47064214736948364242010-06-17T08:48:00.000-05:002010-06-17T08:48:20.584-05:00

One of the big struggles in science is balancing holistic understanding of whole systems with reductionist understanding of particular mechanisms.  Dave Strayer seemed to be talking about this in his book on mussel ecology, and this speech is talking about the same thing in medicine.  I find it far more terrifying when discussed in the context of medicine. The difficulty and implications of

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-56265400166541237922010-06-16T09:00:00.002-05:002010-06-18T09:08:28.851-05:00

Land-locked seals.  Something else I didn't know existed. The occurrence of development adjacent to land designated for conservation.  Apparently everyone wants a house that buts up to a 'protected' area.  I suspect most of those people failed to realize what they were getting themselves into. The elimination of wolves caused a reduction in beaver dams.  Ecology is awesome, and top predators are

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-86608626625797073612010-06-15T09:05:00.000-05:002010-06-15T09:05:33.766-05:00

I didn't know there was a European bison.  The wisent.  Which explains, I guess, why we call the American bison what we do.  This article, estimating the potential range of the species, made me aware. Parasites are amazing, terrifying creatures.  In this study, the authors found that the energy budget of the stream was being driven by parasites.  I think this is a big reason why non-indigenous

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-13056280783465498832010-06-10T08:59:00.000-05:002010-06-10T08:59:11.089-05:00

This is really what scientific reporting should look like.  Source specific, evolving, and full of important details, yet all in one convenient place.  This makes all other scientific reporting on the web look like photocopied newspapers. A really old shoe.  Stuffed with grass.  If this were just a hundred years old, it would be trash, but it is 5,500 years old.  Pretty cool really.  However, I

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-7946151697618734202010-06-07T11:00:00.000-05:002010-06-07T11:01:02.649-05:00

Blogger is not working right.  Not sure if this will post or not, had to try through email.Semi-terrifying photos of sinkholes from various places.  They look pretty neat when they are in or around the ocean. Using the energy generated by a car's shock absorbers to produce electricity.  This is such an obvious idea I had always assumed I didn't understand why it wouldn't work.  Apparently no such

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-61503422300199729522010-06-04T08:52:00.000-05:002010-06-04T08:52:59.219-05:00

Jupiter is getting beat up.  But that's kinda cool to see. Ever get hit by a golf ball?  Feels pretty hard doesn't it?  Apparently they aren't all that hard when propelled into a steel plate.  Anyone know if this video is legit? That sinkhole in guatemala is scary huh?  Apparently "sinkhole" is the wrong word though.  When I first saw this I knew I'd seen it somewhere before.  Turns out it was in

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-2292779357339735902010-06-03T09:00:00.000-05:002010-06-03T09:00:06.369-05:00

Oh boy.  I totally hadn't gone through my feed reader in awhile.  Here's all the papers I think look interesting  (I haven't read them all, and I'm sure I missed some): I already didn't like cattle.  Now it turns out they may be literally trampling on native trout.  Ok, I don't really like trout either, but natives are fine. And this is why I'm not a big trout fan:  Where they've invaded, they

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-25651869529010220012010-06-02T08:58:00.000-05:002010-06-02T08:58:36.647-05:00

Whale biodiversity is interesting.  Not sure this article is as well written as it should be, but I definitely found the topic interesting. Cassava is an interesting plant.  Originally from South America, it became a staple in Africa.  According to people I've known who've lived there, it has become a part of the local tradition.  Overall, it isn't a very friendly crop.  The skin is laced with

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-10098508528594650072010-05-28T10:56:00.000-05:002010-05-28T10:56:33.457-05:00

The amount of ice in Greenland.  Um...ok.  I don't feel great about this. I went to the 'science' page of the LA Times, and saw this article on Steve Ballmer not giving a talk at an Apple conference there.  Really?  What?  Science? That oil spill is definitely a lot worse than initially thought. Another fun Tet Zoo article, this one part of a series on the "deer-pig".   I spent yesterday

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-25052210025720327442010-05-27T08:23:00.000-05:002010-05-27T08:23:01.247-05:00

The domestication of maize (or corn as some call it).  My interest in domestication extends beyond animals, in case you didn't know. The land use in surrounding areas is an important predictor of the bird diversity in wetlands.  Although this is pretty intuitive, I don't think it is reflected in regulation or has had much evidence to support it.   Based on the photo accompanying this article...

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-82066242701040153032010-05-26T09:33:00.001-05:002010-05-26T09:34:06.876-05:00

Not new, apparently, but new to me about how manatee's apparently crossed the Atlantic. (Tet Zoo) Assessing the impacts of flow-alteration to rivers.  Canadian rivers.  Note to self:  Create similar method for U.S. streams. The story of a terrestrial, stalking pterosaur.  Investigating the ecology of long-dead organisms by examining fossilized feces.  Wonderful.  Not actually as enlightening as

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-48034779243091200002010-05-24T09:14:00.000-05:002010-05-24T10:41:53.422-05:00

Fats are bad for you heart, right?  No...not really.  Or, at least, not as bad as processed sugars and other carbs. Pesticides are apparently linked to increased likelihood of getting ADHD.  I wish I understood enough about the physiology and biochemistry of this pesticide to know if this seems viable. The role of armor and bones in ankylosaurs.   I've been unable to update as much lately

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-56802240550579687332010-05-10T08:39:00.000-05:002010-05-10T08:39:10.258-05:00

So, Neanderthal DNA is in the human genome, implying that at some point we interbred with Neanderthals.  This always seemed like the most likely scenario (if a Neanderthal was dressed with a full head of hair in modern society, it isn't clear that he would really look much different than modern humans).  But some previous evidence suggested that it wasn't the case.   More on the Neanderthal-human

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-43943005567242224392010-05-05T08:19:00.000-05:002010-05-05T08:19:30.582-05:00

Letting your kids watch TV:  Not good. Not science, but I totally covet a droid. Apparently scientists have produced Mammoth hemoglobin.  I'm amazed.  Reconstructing the mammoth from DNA has always seemed semi-plausible (much more so than dinosaurs), but that's always seemed silly (What are we going to do with a huge and isolated mammoth?  What are we going to learn?).  Reconstructing individual

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-74727684999782108912010-05-03T09:09:00.000-05:002010-05-03T09:09:22.141-05:00

Cephalopods and pain. How effective is land use zoning on conserving ecosystems?  Well, if your index of ecosystem health is bluegills (and large woody debris), the answer is moderately effective, but highly variable. I'm not sure why anyone is at all surprised that cougars get caught in wolf snares.  The question is how could you prevent this while still allowing wolf trapping.  Another question

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-81092623965733412912010-04-27T08:43:00.000-05:002010-04-27T08:43:56.006-05:00

April seems to have been flying by...just thought I'd point that out.  Haven't been doing 'papers of the day' for a while now because A) I've been reviewing a few papers and B) I had a job interview.  Hopefully will get back to it soon. This whole oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is incredibly frustrating.  This is exactly why environmentalists are concerned about these types of activities.  Even

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-19871591313086294642010-04-26T09:45:00.000-05:002010-04-26T09:45:21.250-05:00

Some words about the domestication of pigs.  I like reading about domestication, it is a fairly unusual life-history strategy.  In the case of pigs, thank goodness, because I love pork. Recently someone established that orcas are not 1 but 3 or more species.  This is not a surprise at all, because culturally/behaviorally, there are at least 3 distinct species. Another line of evidence is being

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-83170146949439253182010-04-20T09:00:00.000-05:002010-04-20T09:06:01.474-05:00

Despite this line of reasoning, I would recommend not eating seafood for environmental reasons.  If you don't live near a coast, it is doubly environmentally damaging. Anyone else seen all the pictures of lightning in the volcano.  Here's an explanation (and some more pics). Giant anteaters fighting.  Yeah. I'm not kidding, the first picture on this post is one of the most disturbing things I

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-52697024074822531012010-04-19T08:48:00.000-05:002010-04-19T08:48:14.273-05:00

I have a lot going on right now, so posts may be sporadic. Sometimes I link to the big picture articles, articles that discuss the fundamental nature of the universe.  Other times, we just want to know why the damn dog is constantly pushing its food bowl around. The spill-over effect in conservation means that areas around a conserved area may also benefit (essentially).  I don't buy this for

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-82445861114067944472010-04-12T08:32:00.000-05:002010-04-12T08:32:57.947-05:00

I don't know if I understand completely what this sentence is even suggesting:  "the art of rope making has been strangely neglected by mathematicians over the centuries."  However, I'm happy to say that the neglect is apparently lessening. Americans, when it comes to science literacy, are not just idiots, they are getting dumber.  Another observation of how increasing numbers of authors on

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-18577873637552654862010-04-09T09:02:00.000-05:002010-04-09T09:02:48.446-05:00

I'm a fan of space exploration.  In my opinion, that's the future, and it is the only future.  However, I don't know if NASA necessarily has a good plan to get humans into space on any meaningful scale.  The latest plans of NASA don't change my thoughts on this. Interesting discussion on how wasps control the mind of roaches.  And the disturbing thought of a wasp stinging a roach's brain.   Is it

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-22032776909390789332010-04-08T14:14:00.000-05:002010-04-08T14:14:52.119-05:00

If you artificially 'rank' the sciences, with hard sciences (physics, chemistry) up top and soft sciences (social sciences) down low, then it turns out that 'positive' results occur more frequently in the softer sciences.  The author of that PLoS study believes this is due to "the nature of hypotheses tested and the logical and methodological rigour employed to test them".  In other words:  

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-82159207254434406992010-04-06T09:00:00.000-05:002010-04-06T09:12:45.278-05:00

This is straight from the source, and so it is both pure and a little intimidating.  However I recommend it, as it documents when massive groups of organisms diverged (i.e., when did fungi and animals diverge).   Podcasting research discussions.  I haven't had a chance to listen and read everything associated with this yet, but I like the idea.  Unfortunately, the time I spend listening to things

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-6226341016549870142010-04-05T14:26:00.000-05:002010-04-05T14:26:52.482-05:00

The widespread problems associated with cultural eutrophication are well-known.  Essentially, humans dump a lot of biotically important elements into water, and the resulting algal and bacterial dynamics render those waters pretty unfavorable for native species and desirable species (i.e., you get a lot of fish kills and stinky water). A big source of those nutrients is agriculture.  Row-crop

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-8905779421794744282010-04-05T09:00:00.000-05:002010-04-05T09:05:37.631-05:00

A novel use for the Orwellian proliferation of security cameras:  Monitoring global climate change. Teff is pretty awesome. One thing I miss out on by being an aquatic biogeochemist is the opportunity to do research on really odd or unusual (to me) animals.  For instance, I didn't even know margays existed. Apparently ducks don't get influenza...or rather, they get it but they don't get sick.  

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-84679314052040701882010-04-02T09:00:00.009-05:002010-04-02T09:08:29.451-05:00

The driving force behind biological theory?  Beer.  Or, in my case, alcohol in general. Non-intuitive effects of climate change, and again, and a very interesting figure from that second paper. (both are discussed here if you don't have access/want to read the whole paper). Floating sea turtles form huge aggregates...and apparently nobody in the scientific community noticed this before now?  (via

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-5611541104152426002010-04-01T09:27:00.001-05:002010-04-01T09:27:58.408-05:00

I find it interesting that in physics, you have theorists and experimentalists.  And the two apparently don't really interact (if this LA Times article is to be believed).  Biology used to be divided fairly sharply between lab rats and field guys, but I don't see that as much. A 14-year argument over who gets to name a new element?  Not one of those 'normal' elements, but one of the artificial

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-82405639942949553082010-03-31T08:41:00.000-05:002010-03-31T09:03:28.860-05:00

Two countries bicker over a tiny island for years, then when nobody is looking, the island disappears. The secret lives of truffles:  Slowly being unveiled? Artificial photosynthesis...what?  Wait...what?  I have no idea what to think about this, but apparently this involves frog foam.  Oh, and solving the world energy crisis. Cool image of insect anatomy.  I really want a poster of this. The

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-56769219669905727442010-03-30T08:20:00.000-05:002010-03-30T08:20:52.135-05:00

Cell phones, electronics, all those games you (and I) love?  They are, indirectly, causing the ruin of Africa.  Including the gorillas. For an apparently widely discussed phenomenon, I was completely ignorant of the 'man flu' meme.  However, to the extent that it is a real effect, I definitely have it.  When I get sick, I tend to believe I'll never feel any better, which makes me depressed, which

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-34221653840067374362010-03-29T08:00:00.000-05:002010-03-29T08:00:10.929-05:00

I'm a major foodie.  Jamie Oliver is not quite my hero, but he's definitely out there trying to do god's work.  Too bad nobody seems appreciative. Seems like I talk about a lot of dinosaurs on this blog.  Does that count as being interested in birds?  If so, a lot of people will be confused about who is writing this thing.  Anyway, Australian T-Rex! Dark flow?  Wha?  Wow.  It is increasingly

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-54550670972835086942010-03-24T09:00:00.000-05:002010-03-24T09:00:06.046-05:00

For people in the conservation/restoration community, trying to deal with climate change is a tough assignment.  Years and years of training and conventional wisdom preaches the value of restoring habitat to a 'pristine' state.  In the U.S., that usually translates into Pre-European settlement.  However, the reality is that the pre-settlement environment may simply no longer exist.  Even if those

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-80766549217571985922010-03-24T08:30:00.000-05:002010-03-24T08:30:01.213-05:00

Is this interesting?  Kinda.  The longest unbroken record of daily temperatures in the Americas.  Big surprise:  The mean is temperature has increased about 1.5 degrees since 1855.   The amount of food depicted by artists painting the "Last Supper" has increased over the past thousand years, possibly mimicking a trend in food consumption in the societies in which the artists lived. No, seriously,

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-82394589629682328752010-03-23T09:00:00.000-05:002010-03-23T09:10:29.680-05:00

Prior to reading this post, I was unaware of the "ecology of fear". A review of studies documenting various aspects of why women are less represented in math and science. Something every rancher seems to know intuitively but has never been shown with any evidence to the public/research community:  Managing for the highest quality grasslands in the plains seems to reduce the profitability of the

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-1758916397437365782010-03-22T08:30:00.001-05:002010-03-22T08:30:00.109-05:00

Apparently my friends from Notre Dame are continuing to publish at a feverish rate, because I keep stumbling onto their papers.  The latest is by Rothlisberger, Chadderton, McNulty and Lodge, and is all about aquatic invasive species (full cite is below), and I think this paper really throws into question the value of education and outreach. There are a lot of big questions out there regarding

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-88290792008011094222010-03-22T08:00:00.000-05:002010-03-22T08:07:12.592-05:00

Why does asparagus make your pee smell funny? A cool paper, interpreted by GrrlScientist (on Nature?).  Whoever GrrlScientist is, she is awesome.  I seriously love the way she 'translates' papers.  I couldn't possibly encourage you enough to go read a lot of what she's written.  Which is why it amazes me that she apparently is "under employed".  Man, if she can't make it...who the hell can?  

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-36393463967779835752010-03-19T11:04:00.000-05:002010-03-19T11:04:39.084-05:00

This was everywhere yesterday...apparently people love dogs?  Anyway, they were domesticated in the middle east, not asian, according to the best available science. Two of my absolute favorite things:  Basketball and science. An ongoing public debate is about whether the use of fructose (i.e., high fructose corn syrup) is somehow worse for the public health than the use of other sugars (sucrose

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-29220296155233630602010-03-19T10:15:00.000-05:002010-03-19T10:41:59.357-05:00

I've already mentioned one of the papers from the big 25th anniversary issue of JNABS.  I've now read a handful of these papers, and they continue to be very interesting and a little bit annoying.  Why are they annoying?  Well, I like the review aspect of the papers, I don't like the "JNABS played X role in the development of X concept", because, really?  Who the hell cares?  This is a perfect

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-87134773604954576112010-03-18T09:08:00.000-05:002010-03-18T09:08:02.473-05:00

Useful link if you have questions about...well...how the world works.  For instance, Why is the sky blue? Some interesting info on Jupiter's Great Red Spot.   I like to say that if an organism isn't aquatic, then it isn't interesting, and that birds are boring.  However, this is kind of interesting:  Are bird brains bigger or smaller when the birds must migrate? On the origin of animals.

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-33632594866393633962010-03-17T08:00:00.000-05:002010-03-17T08:41:01.084-05:00

This demonstration of being able to construct really, really tiny objects is actually sort of intimidating.   All about the history of measles...really interesting stuff.  (via the Loom) Interesting discussion about how 'restoring' a natural habitat actually caused an endangered lizard to further decline.   Pepsi is pulling sugary beverages from schools all over the world.  I can't believe this

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-20847911857580718722010-03-16T10:48:00.002-05:002010-03-16T11:45:23.591-05:00

To review: I love ecological stoichiometry (ES). I find it a fascinating subject and a useful framework for understanding ecological phenomena. However, ES is still relatively new, with a lot of the empirical work restricted to plankton (esp. Daphnia and algae). So it is always interesting to see theories developed predominantly in the pelagic system examined in other habitats.One of the more

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-43237240892334688322010-03-16T08:22:00.001-05:002010-03-16T08:33:21.641-05:00

I love reading about the domestication of various animals.  Domestication is such a unique evolutionary strategy, and so specific.  So of course I read with interest about the domestication of chickens. Gee...climate change might affect migratory birds?  Really?  This is new? Apparently higher life forms are living under the ice.  I'm not sure what is more surprising, that they found something,

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-82645260709821501002010-03-15T11:00:00.000-05:002010-03-15T11:00:02.087-05:00

As with the paper from last Friday, today's paper comes from "Ecological Restoration", one of the few journals that is delivered, in print, to our office. So yeah, I've been reading through it. This paper is by Sayre (2010; full cite below) and is basically about how the cultural and scientific beliefs of those living in the desert southwest have shaped the way that restoration has occurred

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-67781450332473956032010-03-15T05:38:00.000-05:002010-03-15T08:17:22.566-05:00

Birds and mammals are not alike. For instance...some birds are bilateral gyandromorphs. Yeah, I'd never heard the term either. Apparently it refers to animals that are half-male, half-female, only split right down the middle. If you want to know more (and see pictures) than I would not hesitate to read all about them here.Something I've wondered about for awhile is how much changing land use

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-49415105031889426602010-03-12T10:56:00.000-06:002010-03-12T13:03:44.662-06:00

One of the oddities of state and federal government is the sheer number of regulatory authorities that go unused. For example, the Clean Water Act grants the EPA broad authority to protect the nation's waters. The EPA then actually delegates permitting for the CWA to the Corps of Engineers and state agencies (in many cases). As far as I can tell, many of the authorities embedded in the Clean

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-8866163490233130592010-03-12T06:00:00.000-06:002010-03-12T08:31:06.936-06:00

Feral pigs are becoming an increasingly severe problem further north. They used to extend into Oklahoma, but now they've been found across Kansas and Missouri. Getting rid of them is complicated: Letting hunters kill them might be effective, or it might just increase their numbers as outfitters begin actively bringing hogs into the state. As a result, hunting them is banned in many places (KS

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-41053707189341545782010-03-11T13:23:00.000-06:002010-03-11T16:44:47.906-06:00

The effects of impoundments are big one for people working in aquatic ecosystems. In Kansas, a large number of dams are still being built (and a lot more are in the discussion stages). So I am constantly trying to understand more about the effects of dams and the impacts they have on upstream and downstream aquatic ecosystems. I was recently forwarded the an article by Burke, Jorde and

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-73664917330856337712010-03-10T11:08:00.000-06:002010-03-11T08:33:05.955-06:00

Apparently snorkeling in the Mediterranean doesn't affect the fish or algal community. Yay!Despite what the box and advertising suggests: Exposing your children to TV at an early age is not a positive. Of course, this is what tends to happen at home-run day-care providers, so I'm not sure what you can do if that is your only available option. Also, when the whole family is sick, a "movie day"

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-8704422814854391342010-03-10T08:30:00.001-06:002010-03-10T11:04:54.576-06:00

I'm a stoichiometry kind of guy (even if I've been relatively unsuccessful lately), and stoichiometry seems to revolve around N, P and C. And really, mostly just N&P. As a result, I've been thinking a lot about how the terrestrial and upstream watershed affects the N, P, and C in receiving waters. So, for instance, if you change the proportion of wetlands, how is the ratio of these nutrients

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-39574066011824794062010-03-10T05:00:00.000-06:002010-03-10T08:28:20.604-06:00

Parasites are awesome. Here's a neat article explaining how goldenrod reacts to the parasitism of a Gall Fly.More discussion about the 'impact theory' regarding the dinosaur extinction. Here's my thing: Nobody agrees on what would constitute compelling evidence. There's certainly little debate that some object hit the earth at about the same time as the dinosaurs went extinct. However, there

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-30079344448225845982010-03-09T12:49:00.000-06:002010-03-09T15:52:43.337-06:00

Well, I'm trying to read a paper a day (this can be really hard with 2 kids and a job that doesn't encourage it), and today I randomly pulled up this paper: Johnson and Host "Recent developments in landscape approaches for the study of aquatic ecosystems" (full cite below). Let's just say that there's a lot here. Basically, this paper is part of a big-time retrospective done by J-NABS in

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-86006696799141484002010-03-09T08:00:00.000-06:002010-03-09T08:53:15.165-06:00

Sharks hunt giant squid? Well, maybe. They certainly are doing something a bit unusual.This article is about how humanity figured out how to cure scurvy, and then forgot it. Although, its more like humanity thought they figured out how to cure scurvy, and then realized they didn't know after all.Humanity has nearly destroyed another species...but now we're trying to save it. This is almost

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-7039163544825668572010-03-08T12:40:00.000-06:002010-03-09T13:14:32.223-06:00

Ellison, A.M. Pre-print. Repeatability and transparency in ecological research. Ecology.With a title like that, this journal was definitely going to go into my reading file. Oddly enough, my source for pay-only journals sent them to me with just numbers as the file names, so I just opened one at random to start, and this was first. So today's paper has easily the most intriguing title I've

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-44934092154008646072010-03-08T07:44:00.000-06:002010-03-08T08:04:03.241-06:00

The lesser prairie chicken is a particularly interesting species. Federally, it is a candidate species, meaning it is endangered, but is precluded for listing by higher-priority species. Now apparently the similar Greater Sage Grouse is being added to that list. Reading between the lines, it is clear that the Department of the Interior is trying to find a way to protect these grassland species

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-89762485769573888542010-03-05T09:19:00.000-06:002010-03-05T09:34:44.757-06:00

Pretty interesting graphic here on the evidence for particular supplements. Apparently I need to eat more beta-glucan. Shittake mushrooms, here I come.Investigating the benefits of marine reserves off-site.And a picture of the endangered Death Valley Pupfish, taken by my sister-in-law's husband a few weeks ago...because I haven't got anything else today.

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-67969417917778263572010-03-04T08:49:00.000-06:002010-03-04T09:39:26.113-06:00

Anytime someone starts up a conversation online about losing weight, someone with a year or two of physics (or who has read some science fiction) spouts off "Calories in = calories out", as if that is useful advice for people who want to lose weight. I'm not disagreeing with whether or not that is true (it is true), but it is hopelessly ignorant as well. I've tried to explain this to people who

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-50633709721315943442010-03-02T08:24:00.000-06:002010-03-02T08:49:27.424-06:00

Not much on my radar today. So instead, here are a couple of cool pictures from Silver Creek. Silver Creek is in the Grouse Creek watershed, which is entirely in Kansas but is not really a part of any of the major basin (drains into the Ark just N. of OK line, but isn't in the Walnut, Verdigris, or Neosho). Perhaps because of this, Grouse Creek is one of the most pristine and beautiful streams

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-54632832172935923182010-03-01T07:58:00.000-06:002010-03-01T08:20:48.669-06:00

Wait...What? The Mozart Effect is a load of crap? Ah, man, that was so easy. Actually playing the instruments is just way more work.Nothing to do with science, but I thought this slideshow of cool places to visit had some amazing pictures. A very conservative Supreme Court has, over the past ten years, cut a lot of the teeth out of the Clean Water Act. Big surprise: Now more polluters are

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-85939282930203826982010-02-26T09:35:00.000-06:002010-02-26T10:11:48.460-06:00

Ancient crocodile fossils. The history of crocs is pretty amazing. I'm really glad they stick to rivers and lakes now.PLoS Medicine's decision to ban articles funded by the tobacco industry highlights a particularly difficult problem in research that often isn't acknowledged: It is very difficult to distinguish real results from faked results when all you're looking at is the resulting papers.

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-24824329382417797542010-02-23T08:08:00.000-06:002010-02-23T09:58:15.000-06:00

Killing owls....to save owls. I think we're getting ridiculous.Using competition to thwart invasive species. You don't see this kind of stuff all that often, despite a widespread assumption that invasions are less likely to occur when competition is greater. Using evolutionary biology to better do conservation. Haven't really digested this yet, but I will.

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-75725697222355891392010-02-22T06:06:00.000-06:002010-02-22T08:52:47.372-06:00

Epigenetics is a pretty fascinating topic in general. Not to boil an entire idea down to a single sentence, but basically there are mechanisms of transferring information from parents to offspring that are independent of DNA. What mechanisms? Gosh, what do I look like? An epigeneticist? All I know is apparently crickets have such a mechanism.In an increasingly developed world, military bases

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-87856821131578131762010-02-19T09:52:00.000-06:002010-02-19T09:57:51.401-06:00

Sick day in the house, so not a lot of web-browsing:Old, seriously old, shipwrecks.The physics of curling (definitely the most interesting Olympic sport).Paleontologists are always publishing papers about fossils and new species that, as it turns out, have been sitting in a museum for thirty years or were collected ten years back. No exception. C'mon paleontologists! Hurry it up!

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-72080382540093655332010-02-17T09:17:00.000-06:002010-02-17T09:17:00.377-06:00

Holy mother of awesome. Saturn's rings...seen edge on!Ciliates are pretty awesome.And I'm too busy today to read anything else online, so instead an environmentally-related musical number from They Might Be Giants:

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-69247282484680520502010-02-16T08:16:00.000-06:002010-02-16T08:57:40.942-06:00

Although I know many people moved to Florida to avoid the cold, apparently there are some benefits to the surprisingly freezing conditions: Invasive tropical species are dying by the thousands! Of course, these are species that invaded with a very small initial population, so I doubt enough are being killed by a single freeze to seriously damage the viability of the long-term population.More

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-61753621690150818422010-02-15T07:27:00.001-06:002010-02-15T07:53:25.462-06:00

I'm not sure I totally understand this mechanistically, but it seems interesting that an antibiotic can cause bacteria to become resistant to other antibiotics. And by interesting, I mean that sucks!So someone looked at the genome of an ancient human (4,000 years old..so not pre-historic) found in Greenland, and discovered the genome is most similar to people living on the eastern edge of

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-74401482857100759832010-02-12T15:29:00.000-06:002010-02-12T15:31:04.151-06:00

Using birds as an indicator of stream health.How to wash your clothes and kill bed-bugsAnd wow, even insects become dumb when domesticated.

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-31945191477506676162010-02-11T09:09:00.000-06:002010-02-11T15:46:29.380-06:00

Cellular aging. This is pretty neat: If you can't get rid of your waste, you're going to have to pass it on to your offspring (during cellular division). Or are you? Maybe you only pass it on to one daughter cell? Pretty interesting discussion of a neat process whereby waste products are accrued in particular cell lines.Ok, the effects of mobile phones on the brain (or on health). I'm not

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-54383664156816118002010-02-10T07:50:00.000-06:002010-02-10T09:05:28.792-06:00

The anti-vaccine movement has been fueled by parents who need someone to blame for their child's autism. Do you think they'll blame themselves? The sad part is, they probably will.\Barnacles have ridiculous sex lives. I'm not sure they should have to endure what's described at the end of this article though. Considering we've already talked about this, and the evidence seems overwhelming that

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-81775597234261323462010-02-09T10:22:00.000-06:002010-02-09T10:22:00.093-06:00

Turkeys were domesticated twice! All kinds of interesting information in that article. Turkeys are the only New World domesticated animal that has been spread globally (quick: Name all the New World animals that were domesticated and then spread elsewhere). Apparently the turkey was domesticated twice: Once in Mesoamerica (think Mayans) and once in the SW US (think Athabaskan...I think).

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-13890935114652581562010-02-08T09:22:00.000-06:002010-02-08T10:05:56.656-06:00

The conservation value of airports. The reality is that the airport in the study is a 'high conservation area' just because the surrounding areas (New York) are so awful for everything that nothing survives. Even in the managed open areas surrounding the airport, the big benefactor of the 'conservation' area are insects. A group that is pretty adaptable and usually unwelcome.So they've built a

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-50047843331472240492010-02-05T09:23:00.000-06:002010-02-05T09:34:36.381-06:00

If you're like me, when you think of amazing NASA images, you typically think of stuff like this:But in reality, I think there's a lot more like this:What is that? Well, according to NASA those are different faces of Pluto (note: not a planet) as seen through the Hubble telescope. I'm not saying they are lying or anything, but...wow. I can't tell what the heck I'm even looking at. Astronomy

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-29089068337923394652010-02-04T14:20:00.000-06:002010-02-04T16:26:21.284-06:00

The good news is that a line of communication may have been opened between those who are superficially in a vegetative state. The bad news is: Holy cow, we don't necessarily know who is really in a vegetative state. The brief brief summary. 4 people (out of 23 tested) who were believed to be in a vegetative state were able to respond to questions by altering their brain wave patterns. Does

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-74886900105739302742010-02-03T11:01:00.000-06:002010-02-03T11:25:10.098-06:00

Hydrogen is an odorless colorless gas which, given enough time, turns into people. A great quote that makes a so-so poster.This might be the most interesting photograph of an interstellar object I've ever seen. There were links yesterday about this being a 'spaceship-shaped' object, and I think there was a joke there. I don't get it, and I don't see it. However, it does look cool. People who

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-15039756241965509872010-02-01T08:18:00.000-06:002010-02-01T08:50:23.022-06:00

Whenever someone says "is harmless to the environment" the first thing you need to think is "doesn't hurt the environment in any of the ways we currently hurt the environment." Or, even more likely "doesn't hurt the environment as much as our competitor." In the case of liquid glass...color me skeptical when the two articles I can find on the topic are basically just a re-hashing of the

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11236682006067121839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980322262678906100.post-28311143124990543862010-01-28T20:03:00.000-06:002010-01-29T09:31:07.509-06:00

I'm not sure this has anything to do with science, but...there needs to be a place for weird pictures on this blog. This is it.Here's an interesting article from Seed discussing why as peer-reviewed science is becoming more and more open access, while popular newspapers are moving more and more towards a pay-only access model. I'm not a huge fan of economics, but I do think of it as ecology

JLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205270658129485041noreply@blogger.com0