Nature
grrlscientist | December 27, 2007tags: Siberian tiger, Amur tiger, Panthera tigris altaica, NewScientist, Image of the Day
Amur (Siberian) tiger, Panthera tigris altaica.
Tigers are most commonly poached for their fur and body parts, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine. It is estimated that in 1991 alone, one-third of the Siberian tiger population was killed to meet the demand for their bones and other parts used in this practice.
Image: Barry Slade, 2007 (NewScientist calendar 2008). [Much larger view]
grrlscientist | December 26, 2007tags: Kunjarra Ceremonial Grounds, environment, NewScientist, Image of the Day
Kunjarra Ceremonial Grounds.
This picture shows laminar flow amongst the clouds, as air currents of different density -- generated from distant thunderstorm cells -- collide over the granite boulders.
Image: Barry Slade, 2007 (NewScientist calendar 2008). [Much larger view]
grrlscientist | December 24, 2007tags: seedhead on ice, plants, photography, nature, Image of the Day
This is the last image in a series of photos that my friend and long-time reader, Dave Rintoul, took in the aftermath of the recent ice storm that gripped the midwest of the United States. This series began on 20 December.
Seedhead on Ice (Ice Storm, 2007)
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [larger view]
Go here to see more of Dave's ice storm photography.
grrlscientist | December 23, 2007tags: ice storm 2007, ice fingers, photography, nature, Image of the Day
I am running a series of images that my friend and long-time reader, Dave Rintoul, took in the aftermath of the recent ice storm that gripped the midwest of the United States. This series began on 20 December and the last image in this series will appear on 24 December.
Icy Fingers (Ice Storm, December 2007)
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [larger view]
grrlscientist | December 22, 2007tags: ice storm 2007, curly twig in ice, photography, nature, Image of the Day
I am running a series of images that my friend and long-time reader, Dave Rintoul, took in the aftermath of the recent ice storm that gripped the midwest of the United States. This series began yesterday and the last image in this series will appear on 24 December.
Curly Twig in Ice (Ice Storm, December 2007)
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [larger view]
grrlscientist | December 21, 2007tags: seedhead on ice, plants, photography, nature, Image of the Day
Beginning today, I am running a series of images that my friend and long-time reader, Dave Rintoul, took in the aftermath of the recent ice storm that gripped the midwest of the United States. The last image in this series will appear on 24 December.
Ice on Branch (detail)
(Ice Storm, December 2007)
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [larger view]
grrlscientist | December 20, 2007tags: The Snoring Bird, Bernd Heinrich, book review, birds, ornithology, biography, science
I remember that I felt very cold when I read Bernd Heinrich's book, Ravens in Winter, even though it was a hot summer day. That was the first of Heinrich's books that I read, but it definitely wasn't the last. I just finished reading his most recent book, The Snoring Bird: My Family's Journey Through a Century of Biology (NYC: HarperCollins; 2007) and just as I wore a sweater while I finished his Ravens in Winter, I found that my normally routine daily subway rides to and from the library were…
laelaps | November 1, 2007Yesterday may have been Halloween, but today I learned of a real horror story; the BBC is going to cut "a third of its 180 production staff, including 10 out of 35 producers, nine of 17 assistant producers, 23 of 33 researchers and 11 of 37 production manager jobs," from the Natural History Unit according to the Financial Times. The cuts are a result of the BBC attempting to make back about $4.5 billion due to a bad license-fee settlement, an estimated 2,500 job cuts resulting from the need to recoup the funds. As Julia has noted, this is especially shocking given the popularity, success, and…
laelaps | October 25, 2007I have to admit that I've been somewhat lazy when it has come to sharing my thoughts on my current reading material since I moved to ScienceBlogs. On Laelaps Mk. 1 I would usually update every few days on what I was reading and what I thought about it, but since I've started writing here I've completed several books and haven't said very much about any of them. While this post is not going to be a massive offloading of knowledge gained from my extracurricular reading, it might at least offer up some suggestions for those looking for some new reading material;
The Horned Dinosaurs by Peter…
grrlscientist | October 24, 2007tags: Tangled Bank, blog carnival
The 91st edition of my favorite blog carnival, Tangled Bank, is now available for your enjoyment. This blog carnival is devoted to linking the best blog essays about science, nature and medicine. The editor included two of my submissions, so you should go there to show them some support!
grrlscientist | September 27, 2007tags: blog carnivals, nature, science, medicine, tangled bank
Good news, everyone; the 89th edition of The Tangled Bank blog carnival is now available for you to enjoy. Sorry I am late with this announcement, but you know, shit is what happens as you try to life your life.
grrlscientist | September 12, 2007tags: Tangled Bank, blog carnivals
The 88th issue of Tangled Bank is now available for you to read. This blog carnival links to the best recent writing about nature, science and medicine in the blogosphere. Be sure to go there to explore the links they have!
grrlscientist | August 13, 2007tags: science, nature, medicine, tangled bank, blog carnivals
Aaand yet another blog carnival was published today. This time, the 86th edition of the Tangled Bank blog carnival is now available. They also include a submission from me, so be sure to go over there to see what all the noise is about.
neurophilosophy | July 17, 2007
There have been no less than three different stories about orchids in the news during the past week.
This hammer orchid, which was discovered in southwestern Australia only recently, evolved to resemble a female wasp, thus seducing males of the species into pollinating it.
These extremely rare ghost orchids were spotted growing high up in an old cyprus tree in Florida.
And finally, the Yosemite bog-orchid, which has just been rediscovered and reclassified as a species in its own right, emits an odour of sweaty feet to attract insects.
Isn't nature wonderful?
grrlscientist | May 31, 2007tags: aerial images, Michael Collier, National Public Radio, Image of the Day
You have to see all these astonishing aerial images of planet Earth, courtesy of Michael Collier and National Public Radio [3:01].
Image: Michael Collier [larger].
grrlscientist | May 16, 2007tags: turtle, Cantor's giant softshell turtle, Pelochelys cantorii, endangered species, herpetology, reptiles
This photo released by Conservation International, shows two rare Cantor's giant
softshell turtles, Pelochelys cantorii, thought to be on the brink of extinction.
Conservation International and the World Wildlife Fund announced today, 16 May 2007,
that scientists discovered the rare species in Cambodia in a former stronghold of the
Khmer Rouge in March.
A rare soft-shell turtle has been found in Cambodia's Mekong River, raising hopes that the threatened species can be saved from…
grrlscientist | May 11, 2007
"Fajada Butte"
The photographer writes; I have been bumming around the Four Corners area this week on a brief archeology/astronomy field trip between semesters. [This image is] from Chaco Canyon, the ancient Puebloan site in NW New Mexico. The crumbling walls of Hungoe Pavi, one of the Chaco "Great Houses", frame Fajada Butte in the distance. There is a site on the top of Fajada Butte that tracked the winter solstice, throwing a dagger of light across a spiral petroglyph.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU.
[larger image]
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall…
grrlscientist | April 5, 2007
The ШивелÑÑ (Shiveluch) Volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula erupts on 29 March, 2007. The ash cloud rose roughly 9,750m (32,000ft), based on visual estimates. Shiveluch is one of the peninsula's most active volcanoes, with an estimated 60 significant eruptions in the past 10,000 years.
BBCNews [Bigger]
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a world out there that is populated by millions…
grrlscientist | March 14, 2007Welcome everyone to the 75th edition of Tangled Bank! There is plenty of material here to read so I think that you all will find something to interest you in this collection of the most recent stories about science, nature and medicine. So without further ado, I will let you jump right in.
Science and Religion
Tara at Aetiology wrote about a recent talk about Intelligent Design by Fred Skiff -- a presentation that was long on rhetoric, short on light.
I wrote a book review about God: the Failed Hypothesis by Victor J. Stenger. The book critically examines both empirical data and scientific…