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Friday Fabulous Flowers - Olfactory edition
TPP walked into the glasshouse and immediately knew that the taro (Coleocasia esculenta) was in bloom. Generally most people don't notice the distinctive fragrance nor the actual "flower" which hides...
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What mutation rate do I want for my experiment?
I need to decide on a desirable mutation rate for my murE mutagenesis experiment (described here). To do this I need to think about (at least) how big the gene is, how large a region of the gene I...
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NIH distorts report showing risk of stroke after chiropractic
Why would an NIH center try to mislead the public about a newly published study that it funded? Last month NIH’s alternative medicine center, NCCIH, highlighted one of its studies with this headline:...
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The Geology of Star Trek: I. Minerals, Crystals and Alien Life Forms
„But a geological oddity to say the least. Pure silicon!“„A few trace elements, look, we didn't you call here so you could collect rocks!“ Geologists get no respect, even if vital for entire...
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March 2015 Desktop Calendar
Some mosses in the genus Bryum from my travels to Chile. Happy March! 1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot...
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Climate expert bought and paid for by fossil fuel companies - not really news
Fossil fuel industry caught taking a page out of the tobacco playbook (link). That's the headline from the March 3, 2015 online version of the Guardian. This refers to people finding out that W. Soon...
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Ice is nice (?) and will suffice
TPP's major achievement for today is to have gotten to the safety of his office without breaking a hip. As a nice change of pace in the winter weather, over night the area was treated to a very thin,...
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Very cool cargo trike
Just look at this very cool, very innovative, electric-assisted cargo tricycle. Wow! Who wouldn't want one of these? Perfect for visiting your local farmer's market or running to the neighborhood...
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Update: Tree of Eukaryotes (parasitology edition)
There arose a need for a new tree for a parasitology meeting, so after almost five years, I finally updated the tree of eukaryotes. There are still things that need to be changed, and new orphan...
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Mutagenesis planning in progress
By midday today I'll have checked my strains and made my DNA. The strains are RR805, which has a CAT cassette linked to the murE+ gene (normal competence), and RR797, which has the same cassette linked...
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Sweet Briar College closing
TPP read this news item with a bit of nostalgic sadness. Sweet Briar was called one of the southern seven sisters; a women's college for young ladies of good breeding. This does not mean TPP has any...
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The Geology of Star Trek: II. It is not Life as we know or understand it!
It may surprise that there is no exact definition of what “life” is - it is often described as a system in thermodynamic disequilibrium with it´s own environment and therefore forced to actively seek,...
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FieldNotes: The Word For World is Blue (or is it Gold?)
The 100 Eskimo words for snow may be a myth, but the notion that one's world is shaped by one's availability of words is a well known fact. Without vocabulary, it may be impossible to discuss, or even...
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The data junkie and the lamp post: Cancer, genomics and technological...
The Cancer Genome AtlasThe other day I was having a nice discussion with a very knowledgable colleague about advances in genomic sequencing and how they are poised to transform the way we acquire and...
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Friday Fabulous Flower - tropical springiness
It's been awhile since there's been a FFF posted. Tropical plants do something sort of strange each year. A lot of them flower in late February or March in the glasshouse, yet most of them are thought...
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Mutagenesis results
I don't have any novobiocin-resistant transformant-mutants after 24 hr (though slow-growing colonies might appear later), so I can't use that to tell how effective the mutagenesis was. But I have tons...
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The Running of the Spiders
Nursery-web spider Dolomedes minor, sitting atop its nursery web. Copyright Konstable.Spiders are one of the most familiar groups of invertebrates out there. There's no denying this: everybody knows...
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Freeze and thaw
The high today was nearly 50 F and it felt like a heat wave. The snow cover melted from most exposed areas revealing an awful lot of lawn and garden work to do. Just picking up the limbs and twigs will...
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Seed germination
Some seed germinate easily; some are hard or tricky to get to germinate because of their dormancy. So why is it that all the species TPP works on are in the 2nd category? Seeds do this for a variety of...
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Spring!!
Yes, TPP declares spring is officially here in the upper midwest. No, it's not because of daylight savings time, which for goofy reasons is controversial this year here in Lincolnland. Apparently a...
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