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Metabiantes
Metabiantes leighi, from Schönhofer (2008).The handsome fellow in the photo above represents a species of the genus Metabiantes, currently the largest recognised African genus of harvestmen in the...
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Someone had a horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad week
Someone had a horrible, terrible, no-good very bad week, and it wasn't TPP. Oh, this was a depressing, disappointing week what with the unrelenting crappy weather and all, and bad weather can make you...
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Friday Fabulous Flower - green, fringed orchid
Just recently TPP posted the image of a rather small and inconspicuous orchid, the purple twayblade, and here's another orchid in the same category and the same place, the green, fringed orchid...
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The Grant Is Dead, Long Live the Grant
Also poor R21, I knew it well. There comes a time in every person's life when you have to face reality. For me, one of those times came yesterday. My R21 grant, a two-year exploratory proposal, was...
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California passes pro-vaccine bill, protects children
In a victory for children’s health, California passed a new law this week removing the “personal belief” exemption from the state’s vaccine requirements for children. Assuming that Governor Jerry Brown...
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Don't do this at home - Corpse plant flowers
Here's a video of the corpse plant flowering (Amorphophallus titanum). Yes, this video shows "flowering" but you don't see the flowers. This is basically one damned big jack-in-the-pulpit and a member...
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Anti-cancer compound found in rare rain forest tree
This news came from Australia where a compound found in the fruits of a rare rain forest tree have some promise as an anti-cancer agent. TPP took particular notice of this news item because as soon as...
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The fundamental philosophical dilemma of chemistry
The classic potential energy curve of chemistryhides a fundamental truth: bonds mean short distances,but short distances don't mean bondsEvery field has its set of great philosophical dilemmas. For...
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High tech latte
How good in your barista? It doesn't really matter because a new gadget, aka Ripples, can make complex designs and even pictures in the foam on top of your latte! Using a combination of 3-D and inkjet...
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Eating periodically (not a quantum diet)
What elements are in chocolate?Answer #1Carbon (Chocolate)Hydrogen (CHocolate)Oxygen (ChOcolate)Holmium (CHocolate)Cobalt (ChoColate)Lanthanum (ChocoLate)Astatine (Chocol(ChocolAte)Tellurium...
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Balloon, art and mathematics
After (or before?) @StartsWithABang's balloon animals' post? A couple of week ago Ethan Siegel published a post about ballon animals, so I decide to repost an old piece that I wrote in 2011 for my...
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The Phaeogenini: Widdle Icky Newmans
Female Diadromus collaris on a pupa of a diamondback moth Plutella xylostella, from here.The ichneumons are perhaps the best-known family of parasitic wasps. Most people will have come across a...
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What am I doing? What should I be doing?
Here's an attempt to get better focused and organized: (Trigger alert: most of this post is not about the real science but about the tiresome details that get in the way.)What I've been doing:1....
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July 2015 Desktop Calendar
Some lovely liverworts from Chile to grace your desktop this month! 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 of...
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John Keats's "Chapman's Homer" (chemistry and drug discovery version)
Inspired by the title of this post.Original version ("On First Looking into Chapman's Homer")Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;Round many western...
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FieldNotes: Hallucigenia is back on its head again.
Ancient mystery worm found to have surprise eyes and teeth by Hannah Devlin at Guardian: Nature has produced many oddities, but an ancient creature resembling a prickly sea worm is one of the few to...
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Book review: Leonard Mlodinow's "The Upright Thinkers:The Human Journey from...
Occasionally it is a wise idea to step back and look at all of humanity's intellectual achievements and marvel at what we as a species have achieved and what all we take for granted. What is truly...
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Friday fabulous flower - alotta hosta
A street side garden is about 60 feet long and 10-15 feet wide filled almost solidly with a big old hostas. They've been there for decades and the bed has been diversified under our tutelage, but...
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Pleading the 4th
Fighting home entropy. Now enjoying holiday with negroni and BBQ ribs. Very patriotic way to spend the holiday!
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Terrible aftermath shows ugliness of USA
The recent SCOTUS decision affirming gay people's rights under the law produced an extremely ugly aftermath of reaction. Without the specifics the reactions were to tell people to be afraid, be scared,...
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