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Something wicked this way comes - book report.
Not too long ago the Phactor asked for help about wicked plants, an interesting idea, for a colleague. After your helpful comments and suggestions, the Phactor decided he had better read the book that...
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Further Evidence of Burrowing in Procolophonid Parareptiles
MacDougall, M. J., Modesto, S. P., and J. Botha-Brink. 2012. The postcranial skeleton of the Early Triassic parareptile Sauropareion anoplus, with a discussion of possible life history. Acta...
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Revised Phylogeny of Basal Turtles
Anquetin, J. 2012. Reassessment of the phylogenetic interrelationships of basal turtles (Testudinata). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 10:3-45. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2011.558928...
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A likely Supernova in M95
A bright object has appeared conspicusouly in the outer spiral arm of the local galaxy M95 38 million light years away in the constellation Leo. This new illumination in M95 is probably a supernova....
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Field work commences
Although a stack of exams awaits, field work begins this afternoon. The prolonged early warmth of spring 2012 has moved up our field work schedule by at least 3 weeks. And you cannot just decide to...
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Book review: The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American...
During its fifty odd years of existence, Bell Labs was the most productive scientific laboratory on the planet. It won seven Nobel Prizes, contributed innumerable practical ideas underlying our modern...
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Are you a Red Sox or Yankees fan?
If so, a colleague has a short survey for you. It seems she is trying to get together as much data as possible for a talk next week. Apparently there is also an opportunity to win a $50 gift card,...
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Fair Use & FedEx
And now for something completely different:One private citizen's trials and travails trying to convince FedEx to print posters. I have wanted a map of Hong Kong on my wall for some time. The Survey...
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Taphonomy of an Upper Triassic Rhynchosaur Bonebed From India
Mukherje, D. and & S. Ray. 2012. Taphonomy of an Upper Triassic vertebrate bonebed: A new rhynchosaur (Reptilia; Archosauromorpha) accumulation from India. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology,...
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Analysis of the ATP-dependent DNA ligase
I spent most of yesterday poking around in databases, hoping to get a better understanding of H. influenzae's competence-induced DNA ligase. Specific questions: Are some or all of the H. influenzae...
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Dear Me
Sometime back the Telegraph asked their writers to write a letter of advice to their 16-year-old selves. This seemed like a good idea, and thus this letter, although then forgotten, and only now...
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Friday Fabulous Flower - Strange & Exotic
The fabulous thing about today's flower is that you don't see this particular plant very often, unless one is growing in your glasshouse, and it flowers even more uncommonly. The flowers open in a...
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How Stress Makes Oranges Better for You
Though Sicily may seem like a relaxing oasis, it's really a stressful climate where rogue elements can turn you bloody--whether you have a run-in with the mafia, or you're an orange. New research...
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Point-light walkers
By far the best point-light walker demonstration I've seen is at biomotiolab.ca. I'm classifying this as an illusion (see post label) because, of course, point-light walkers aren't really walking...
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March 23, 1769 William Smith - Pioneer of applied Geology
"It´s all there locked in the stone, the truth is told in fossilized bone." Devonian blues by Ray Troll (2005) "Fossils have been long studied as great curiosities, collected with great pains,...
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UNC physics professor held on cocaine smuggling charges
Here's a story that's strange and intriguing. Paul Frampton, a well-known theoretical physicist at UNC-Chapel Hill, has been jailed in Argentina for trying to leave the country with no less than 2...
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Perspectives on the Vertical
Cabinet Magazine has an interesting cultural perspective on human's attempts to zoom in and out of nature in the vertical. Particularly they focus on one of my favorite science films ever, Power of...
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Fear of death is highest among Muslims
Many people assume that religious people are less anxious about death than the non-religious. After all, the most popular religions (Islam and Christianity) explicitly hold out the promise of eternal...
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Got cold. Try zinc?
Having a cold is no fun. Sore throat, runny nose, general feeling of all-around blechiness. About the only good thing I can say about colds is that they don't last long, usually about a week. We...
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Planning the experiments with our new knockout mutants
In an overview post last week I described some experiments we should add to the paper describing our new collection of knockout mutants. Now I want to think more about these, laying out what we should...
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