Clik here to view.
Squirrels and climate change
Credit: Jeffrey Lane Jan Murie, emeritus professor of biology at the University of Alberta in Canada, is passionate about squirrels. He has even written a book: The Biology of Ground-Dwelling...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Science Education Standards: Can New Recommendations Help 'Mediocre To Awful'...
This may come as a surprise to many readers, but the USA scores rather poorly in science and math education in comparison to many other countries. And independent think tanks rank many states’ science...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Again, drug design and airplane design are not the same
A while back I had a post about an article that compared airplane design to drug design. I discussed the challenges in drug design compared to airplane design and why the former is much less...
View ArticleClik here to view.
New Ladinian Biostratigraphic Correlation Between South America and South Africa
Nice biostratigraphic correlation between the Santa Maria Formation of Brazil and the Karoo of South Africa. Partially fills the 'Ladinian Gap' in the Karoo. Abdala, F., Marsicano, C. A., Smith, R. M....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Religion and ethnicity reinforce each other to create distrust
It's often argued by the non-religious that religion contributes to community tensions by creating divisions. Religious people usually take a different view, claiming that religion helps to diffuse...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Marriage, as explained by Mr. Deity
Got to love Mr. Deity, everything becomes so clear once it's explained.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Note on the theory of hypergeometric functions
translation of #MaryFrancesWinston's paper by @ulaulaman from German #mathematics #Riemann In the few last days I have search for more links about Mary Frances Winston, and I find the paper written by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Perseid meteor shower 2012
Find a dark place on a late night this weekend to enjoy the Perseid meteor shower. You can even participate in citizen science by counting the number of meteors you see with NASA's Meteor Counter app.
View ArticleClik here to view.
10 signs you are getting older
Well, this is a pretty dorky list. However TPP is quite proud, even with a birthday breathing down his neck, that only two of those 10 categories fit at all (along with my jeans). Based on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Examining the Effects of Dataset Quality on Paleodiversity Studies
I would love to do a similar study for the Chinle Formation... Irmis, R. B., Whiteside, J. H., and C. F. Kammerer. In press. Non-biotic controls of observed diversity in the paleontologic record: An...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Friday Fabulous Flower - Coral plant
Better late than never with the Friday Fabulous Flower; our internet service has been a bit flaky lately. At any rate with the late summer flowering doldrums upon us, and so many plants damaged or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
#Microtwjc Why FRET about Biosensors ?
The latest paper for #microtwjc focuses on finding a new way to sense metabolites inside of living bacteria. Bacteria need to regulate their nutrient intake, because like people, they don't want to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Oceanic carbon sinks
So nature deals with increasing carbon dioxide emissions by sucking up more of it. Plants take more and grow faster. The increased partial pressure of CO2 causes more of it to be absorbed by the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hyenas Show It's Better to Be Creative than Try, Try Again
It's not a sentiment you'll see on an inspirational poster anytime soon: When facing a problem, sheer persistence is not enough. At least, not if you're a hyena. Presented with a latched box holding a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fall Semster Approaches
The Fall Semester approaches. Classes begin next Monday, TPP thinks. The department secretaries usually remind me. Everyone in a college town knows this, so the inevitable question arises: are you...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Wolf in Time
Black-backed jackal pup Canis mesomelas, photographed by Blake Matheson. The dogs of the genus Canis include some of the most familiar of all mammals: the wolf Canis lupus, the coyote C. latrans, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A bat virus that can't fight your immune system
I have been too busy to go into this in much detail but I'm wondering whether anyone had any ideas as to why this virus (cedar virus - a newly discovered bat RNA virus) appears not to be able to combat...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Yikes! Mass Migration!
College towns are nice places to live most of the time. Tomorrow is one of those days you learn to dread. Thousands of students will migrate in tomorrow, mostly freshmen, mostly dorm residents. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How to run a university - not like a business!
Politicians and businessmen are fond of saying universities should be run more like a business. Just at the moment, TPP is not going to explain why this is just a plain stupid idea, even more stupid...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lenna at the highest resolution possible
Lenna, a 70s playboy girl Among the many playboy girls there is one who is very famous in a geeky group of programmers. Her name is Lenna. And her image is used by the programmers to test their...
View Article