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Aetosaurs Made Brachychirotherium Footprints
Lucas, S. G., and A. B. Heckert. 2011. Late Triassic aetosaurs as the trackmaker of the tetrapod footprint ichnotaxon Brachychirotherium. Ichnos 8: 197-208 DOI:10.1080/10420940.2011.632456 Abstract -...
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All we wants for Christmas - a new bird record
OK the Phactors have many geeky tendencies which explains the species lists, flowering logs, and a bird list recording all the Avian visitors to our estate. Since our estate has lots of cover, food,...
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What's happening with the GFAJ-1 DNA
I've just gotten an update from my collaborators. They're still polishing up their purification methods, and waiting for the mass spectrometer machine-time that will open up when other researchers...
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Some control results! (Don't get excited, it's just a control...)
My collaborators have taken pity on me and sent me some of their control analysis data. This is mass-spectrometry analysis of a control DNA sample I sent several months ago. The GFAJ-1 cells this DNA...
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Update!
Neglect... so much neglect. Been swallowed up by my move to Indiana and settlement attempts. Haven't really been keeping up with my SciAm blogging either, but I do intend to return here and post the...
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Dope smokers are more spiritual than boozers
Source What's your poison? Based on some new data from a Czech study, your preferences could speak a lot about your spiritual beliefs. For the study Radmilla Lorencova, at the University of Pardubice...
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At the Mountains of Madness
December 14, was the 100 years anniversary of the first expedition to reach the geographic South Pole in the middle of the continent of Antarctica. Until then only segments of the coasts were known...
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Grading exams, evaluating students
Grading exams is not fun, nor is the final evaluation of student performances. The results as might be expected run from excellent to quite poor. What have they been doing? Do they really think that?...
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David Peter's Take on Revueltosaurus
David Peters has a new post up on his blog that has been getting some attention including on Facebook. I'll address it shortly but first I'd like to apologize for the long delay in getting the full...
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Aesop's Crows Understand Physics, Literature
Aesop told the fable of a thirsty crow that came upon a nearly empty pitcher of water and discovered that by dropping pebbles in, he could raise the water to a drinkable level. The moral is "Little by...
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Felisa Wolfe-Simon's poster at the Dec. 2011 AGU meeting
I just found the Abstract for a poster presented by Felisa Wolfe-Simon at this month's American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting. TITLE: Characterizations of intracellular arsenic in a bacterium...
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My cup is half full
Time for the Phactor to look at the flip side. The majority of my students did really really well; some were impressively good. You provide opportunities for them to learn, to demonstrate what they can...
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Friday Fabulous Flower - Dombeya spectabilis
This is not a plant you see very often. It was formerly in the Sterculia family, but the Mallow family was enlarged to include all such genera. In truth the flowers and leaves are very mallowish. The...
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Life is tough
Tonight the Phactors are hosting half of our dinner group, a monthly social event for the past 33 years; our 8th social event in the past 9 days, and the 3d the Phactors have hosted. The season's theme...
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O'Really - more of the same
O'Really is such an ass. According to a survey of TV watching habits liberal Democrats like to watch the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, Masterpiece Theater, and snappy sit-coms life 30 Rock....
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Olfactory Reference Syndrome: My attempt at self diagnosis
When one is in their first relationship, mistakes are made. There are certain unspoken rules that a novice can accidentally break. Forgetting to hold the door open, laughing at the wrong moment, or...
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Network of Food Flavors
This is the niftiest, foodiest scientific study that the Phactor has seen in quite awhile. What great figures. There's a lot of crazy things to see about flavor over laps. One of the neatest is that if...
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