From the monthly archives:

July 2009

A Tick in the Family Way

July 28, 2009

Today is my birthday (woo hoo! I survived another year!).  In honor of this feat I will take a break from my Very High Life posts to bring you the touching birthday story of . . . several hundred baby ticks. It all began with a very full mama tick . . .
. . . [...]

3 comments Read the full article →

The Very High Life: Part Two

July 23, 2009

Now that I’ve convinced you you probably shouldn’t take your next vacation in the Atacama Desert (unless you’re into that sort of thing, if you know what I mean), let’s look at the organisms that scientists did find living and loving life in the 3 3/4 Mile-High Club.
Living on the moist, warm ground were moss [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

The Very High Life: Part One

July 20, 2009

Even in a wind-blasted, God-forsaken place like the top of Long’s Peak, Colorado — 14,259 feet — moss and lichen grow abundantly among the rocks. I’ve seen them there, snugly hunkered down on the acres-wide summit. This is a place that sees about a month or so of semi-balmy weather per year, followed with 10-11 [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Virus as Muse, Cruft as Medium

July 16, 2009

This is a bacteriophage.

Kind of eerie and ghostly, isn’t it?
It’s a virus that infects bacteria, looks like the lunar lander, and was among the first viruses ever discovered. These guys may also be the most ubiquitous biological entities on the planet; you may be swallowing untold millions in every accidental mouthful of fresh or seawater. [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

Artful Amoeba News

July 15, 2009

The esteemed Tom Levenson, author of the newly released (and well-reviewed) book Newton and the Counterfeiter — and director of the Graduate Program in Science Writing at my alma mater, MIT — has kindly featured my blogs on his with some warm words for yours truly. Thanks for the shout-out, Tom!
I’ll be adding his blog [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

How Many Salamanders Can Dance on the Head of a Dime?

July 12, 2009

A: At least one, if it’s a U. brucei.
Remember when I said we still don’t have a full idea of the terrestrial macrobiota (aka big living stuff) of the world? Here’s more proof.
This little guy was discovered only in 2007. Right next to a road. In broad daylight. In Georgia. This was not deepest, darkest, [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

What is a Sea Pig?

July 10, 2009

I’m so glad you asked! What IS a sea pig?  Here’s a hint: a sea pig is an echinoderm. No? Still not picturing it? A sea pig is in a group of echinoderms called sea cucumbers. Like this:
OK, so the short answer is that a sea pig looks like a cross between a star-nosed mole, [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

The Creature(s) from the North Carolina Sewer

July 6, 2009

Every so often, an organism comes along that has even biologists fighting over what it “is”. Now you’d expect that after several thousand years of scientific inquiry, we’d have a pretty good handle on the terrestrial macrobiota of the world. You’d be wrong.
The background here is that a North Carolina construction company was hired by [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

Darwin in Love

July 3, 2009

He had two loves: biology, and his wife Emma. They didn’t always agree.

Yes, sometime this year, we will get to see two talented actors, Paul Bettany (Master and Commander, A Beautiful Mind) and Jennifer Connelly (who was the young girl in Labyrinth, and also in A Beautiful Mind, for which she won a Best Supporting [...]

2 comments Read the full article →