From the monthly archives:

November 2009

Did I Entertain/Educate You? Nominate Your Blogger for Inclusion in Open Laboratory 2009

November 29, 2009

UPDATE: Broken links fixed!
UPDATE2: Oops — It looks like the deadline is actually Tuesday at midnight. You can still submit if you like, but the organizers ask you don’t submit anything that’s already listed here. Thanks! : )
Hi everyone. Sorry this is a bit last-minute, but I didn’t realize the deadline for this was upon [...]

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Of Dragons and Damsels Not in Distress

November 28, 2009

First, a warning: This clip of a BBC nature documentary is possibly not safe for work. If these were humans . . . Oh. My. Even as is, I’m not sure this would, er,  fly on American television.

Isn’t it cute that they make a heart shape when they mate? It almost makes up for the [...]

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We’re (a Plant) Family?

November 23, 2009

This week is Thanksgiving, and with that comes many hours spent cooped up with people you share little to nothing with but genetics. These contrasts typically become most noticeable once some fun-loving soul decides to baste the conversation with unadulterated far-(right/left)wing politics. Isn’t family great! : )
Well, the same thing happens in the plant world, [...]

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Excuse Me Sir . . . My Seal Seems to be Possessed by a Roland Synthesizer . . .

November 18, 2009

Taking a break from the heavy taxonomy for a moment, let’s have a quick bit of weird wonderfulness. I could not believe my ears when I viewed this excerpt from Werner Herzog’s recent film about Antarctica courtesy Zooillogix . . .

Wow! Amazing, huh? Though the bit halfway when the researchers listen to the seals under [...]

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The Curious Taxonomy of Star Anise

November 18, 2009

Star anise’s job moonlighting as Tamiflu caught my eye because star anise is in a group of plant families with a very interesting pedigree.
It is in the Illiciaceae (Ill-ik-ee-ay’-see-ay), a small family whose members are all in one genus – Illicium. There are only about 40 species in the whole family (the pea family, for [...]

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Star Anise and You

November 15, 2009

Plants have been getting short shrift around here lately. It’s time to fix that.
Sitting in the spice rack of many an Asian home, and a very few American homes, is the unusual looking fruit of an ordinary-looking plant with an unexpected use. Here is that plant:
And here is its fruit:
The plant is star anise, Illicium [...]

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Life on Earth Has a Soundtrack?

November 10, 2009

Oh, Sir David Attenborough . . . how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Blue Planet . . .  Planet Earth . . . Life in the Undergrowth . . . and a gem I just recently encountered, his 1979 BBC debut, Life on Earth. I haven’t seen it, but apparently someone [...]

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A Picture is Worth a Thousand Krill per Cubic Meter

November 8, 2009

This past month has brought two beautiful whale details to my attention. First, a sperm whale (no. 4, above) was photographed with an actual ginormous chunk of giant squid hanging out of its mouth. Finally! Visual confirmation that all those epic squid-on-whale battles we’ve long suspected actually do take place. It appeared a Momma Whale [...]

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The Softer Side of Aspergillus

November 4, 2009

From the Department of More Cool Natural History Videos with Interesting Music, I give you the sexy CGI version of the fungus Aspergillus (ass-per-jill’-us) courtesy of some fine folks in Mother Russia. You may think of this fungus (if you think of it at all) as the scary black bane of your tupperware contents. But in [...]

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