It has been three years since Penguin Press published The Poisoner’s Handbook, the NYT-bestseller from none other than the indescribably incredible Deborah Blum. Three years. You really have no excuse if you haven’t read it. But, if you are one of those unfortunate souls who has missed out, you’re in luck: The Poisoner’s Handbook has been adapted for TV, and will be premiering as a part of PBS’ American Experience next Tuesday, January 7, 2014 at 8/7c. Continue reading “PBS’ Poisoner’s Handbook is killer”
I’m thankful for the wonderful year that I have had here at Discover, and look forward to an even more amazing year to come. Thank you to all of you who read this blog: let’s keep this bio-nerdy party going all through 2014!
You would always be smiling, too, if you were high as a kite. Photo by Flickr user jeffk42
The BBC will be airing a cool new underwater documentary on Thursday called Dolphins: Spy in the Pod, where carefully disguised cameras were used to film the daily lives of everyone’s favorite marine mammals. But the most interesting detail seems to have been leaked on Sunday: during the documentary, some of the dolphins reportedly used a pufferfish to get stoned.
“Even the brightest humans have succumbed to the lure of drugs and, it seems, dolphins are no different,” said The Sunday Times. The article goes on to describe how the team got footage of dolphins gently harassing a pufferfish, which led to the dolphins entering “a trance-like state after apparently getting “high” on the toxin.”
“After chewing the puffer and gently passing it round, they began acting most peculiarly, hanging around with their noses at the surface as if fascinated by their own reflection,” said Rob Pilley, zoologist and one of the producers of the documentary. “This was a case of young dolphins purposefully experimenting with something we know to be intoxicating.” And so it would seem that we can add drug use to the long list of dolphin bad behaviors, (a list which includes bullying, rape and murder, for the record; illicit drug use seems a minor offense in comparison).
Introduced bee on a native ʻōhiʻa flower. Photo by Flickr user Zesuri
As most of my friends on the mainland don longer sleeves and more layers, it’s hard not to be a little smug about living in paradise. While, in their neighborhoods, leaves are falling off of trees and icy winds threaten to bring snow, I can throw on a T-shirt and shorts, grab a picnic basket, and hike to a scenic overlook for lunch. But Hawaii’s ever-sunny weather comes with one side-effect that can be deadly serious: year-round, Hawaii has bees.
If you follow this blog at all, you know that this particularly pernicious “fact” is one of my biggest pet peeves. Why, you ask? Because it’s really not true. Completely, totally, 100%, proven-beyond-a-doubt false. And whoever decided to post this completely untrue statement just misinformed more than A MILLION people. Just look at how many favorites and retweets it got!
Perhaps even more importantly, if you simply take their own advice…
Come on, Google Facts! You can do better than this.
Jason Isley, cofounder and managing director of ScubaZoo, has taken a lot of pictures of marine life. He’s a brilliant photographer, and his incredible images reveal the breathtaking beauty of the underwater world. But after taking thousands of pictures of everything from inverts to fish, Jason wanted a change of perspective. “I was running out of ways to maintain my passion,” he explained on flickr. Even the vibrant nudibranchs had lost their spark. “I’ve shot them from countless angles and under a variety of lighting configurations,” he said. “I really wanted to do something entirely different. Something off-the-wall.”
This week I’m in Miami for the first-ever ScienceOnline Oceans! I’ll be sharing my experience with you all soon, but to tide you over, here is my favorite ocean-themed post from my old blog, Observations of a NerdMouse, my adorable cousin, showing off a bubble
“Christie! Christie!” My four-year old cousin tugs eagerly on my jacket. “I wanna see the fishes.”
“Ok, Tuna, we can go see the fish.”
My little cousin loves the word ‘tuna’. She says it all the time. Tuna, tuna, tuna. Everything is a tuna-face or a tuna-head. She doesn’t even like tuna (she doesn’t eat it), but she loves the sound of the word rolling off her tongue. Finally, her nanny threatened that if she kept saying ‘tuna,’ we’d have to start calling her it. My ever so adorable cousin’s response was, of course, “TUNA!” So now that’s her nickname. She’s Tuna.
To manage modern fisheries, scientists have to quantify and monitor populations of animals that live hidden in the vast depths of our oceans. Simply getting the data needed to get a glimpse of what is there now can be difficult, but it’s downright maddening when they try and look backwards to understand how populations of species have changed over time. Some areas have detailed catch records—others, don’t. Sometimes you get a few good decades of government data followed by long gaps in information. But that doesn’t mean the data aren’t out there; sometimes, information is hiding where you least expect it. Scientists have collected fisheries data from photographs, newspapers, and local cultural leaders. Now, a trio of ecologists have tapped another unexpected resource to fill in a 45 year gap in fisheries data in Hawaii: restaurant menus.
It has been three years since Penguin Press published The Poisoner’s Handbook, the NYT-bestseller from none other than the indescribably incredible Deborah Blum. Three years. You really have no excuse if you haven’t read it. But, if you are one of those unfortunate souls who has missed out, you’re in luck: The Poisoner’s Handbook has been adapted for TV, and will be premiering as a part of PBS’ American Experience next Tuesday, January 7, 2014 at 8/7c. Continue reading “PBS’ Poisoner’s Handbook is killer”
It’s that time of the year again where I look back and see what has happened over the past 365 days in the life of this blog. So far in 2013…
