cwilcox | August 17, 2009We all celebrate those moments in life that mark our growth and development - our first steps, our first words, our first kisses. We all remember that first time we rode a bike without training wheels or the first place we lived in when we moved out of our parents' house. Well, you might not know this, but bloggers have key firsts, too. There's the first post, the first comment, and, last but not least, the first troll.
That's right, someone has posted a troll comment on an Observations of a Nerd post! That means I've become just popular enough to attract the kinds of people that give us the…
cwilcox | August 13, 2009I find it harder and harder to top the amazing cuteness provided by ZooBorns (a must-follow if you come here for cuteness!). They had these two youngsters there this week:On the left may look like a common duckling, but this little Meller's Duck is highly endangered. You won't find it flapping around the ponds and lakes around home - that is, unless your home is Madagascar, where the ducks are endemic to. At first conservation for the species was hindered because, outwardly, it looks very similar to the extremely common Mallard. Thinking the ducks in the area were nothing unique, people didn'…
cwilcox | August 10, 2009There are a lot of parasites that cause strange changes in their hosts. Parasites turn hosts into zombiesgorge on the flesh of the host from the inside out, even assist a host's suicide. But one of the most interesting and extreme changes caused by a parasite is achieved by the mermithid nematode. Simply put: it makes dude mayflies look like ladies.
You see, like many other nematodes, the adults of the species are free living. But their young enjoy all the comforts of living off the hard work of other species, specifically the mayfly. Mayflies are known for their peculiar life cycle - they…
cwilcox | August 6, 2009While we often think of features like the Grand Canyon as impressive, majestic landscapes, we forget that only 1/3 of this planet of ours is above sea level. The rest is underwater. And while many of us may know what coral reefs or near-shore habiatats look like, we rarely get to see what the seabed looks like on a grander scale. National Geographic, as it turns out, decided that the hidden landscape of the ocean floor needed to be revealed.
Thanks to cutting edge technology and amazing CGI animation, this Sunday, Aug 9th at 9 PM EST, National Geographic Channel is airing its newest…
cwilcox | August 3, 2009Took this yesterday while playing with my new camera's "Panoramic" setting at Hanauma Bay. Yeah, it's that gorgeous here :)
Ok, a couple more beautiful shots:The best place to play baseball. Ever.
Perfect scenery
But, like just about every beautiful island, Oahu has its share of invasive and introduced species which have wreaked havoc on the native and endemic species. Take this leaping little guy, for example: This is an Indian mongoose, one of the many introduced species which now calls most of the islands of Hawaii home. In the 1800s, as the islands became more and more in contact with the…
cwilcox | August 1, 2009Ok, so I've kinda missed a week or two.
What? None of you noticed? Oh. Nevermind then.
Wait a second, I see someone noticed. Just look at that face - so sad that I didn't post a Weekly Dose of Cute last week!
c/o the ever-adorable Zooborns
This unhappy cub is one of four lovely little 2 month olds being raised by the San Diego Zoo's all too happy staff. Cheetahs are amazing animals. They're able to reach speeds of up to 75 mph in short bursts, and are able to accelerate from 0 to 70 in about 3 seconds. Unfortunately, like so many large cats, their future is uncertain. Their numbers have…
cwilcox | July 30, 2009This doesn't happen very often in scientific journals, and when it does, it's always a shock. A paper I wrote about a little while ago, where scientists claimed to have derived sperm from stem cells, has been pulled by the publisher for plagiarism.
The editor of the publishing journal, Stem Cells and Development, decided to retract the paper because the authors had basically copied the first two paragraphs of the paper from another paper which was published in Biology of Reproduction in 2006 (both citations at the end).
According to the editors, other than the first couple paragraphs, the…
cwilcox | July 27, 2009Ok, so Nat Geo got it all started by putting Parasites in their "In the Womb" series. Then Animal Planet jumped on board with "Monsters Inside Me". Now I get to get all gushy about the Travel Channel, and not just for awesome specials on places I wish I could vacation in. Their new series, "Bite Me with Dr Mike," features a lot of my little friends that you all know I just can't get enough of.
Meet Dr. Mike (on the right, and here's his blog), aka a man clearly trying to compete with Barry as captor of my heart. He's a virologist with a PhD from Oxford, but even better, he's got a passion for…
cwilcox | July 24, 2009News today has spread about new stem cell research out of China. Two teams used mouse fibroblasts, a kind of cell found in skin connective tissues, to create induced pluripotent skin cells (iPS), which were then used to create living mice.
Their breakthrough research suggests that both cloning full animals from stem cells and the creation of completely pluripotent stem cells from skin cells are both not only possible, but a current reality. The two teams published separately, in Nature and Cell - Stem Cell, both very prestigious journals.
The first task for either study was to create stem…
cwilcox | July 21, 2009It's no shock to anyone who reads this blog regularly that I adore the National Geographic Channel. They never seem to run out of awesome features and amazing specials that totally turn my nerd on. I may be a biologist at heart, but when watching Nat Geo, I suddenly become a geologist, paleontologist, physicist, or whatever specialty would be required to be a total nerd for whatever is on. Of course, when it's a biology special, I super nerd out.
So imagine the thoughts that are running through my head when I see the title "Hooked: Monsters of the Deep." Oh yeah, you could hear my nerdiness…
cwilcox | July 19, 2009Greenpeace protests with cute little stunts. The Sea Shepherd throws slick bombs and tries to foul props. And, so far, nothing has stopped the Japanese practice of "scientific" whaling. But now, an unlikely turn of events just might accomplish what years of efforts have failed to do: stop the Japanese fleet from catching whales.
And we have obnoxious tourists to thank for it.
The amazing spectacle of the icy continent attracts thousands of tourists a year who view their frozen surroundings from the comfort of warm, cozy cruise cabins. In the past few years, however, cruise ships have been…
cwilcox | July 16, 2009I know everyone is going to jump at once to talk about this mind-blowing research by some of the greatest scientists that have ever been associated with ecology, and I hate just writing about papers that everyone will talk about anyhow, but I decided I still had to comment on this paper. It may very well be the most important paper of the year, even more influential and ground-breaking than Ida (though I wouldn't mention that to her directly).
Of course, I'm talking about the newest paper published in Marine Biology's "Online First", Fiddler crab burrowing affects growth and production of…
cwilcox | July 16, 2009Following on the heels of Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice and Sunsets and Southern Fried Science, I am posting this fantastic letter about ocean acidification by Randy Repass and Sally-Christine Rogers of West Marine (originally posted at The Intersection). Ocean acidification is, for me, the real crux of the issue when people talk about global warming or climate change. Acidification is a clear, very real chemical reaction between CO2 and seawater - there's no arguing its causes or consequences, which i suspect will be far more noticeable and painful in our lifetimes. Anyhow, read up!
We are both…
cwilcox | July 15, 2009When I saw this little girl over at Zooborns, I couldn't help but fall completely in love! Isn't she just the cutest little doll?! Best yet, the Belfast Zoo, where this little angel was born, is currently having a naming contest for the little girl.In case you didn't know, this beautiful baby girl is a Malayan Tapir, the largest of the four species of these strange-looking creatures. As an adult, she'll gail the distinctive "saddle" marking of her kind (see Right). The lucky momma carried this baby girl for just over a year before giving birth on June 22nd.
Unfortunately, like so many of the…
cwilcox | July 11, 2009Yesterday, we snorkeled Hanauma Bay. It's simply one of the most fantastic places to see Hawaiian fish. So, instead of trying to regurgitate the experience, I thought I'd give you all a little lesson in fish ID - Hawaiian style!
Meet Canthigaster jactator, the Hawaiian Spotted Puffer. This species is endemic to Hawaii, and is found no where else in the world. Ok, so this one is bad to start with because it has no Hawaiian name, but I thought the fact that it's endemic was too cool not to mention it.
Next is Umaumalei, or the Orange Spine Unicornfish (Naso lituratus). That's oo-mou-ma-lay,…
cwilcox | July 9, 2009As a marine biologist by training, I naturally love the ocean and just about everything in it. So it is such a treat for me to be able to just go out and enjoy what I love. Right now, I'm in between my last job as a simple graduate and being a full time graduate student, so I've got a little free time to explore. And, being on an island in the middle of the Pacific which is only something around 38 miles across, exploration naturally tends to include the ocean.
As a blogger, of course, I feel the need to share such excursions with you. So, it's quite happily that I have decided to extend my "…
cwilcox | July 8, 2009It's amazing how the field of stem cell research has advanced so much in such a short amount of time. Today, just a little over a decade after the first stem cell line was produced, scientists announced another breakthrough - turning stem cells into sperm.
In a paper published in the journal Stem Cells And Development (PDF), British scientists from Englandâs Newcastle University detail a technique for turning stem cells with male chromosomes into reproductive germline cells and prompt them to divide into sperm.
Like non-stem derived sperm, the in vitro versions have 1/2 the amount of genetic…
cwilcox | July 6, 2009OK, everyone. I'm back. I swear. I know, I know - It's been awhile. But we've finally settled in here in Hawaii and are having a blast enjoying the gorgeous weather and new surroundings. Sorry I've neglected you all for so long - I know, I'm a jackass.
No wait, that's these little guys:
OK, to be fair, they're only 1/2 jackasses - they're 1/2 donkey, 1/2 zebra. They're Zonkeys - or zebrasses, zebronkeys, zeasses, zeedonks, zebadonks, zenkeys, donbras, donbris, or deebras... not one of which is a technically correct term for them. The better terms, to those who claim to know such things, are…
cwilcox | June 24, 2009I've thought for a long time that Animal Planet has been dropping the ball on something. You see, they're supposed to be a whole network dedicated to Animals. Large, small, domesticated, wild - all of them. And they generally do a great job of that. They have specials about all kinds of creatures, from the littlest bugs to the largest whales. But they have overlooked one kind of animal, and it's kind of a biggie. Of course, since it's me talking, I'm referring to parasites.
I mean, come on - it's the most popular lifestyle on earth (just ask Carl Zimmer). How can a channel dedicated to…
cwilcox | June 24, 2009Hey there Observations of a Nerd readers,
If you've been here long enough, you might remember me mentioning a side project that I write for called Nutrition Wonderland. Well, it's taken on a life of its own, and it's now a fully-functioning and amazing site on nutrition and health - you should go check it out.
I wanted to tell you guys about my newest endeavor there called "Understanding our Bodies: The Physiology of Nutrition." I'm writing a series about how the way our bodies work relates to what we eat and how we feel. If you like some of the stuff on here, you should really go check it…