cwilcox

Citrus fruits are delicious. Their delicate balance of sweetness and tartness is a biochemical masterpiece. It's no wonder that they, of all nature's tasty options, are the highest value fruit crop in terms of international trade, with over 105 million tons produced annually. But these tempting…

"I am not a pretty girl - that is not what I do." Ani DiFranco A few weeks ago, I received a facebook message. It was from a male admirer of my blog (and his fiancée, coincidentally). In it, he said "You are GORGEOUS, and your tits look absolutely incredible." I froze. I know it was meant as a…

One of the most rewarding sessions I was a part of was "But it's just a blog!" run by Hannah Waters, Psi Wavefunction, Eric Michael Johnson, Jason Goldman, Mike Lisieski and Lucas Brouwers. The main question was: how do new bloggers get noticed and read in a sea of emerging science blogs?…

If you believe the maxim "the more the merrier," then you would have LOVED the session which I am proud to say was my first as a moderator. I wasn't alone - nine other fantastic people worked with me. Our collective goal was to do the impossible: to give a complete 101 on how to explain science in…

The ToBo Lab fish crew learning how to ID parrotfish from fish expert Rich Pyle aboard the Hi'ialakai "Visual storytelling through science/nature photography" was the fourth session I attended at Science Online 2011. Run by ace photographer and journalist Allie Wilkinson and photography enthusiast…

When I was a child, I picked up a book called Last Chance to See. You've probably heard of the author - he's world renowned for his humorous science fiction which has secured his place in the hearts of geeks everywhere. But this book wasn't about travelling the universe with a trusted towel; it…

As an avid lover of the outdoors, I was super excited to see that there was an entire session at Science Online 2011 dedicated to discussing technology's place in the wilderness. All of the panelists are well versed in taking tech out of the city. Miriam Goldstein has used technology on multiple…

This might sound narcissistic, but ever since some time early in high school, I've believed that someday, somehow, I will write a book. What kind of book keeps shifting as I grow up and my outlook on life changes, but the overall theory that I will eventually be an author has persisted. So of…

I arrived in North Carolina on Thursday night at around 6 pm. The next morning, I was barely coherent, after an amazing keynote speech, open mic night, and far too late an evening involving ocean bloggers and alcohol. I managed to cup some coffee, then make my way to my first blogging related event…

Trying to describe the experience of Science Online to someone who has never been is like trying to explain the taste of a pineapple. You can get vague details across - tangy, sweet, juicy - but the full experience can never be imparted verbally. I'm not even going to try to explain what it was…

Last night was the first night of Science Online 2011. The food and keynote were fantastic, but the real party was back at the hotel afterwards for the Open Mic Night! At the request of many, here are the lyrics to the song I sang: Extinctionʼs A Bitch (to the tune of Ê»Bitchʼ by Meredith Brooks…

Photo by Sara LeeAnn Banevedes I don't think Brian Alexander is a bad guy or a misogynist. He writes the Sexploration column for MSNBC, so sure, his job is all about selling sex stories to the public. He even wrote a book about American sexuality. But I don't personally think he has a…

When the deadline for Open Lab rolled around way back at the beginning of December, there were close to 900 science blog posts in the running for the coveted 50 slots. Over the past couple months, Jason and his team of reviewers have whittled down those submissions, til only 1/18th remain. Yes,…

Tis the season! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the sunny isle of Oahu! For more pics, check out my Facebook Album! Hale is the hawaiian term for a house or dwelling.

Most animals reproduce sexually. This means that every individual has to find another individual to mate with - and they have to convince that other that they're worthy of the privilege. More often than not when it comes to picking that special someone, it's the girls that get to be choosy. Females…

So, I've been totally MIA lately. I want to apologize - I had two major grant application deadlined and my qualifying exams (to keep me in my PhD program) which, with their powers combined, totally ate up my free time. But that's all done, so I'm back, and will be blogging again soon!

When I first read Brian Switek's blog, I had no idea he was going to write a book. It was long before PepsiGate and before I was even a scibling. Back then, his blog, Laelaps, was still on ScienceBlogs, which is how I happened to stumble across it. I loved it from the first post I read, and…

It's official! The results are in, and thanks to all of you, I came in first place in the $10,000 Blogging Scholarship! I know I owe a lot of people thanks (all 135,000 some odd of you!), but first and foremost I'd like to thank PZ Myers. Without his support, the outcome would have been very…

I couldn't help but be intrigued that my stiffest competition for winning the $10,000 Blogging Scholarship was a makeup blogger. What is it about cosmetics that is so appealing? Why do people wear makeup, and what might have caused early man to play around with blush and lipstick? Well, like…

One of the toughest concepts to grasp about evolution is its lack of direction. Take the classic image of the evolution of man, from knuckle-walking ape to strong, smart hunter: We view this as the natural progression of life. Truth is, there was no guarantee that some big brained primates in…

So the BBC Earth facebook page has put up a photo album of animal factoids under the Halloween inspired theme of "Trick or Treat?" The idea is that you have to guess whether an animal fact is true or not, then you click to the next photo to see if you were right. Those who have read this blog will…

Every year, CollegeScholarships.Org offers a $10,000 scholarship for a student blogger. Students can nominate themselves or other blogging students by sending in a 300 word essay about why they blog and why blogging is important. This year, I decided why not? and threw my hat into the ring. Well…

Ok, you caught me! This post wasn't originally one of my Evolution series. It was written long before, and published in The Open Laboratory 2008. But it IS a post about evolution, and this week is all about evolution on Observations of a Nerd, so I say it counts! It seems that you can't have a…

This is a repost, leading up to another post in the Evolution series. Watching Speciation Occur is the second in my Evolution series which started with The Curious Case of Dogs We saw that the littlest differences can lead to dramatic variations when we looked at the wide variety in dogs. But…

I'm going to be coming out with a new post in my Evolution series later this week, but in the meantime, for those of you haven't seen them, I'm reposting my first two Evolution posts, beginning with the one that started the series: The Curious Case of Dogs. Man's best friend is much more than a…

On November 7th, National Geographic Channel airs the first of a seven-hour spectacle called Great Migrations. The series takes us on the paths of the world's most epic wanderers, from the small and delicate butterflies which travel thousands of miles from Mexico to Canada and back again to the…

So, I may be mostly a lab grunt. But where I work there are all kinds of cool things going on. Like the group that's studying this gorgeous beauty:

Every year, the crew behind the Annals of Improbable Research honor research that "first makes people laugh, then makes them think." These awards, known as the Ig Nobels, honor some of the most entertaining research published in the past year. The competition is fierce, and the prizes highly…

Recently, I got this e-mail forwarded to me. It started out with the header World shame coast in COSTA RICA Followed by images like these: and it concluded with the message: Please distribute widely. The Turtle eggs are stolen to be sold. The planet is thankful for the forwarding of this email.…

Tonight's Nat Geo special about the Gulf Oil Spill and its lasting impacts looked interesting enough. Then I recognized the talking lab rat in it: Brian Zielinski, a classmate of mine from undergrad at Eckerd College. So cool, Brian! But the gulf oil mutagenic? That is not cool. *Oh, and as my…