Hedwig Pöllöläinen
grrlscientist
Posts by this author
Even when life is overwhelming and I find myself hiding from everyone and everything, as I have been for awhile now, I still find pleasure in feeding my birds. I know that many of you understand and share in this pleasure, so I thought I'd tell you what's on my parrots' menu for this week;…
Do you use gmail as your primary (or only) email server? Well, you'd better be careful because several dozen gmail users per month have been experiencing problems recently -- problems such as mysteriously losing some, most or all their email messages.
What does Google have to say about this?…
tags: swamp sparrow, Melospiza georgiana, birds, Image of the Day
A friend who is a professor of Biology at KSU sent me a bunch of lovely images of sparrows that he took recently while birding. These images are scheduled to appear daily at 3 pm from 6 November through 16 November.
Swamp sparrow…
tags: book review, Susan Richards, Chosen By a Horse
This wonderful book is the poignant memoir of a woman who rescues a maltreated horse, and discovers that this amazing horse ends up rescuing her. Chosen By a Horse: How a Broken Horse Fixed a Broken Heart by Susan Richards (NYC: Harvest; 2006) is…
tags: slow motion popcorn, streaming video
Okay, this is a short video, but it is nonetheless interesting. Have you ever wondered what popping popcorn looks like in slow motion? Well, thanks to a special camera that captures 5,400 frames per second, you can now see exactly what happens to popcorn […
tags: Lincoln's sparrow, Melospiza lincolnii, birds, Image of the Day
A friend who is a professor of Biology at KSU sent me a bunch of lovely images of sparrows that he took recently while birding. These images are scheduled to appear daily at 3 pm from 6 November through 16 November.
Lincoln's…
tags: the world's most deadly animal, streaming video
Do you know what the world's most deadly animal (for humans) is? The grizzly bear? Or wolves? Or maybe the humble hippopotamus? There is a streaming video below the fold that answers this question. [1:58]
The females of most mosquito species…
tags: Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Regulus calendula, birds, Image of the Day
A friend who is a professor of Biology at KSU sent me a bunch of lovely images of sparrows along with this non-sparrow, that he took recently while birding. These images are scheduled to appear daily at 3 pm from 6 November…
Carry a cool wand;
The unconfirmed rumor is that his boss told him: "You can keep your job if you wear that outfit for the remainder of 2007."
tags: wifi detector shirt, geek wear, gift ideas, holiday gifts
What is this? It is a shirt that detects the presence of wifi signals where ever you happen to be, and shows the strength of those signals on an animated emblem on the front of it, as you see here. Not only can you see whether wifi is…
tags: madagascar, leapin' lemurs, streaming video
This streaming video from the BBC show, Weird Nature: Marvelous Motion compares the movement of Sifaka lemurs to ballet, but it's also reminiscent of a martial arts movie. Remarkably, these animals can jump as far as 30 feet from tree to tree! And…
tags: song sparrow, Melospiza melodia, birds, Image of the Day
A friend who is a professor of Biology at KSU sent me a bunch of lovely images of sparrows that he took recently while birding. The song sparrow is one of the species that I studied for my dissertation work, although most of my…
tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Song sparrow, Melospiza melodia.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU. [larger size].
Birds in Science
Dinosaurs like Velociraptors had one of the most efficient respiratory systems of all animals, similar to that of modern diving…
tags: book review, nature writing, birding, bird watching, collected essays, All Things Reconsidered, Roger Tory Peterson
Like most birders, I never met Roger Tory Peterson, although I do own several editions of his definitive field guides for identifying the birds of North America. However,…
tags: kitchen science, glowing ice bulb, streaming video
Have you ever made a glowing ice bulb? I bet you didn't know they existed! Watch this video and learn how to do it in your own kitchen. [3:10]
How to make Glowing Ice!
tags: Lincoln's sparrow, Melospiza lincolnii, birds, Image of the Day
A friend who is a professor of Biology at KSU sent me a bunch of lovely images of sparrows that he took recently while birding. These images are scheduled to appear daily at 3 pm from 6 November through 16 November.
Lincoln's…
tags: researchblogging.org, Tunguska event, Siberian explosion, Podkamennaya Tunguska River, Lake Cheko, planet earth, astronomy
Flattened trees cover vast areas of Northeastern Siberia
after the mysterious Tunguska explosion in June, 1908.
Image: TASS/Sovfoto (public domain?) [larger view].…
tags: swamp sparrow, Melospiza georgiana, birds, Image of the Day
A friend who is a professor of Biology at KSU sent me a bunch of lovely images of sparrows that he took recently while birding. These images are scheduled to appear daily at 3 pm from 6 November through 16 November.
Swamp sparrow…
tags: book review, birds, birding, bird watching, ornithology, conservation
When I was leading bird watching excursions on the west coast and we were looking at a species that was declining in the wild or was endangered, I made a point to mention this fact to my students. It was important, I…
tags: comet holmes, night sky, astronomy
Comet Holmes rises in the northeastern sky above Coyote Canyon in Anza Borrego Desert State Park, California. It's visible to the naked eye and better seen with binoculars. Discovered in the late 19th Century, Holmes has become dramatically brighter in the…
tags: song sparrow, Melospiza melodia, birds, Image of the Day
A friend who is a professor of Biology at KSU sent me a bunch of lovely images of sparrows that he took recently while birding. The song sparrow is one of the species that I studied for my dissertation work, although most of my…
tags: researchblogging.org, women in science, feminism, gender disparity, academia, career
Image: East Bay AWIS.
An article was published in today's issue of Science that explores the reasons that female scientists are not achieving that elusive Principle Investigator (PI) status that is…
tags: hawk-headed parrot, red-fan parrot, Deroptyus accipitrinus, clicker training, streaming video
As some of you know, I recently added a four-month-old hawk-headed (red-fan) parrot, Deroptyus a. accipitrinus, to my household. I plan to learn how to clicker-train this bird (I already have the…
tags: savannah sparrow, Passerculus sandwichensis, birds, Image of the Day
A friend who is a professor of Biology at KSU sent me a bunch of lovely images of sparrows that he took recently while birding. These images are scheduled to appear daily at 3 pm from 6 November through 16 November.…
tags: citizen reporting, politics, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, US Presidential bid, WNYC, Brian Lehrer Show, Ethan Hova, Huffington Post
This morning, I was listening to WNYC, the local NPR affiliate and my favorite radio station in the world. On the Brian Lehrer Show, he was interviewing Ethan…
tags: crazy frog, budgett frog, streaming video
This streaming video shows a frog puffing up and defending itself, complete with weird sound effects, from an evil human attacker [1:17]
tags: researchblogging.org, birds, migration, cryptochrome, blue light, garden warbler, Sylvia borin, magnetic compass, avian cryptochrome 1a, ornithology
Garden Warbler, Sylvia borin (Boddaert, 1783)
Blakeney Point, 16th September 2006.
Image: Matthew Rodgers [larger image].
Every year,…
tags: evolution, politics, education, Kitzmiller, Dover School District, intelligent design, Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial, NOVA, streaming video
Occasionally, very rarely in fact, I wish I had a television, and this is one of those days. I just received an ad from Kate Becker,…
tags: Lincoln's sparrow, Melospiza lincolnii, birds, Image of the Day
A friend who is a professor of Biology at KSU sent me a bunch of lovely images of sparrows that he took recently while birding. These images are scheduled to appear daily at 3 pm from 6 November through 16 November.
Lincoln's…
tags: Phalcoboenus australis, striated caracara, flying devils, streaming video
This streaming video shows young striated caracaras, Phalcoboenus australis, on the Falkland Islands as they do what they do best .. wreak havoc [2:46]