cwilcox | April 3, 2009Those of you who watch for news about conservation or marine mammals might have gotten very excited when media agencies started spouting out this week that an "Asian Dolphin, Feared Dying, Is Thriving" or a "Huge population of rare dolphins discovered." You might have been inspired that "Study finds 6,000 rare dolphins off Bangladesh" or that "Rare Dolphins Discovered Deep In Jungle". You might have felt better about the world, when "Thousands of rare Irrawaddy dolphins found along Bangladesh coast" told you that "The discovery of a new population is an important finding as scientists and…
cwilcox | April 1, 2009Women have been wearing makeup since at least 3500 BC. The ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks are all known to have worn makeup, often made from deadly chemicals like mercury and lead. Even today, humans worldwide spend around $20 billion on make up every year, and much of it still isn't good for your skin. What drives humanity's obsession with cosmetics? Why have we literally painted ourselves with poison for over 5000 years?
Ironically enough, it might be to look healthier.
A new study, published in PLoS ONE, found that the redness of facial skin can affect how healthy a person looks.…
cwilcox | April 1, 2009I have a brother. He's a great guy - way smarter than me. So when I saw this article headline I had to write about it:
"Having a sister makes you happier and more optimistic, say psychologists"
Yeah, I know: I'm awesome. But why this time?
Apparently growing up with at least one girl in the family gives people a better outlook on life because they're more able to cope with problems. Daughters encourage communication and keep a family tighter. The researchers said brothers, however, seem to have the opposite effect.
The study, done by scientists at De Montfort University in Leicester,…
cwilcox | March 31, 2009Thanks to Allie, for this lovely way to waste time: a test for your animal personality.
Here's my results:
Tiger Genera and species: Panthera tigrisCollective Term:A bolt of tigersDescription Tigers are handsome and powerful people with an innate self-confidence and elegance. There's a sense of immediacy and an aura of electricity that surrounds it, and when it walks into a room, something always seems about to happen. Consider the classic tiger personality of F. Lee Bailey. He expresses himself with the confidence of one who expects his orders to be unquestionably followed, and his…
cwilcox | March 30, 2009For those of you on Twitter, check it out: It's a tweetathon for Earth Day!
Here's the scoop:With a new administration and a renewed focus on the environment, Earth Day '09 is bound to be momentous. Use the #earthtweet tag to share what you're doing to help celebrate Earth Day. Whether you're hosting an event, or coming up with a unique way to conserve, your earthtweets will inspire others to get involved.
Help spread the word by telling your followers about #earthweet and installing the widget on your blog. Each day, we'll be handing out prizes for earthtweets that we feel deserve some extra…
cwilcox | March 30, 2009I admit I'm a sucker for cute, furry things. But even those of you who prefer the scaly creatures have to be won over by these little fur balls:
Photo credits: Jason Collier/SeaWorld Orlando, c/o Zooborns
These are some of SeaWorld Orlando's newest arrivals: a pack of four Asian Small-Clawed Otter pups. The Asian otters (Aonyx cinerea) are the smallest otter species in the world, reaching only 0.9 m (roughly 3 feet) from nose to tip of the tail when fully grown. Like other otters, they live in rivers, creeks and estuaries. These otters are unique in that they capture food with their paws…
cwilcox | March 30, 2009So you're sitting there, reading the paper, when you notice your head's a bit itchy. Dry skin? Maybe. Irritated scalp? It's possible. Of course it could be something far more sinister...
It could be every parent and school teacher's worst nightmare: Lice.
Lice, the kind that is the bane of elementary schools everywhere, are a kind of wingless insect. They're members of the order Phthiraptera, which is classically broken into two groups, the chewing lice and the sucking lice - the latter is where our lovely head louse, Pediculus humanus, belongs.
Why did I pick the measly little louse for my…
cwilcox | March 30, 2009Remember the story I wrote about a kid who was a dad at 13 yrs old?
Little Alfie was supposedly only 12 when he had sex for the first time, unprotected, with his 15 yr old girlfriend Chantelle Steadman. At the time, she told him and the news that he was the only person she'd slept with.
Yeah, well it turns out he's not the father, according to a DNA test.
Apparently, she's had LOTS of sex. Around half a dozen boys came forward saying they'd slept with her, and after she told her 17 yr old half sister about her behavior, Alfie was pressured to take a paternity test. The results proved he was…
cwilcox | March 29, 2009One of the most controversial ideas in conservation is that of Biocontrol. The goal is to control invasive species or damaging pests by introducing predators/diseases/etc which kill them. Some attempts at biocontrol have been hugely successful. But others have been disastrous, like the introduction of Cane Toads.
Cane Toads (Bufo marinus) were introduced to a lot of places from 1840-1940 to attempt to control agricultural pests.
Cane Toad extent both native (blue) and introduced (red)
They were first unsuccessfully introduced into Jamaica to control the rat population. Then, a seemingly…
cwilcox | March 27, 2009Things like this just turn on my nerd switch.
A new study, published in Science, used amazing molecular techniques to film HIV spreading from one cell to another.
See for yourself:
The breakthrough footage was obtained by creating a molecular clone of HIV which included fluorescent genetic code that glows green under blue light. In the video, you can see the infected T-cell interact and infect a healthy one by creating what is called a virological synapse - which is a fancy word for a tunnel of sorts between the two cells.
Before the video, scientists didn't know that the virus particles…
cwilcox | March 27, 2009Males—now this might shock you—generally spend a lot of time and effort trying to convince females they're worth sleeping with. Whether it means building an ornate bower, shaking their tail feathers, or buying the biggest diamond ring, men put a lot of work into getting laid. And why do they go to such ridiculous and even dangerous lengths? Well, because we females demand it.
Sexual selection is a process first coined by Darwin explaining how mate choice could drive evolutionary changes. Females pick guys that they think have the best package—of DNA, that is. The gals pick guys whose genes…
cwilcox | March 26, 2009Who hasn't walked to their car after getting groceries or the like and suddenly found a nice, large scratch where you're fairly sure there wasn't one before? Then you think do you spend $50 on some random infomercial product claiming to fix scratches of every color, get the thing repainted, or just live with it? In my case, of course, the third is the obvious option. What can I say? I'm cheap, and my car is instantly recognizable for its terrible paint job (let me tell you, black + Florida weather = bad idea).
But what if my car's paint could fix itself? That would be worth dropping a huge…
cwilcox | March 25, 2009I'd forgotten how unbelievably awesome Isabella Rossellini's Green Pornos were. And, what do you know - I find out they're doing new ones, premiering April 1st, focused on sea creatures!
Oh, yeah, I'll be sharing as soon as I can.
Anyhow, here's an oldie but goodie:
(Not Safe for... well, I dunno. It's just dirty. But it's not TECHNICALLY not safe for work or kids...)
PS You MUST take the quiz to see what kind of green porno star you are. It has the best questions EVER. Like "I always arrive with a) Flowers or b) Birth Control"
For those who are now dying to know, here are my results:
cwilcox | March 25, 2009If Dracula started out this cute, I bet people wouldn't have wanted to put a stake through his heart:
Albeit these aren't blood-suckers... They're baby fruit bats. Fruit bats, sometimes called Mega Bats or Flying Foxes, actually range in size depending on species, but can get to as large as 16 inches tall with a 5 foot wingspan. As the name implies, they eat fruit and nectar, and are major seed distributors and pollinators where they live.
How do I say it... oh yeah. I WANT ONE.
cwilcox | March 24, 2009Two Komodo Dragons have been blamed for killing a man at Loh Sriaya, in eastern Indonesia's Komodo National Park.
Police and witnesses say that 31 yr old fisherman Muhamad Anwar was attacked by the duet of immense lizards waiting below minutes after he fell out of a tree on Monday. He was trespassing on forbidden park lands in search of fruit when he was surrounded and eventually killed. He bled profusely from bites to his hands, legs, neck and body. He died soon after transport to a clinic.
While there are only a few thousand left in the wild, dragon attacks have increased in recent years,…
cwilcox | March 23, 2009If you've ever watched a National Geographic or Discovery Channel special on the deep sea, you know just about everything that lives in the dark part of the ocean is a Sci-Fi writers dream. The species are so diverse and strange that even the best thought-out aliens hardly hold a candle to the bizarre life that lives in the deep. They have fish with lighted lures, strange, colorless creatures, octopuses that resemble elephants, and, of course, this week's parasite.
The Cookie Cutter Shark, Isistius brasiliensis
Imagine you're in the deep. You look above you, and contrasting the very, very…
cwilcox | March 22, 2009For anyone who knows me well, you know there are only 2 things that truly terrify me. The first is moths. They're just creepy. The second, and more logical, is needles. I am a big baby when it comes to shots. I've passed out after getting them. I need someone to hold my hand and talk me through them. Getting novocaine in my foot for minor surgery is the WORST experience of my life. I still have nightmares about the 4" long needle sticking out of my heel, slowly pumping the burning liquid into my flesh for over a minute while I had to sit perfectly still, watching in horror...
Say sayonara to…
cwilcox | March 20, 2009I woke up this morning feeling somehow lighter, freer. The air smelled sweet and the sun was shining - a beautiful day in paradise. But that was not the cause of my elated mood - it's always nice here in Florida. No, something was different. Something had changed.
Oh, that's right. I'd CUT OFF ALL MY HAIR.
It's amazing how good you feel waking up to tangle-free locks first thing in the morning. Having had my hair long for years now, I just took for granted that every morning had to start with a battle with the rat's nest just to look like I own a comb. Truth is, as good as it looked when it…
cwilcox | March 20, 2009My current response to "Duke's gonna win the NCAA Championship" would probably have been "sure, they're going to beat a team of Pink Elephants." Get it? Because pink elephants are imaginary, a fabrication of deluded minds - like Duke's chance of making it to the title game.
Well, crap, I'm gonna have to find a new colloquialism - because there are pink elephants.
A non-imaginary pink elephant
The BBC reports that a baby pink elephant has been sighted in Botswana. The youngster was amongst a large herd in the Okavango Delta, made famous in the BBC series Planet Earth. In the photographer's…
cwilcox | March 20, 2009A new study published online in Current Biology has analyzed the results from over 48 population studies in the Caribbean from 1955 - 2007, and the results aren't pretty. Caribbean fish have been declining in a big way for at least the past decade, and the culprit isn't commercial fishing.
The study used meta analysis to look for trends across trophic groups, locations, fishing status, and overall density at over 300 different reefs. What they found wasn't good. Not only are species falling from fishing pressures, species which aren't commercially fished are losing numbers, too, suggesting…