Invertebrates
grrlscientist | September 1, 2007tags: invertebrates, blog carnivals
The latest issue of The Circus of the Spineless is now available for your reading pleasure. This blog carnival focuses on linking to essays and images that feature invertebrates. Be sure to go there and see what they have collected for you to enjoy!
grrlscientist | August 31, 2007tags: spider, giant spider web,arachnid, social behavior
Lake Tawokoni State Park rangers (l-r) Mike McCord and Freddie Gowin continue to monitor a giant communal spider web at the park Tuesday, August 29, 2007. Officials at Lake Tawokoni State Park have been watching the growth of a giant communal spider web that has formed in the park over the past several weeks. The giant spider webs are rare for Texas.
Image: Tom Pennington. [Scary wallpaper size]
Have you heard about the spiders that spun a web that is the size of Texas? Well, actually, the web is only the size of two football…
clock | August 29, 2007One cool thing about being a blogging biologist is that one can write every day about sex with a straight face and then blame readers for "having a dirty mind". But sex is so interesting - life would cease to exist without it and it is a central question in biology, so we have a license, nay, duty, to write about it all the time. We get all blase about it, I guess, compared to "normal people". ;-)
One cool story that revolves around sex is making the rounds of the science blogosphere today. Jake Young explains in seemingly dry scientific language:
This issue has spawned a variety of weird…
clock | July 11, 2007You really don't want to be an enemy of the aphids - two papers today! The first is quite straightforward:
Aphids Make 'Chemical Weapons' To Fight Off Killer Ladybirds:
Cabbage aphids have developed an internal chemical defence system which enables them to disable attacking predators by setting off a mustard oil 'bomb', says new research. The study shows for the first time how aphids use a chemical found in the plants they eat to emit a deadly burst of mustard oil when they're attacked by a predator, for example a ladybird. This mustard oil kills, injures or repels the ladybird, which then…
clock | July 10, 2007Such fascinating creatures! If you have missed it so far, don't miss it now - the two-part series by Mark H on DailyKos:
Marine Life Series: Horseshoe Crab BasicsMarine Life Series: Horseshoe Crab Anatomy
One day when I find some time, I'll have to write a long detailed post about the fascinating aspects of the circadian system and vision in the horseshoe crab (oh, some of which was done by Erik Herzog, so you know I like the stuff!).
grrlscientist | June 21, 2007tags: cancer, liposarcoma, trabectedin, Ecteinascidia turbinata, sea squirt
A toxin derived from a humble sea squirt, Ecteinascidia turbinata (pictured, right), shows great promise as an anti-cancer drug. This toxin, known as trabectedin (ecteinascidinin-743), shrinks and even completely removes cancerous tumors in more than half of the patients treated with it, according to a new study. The patients treated with this drug suffered from a specific type of liposarcoma cancer, which is associated with chromosomal mutations. Liposarcomas are a rare but malignant tumor that grow in the fat cells…
clock | June 12, 2007Literally. If you want to know how to figure out what your slug has eaten today, just ask Aydin.
grrlscientist | June 9, 2007tags: horseshoe crab, Limutus polyphemus, red knot, Delaware Bay
Horseshoe Crab, Limutus polyphemus,
a living fossil.
Image: Pier Aquarium, Florida [larger].
In a controversial ruling, a Delaware Superior Court judge partially rolled back the two-year ban on the horseshoe crab harvest by limiting it to males only. The decision was a reaction against John Hughes, secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, who was actually doing his job. However, according to the judge, Hughes had already decided to enact a complete moratorium on horseshoe crab harvests after…
clock | June 7, 2007When I was a kid I swallowed science-fiction by the crates. And I was too young to be very discerning of quality - I liked everything. Good taste developed later, with age. But even at that tender age, there was one book that was so bad that not only did I realized it was bad, it really, really irked me. It was The Ayes of Texas (check the Amazon readers' reviews!), a stupid 1982 Texas-secessionist fairy-tale in which a rich (and of course brilliant and smooth with ladies) conservative Texan, by throwing millions of dollars at scientists, gets all sorts of new gizmos and gadgets which he…
grrlscientist | June 4, 2007tags: lobster, two-toned lobster
Two-toned lobster.
Image: National Geographic.
Last week, an unusual two-toned lobster was captured off Newport, RI. This lobster is so rare that a person only has between a 1 in 50 million to 100 million chance of capturing one. By comparison, the odds of finding a blue lobster are about 1 in four million. However, despite these incredibly long odds, one just like it was captured in Maine in 2006 -- an indication of the number of lobsters that are taken every year?
Basically, the color of a lobster's shell is a mix of yellow, red, and blue, a combination…
grrlscientist | June 4, 2007tags: shrimp, pistol shrimp, ocean, streaming video
This streaming video shows how a pistol shrimp hunts; by laying in wait for its prey to wander nearby, then using its claw to blow a stunning blast of water at a speed of 100km/h with temperature 5000C [1:33].
grrlscientist | June 1, 2007tags: body bugs, emerging infections, streaming video
This streaming video shows an astonishing news report about people whose bodies are infected with "bugs"; insects and arthropods. Apparently, there are more and more of these infected people around the country every year, but nothing is being done for them. Instead, they are labeled "crazy" by friends, family and the medical establishment and they are often suicidal due to the pain, shame and helplessness associated with this infection. Why are these mysterious "bugs" infecting their bodies? What can be done to help these people? [5:06].
grrlscientist | May 21, 2007tags: mimic octopus, sea snake, streaming video
This streaming video shows you a mini-octopus imitating a sea snake. [0:50].
grrlscientist | May 12, 2007tags: shark, octopus, streaming video
This video, courtesy of the Seattle Aquarium, shows what happened after the keepers moved a giant octopus into an aquarium containing five-foot sharks. In short; octopus and sharks do not get along with each other [2:02]
Giant octopus vs shark
grrlscientist | May 11, 2007tags: snail, bird, parasite, streaming video
This streaming video describes the life cycle of parasite worms that infect both snails and birds. Basically, these worms control their snail host's brain and thereby alter the snail's behavior such that it enhances the chances that it will spread the worm's eggs into a wild bird, its next host [1:21].
grrlscientist | May 8, 2007tags: spider, tarantula, chicken-eating spider
Spider expert Martin Nicholas was intrigued by the story of a giant South American spider that kills chickens, so he went to Peru to find this mysterious animal. Using a tiny spider cam that he poked down spider holes, he found what he was looking for; a giant spider nearly one foot across that is possibly new to science.
Besides its large size, this spider species was also remarkable because it appears to engage in both parental care and in team hunting practices.
"Seeing the big mama tarantula with the young was remarkable. Most tarantulas…
grrlscientist | May 4, 2007
I am a great admirer of nudibranchs, having worked with them for a little while as a graduate student, but this is the first one that has appeared on this blog. Does anyone know the species?
The photographer writes; It's a nudibranch with a nice purple sea urchin in the background.
I don't know what sort, but I saw two of them yesterday at Port Noarlunga (Australia). This one was about 120mm long. It was in about 2m of water at low tide on the limestone reef.
[much larger image]
Image: Stephen Kittel, stephenk at internode dot on dot net.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it…
grrlscientist | April 30, 2007tags: cuttlefish, Indonesia, nature, streaming video
According to my sources, the cuttlefish (which is closely related to squid and octopi) has exquisite control over its pigmentation, such that it can change its patterning on the fly (as you will see in the streaming video below the fold).
Basically, each pigment cell has a cluster of muscle cells around it that control whether it is contracted (invisible) or relaxed (visible). Pigment cells come in several colors, and by controlling each color at the cellular level, this amazing cephalopod is able to blend in with its environment,…
grrlscientist | April 20, 2007This charming video shows the birth of squid (be patient; it starts off slow but gets progressively more interesting).
.
tags: squid, streaming video
grrlscientist | April 9, 2007
The spider Enoplognatha ovata photographed fluorescing under ultraviolet light. Scientists at Portland State University in the US discovered that many spiders from different families fluoresce. They suggest it has something to do with getting food and avoiding being eaten.
Source: BBCNews.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a world out there that is populated by millions of unique species. We…