In this visually dazzling talk, Jonathan Drori shows the extraordinary ways flowering plants — over a quarter million species — have evolved to attract insects to spread their pollen: growing ‘landing-strips’ to guide the insects in, shining in ultraviolet, building elaborate traps, and even mimicking other insects in heat.

Continue reading Jonathan Drori: The beautiful tricks of flowers →

In case you have not heard we are having an internet-wide discussion of … well, just click on all of the links below and read everything then you’ll know. I’ve included all the current links that I know of. If I’ve left something out, please put it in the comments and I’ll add it.

Meanwhile a group of survivors of sexual assault spearheaded by Stephanie Zvan and Bug Girl have put together a Letter to Richard Dawkins. You are welcome to sign on to the letter if appropriate.

The following links are in chronological order by day (but probably mixed up within day).

Continue reading Elevators and Privilege: A Letter to Dawkins and a Link Farm →

Yesssss!!!!! …. This is what you have been preparing for all this time.

Continue reading EVOLUTION BUMPER STICKER CONTEST!!!! →

Darwin developed his theory of evolution from a famously simple tree of life drawing. How has the study of evolution and the inter-connectedness of species changed with modern DNA technology? How has exploring genetic relationships shaped how we now view ourselves and how might that be expressed in art?

Lynn Fellman is a multiple media artist and designer who works with scientists to communicate their research. Her work focuses on evolution and the human genome. From research to sketches to completed digital art, she’ll explain how her process engages the people in the DNA portraits in genetics–becoming informed advocates for science. See examples on her website www.fellmanstudio.com.

Dr. Scott Lanyon served as Director of the University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum of Natural History for thirteen years before becoming Professor and Head of the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior in 2008. Using DNA sequence data he and his colleagues develop an understanding of the tree of life which he then uses as the foundation of his studies of behavioral and morphological evolution in birds.

ATTENDANCE IS FREE!

For more information about the Beaker and Brush Discussions, visit http://www.smm.org/beakerandbrush.

Beaker and Brush Discussions are co-sponsored by the Science Museum and the St. Paul Art Crawl

Scientific American has launched a new blog network.

Here is a post by Bora Zivkovic announcing the network, and here is the press release.

Today Scientific American launched a new blog network which unites editorial, independent and group blogs under the magazine’s banner. The community of 60 bloggers provides authoritative information and insights about science and technology, and their roles in global affairs. The blog network, overseen by Blog Editor Bora Zivkovic, who serves as moderator for the community, encourages discussion and facilitates the exchange of ideas with both the bloggers and Scientific American readers.

There are a lot of great bloggers on the network … see Bora’s post for a list.

Charles Darwin did a lot of work with birds. Darwin was a consumer of information, constantly attempting experiments, interviewing locals, making observations, and so on. For this reason, his writing about birds provides not only interesting information about birds, but also insight into his methods and thought process. I’m writing a weekly blog post about this, and the current exemplar of Darin and his “other” birds is about the Andean Condor.

Read more.

Rebecca Watson did the right thing when she spoke about McGrew’s response too her (Watson’s) response to the Elevator Guy, and Barbara Drescher’s response to all of that is amazing. If you don’t know what I’m talking about here, it might be best to move on. Otherwise, here’s my two cents (and there are exactly two) about this Matryoshka Moment.

Continue reading Rebecca Watson, Barbara Drescher and the Elevator Guy →

One in twenty four times:

Click the picture to visit the site.

The first nuclear power plant ever was built in Obninsk, Russia. It was the first electricity generating plant on a civilian grid. The plant operated until April 29th 2002.

The exact date of the plant’s “birth” varies, but as I understand it, it began operating on the 26th and went to large scale production on the 27th.

My old friend Mark Moffett is one of the pioneers of high canopy research, dragging his cameras into the upper reached of the rain forest to learn amazing new things and take some amazing photographs. He’s also spent considerable time on and beneath the forest floor studying ants. You know those research projects where they excavate an entire leaf cutter ant colony in order to understand how their underground labyrinths are laid out and function as a sort of earth-encrusted organism? That was Mark. Well, others have done it but he was a pioneer in that research.

I met Mark when he was in the next building over working with E.O. Wilson, and I’ve followed his activities and career as he’s published a number of interesting books and continued to bring attention to the scientific interest and environmental concerns of the world’s rain forests (from The High Frontier: Exploring the Tropical Rainforest Canopy (See all Rain Forests Books) to Adventures Among Ants: A Global Safari with a Cast of Trillions (See all Insect & Spider Books)). And ants.

Bug Girl just let me know that Mark is now up for a Labby award. You can go here and vote for him. He’s the weaver ant.

I can’t believe that I’m like 50 something years old and never had one of these:

The Placebo Effect is rarely what people think it is, though it is often what people believe it to be. Unconvinced? Check it out.

Apropos this, a timely repost:
Continue reading Whitey Bulger Caught, and the Trivers Willard Hypothesis →

She was taught evolution in her high school and she sees no problem with it today. In fact, she’s a science geek. Move over Science Cheerleaders and make way for the … no, wait, I don’t think I want to go there …

Anyway, here is the video:
Continue reading Miss USA Alyssa Campanella on Evolution →