I sat rapt in front of my TV on Sunday watching the latest installment of the BBC/Discovery series “Life”. The first thing that comes to my mind… “WHY was Oprah chosen to narrate!?” Naturally, I waited for the insects special to air before I blogged about this, but having to listen to Oprah for the…
It was a beautiful day today in the bay area, so I headed up to Napa and the Pope Valley. I was scouting some new territory for a small flower moth, Heliolonche celeris, that apparently is waiting for more contiguous nice weather to emerge. This season has been a bit tardy because of all of the…
Another installment of Genius of the Press, and perhaps a bit of a softball. (Yikes these are easy to find) Who can tell me whats wrong with this article?
The clouds broke this afternoon in San Francisco and the sun began to shine. The upcoming warm weather induced an all too familiar feeling, one that I should be out collecting insects and not sitting indoors! While I have already been to a handful of places this spring, I have a long season of collecting…
(iStockphoto) I am really at a loss for understanding yet another positive acupuncture study that was as well designed as my 8th grade science fair project. Granted, I was a nerdy science kid, but I could do a better job drunk. I think I should conduct a followup study in which I test the efficacy…
A continuation of the aquamoth series, this time with video from Science Friday! Yes, I have to link it because wordpress won’t embed… Thanks Ted, figured it out!
A few images from my weekend mothing trip down to Shell Creek, San Luis Obispo County. Early spring along the central coast is stunning, and the back roads were packed with flower watchers. There were dozens of cars occupied by families out for a weekend drive, many had packed lunches and sat to watch the…
Than fold yourself an insect. These pieces of art are the creation of Robert J. Lang. Chances are if you’ve seen some insane origami than they were his creation. Yes, those are actually made from one single piece of uncut paper. He provides the crease pattern for most of his designs, but actually folding…
For those who saw the FOX interview with MSU entomologist Dr. Cognato (OK, for those who didn’t, here it is), you will be interested to hear his side of the story. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7f52y4Nq4E&feature=player_embedded] Take the time to register (sorry, it’s annoying but I couldn’t find it anywhere else) and read a response to the interview by…
I came across the full-text PDF of the amphibious moth article and extracted the tree showing the radiation of this species group and probable evolution of the amphibious traits. Interesting to note the case shape, and each moth is endemic to its own volcano in the Hawaiian archipelago. This is a Bayesian analysis of a…