Stable flies and West Nile virus

An interesting new study sheds some light on one of the saddest parts of the invasion of West Nile into the USA–mass death of birds.
“Stable flies are the latest suspect that may be involved in the West Nile virus deaths of hundreds of pelican chicks at the Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Montana. [...]

Minuscule: Ants at work

A heist, a bocce ball, and ….well, I won’t give the rest away. Enjoy!

The female science blogger thing

I mentioned last week that The Scientist was looking for people to vote on their favorite science bloggers. It seemed that none of the 7 folks they initially asked to name favorites to kick off the article were women; and that few of the men who contributed to the article named women bloggers [...]

Cockroaches and coffee

This story is interesting for a lot of reasons. First, it involved undergraduates in the research–yay! The university also coupled a multimedia news release with the paper’s publication, so you can look at photos of the beasties (the roaches, as well as the researchers).
Lastly, I think we all can identify with the results: Cockroaches [...]

We’re taking our math and going home in a huff

Well, this is just silly:
U.S. Says No to Next Global Test of Advanced Math, Science Students
“In 1995, the United States lagged behind most of the world on a test of advanced mathematics and physics taken by graduating high school students from 16 countries. That won’t happen again, if the Bush Administration has its [...]

Weekly WTF: Verizon tells Naral to get stuffed

NARAL was rejected by Verizon when it asked to use its text message network:
“Saying it had the right to block “controversial or unsavory” text messages, Verizon Wireless has rejected a request from Naral Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, to make Verizon’s mobile network available for a text-message program….In turning down the program, Verizon, one [...]

Moebius Roaches?

Ugh. I am almost done with my grading, and then I plan to take a day off from the non-stop examination of student papers, and spend some time in the garden.
In case your brain is every bit as fried as mine, I present the Moebius Roaches. The more you click, the more they dance.  [Found [...]

Interview with Oliver Sacks at Wired

Oliver Sacks has done so much to make neurobiology popular, I wanted to make sure you saw this:
Oliver Sacks on Earthworms and Music 

Two caterpillars (Minuscule)

This seemed like a nice story for a Wednesday, when one begins to think Friday will never come:

Will the internet doom us all?

I read a very interesting book review today at the Academic Commons.
“Andrew Keen insists he is neither anti-technology nor anti-progress. Yet this veteran of the dot com era begins his recent book, The Cult of the Amateur…sounding much like a high-culture snob pooh-poohing the vulgar masses for having appropriated the Web as their own and, [...]