The Buzz on Honey
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008This post answers some common questions concerning the relationship between bees, pollen, nectar and honey.
1. Why do bees make honey?
Answer: Honeybees are special in that unlike wasps and bumblebees, bee colonies do not hibernate but stay active within their hive throughout winter. The energy required to sustain this activity requires a lot of food energy. Honey [...]
It’s Time for a Change
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008Several species of cephalopods–the group of animals that includes octopuses, squid and cuttlefish–are skilled in the art of color change, which can be used for camouflage or to startle and warn potential predators in their undersea realm.
Click below to see a clip of a cuttlefish changing his coloration to match the seabed below.
How do they [...]
Dangerous Neighborhood
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008The city of Neuquén in southwestern Argentina must have been a rather terrifying place to live 90 million years ago. Within an hour’s drive of Neuquén lie three important paleontologic sites, each home to record-breaking finds including Argentinosaurus huinculensis, considered the world’s largest dinosaur (coming in at 130 feet long and 60 feet tall), Giganotosaurus [...]
Insectile Thermometers?
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008Kooky as it seems, there really is some truth to the fact that one can pretty accurately determine the outdoor temperature by counting cricket chirps!
Although a variety of “cricket chirp thermometer” formulas exist, it seems that the Farmer’s Almanac has perfected the most accurate and reliable.
To convert cricket chirps to degrees Fahrenheit, count number of [...]
The “Shoppie Awards”
Saturday, May 10th, 2008Our email in-boxes have all been touched by them. Some are so blatently faked that we must wonder at the gullability of the ones who earnestly forwarded them to us as genuine. Sporting subject titles such as “Really Amazing Pictures” and “Winner of the National Geographic Picture of the Year Award”, these images have long circulated in cyberspace [...]
It’s a Gas!
Monday, May 5th, 2008
Pooting, Tooting, Farting, Breaking Wind, Cutting the Cheese, whatever you want to call it, the average person produces about half a liter of intestinal gas per day which is expelled in the form of flatulence about 14 times daily.
The following web links get into the science behind this smelly but vital bodily function:
Kidzworld: The Science of [...]
Blue Food
Sunday, May 4th, 2008
George Carlin had a comedy bit about blue food.
“Why is there no blue food? I can’t find blue food — I can’t find the flavor of blue! I mean, green is lime; yellow is lemon; orange is orange; red is cherry; what’s blue? There’s no blue! Oh, they say, “Blueberries!” Uh-uh; blue on the vine, [...]
Deceptive Practices
Thursday, April 24th, 2008The following are just a few examples of how animals use mimicry as a survival strategy.
Mimicry of Other Species
Why bother evolving your own venom when you can capitalize on the reputation of another species to protect you?
A Sinaloan milk snake (right) closely mimics the color pattern of the venomous coral snake on the left. The strategy [...]
Shake Rattle & Roll
Monday, April 21st, 2008In the predawn hours of this last Friday Morning (4/18/08) I awoke in confusion. At first I thought I had overloaded the washing machine and imagined that the unbalanced spin cycle was causing the house to vibrate. As I began to shake off sleep I remembered that I hadn’t turned on the washing machine - [...]
Super-size Me!
Saturday, April 19th, 2008All creatures are designed in a scale that allows their particular muscle and skeletal structure to properly support their mass. If you had the ability to supersize living things as has been the plot of many a science fiction movie, some unexpected consequences would arise.
If a scientist could really super-size a 5 foot tall, 100 pound woman to 10 [...]
