February 2012
68 posts
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FLASH! Obama caves: Keystone XL Pipeline to be... →
climateadaptation:
The White House issued a statement supportive of TransCanada’s latest plan, saying, “The President welcomes today’s news that TransCanada plans to build a pipeline to bring crude oil from Cushing, Oklahoma, to the Gulf of Mexico.”
“As the President made clear in January, we support the company’s interest in proceeding with this project, which will help address the ...
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The Annual Shedding of Antlers
It is a scene that is equally gruesome and hauntingly beautiful.
Every year for about 2-3 weeks, deer undergo the process of shedding their antlers. During initial stages of antler growth, the bone is covered in a sensitive tissue commonly referred to as “velvet”. Antler growth requires a great deal of vitamins and minerals, and the velvet, being rich in blood vessels, supplies...
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Science or Fiction?
My boyfriend is the devilishly handsome president of Rhode Island College’s Biology Club and has asked me for a hand in helping him write up some Science or Fiction? bits. The game goes something like this: Three news-worthy science tid-bits are presented, and it’s up to you to guess which two are science and which one is fiction. There will be a new one up every Wednesday...
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Tasmanian Devils Face Extinction at the Hands of...
New research has discovered that a contagious form of cancer that is plaguing the Tasmanian Devil population began in a single female. She might have died 15 years ago, but her DNA can still be found in the cancer cells of infected specimens. Spread through bites, this strain is the only cancer threatening an entire species with extinction.
News Release Article
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Etsy Item of the Day
From Etsy seller CosmicFirefly.
This locket is perfect for Science/Zombie/Steampunk geeks alike! It’s only $28, and is sure to put a smile on that special someones face.
I highly recommend checking out the rest of the items in her store, too!
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The Genetics of Bee Social Structure
A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois seeks to understand the relationship between genetics and convergent evolution of eusociality in bees. Eusociality has independently evolved 11 times in insects, and it seems that there is a genetic reasoning behind the varying forms of lifestyles found in bee colonies, from solitary leaf-cutter bees to the highly eusocial dwarf...
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“In the Sichuan province of China, there is an abundance of orchards but no bees....”
– Jed Fuhrman, holder of the McCulloch-Crosby Chair in Marine Biology at USC College (via climateadaptation)
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Deciphering the Zebra's Stripes
Let’s just get this out of the way now… Zebra’s are black with white stripes.
Great. Moving on.
Animals of all kinds use magnificent colors and patterns for various ecological purposes. It makes sense for an animal living in the African savanna to adopt brown and tan hides to act as camouflage. So why are zebra’s dressed in black and white?
A team of researchers from...
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New posts coming soon!
Sorry, guys. I definitely haven’t been posting as much as I’d like to, and I’m very flattered by all the new followers I’ve gotten recently! Don’t worry, I’ll keep you guys happy. Tomorrow I plan on queuing up a bunch of awesome science shit, including some original content. Had I known getting a full time job would keep me from blogging, I would have never...
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