Pause for thought – a comma
It’s an odd name…for a butterfly…a comma. Formally known as Polygonia c-album. Raggedy edged wings with a little white fleck on the underside resembling a punctuation mark, hence the name. Not to be confused with an Oxford comma, a point of housestyle that avoids the confusions of phrases such as “eats, shoots, and leaves” although it’s not quite that pointed.
Anyway, here’s a comma that alighted on the edge of our conservatory yesterday (first day of biological spring here in Cambridge, it was over 18 Celsius and there was so much bird, butterfly other springly activity, sadly ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - March 16, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
My non supportive response to "All Biology is Computational Biology"
[View the story "No - all biology is not computational biology" on Storify]
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This is from the "Tree of Life Blog"
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.
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Source: The Tree of Life - March 15, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
Collared dove continuity error
You wouldn’t have heard the plaintive and ubiquitous sound of an English summer, the incessant “coo-coo-coooh” of a collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) here until 1953, when they first began to settle and breed.
According to Wikipedia:
The collared dove is not migratory, but is strongly dispersive. Over the last century, it has been one of the great colonisers of the bird world, travelling far beyond its native range to colonize colder countries, becoming naturalised in several. Its original range at the end of the 19th century was warm temperate and subtropical Asia from Turkey east to southern China ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - March 15, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Bridges (Crossed and Burned) – A song
Tuesday night, three-hour demo from first idea (the line “embedded with waifs and strays” which sprung unbidden into my head) and two evolutions of the chord progression, lots of lyrical ad libbing in various takes, played it “live” to friends at Sunday Arts Night with some tweaked and hopefully tighter lyrics and a bit of a modulated turnaround in the second time chorus. A week after inception, I’ve re-recorded it entirely this evening with a slightly higher tempo and added a “duet” harmony. Not sure whether this is the final version or whether there will be a full one-man-band pr...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - March 14, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Bridges (Crossed and Burned)
Tuesday night, three-hour demo from first idea (the line “embedded with waifs and strays” which sprung unbidden into my head) and two evolutions of the chord progression, lots of lyrical ad libbing in various takes, played it “live” to friends at Sunday Arts Night with some tweaked and hopefully tighter lyrics and a bit of a modulated turnaround in the second time chorus. A week after inception, I’ve re-recorded it entirely this evening with a slightly higher tempo and added a “duet” harmony. Not sure whether this is the final version or whether there will be a full one-man-band pr...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - March 14, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Protection racket for your contactless cards
My astro news friend Paul Sutherland recently described how to make a simple protector for your wallet if your wont is to carry those new-fangled contactless debit and credit cards. The protection involves cutting a sheet of tin foil to size and backing it with a couple of strips of gaffer tape and then inserting into the back of your wallet. Once folded the flexible, yet robust, composite sheet will form a pseudo Faraday cage around your cards screening them from the kind of shoulder-surfing hackers with the right kit who might be able to read the radio-chip in your cards (and even perhaps the magnetic strip in older ca...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - March 14, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Round up of responses to my sign captioning request
[View the story "Weekly Sign Captioning Contest #SignCaptions #Signs #Humor " on Storify]
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This is from the "Tree of Life Blog"
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.
-------- (Source: The Tree of Life)
Source: The Tree of Life - March 12, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
Tim Lihoreau ’ s Musical Treasury
Laugh-out-loud new book from ClassicFM’s award-winning breakfast DJ and Cottenham resident Tim Lihoreau out now from all good books shops, amazon etc.
In his latest tome, Tim uses odd British place names to help him define missing and orphaned musical terms, such as swavesey:
the cheesy side-to-side motion, stepping from foot to foot, beloved of barbershop competition choirs
and its counterpoint beeswing:
same as a swavesey, except starting on the off beat.
Then there’s the swaffham prior:
a celebrity who reveals a genuine, hidden talent for classical music, usually Grade 8 in a particular instrument...not to ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - March 10, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Kissing between humans and Neanderthals? Could be oral - anal contact too. Or neither.
Umm - I really do not know what to say here. There is a new incredibly exciting paper out on Neanderthal oral microbiomes.I saw some news stories about a new study on Neanderthal oral microbiomes. And one thing caught my eye - a claim about how the data provided evidence that Neanderthal's and humans were kissing each other.See for example the LA Times: Vegetarian Neanderthals? Extinct human relatives hid a mouthful of surprises - LA TimesThe scientists also managed to sequence the oldest microbial genome yet — a bug called Methanobrevibacter oralis that has been linked to gum disease. By looking at the nu...
Source: The Tree of Life - March 8, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
Three birds in one
: lapwing, peewit (pewit), green plover (Vanellus vanellus)…actually also known as a tuit (tew-it), so four birds in one. The fact that its scientific binomial (colloquially known as a species’ “Latin name” is in this species case a tautonym (both parts are the same word), this indicates that this species is the “type” for its family. Similarly, Rattus rattus (black rat), Bufo bufo (common toad), Carduelis carduelis (goldfinch), Gorilla gorilla gorilla (Western lowland gorilla, a tautonymic trinomial in this case), Bison bison (American bison), Coccothraustes coccothraustes (hawfinch)...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - March 4, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Blast form the past - videos from 2002 research cruise at the Galapagos Rift
OK it is only 15 years after the fact but am posting some videos from the 2002 Galapagos Rift Expedition I went on May 24 - June 4, 2002. It was the cruise honoring the 25th Anniversary of the discovery of deep sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems.For more information see the web site from Dive and DiscoverMission& ObjectivesDaily UpdatesMail BuoyScientists& CrewInterviewsHot TopicsSlideshowsVideosHere is aplaylistwith all my videos, some from the cruise and some from the Galapagos Islands where the cruise started / stopped. I have not edited any of the videos - just digitized everything from the tapes a...
Source: The Tree of Life - February 28, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
The Sir James Knott Anti-aircraft flats
The “Sir James Knott Memorial Flats” in Tynemouth, commonly known as Knott’s Flats (although they have also been known locally as Colditz), were built when war clouds were gathering over Europe in the 1930s, ironically enough.
They had special design features meant to protect the occupants from putative air-raids, probably the first residential building to be designed for such an eventuality. They had lots of fire-resistant materials (asbestos, presumably) and huge cellars constructed as in-house air-raid shelters.
They were completed in 1938 and are still home to many people today. More information abou...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 27, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Great spotted woodpecker – Dendrocopos major
Pleased to see this great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) clinging to a vertical branch at the top of a tall-ish ash tree in the local woodland (on 6th February 2017), as is their wont. Usually, they’ll manoeuvre themselves to the farside of a tree trunk and you’ll only really know they are there if they’re pecking, but this bird presumably hadn’t seen or heard me coming. The first part of their scientific binomial is a portmanteau of the Greek words dendron, tree and kopos striking, obvious really, tree striker. The major is from the Latin maior, meaning greater, obvs. (Source: David Bradley...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 27, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Mens Agitat Molem
The “Mens Bar” at Newcastle Uni Student Union still causes ructions apparently, despite the lack of apostrophe and that it’s short for “mens agitat molem”. Protestors suggest that it has patriarchal undertones and should be changed (they could name it The Wilko Bar after guitar-playing alumnus Wilko Johnson if they must). But, blame the Romans and their Latin tongue for choosing the word “mens” for mind…and no, it never was and still isn’t a male-only bar…
The second photo showing the same motto in heraldic masonry is on the chemistry building, the Bedso...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 20, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
