If any of you have not read Hoxful Monsters, you should leave me and go there immediately.
I swear – everytime I read a post by Nagraj Sambrani, I find myself at least a tenth of an IQ point smarter (that’s a joke – no IQ debates here…). That adds up!
Nagraj’s latest post (New tree of [...]

As I have recently shown you all, Spring is here in full force in North Carolina.
I love it more than almost anything, but there are two weeks of Spring that are quite hellish for me.  You see, I am incredibly allergic to Oak pollen (most species but not all).
This fact has lead to a tragic [...]

Spring is Here!
This Nature Walk edition continues from #4.3 – Reptiles, Amphibians, & Mammals.
I’ve broken this post up into four parts due to the large number of images:

4.1 – Arthropods

4.2 – Birds
4.3 – Reptiles, Amphibians, & Mammals

4.4 – Plants & Fungi (this post)

The images are highly compressed for bandwidth’s sake, but you can [...]

Spring is Here!
This Nature Walk edition continues from #4.2 – Birds.
I’ve broken this post up into four parts due to the large number of images:

4.1 – Arthropods

4.2 – Birds
4.3 – Reptiles, Amphibians, & Mammals (this post)

4.4 – Plants & Fungi

The images are highly compressed for bandwidth’s sake, but you can click on the images [...]

Spring is Here!
This Nature Walk edition continues from #4.1 – Arthopods.
I’ve broken this post up into four parts due to the large number of images:

4.1 – Arthropods

4.2 – Birds (this post)
4.3 – Reptiles, Amphibians, & Mammals

4.4 – Plants & Fungi

The images are highly compressed for bandwidth’s sake, but you can click on the images for [...]

Spring is Here!
Days like these remind me what I love so much about the South…warm Springs exploding with life.
This edition of my series of Nature Walks is a big one. I took all of the following images over the past few days – some on my lunch break, some at the NIEHS campus, some at [...]

Today I witnessed (and was an integral part of) one of the strangest and coolest insect-related events I’ve been privy to.
My wife and I are trying to get our home fixed up to be put on the market.  One of the things we will be doing is repainting our front porch. Unfortunately, our porch is [...]

Oh yes, woolly we be. Check out the latest update on our celebratory Darwin beard contest over at Southern Fried Science.
Great Darwin Beard Challenge History:

The Origin: Deep Sea News, Southern Fried Science, Biochemical Soul
Week 1: Biochemical Soul, Deep Sea News
Week 2: Southern Fried Science – Hats

Week 3: Biochemical Soul – Hardcore

Week 4: Biochemical Soul – The [...]

Here’s a good laugh for your monday: a redneck child (me) in Hooks, Texas. Yes – we ate them squirrels.
While I somehow managed to escape true redneckdom, I still have very strong “country boy” roots. Mitch still remains fairly redneck. Sorry bro, you know it’s true (though he has outgrown some of it in the [...]

“Only a handful have ever been found before. But none like her. Her name is Lyuba. A 1-month-old baby mammoth, she walked the tundra about 40,000 years ago and then died mysteriously. Discovered by a reindeer herder, she miraculously re-appeared on a riverbank in northwestern Siberia in 2007. She is the most perfectly preserved woolly [...]

As some of you have no doubt noticed, I’ve been a bit absent from this digital home of mine for the past couple of weeks. What can I say? I’ve been incredibly busy with actually doing science.
Hopefully I’ll get back to regular blogging soon (including my review of the press screener for the upcoming National [...]

I couldn’t imagine how Miriam Goldstein of The Oyster’s Garter could top her previous hosting of the Carnival of the Blue #21 in which she waxed lyrical and poetic.
However, as I have come to expect from Miriam, she completely knocked the socks off of my expectations with her shiny new edition of the Carnival of [...]