Skip to main content

Posts

SpaceX Paves the Next Wave of Space Explorations +bonus

SpaceX Falcon Heavy launching with 4 MerlinD1 Boosters For our final assignment in this Science writing class we have to write a feature story with a human element to draw readers in, I chose Elon Musk’s success in the privatization of space craft development and launch. Unfortunately this week I won’t be talking about that, apologies. I want to take a break from writing about current assignments because I am already tired of it and instead talk about what I wrote as a comment in another classmate’s blog. Book review round two, that’s right reader, today I will be talking about my favorite science fiction series, Ender’s game, and the trilogy that follows. For those that haven’t heard, the 2013 movie was actually adapted from a book of the same name from 1985, WOW. That book, written by Orson Scott Card, had genius boy Andrew Ender Wiggins thrust into a space militant training facility to develop the best minds into tactical war geniuses for the eventual return of the formics,...
Post a Comment
Read more
Recent posts

Bathing Apes before Hype Beasts

This week’s post comes after a very stressful week for me; exams, papers, and scrambling to get ready for graduation. At the end of Thursday I ended up going home for Alec’s birthday (my little brother who just turned 14), the weekend, by contrast was very relaxing. Alec is much different than me or my older brother, probably because of the large age gap, he is obsessed with brand name clothes and shoes and the like. While having dinner on Saturday, we began to ridicule him for looking up and dreaming about $2000 Nikes, Supreme gear and Bathing Ape, so while looking for a topic for this blog, the latter brand took my interest, Above is a video about Japan’s famous “bathing apes”; the macaques. The video starts off describing the history of how a group of macaques started using naturally occurring hotsprings in the colder northern region of japan. The macaques began using these hotsprings in human establishments, so to keep both groups happy, locals built a site just for the macaque...
1 comment
Read more

Other Minds; Chapter 1-3

 A couple weeks ago I wrote a preliminary blog post talking about a book review on Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness . I skimmed through the book and wrote a rough draft last week. I was originally planning to write a simple summary of the first couple of chapters but the goal is for readers to read the actual book, not my interpretation. Therefore I’ll just use the first three chapters to highlight why you should read the first three chapters and hopefully more. Meeting Across the Tree of Life The first chapter of this book clarifies most importantly, that the author is foremost a philosopher by trade, while there is a level of depth to the explanations of evolution, neurology and the like it is not inaccessible. The way the author, Peter Godfrey-Smith writes is informative, interesting, and thought provoking. The chapter begins by sharing two fascinating accounts of curious interactions between cephalopods (subgroup of mollusks inclu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Invasive and Unwanted, Iguana Euthanasia

This semester I am taking a Vertebrate Zoology class and the professor introduced us to a Facebook page, " Wildlife Issues " that has been a useful resource for keeping up with current events in conservation. For this week's blog post I was browsing the page and was surprised by a header on the timeline: " Florida's Solution to its Invasive Iguana Problem: Smash their Skulls in ". Despite it's gory implications, the disposal of these iguanas is definitely a necessity, as explained in the article by the Washington Post . The Iguanas were originally native to a broad area ranging from Mexico to South America to the Caribbean and were brought to Florida as pets around 1966. Since then they have spread from Miami to the Keys and as far as Palm Beach. To address the “smash their skulls in” portion, many biologists are going out with bolt guns to kill the iguanas, while the in-the-head portion is to reduce the suffering of the animals. The reason there is...
Post a Comment
Read more

Large Population of Adélie Penguins Discovered

A recent article highlighted in Nature Journey documents a new find in the Antarctic, a huge population of Ad é lie penguins on the Danger Islands . This population numbers in around 1.5 million individuals, that were previously not known to researchers. This hotspot for penguins was found with the assistance of aerial drones to access parts of the Antarctic Peninsula that were previously inaccessible by boat. This finding gives proof of concept to this method of data acquisition, and leads researchers to look in more remote places for tracking species more closely. Contrary to the general trend associated with climate change reducing Antarctic ice mass, this population of penguins has been largely unaffected; they will however, be considered in ongoing efforts of conservation due to their large significance in the region. Throughout the continent, Ad é lie penguin populations have decreased as much as 70 due to rising air temp and decreased ice packing’s effect on prey availabi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Squidward

I have been sick for the past week and half of my spring break, so I am double posting today to make up for the lack of content. Soon after we finished our final draft for our interview assignment we began getting ready for a book review. My professor presented a list of books within the last year or two that would make good choices for a paper, and one of them, Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of Cephalopods instantly grabbed my attention. I have always been interested in intelligence in animals other than humans and I decided on the spot to stop looking and pick that one. Upon further research, Squid Empire isn’t available at my school so I looked into what else I could find on cephalopods related to their intelligence. An equally interesting title, Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness , by Peter Godfrey-Smith, came up in my search and I requested it to be shipped to my campus. A scientist with philosophic leanings, Godfrey-Smith discusses the cep...
Post a Comment
Read more

Using Snow Coat as an Example of Climate Change and Adaptive Traits

Least Weasels as drawn by skilled illustrator In a recent study in Science Journal, climate researchers L. Scott Mills, et al, are using seasonal coat changes as an example to demonstrate the need for adaptive rescue strategies for saving species from human initiated climate change. Many species in snow covered areas have adapted to seasonal snow by possessing white coats in the winter and then shedding them for brown coats when snow is less prevalent, this trait is known as winter coat polymorphism. The study tracked the coloration of four species of hares, three weasles, and arctic wolves in relation to their geographical location and annual snow cover. Using over 2500 samples from over 60 countries the researchers determined ranges for the species sampled where there are white only, brown only, and both white and brown. This research is important for conservationists to recognize the effect adaption has on fitness in changing climates. It recognizes in discreet ways how ...
Post a Comment
Read more