MigrationsMigrationsCells, birds, and musings from a biologist 
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Science Scout Merit Badges
2009-06-24 13:03:00 Ever heard of the Order of the Science Scout s of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique? They’ve got themselves some neato merit badges, for amusement and “By the grace of all that is good about science.” For the propagation of an ideal where science communicators can meet firstly, for drinks; secondly, for communicating; and ultimately, for ... More About: Badges
Wildlife Reclaiming the Buffer Zone
2009-06-22 13:30:00 Via BBC News, Sheep rule defunct Cyprus village: In 1974, after Turkish troops arrived on the island amid political upheaval, the residents of Variseia – who were Greek Cypriots – received 24 hours’ notice to leave their homes as conflict enveloped Cyprus. Eventually a divide was created to separate Turkish Cypriots from Greek Cypriots, a barrier that ... More About: Wildlife , Biophilia , Zone , Buffer
Quote of the Day
2009-06-19 09:12:00 These are just a few examples of scientific illiteracy ? inane misconceptions that could have been avoided with a smidgen of freshman science. (For those afraid to ask: pencil ?lead? is carbon; hydrogen fuel takes more energy to produce than it releases; all living things contain genes; a clone is just a twin.) Though we ... More About: Quote Of The Day , Quote
Speciation Caused by a Single Mutation
2009-06-16 16:16:00 n ScienceNOW, On the Road to a New Species, a fantastic illumination of allopatric speciation being correlated to a single point mutation: The late Ernst Mayr, a famous Harvard University evolutionary biologist, was the first to notice the speciation potential of flycatcher birds in the South Pacific’s Solomon Islands. During the 1940s, he described differences in ... More About: Single , Speciation
Knowledge of the Sacred
2009-06-14 13:31:00 In the lab, I happen to be studying embryology (in frogs as the model organism). I’m not going to blog on the theory or methodology of my research in the immediate time, but I am interested in making more general reflections. For instance… Embryology intersects with the public sphere to generate some very hot political issues, ... More About: Science , Knowledge , Sacred
?Kindness Kills Wildness?
2009-06-08 14:42:00 From the Project Operation Migration team, working to recover the endangered Whooping Crane: Teaching birds to migrate is not an easy task. It takes a year-long commitment for every generation we release, and a crew of twelve to compete the migration. Adding an isolation protocol and removing all human elements multiplies the complexity by a factor ... More About: Biophilia , Birds , Kindness
Bill Nye does Biodiversity
2009-06-02 08:48:00 In three parts… Parts 2 and 3 below the fold. Tagged: biodiversity, video More About: Bill , Biodiversity
Lack of Emphasis on Species Overexploitation
2009-06-01 12:09:00 Millenium Ecosystem Assessment synthesis: The most important direct drivers of biodiversity loss and ecosystem service changes are habitat change (such as land use changes, physical modification of rivers or water withdrawal from rivers, loss of coral reefs, and damage to sea floors due to trawling), climate change, invasive alien species, overexploitation, and pollution. f those factors causing ... More About: Lack
3 Greek Bird Photography Blogs
2009-05-26 10:49:00 The first two are in English, and the last in both Greek and English. Bird watching in Greece (photo source) Birdwatching in Athens Nature in Greece All three look great, and I would love to have the funds to get a good camera for bird photography. Alas, I don’t have a 1000+ Euro to go out and spend these ... More About: Photography , Blogs
Revolting Comment of the Day
2009-05-25 19:15:00 On a lark, I asked in a Cyprus discussion forum today about their thoughts on the Cypriot ambelopoulia ‘delicacy,’ and got this revolting response in return: Two questions though – How would you know that the wild ones are better? (Why have souvlaki if wild is better, why not have mouflon for dinner?) And, what good ... More About: Conservation , Comment
Dusting the Bookshelf
2009-05-25 11:43:00 One thing I’m rather proud of having here on the blog is my “Books helf” page, providing a list of books that I’ve read and recommend on the variety of topics I’m interested in and blog on, along with some books that are academic mainstays in their fields. I admit I haven’t read all of the ... More About: Bookshelf
Darwinius masillae
2009-05-20 16:58:00 I don’t really have to say much that hasn’t been said. Just read these expert perspectives on the newly unveiled fossil: Introducing Ida – the great-great-great-great-grandmother (or aunt) Darwinius masillae Poor, poor Ida, Or: “Overselling an Adapid” And of course the article itself: Franzen JL, Gingerich PD, Habersetzer J, Hurum JH, von Koenigswald W, Smith BH (2009) Complete Primate Skeleton ... More About: Evolution
Quote of the Day
2009-05-19 09:25:00 Few will doubt that humankind has created a planet-sized problem for itself. No one wished it so, but we are the first species to become a geophysical force, altering Earth?s climate, a role previously reserved for tectonics, sun flares, and glacial cycles. We are also the greatest destroyer of life since the ten-kilometer-wide meteorite that ... More About: Quote Of The Day , Quote
An Endemic Warbler Under Threat?
2009-05-18 13:43:00 Recently, I was told something about Sardinian Warblers (Sylvia melanocephala) pushing the endemic Cyprus Warblers (Sylvia melanothorax) out of some of their range here in Cyprus in recent years. That could be a big deal, with Cyprus Warblers which have such a restricted range to begin with, even if they are currently listed as a ... More About: Conservation , Birds , Threat
The Blue Manakin Courtship Troupe
2009-05-15 10:47:00 Shown here, the unusual courtship ritual of the blue manakin, as shown in David Attenborough’s documentary, The Life of Birds. What an fascinating example of sexual selection. More About: Biophilia , Blue
Defining Evolution
2009-05-13 15:18:00 As Larry Moran noted with his question 2+ years ago, “What is Evolution ?”, there’s a lot of confusion in the general public about what evolution is, and most people who object to it cannot define it. Perhaps the most definitive definition is that offered by biologist and author of the authoritative textbook on evolution Douglas ...
Cyprus report from the Committee Against Bird Slaughter
2009-05-10 16:36:00 Following yesterday’s press release of actions in Cyprus by the Committee Against Bird Slaughter, I’d like to parse through the CABS report in more detail (PDF). It’s pretty good, and begins with this section: The preferred quarry of the poachers is small song birds, principally warblers, flycatchers and robins. They trap the birds either for their ... More About: Conservation , Report
?Bird Activists Remove Over 2000 Limesticks in Cyprus?
2009-05-09 13:05:00 I hadn’t heard anything about this until just now, and I spent the entire morning with about 20 of the most active members of Bird Life Cyprus (birdwatching, of course). But apparently, via the English-speaking Cypriot news site CyprusMail, Bird Activists Remove Over 2000 Limesticks in Cyprus: BIRD ACTIVISTS from Germany, Italy and the UK removed and ... More About: Conservation
Announcing New Blog Banner
2009-05-07 11:59:00 As visitors to the site no doubt already see, I’ve got a new blog banner! Amazing artist, blogger, and all-around science fan Glendon Mellow (check out his blog The Flying Trilobite) has kindly painted this fabulous banner for Migrations, really incorporating the themes that inspire me and my journey (if you will). From the most obvious ... More About: Blog , Banner
Quote of the Day
2009-05-07 09:16:00 Today, of course, we face more complex challenges than we have ever faced before: a medical system that holds the promise of unlocking new cures and treatments — attached to a health care system that holds the potential for bankruptcy to families and businesses; a system of energy that powers our economy, but simultaneously ... More About: Science , Quote Of The Day , Quote
Tension Between Species Discovery and Extinction Reflected in Art
2009-05-06 10:20:00 From SEED Magazine comes a short item that catches my sense of biophilia: Once Out of Nature: “Isabella Kirkland?s life-size paintings of exotic, recently discovered species capture a world caught between the joys of discovery and the threat of imminent loss.” Artist Isabella Kirkland?s meticulous oil paintings revisit this bittersweet tension between discovery and loss. Each ... More About: Discovery , Biophilia , Tension , Extinction
The Public Ignorance of Peer Review in Science
2009-05-05 10:09:00 I’ve ventured into online discussion forums regarding evolution, global warming, and stem cell research, and occasionally on autism & vaccinations and homeopathy nonsense. One thing that always stands out is that the vast majority of the loons on these topics rarely know that the peer review process exists, and if they do, they think it ... More About: Science , Education , Public , Review , Peer
Nurture?s Learning is Dictated by Nature
2009-05-04 11:16:00 I was tempted to steal Razib’s expression Nurture on Nature ’s Leash, as the allusion to the eternal nature vs. nurture debate is obvious. That is, just how much of animal behavior is instinctual and biologically determined, and how much of said behavior is purely learned? This question and its answer, whatever it may be, have ... More About: Education , Learning
From the Population Bomb to the Dominant Animal
2009-05-03 19:06:00 Paul Erlich - Stanford University entomologist, grandfather of the modern field of conservation biology, and famous for his 1968 book The Population Bomb , is best known to the public for his predictions in that book regarding human overpopulation. Along with his wife Anne, he published a new and interesting book last year titled The Dominant ... More About: Animal
Helping Starving Griffon Vultures
2009-05-01 15:18:00 The Griffon Vultures (Gyps fulvis) have been faring rather badly in Cyprus in recent decades. Lanate poisoning (used in an attempt to kill off wild dogs), lead shot from hunters, and lack of food have reduced the number of vultures in Cyprus to only about a dozen or so birds - I’m not sure the ... More About: Conservation
The Birds Around Us - I and the Bird #99
2009-04-30 13:31:00 As per my own tastes, I chose to base the 99th I and the Bird on an excerpt from “The Changing Year” in Rachel Carson’s 1951 book The Sea Around Us, drastically re-written to accommodate this week’s contributions and renaming it “The Birds Around Us.” For the world as a whole, the alteration of day and ...
The EU Birds Directive and Its Application to Cyprus
2009-04-29 12:03:00 I asked Martin Hellicar of BirdLife Cyprus recently to point me towards the relevant EU directives that pertain to bird conservation in Cyprus, and was directed towards the European Community’s Directive 79/409/EEC on the conservation of wild birds, known as ‘The Birds Directive’ or BD for short. As Hellicar described: The Birds Directive lays down regulations ... More About: Conservation , Application
Habitat Descruction vs Global Warming as Primary Conservation Problem
2009-04-28 08:23:00 I came across two related stories recently that instigate a debate more than academic, regarding environmental conservation. First, a 6-month-old BBC News article that I’d missed, discussed an economics report suggesting that deforestation worldwide “dwarfs the global banking crisis”. The study, on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (or TEEB), is accessible here, but the ... More About: Global Warming , Climate Change , Conservation , Global , Problem
Quote of the Day
2009-04-27 11:10:00 Migration. Isn?t that what it?s all about? We?re all, by the standard definition of the word, migrating, moving from place to place, hither and yon. Atoms migrate within molecules. Teeth migrate within mouths (though we?d rather they didn?t). But of most importance, particularly to those of us attuned to the rhythms of the natural world, ... More About: Quote Of The Day , Quote
Publicity for Operation Migration
More articles from this author:2009-04-26 09:56:00 a href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ne ws/newstopics/howaboutthat/5197464/Endang ered-whooping-crane-follows-aircraft-in-u nique-migration.html”>Endangered whooping crane follows aircraft in unique migration - “These endangered whooping crane, pictured flying through the air in V-formation, are seen making the long journey south in a unique human-led migration.” Word of Operation Migration gets out at least once every Spring and Fall it seems, keeping people informed on the progress of ... More About: Publicity , Biophilia 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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