Figure from The Deep(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Claire Nouvian.
from Kim Reisenbichler © MBARI 1995
If you’ve got a reasonably robust gut, you might be able to handle following this link to a movie showing the intimate relationship between a man and his botfly larvae.
If you can’t appreciate the beauty of large maggots, well, no, you might not want to click. Really. I am not to blame if you disregard my recommendation.
Here is an excellent article on the biology of sexual orientation. We all know this is a contentious issue — are we born with an orientation, or is it a ‘choice’ that people make? — and the article just lays the facts out for us and points out some of the lacunae in our knowledge.
Two new Homo fossils are described in this week’s Nature, and here they are.
Some two-bit publicity hound can die, and that’s all you can find on any of the television channels … a whole grand species can go extinct, and there’s almost nothing.
Say goodbye to the Yangtze River dolphin. It is officially extinct. The funeral will be poorly attended, and it will be forgotten, except in a few academic papers.
Since I was asked what a cnidarian “head” is in reference to this work on multi-headed cnidarians, I’ll answer. In short, they don’t have one.
It’s a collision! Two great carnivals on the same day. Check out Carnival of the Spineless #23 from sodden Great Britain, where the molluscs are thriving, and also read Tangled Bank #85, the Reductionist’s Tale at Migrations.
This is a short video clip of myotome formation in a zebrafish embryo — it’s the subject of an upcoming column in Seed, so I’m putting a short visual aid here.
You can Download the Quicktime movie (620K), or you can watch it via YouTube. Watch closely, it’s short and it flies by!
