May 2012
18 posts
4 tags
May 24th
2 notes
5 tags
Listen The Oilbird (Steatornis caripensis) is a singular...
May 21st
2 tags
May 20th
3 tags
May 19th
1 note
4 tags
May 18th
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May 16th
1 note
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May 15th
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May 14th
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May 13th
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May 12th
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“Two boys once decided to play a trick on Charles Darwin. They took the body of a...”
– Thomas, Henry. The Complete Book of English. Garden City Publishing Co., Garden City, NY, 1938
May 11th
2 tags
Quinoa mystery
I usually don’t post too much personal stuff on here, but I just have to ask: I don’t understand why eating quinoa consistently makes me hungry 1-2 hours later. It’s supposed to be one of those grains that doesn’t, because it’s so high in protein and good for you. In fact, a search for “why do I get hungry after eating quinoa?” only turns up results...
May 8th
2 tags
May 7th
2 tags
May 6th
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May 3rd
1 note
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May 3rd
1 note
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May 2nd
4 tags
May 1st
April 2012
17 posts
4 tags
Apr 26th
4 tags
Apr 25th
1 note
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Great NPR piece this morning about conflicting... →
Apr 23rd
4 tags
Apr 21st
2 notes
4 tags
Apr 20th
1 note
2 tags
Apr 18th
1,207 notes
Apr 16th
1 tag
Antibiotic resistance explained →
Who knew antibiotic resistance could be so cute?? But seriously, this is a huuuuge public health problem. If you’ve never understood it, watch this video! This website has some great videos about evolution that are free to use non-commercially.
Apr 13th
3 tags
Darwin animation →
This website has some great videos about evolution that are free to use non-commercially.
Apr 13th
5 tags
Ants and their parasites video →
That snail is SO DEVIOUS!! This is a wonderful 10-minute video about army ants and their parasites in the tropics. This website has some great videos about evolution that are free to use non-commercially.
Apr 11th
1 note
2 tags
Apr 11th
3 tags
Apr 9th
3 notes
3 tags
Apr 7th
1 note
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Apr 6th
3 notes
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Apr 5th
5 notes
5 tags
WatchWatch
This euglossine bee checkes out Costus scaber, which is actually adapted for hummingbird pollination, and realizes he’s not going to get anything out of it. Oops! Grace Chen took this video while studying adaptation in tropical gingers.
Apr 4th
5 tags
WatchWatch
Another cool video of a hermit hummingbird pollinating Costus scaber. Again, if you look really closely, you can see tiny mites trying run down the bill of the hummingbird and into the flower!!! Amazing. Grace Chen took this video while studying adaptation in tropical gingers.
Apr 4th
March 2012
12 posts
4 tags
WatchWatch
Sweet video of a hermit hummingbird pollinating Costus scaber. If you look really closely, you can actually see two tiny mites trying run down the bill of the hummingbird and into the flower!!! Amazing. Grace Chen took this video while studying adaptation in tropical gingers.
Mar 31st
Mar 28th
2 tags
Mar 24th
3 tags
speak of the devil...
I was reading through my journal that I wrote while traveling last year, and came upon this funny story that I’d totally forgotten about. I had just arrived in Panama City from Bocas del Toro on an overnight bus, so I got to the hostel at 5 am. (Luna’s Castle, which I do not recommend, it’s cramped and the beds are really uncomfortable. Which is not uncommon for a hostel, but...
Mar 21st
2 tags
How to get an Ecuadorian visa
This is a bit out-dated, from August 2010, but I forgot to post it. Here’s how you would go about getting a visa to stay more than 3 months in Ecuador…not an easy process!! Get visa in Houston, which required several different tasks, like a treasure hunt. Obtain an envelope addressed to an office in Quito. All you have to do when you get there is mail the envelope. Feel relief that...
Mar 18th
5 tags
Mar 18th
Mar 17th
44 notes
2 tags
A new class of Watson fellows has been announced! →
This is the wonderful, amazing, incredible fellowship that I did in 2010-2011 (from which I am still mining photos and audio material for this blog!). Check out the projects that the next class of wonderful, amazing, incredible Fellows is going to do. It’ll make you want to jump on the next plane to an exotic place.
Mar 16th
Getting energy from waste heat →
Mar 16th
4 tags
Series conclusion: common birds of Chiloé
This is possibly my favorite project that I did throughout my entire year abroad on my Watson Fellowship. In the national park in Chiloé (Parque Nacional Chiloé), I did a couple of environmental education projects: a handout about trees, a poster about trash and recycling, the design for a kids’ trail, and this poster of the common birds on the island: It’s bilingual, with the...
Mar 5th
3 tags
Series: common birds of Chiloé, pt 15
Part 15: Chucao. This little forest bird is commonly used as a symbol of Chiloé, but unfortunately I never did get a picture, it’s so elusive! Usually you will hear a chucao rather than see one. Their call is quite loud and you’d picture a fairly big bird, so everyone is always surprised to find out that this little thing is the source. Here’s the call. Chilotes say that if you...
Mar 3rd
3 tags
Series: common birds of Chiloé, pt 14
Part 14: grab bag of wetland birds. Here are some of the other common birds that I saw in freshwater in Chiloé. (Not sure about this one) Greater yellowlegs, Pitotoy grande, Tringa melanoleuca. Breed in boreal North America and migrate south for winter. Plumbeous rail, Pidén, Pardirallus sanguinolentus. A pretty South American swamp bird. Ringed kingfisher, Martín pescador, Megaceryle...
Mar 1st
February 2012
13 posts
3 tags
Series: common birds of Chiloé, pt 13
Part 13: grab bag of shore birds. Here are some other common birds that I saw on the beaches of Chiloé. Turkey vulture, Jote de cabeza colorada, Cathartes aura. Ranges all the way from southern Canada to the southern tip of South America. Kelp gull, Gaviota dominicana, Larus dominicanus. Common throughout the southern hemisphere. Neotropic cormorant, Yeco, Phalacrocorax brasilianus....
Feb 28th
3 tags
Series: common birds of Chiloé, pt 12
Part 12. Green-backed firecrown. Notice the distinctive white spot behind the eye in the first picture and the red crown in the second. This pretty little hummingbird was quite common around the campground of the national park in Chiloé, where there were lots of fuschias to drink nectar from. (By the way, I often saw these fuschias being robbed by carpenter bees—see December posts for a...
Feb 26th
3 tags
Series: common birds of Chiloé, pt 11
Part 11: Austral thrush. This bird was like the Chilean equivalent of the American Robin (same genus), by the way it moved and acted. Spanish name: Zorzal. Scientific name: Turdus falcklandii. Photos in the series are my own unless noted, taken in Jan-Feb 2011 in Chiloé, Chile.
Feb 24th