In disease research, rats have the lamentable circumstance of being poked and prodded as a test subject. Today I am turning the tables to look at rats in a different way – by reading the literature on the evolutionary biology of rats and mice.
Mouse photo from Flickr. By Kathryn [CC BY-ND 2.0].
Photo by Dan Hamill on Pexels.com
Is it me, or do dinner parties spark the best conversations? The last dinner party I attended birthed a discussion surrounding animal sentience. Three Bags Full is an internationally best selling novel about a flock of sheep who are driven to solve their shepherd’s murder. It was originally written in German by Leonie Swann, a writer with degrees in philosophy, psychology, and communication. No doubt her education background contributed to the ever-present theme of animal sentience in this peculiar, witty mystery. Continue reading
Back in my younger days, I would always wear the coolest tee-shirt from Rainforest Café. It came with a bunch of clasp-on rainforest bugs that I could use to prank people, show off, or entertain myself when I was bored. Now, I’m managing my own miniature rainforest within the confines of my bedroom. What I’m referring to is the bioactive terrarium setup (featured on the left) that has become popularized in the pet community as of late. Here’s why I find this hobby fascinating.
Just like Main Street and University Avenue, it seems like very state has a “Beaver Lake”. There’s Beaver Lake Arkansas, named after homesteader Wilson Beaver. There’s also Beaver Lake Wisconsin, Beaver Lake Illinois, and Beaver Lake New York. These photos are from Beaver Lake Nature Center in New York. Although beavers do roam this 661-acre reserve, the lake was named for its animal-like shape.
“Late afternoon in the bog” by Liam Moloney. License CC by 2.0
Say! What a lot of fens there are. Parallels have been drawn between race, ethnicity, and Dr. Seuss’ poem about fish in the past. But to me, wetlands emulate the essence of the poem. Of wetlands there are many types, including bogs, fens, marshes and swamps. A list of wetland types by WWF gets into even more detail. Some I was even unfamiliar with: pocosins, billabongs, and mires to name a few. Let’s delve into the distinctions and why they matter.
Despite the fact that wetlands have a relatively colorless appearance and are somewhat of an inhospitable environment for many species, these kinds of ecosystems are clandestinely buzzing with land-atmosphere interactions. Just last month, I explored Allequash Creek Wetland in Northern Wisconsin with the USGS to collect aquatic chemistry and CH4/CO2 measurements and to gain a general sense of the site. The eddy covariance flux tower in the photo above provides the flux data from the wetland which I will be compiling, analyzing, and presenting for my master’s thesis. Continue reading
Something you can’t see in my LinkedIn profile picture is my enormous lion tattoo. Or my peace sign tattoo. Or my yin yang, or my sand dollar, or my sun, or my tweety bird. Each one has a special meaning to me, but above all they are signs of my passion for all things nature. In this post I will be taking a break from my science-heavy articles to entertain you with some super cool inks from my friends.
