25 July 2009
Scuppernong Prairie
I've just returned from an enjoyable hike with members of the Southern Wisconsin Butterfly Association, The Madison Audubon Society, and The Prairie Enthusiasts. Our destination today was Scuppernong Prairie in Waukesha County just west of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The photos above are of Turk's cap lilies (one of which was conveniently twisted on its stem to display the spectacularly mottled petals) and a distinctly uncommon milkweed variety. The Prairie Milkweed (Sullivant's milkweed, Smooth milkweed) has glaucous (hairless) leaves and is a locally threatened species.
Those who wish to visit Scuppernong Prairie (directions at the link) should be aware that this is a State Natural Area. There are no groomed hiking trails - no trails of any sort, in fact. One walks through knee-high to waist-high vegetation; only those with leather-skinned legs would want to venture out in shorts. And the ground surface is markedly uneven, with old farm furrows, hummocks, and various invisible obstacles. A walking stick and skilled cerebellar function will make the adventure much easier. With those caveats, this is a marvelous natural resource area that would reward visits in each of the seasons.
(The pix enlarge with a click).
Prairie White-fringed Orchid
Photographed this morning at Scuppernong Prairie State Natural Area. This is a stately (almost 3 foot tall), beautiful, but endangered plant. This orchid was native to Midwestern wet prairies, but much of its habitat has been lost to agriculture; it is now estimated that there may be as few as 400 plants remaining in Wisconsin.
Note in the photo not just the delicate petals, but also the 2-inch-long nectar tube descending behind the blossom. Obviously it has coevolved with some pollinator with an impressively long proboscis - probably a moth (the proboscis of sphinx moth can be as long as ten inches!).
The photo enlarges to wallpaper size with a click.
Zombie lunch box
Or perhaps a research biologist - but the zombie possibility is more interesting.
Credit to Spontaneous ∂erivation, a blog for fans of science fiction.
24 July 2009
This critter is famous because of its anus
Only the most avid zoo-goers will recognize this amalgam of a raccoon face, small dog body, and hyena spots. The glands around its anus produce a chemical substance widely used in the perfume industry.
Its cousin has an equally famous fundament, through which partially-digested coffee beans pass before they are harvested and used to produce absurdly expensive coffee.
Identity at the links.
Photo credit.
Intelligence may not offer any survival advantage
That, in a nutshell, is the stunning reply Stephen Hawking offered when asked why our planet has not been visited by intelligent life:
We are used to thinking of intelligent life, as an inevitable consequence of evolution, Hawking emphasized, but it is more likely that evolution is a random process, with intelligence as only one of a large number of possible outcomes.
Intelligence, Hawking believes contrary to our human-centric existence, may not have any long-term survival value. In comparison the microbial world, will live on, even if all other life on Earth is wiped out by our actions. Hawking's main insight is that intelligence was an unlikely development for life on Earth, from the chronology of evolution: "It took a very long time, two and a half billion years, to go from single cells to multi-cell beings, which are a necessary precursor to intelligence. This is a good fraction of the total time available, before the Sun blows up. So it would be consistent with the hypothesis, that the probability for life to develop intelligence, is low. In this case, we might expect to find many other life forms in the galaxy, but we are unlikely to find intelligent life."
His other viewpoint is not much more comforting:
Hawkling prefers another possibility: that there are other forms of intelligent life out there, but that we have been overlooked. If we should pick up signals from alien civilizations, Hawking warns,"we should have be wary of answering back, until we have evolved" a bit further. Meeting a more advanced civilization, at our present stage,' Hawking says "might be a bit like the original inhabitants of America meeting Columbus. I don't think they were better off for it."Via Reddit.
How to permanently damage your retina
This South Korean woman is viewing a solar eclipse using powerful binoculars. It's not even a total eclipse - it's a 78% eclipse. Is it possible that these are special binoculars incorporating some type of filter?
Via.
A man is shocked, SHOCKED, that fast food has lots of sodium...
A New Jersey man has filed a class actio lawsuit against Denny's because he has discovered that their meals may contain excessive amounts of salt.
The lawsuit, filed with the support of the food advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, seeks to compel Denny's to disclose on menus the amount of sodium in each of its meals and to place a notice on its menus warning about high sodium levels...Via Fark.
"I was astonished to find that these simple sandwiches have more salt than someone in my condition should have in a whole day," DeBenedetto said in a statement...
For example, Denny's Meat Lover's Scramble, which has two eggs with chopped bacon, diced ham, crumbled sausage, Cheddar cheese, plus two bacon strips, two sausage links, hash browns, and two pancakes has 5,690 mg sodium, Jacobson said.
World's second largest aquarium tank
The main tank at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. The 'Kuroshio Sea' holds 7,500 cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water. The music accompanying the video is "Please Don't Go" by Barcelona.
It's a beautiful and majestic sight. I think one can't help but have a moment's dismay at the loss of freedom for these creatures that were previously cruising an unlimited expanse of ocean, but perhaps if displays like this draw the public's attention to the wonders of the ocean, then that provides sufficient justification.
p.s. - if you're going to watch, you might as well watch full screen (click the expansion button lower right). That way, after the 5 seconds of black screen at the beginning, when the second musical note is played and the video starts, you can say "Wow..."
Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland - the trailer
I have not yet found a version that can be embedded*, but the official trailer is now posted at The Guardian. More re Alice and the movie here.
* Update - hat tip to Boliyou, who found one at Trailer Addict...
The toucan uses its huge bill for thermoregulation
The video above is brief and silent; it depicts infrared thermal data of a toucan going to sleep (and tucking its bill under its wing). The toucan lowers its body temperature during sleep. To to so it shifts blood flow from its core to the uninsulated bill, where the heat then radiates out into the environment.
The process is discussed in more detail (and the video is narrated) at the BBC:
The birds' bills have a network of blood vessels that can increase or restrict the flow of blood.
Dr Tattersall said: "By altering blood flow to the bill's surface, toucans can conserve body heat when it is cold or cope with heat stress by increasing blood flow...
Other animals also use parts of their bodies to regulate temperature, for example, elephants and rabbits radiate heat from their ears to cool down.
But the sheer size of the toucan's bill means that relatively, it has one of the largest "thermal windows" in the animal kingdom.
19 July 2009
18 July 2009
Male Promethea (Callosamia) moths
I've previously shown you the cocoons of these silkmoths, and the spectacular coloration of the female. The top photo is of a typical male; when compared with the female the sexual dimorphism is quite apparent. The males have a black and brown color palette, quite attractive on close viewing, but at a distance when they are flying they look more like bats than moths.
When our female emerged she was emitting pheromones each afternoon beginning about 4 p.m. These attracted males from miles around; at one point we had about a dozen of them hovering around our screen porch and deck - much to the delight of the neighborhood children. As shown in the second photo above, the males exhibited a particular fascination with my house slipper; at one point I had four of them vigorously exploring the slipper. I suspect the coloration was similar enough to the female to evoke the response, and the pheromones were probably everywhere in the air.
The moth that eclosed from the second cocoon in the terrarium was a male, and he thus became the successful suitor to the female. We found him the following morning thoroughly exhausted and with battered wingtips on the floor of the terrarium; the female remained in pristine condition. Over the next few days she then proceeded to oviposit on the sticks and vegetation in the terrarium, and even on the glass walls (photo below). These should begin hatching in several weeks, after which I hope to be able to show you the growth stages of the remarkably colorful silkworm caterpillars.
Update August 2: The eggs were infertile. Over the next several weeks they became umbilicated with a central depression and wound up desiccated. I found a statement in an old text on Google Books that these changes indicate infertile eggs; I also learned in the process that a day or two after hatching, a female will start laying eggs - whether or not she has been fertilized.
Quite a disappointment for us.
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