an ambulant toupee?

 No, it’s a megalopygid moth caterpillar (via Science Alert on Facebook).  Image: Rainforest Expeditions (on Facebook) Megalopygids are also called ‘flannel moths’ (you can see images of both adults and larvae here – the larvae are quite diverse in appearance). I do wonder, after looking at this adult, if they aren’t related to the poodle […]

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letting a good story get in the way of a few facts?

Today in the Herald I learned that eye colour can reflect personality. Apparently [r]esearchers from the University of Queensland and the University of NSW analysed the eye colour of 336 Australians – most with a northern European background. They answered a series of questionnaires measuring aspects of their personality like agreeableness, conscientiousness and neuroticism. The […]

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if only…

A nice piece in Nature, by Tony Ballantyne (& hat-tip to PZ Myers, who somehow finds these things first), speculates on how things could be for those who selectively reject the bits of science they don’t like: in this instance, vaccination, but creationism could easily be substituted in this storyline. T.Ballantyne (2012) If only… Nature […]

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walking on custard

This is not biology at all 🙂 I’ve previously seen (& linked to) videos of people walking on the surface of a mix of cornflour and water. (Marcus will be able to explain the physics behind it.) But now – via PZ Myers – we have: Walking on Custard!   If my embedding skills fail, follow the […]

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more on mosaics

A couple of days ago I posted a stunning photo of a peacock, and talked a bit about the possible genetic underpinnings of its colour patterns. My friend & blog-buddy Grant then pointed me at the story of a cat that has a similarly amazing colouration. Venus even has her own Facebook page! (I will […]

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