Alison Campbell
wolves in the cross-fire - BioBlog
Oct 30, 2009 •
A while back I wrote about the wolves of Yellowstone & what they can tell us about the ecological impacts of a top predator. Wolves were reintroduced to the US's Yellowstone National Park in 1995, after an absence of around...
another contender for ‘best blog post title’ - BioBlog
Oct 30, 2009 •
I thought it would be hard to beat 'When zombies attack'. That was, until Grant alerted me to this one: 'Fellatio by fruit bats prolongs copulation time'. The fiend! How did he beat me to this?? Ed Yong has written...
people can believe some very strange things… - BioBlog
Oct 27, 2009 •
I was spurred to write this by reading the latest post on the Quackometer. Dr Luc Montagnier shared the 2008 Nobel prize for medicine or physiology, for the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus, a discovery with a significant impact...
self-grooming in cows - BioBlog
Oct 26, 2009 •
From time to time my Significant Other's thoughts turn to life in the country. This can manifest itself in the purchase of lifestyle-block magazines. I was flipping through one this morning & came across an item on self-grooming in cows, &...
teaching old cows new tricks - BioBlog
Oct 25, 2009 •
I originally wrote the material in this post for the Science on the Farm website. It's re-posted here because I thought it might be an interesting extension for those of you currently studying animal behaviour.Automatic milking is an exciting technological innovation...
two ends of the science spectrum - BioBlog
Oct 23, 2009 •
Today the Science Media Centre carried an item about the just-announced Prime Minister's science prizes (blogged about here by Peter Griffin). These awards (for a top research team, an emerging researcher, the MacDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year, a science...
conspiracy theories & the electricity supply - BioBlog
Oct 22, 2009 •
Apologies in advance - this is way off my usual beaten track but it's been a hard week & I am in need of diversion :-)Over the last few days there've been a couple of letters to the editor of...
seeing the world through blindsight - BioBlog
Oct 20, 2009 •
While driving home on Sunday I listened to another Skeptics Guide podcast. The 'science, or fiction?' segment included the statement that 'scientists had found that a blind man was able to navigate flawlessly around obstacles without using any other senses.' Science,...
it couldn’t happen here. could it? - BioBlog
Oct 19, 2009 •
I hope not.Some of my fellow Sciblings have written quite a bit lately about various 'alternative & complementary' health claims. And I've thoroughly enjoyed reading their posts (here & here, for example). So I wonder what their take would be...
swim with the sharks… - BioBlog
Oct 18, 2009
... says the blackboard outside the National Aquarium of New Zealand, over in Napier, Hawkes Bay. It also offers tuatara, kiwi, a cafe... Good for an hour or so of investigation, I thought - I was on my way back...