Alison Campbell • Sep 14, 2010 •
Or should that be octopodes? Anyway, this is so much more interesting than so-called psychic octopuses: an octopus whose mimicry can make it more conspicuous, not less.The 'mimic' octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus - now, there's a name that Terry Pratchett would appreciate)... Read More
Alison Campbell • Sep 12, 2010 •
The need (not urge, need!) to do housework finally caught up with me this weekend, & now that's over I really need to do some final preparation for my classes tomorrow. So here are a few snippets to tide you... Read More
Alison Campbell • Sep 04, 2010 •
I suspect that many people, asked where you'd find marsupials, would answer 'Australia' & leave it at that. But while we may be most familiar with Skippy & his ilk, those pouched mammals across the Tasman have close cousins half a... Read More
Alison Campbell • Sep 03, 2010 •
Beery bladders... yes, OK, if you drink enough beer your bladder will fill up, but that's not the focus of a delightful post by Scicurious on Neurotic physiology. It's a tale of how doctors followed their noses to find that several... Read More
Alison Campbell • Sep 02, 2010 •
I know I've said it before, but you really do learn something new every day :) I was browsing through my collection of Science alerts & an item about Legionella caught my eye. Legionella pneumophila is the bacterium that causes Legionnaires' disease,... Read More
Alison Campbell • Sep 01, 2010 •
A week or so back, one of the weekend papers ran a story on just how many beers someone needed to drink before they'd be legally too drunk to drive. The Significant Other & I were staggered to find that... Read More
Alison Campbell • Aug 31, 2010 •
A while ago now I discussed how some plants are able to warn others when they're under attack by grazing animals. Now it seems that these responses and interactions are even more subtle - a new paper describes how signalling... Read More
Alison Campbell • Aug 24, 2010 •
I have a dog. As a result, papers to do with dogs tend to catch my eye :) On his blog Neuroanthropology, Greg Downey reviews an upcoming book by Pat Shipman and discusses humanity's long relationship with canines. Beginning with the... Read More
Alison Campbell • Aug 23, 2010 •
Parasites are ubiquitous. I remember watching a video (years ago, while I was teaching at secondary school) about parasites that make humans their home. Lice, eyelash mites (yes, really!), various intestinal worms... I tell you, I had psychosomatic itching for days... Read More
Alison Campbell • Aug 17, 2010 •
This is a new story & potentially a very exciting one (& I must thank Grant for drawing this story to my attention!). A Nature News item (Petherick, 2010) describes the discovery of green algae apparently living within the cells... Read More