The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

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entomology

A viral aphrodisiac. Like, literally – a virus that makes sexytime happen. Then it kills you….

5 May 2014 grant 0

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), as NPR reports, it only affects crickets. They get infected, then want to have more sex, spreading the virus to more hosts:

Shelley Adamo and her team

… Read the rest “A viral aphrodisiac. Like, literally – a virus that makes sexytime happen. Then it kills you….”

My, madam, what a spiky member you have… in me….

21 April 2014 grant 0

Nature has published an article about a cave insect that combines the words “marathon sex session” with “the female’s spiky penis”:

In desolate caves

… Read the rest “My, madam, what a spiky member you have… in me….”

Science Art: Ventral view of an adult small hive beetle, Aethina tumida Murray, by Josephine Ratikan.

13 April 2014 grant 0

Florida beekeepers, know your enemy.

Science Art: Surface of a Western honeybee’s eye, by Janice Carr and Connie Flowers.

9 March 2014 grant 0

SurfaceOfAWesternHoneybeesEye
Click to embiggen

Gaze into the eye of the bee, and the colony gazes into you. This is not honeycomb, but the individual components (ommatidia) of a bee’s compound eye.

Full credit … Read the rest “Science Art: Surface of a Western honeybee’s eye, by Janice Carr and Connie Flowers.”

Robot swarms that build. By themselves…

5 March 2014 grant 0

Nature digs up the info on the termite robots built this castle:

The robots all work independently. Each travels along a grid and can move, climb a step and lift and put down bricks. And they

… Read the rest “Robot swarms that build. By themselves…”

SONG: “The Road We Wander”

24 February 2014 grant 0

SONG: “The Road We Wander.” (To download: double right-click & “Save As”)

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: Based on “Monarch migration may become extinct,”… Read the rest “SONG: “The Road We Wander””

Monarch migration may be over. Forever.

31 January 2014 grant 1

Laboratory Equipment has some bad news for butterflies:

After steep and steady declines in the previous three years, the black-and-orange butterflies now cover only 1.65 acres (0.67

… Read the rest “Monarch migration may be over. Forever.”

Science Art: Typical chemosensory hair of the blowfly Phormia regina Meigen, from Molecular structure and functional activity of nerve cells…., 1955

3 November 2013 grant 0

molecularstructu00gren_0028CROP

An up-close look at chemoreceptors, chemical-sensing nerves, from the 1950s.

Not a flower, nor a machine, but somewhere between both. Found in the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Science Art: Plate CCCII, Fig. A.B. Capensis, from Pieter Cramer’s De Uitlandische Kapellen, 1779

20 October 2013 grant 0

PCramers_deuitlandschekapellenlPlCCCII

A plate of geometrically arranged capensis moths, as recorded by Pieter Cramer, a fabric merchant and butterfly fan.

The whole book is charming. From the Biological Diversity Library … Read the rest “Science Art: Plate CCCII, Fig. A.B. Capensis, from Pieter Cramer’s De Uitlandische Kapellen, 1779”

Living gears found in little bug’s legs.

13 September 2013 grant 0

This was all over Reddit and ScienceDaily today, because it’s cool. Biologists have found the first example of machine-like gears in a living organism, a critter called an adolescent… Read the rest “Living gears found in little bug’s legs.”

Mosquitos *taste* heat.

8 August 2013 grant 0

Science Daily has more on the strange, previously unknown sensory organ in insects:

Notice how mosquitoes always seem to bite where there is the most blood? That is because those areas are

… Read the rest “Mosquitos *taste* heat.”

You don’t get bitten because you’re so sweet. Well, not exactly….

17 July 2013 grant 0

Smithsonian explains summer’s great mystery – why mosquitoes find some victims sweeter:

An estimated 20 percent of people, it turns out, are especially delicious for mosquitoes,

… Read the rest “You don’t get bitten because you’re so sweet. Well, not exactly….”

Science Art: The periodical cicada (”Magicicada septendecim”), Plate 7, from Insects, their way and means of living, by R. E. Snodgrass.

21 April 2013 grant 0

800px-Snodgrass_Magicicada_septendecim
Click to embiggen

It’s the year of magic. Or, well, the Magicicada septendecim – the 17-year magic cicada.

Have you heard?

They come back every 17 years, black-winged and red-eyed… Read the rest “Science Art: The periodical cicada (”Magicicada septendecim”), Plate 7, from Insects, their way and means of living, by R. E. Snodgrass.”

Would you wear GMO silk?

17 April 2013 grant 0

Nature reveals how a mosquito-killing gene technique is being used to create better silk more efficiently:

But male silkworms (Bombyx mori) are much more useful for farmers: they are more

… Read the rest “Would you wear GMO silk?”

Spider spins a spider decoy in its web…

21 December 2012 grant 0

Wired beholds an eerie arthropod self-portrait… a piece of functional art, a spider, by spider:

In September, [biologist Phil] Torres was leading visitors into a floodplain surrounding

… Read the rest “Spider spins a spider decoy in its web…”

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Something to Believe In

GRANT: something to believe in

You could write a review of this album here on iTunes.

That would be generous.

Fellow Travelers

  • 314.Action
  • Bioephemera
  • Breakfast in the Ruins
  • Carabus
  • Discover
  • Fluxblog
  • Giant-Killer
  • grant (archive)
  • grant (bandcamp)
  • Hello, Poindexter!
  • ideonexus
  • junior kitchen
  • Keep Your Pebbles
  • LiveScience
  • Mindless Ones
  • Nature
  • New Scientist
  • NIMBioS: Science Songwriters-in-Residence
  • Peculiar Velocity
  • PhysOrg
  • Science Daily
  • Science Magazine
  • Science News
  • Science Writers Daily
  • Scientific American
  • Singing Science Records
  • Songfight!
  • Space.com
  • Stereo Sanctity
  • The Great Beyond
  • The Other Adam Ford
  • The Periodic Table of Poetry
  • Voyages Extraordinaires

Tags

acoustics aeronautics agronomy anatomy anthropology archaeology astronomy biochemistry biology botany chemistry climatology computer science ecology economics electrical engineering electronics engineering entomology epidemiology evolution genetics geology linguistics marine biology mathematics medicine meteorology microbiology microscopy nanotechnology neurology oceanography optics paleontology pharmacology physics psychology quantum physics research robotics sociology space exploration theremin zoology
RSS Help Wanted: ScienceCareers
  • Baylor College of Medicine: Postdoctoral Associate - AI for Brain Tumors
  • Boston Children's Hospital - Division of Pulmonary Medicine : Faculty Position – Transformative Pulmonary Science & Genomic Engineering
  • Northwestern University: Postdoctoral Fellow
  • Kapoose Creek Bio: Neurobiology Lead – Drug Discovery (Scientist to VP level)
  • Case University Department of Physiology & Biophysics: Postdoctoral Fellow
  • Midwestern University - Downers Grove: Assistant Professor- IL- Pathology
Honorary Troubadours
  • Jonathan Coulton, Contributing Troubadour for Popular Science.
  • Laura Veirs, who knows her way around a polysyllable.
  • Thomas Dolby, godfather of scientific pop.
  • Squeaky, fact-based rock about fusion containment & rocket science.
  • Cosmos II, a.k.a. Boston University astronomer Alan Marscher.
  • Dr. Fiorella Terenzi, astrophysicist who makes music from cosmic radio sources.
  • Dr. Jim Webb, astronomy professor and acoustic guitarist.
  • Artichoke, the band behind 26 Scientists, Vols. I and II.
  • They Might Be Giants, unrelenting proponents of scientific popular song.
  • Symphonies of Science, the people who make Carl Sagan and others sing.
  • Giant Squid, doom metal about the sublime horrors of marine biology.
  • Gethan Dick,6 scientists, 6 musicians, 1 great album
Related Projects
  • Squid Pro Crow
  • Grant Bandcamp
  • Grant Soundcloud
  • Penitential Originals Playlist
https://guildofscientifictroubadours.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/01-gravity-song.mp3

 
"Is it a fact—or have I dreamt it—that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles in a breathless point of time?"
— Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, 1851

grant balfour made this website.

Member institution: Duct Tape Aesthetic Laboratories
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