Electric eels are puppet masters
New Scientist pulls back the curtain on how electric eels “remote control” their prey, freezing them right next to their hungry mouths: The experiments that […]
marine biology
Fish researchers: “Our mirrors have become USELESS!”
Nature breaks the news to behaviorists – and this is more important than it might seem – that fish don’t really think mirrors are uninvited […]
Blue whales have recovered, just about.
It’s taken quite a while, but AP can finally report that blue whales off the coast of California have finally reached pre-whaling-industry levels: Researchers previously […]
Science Art: Echinodermata, Plate V detail, by James A. Grieg, 1921
This is the heart (and brain and pretty much anything that’s not an arm) of a brittle star, as sketched for Echinodermata, a study of […]
Science Art: The Common Angler (Lophius piscatorus) (After W. Von Wright in Smitt), 1905.
Click to embiggen This is from the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections in the Biodiversity Library. I bet there’s all *kinds* of things in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous […]
Four years an expectant mother. Eight arms to hug them.
Science Daily reveals the record-breaking brooding period of the deep-sea octopus: In May 2007, during one of these surveys, the researchers discovered a female octopus […]
Science Art: Holocentre à grosses épines, from Histoire Naturelle des Poissons, Volume 3, 1828
A Holocentrus hastatum, or Sargocentron hastatus, or red soldier fish. They have big spines, you see. This one comes from A Natural History of Fish, […]
The scientific secrets of whale earwax.
You want to learn about the hidden history of the ocean? Look within, Nature says… within the earwax of a mighty blue whale: The team, […]
Science Art: Hover Whales (from Suggestions to the keepers of the U.S. life-saving stations, light-houses, and light-ships; and to other observers, relative to the best means of collecting and preserving specimens of whales and porpoises. By Frederick W. True.)
Image originally from Suggestions to the keepers of the U.S. life-saving stations, light-houses, and light-ships; and to other observers, relative to the best means of […]
Science Art: Doris, from Le Larousse Pour Tous, 1909.
“Genre de mollusques gastropodes, renfermant des animaux nus, de touts les mers.” A popular genre of gastropods. Also the name of a boat (a dory, […]
Slime couture.
This is a few weeks old by now, but still in fashion in a gorgeously disgusting way. Science News celebrates the creation of fine fabrics […]
Psychedelic sponges. Why?
Vice, of all publications, examines the strange chemistry of the first-known psychedelic sponges… trying to figure out why sponges would make something as potent as […]
Giant squid CLONE ARMY. Or, well, at least a tight family.
BBC reveals that giant squid, no matter where they’re found or how different from each other they look, are all genetically really close to one […]
Science Art: Frutti di Mare, by W.F. Phillips, 1974.
Click to embiggen I couldn’t resist this when I saw the name of the book it came from: Italian Food, by Elizabeth David. It’s an […]
So why is red tide killing our manatees?
NBC News is wondering what’s behind the massive blooms of marine microorganisms that are killing so many manatees: Florida wildlife officials report that 149 of […]