Ecology & Zoology

Sometimes natural is not good. Actually, a lot of the time natural is bad but we live in in era where anti-science types have a 'natural' fetish, believing anything natural is good. But not always. Weeds are natural yet if you leave them alone ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Jun 12 2012 - 12:08am

Insects Can Leave Voicemail- Using Plants

A few years ago, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) researchers discovered that soil-dwelling and above-ground insects are able to communicate with each other using the ragwort plant as a kind of telephone. Insects eating plant roots change the ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 12 2012 - 5:15pm

That Squid On Your Plate Could Inseminate Your Mouth

I'm here today to talk about a very strange paper: Penetration of the oral mucosa by parasite-like sperm bags of squid: a case report in a Korean woman. This study, published in February in the Journal of Parasitology (?!), presents the tale of a wom ...

Article - Danna Staaf - Jun 14 2012 - 11:56am

Nobody Got Pregnant From Eating Squid

Honestly, media. *polishes obnoxious academic spectacles* Is it really that difficult to comprehend the difference between "inseminate" and "impregnate"? On Thursday I reported that a woman's mouth had been inseminated by a squid ...

Article - Danna Staaf - Jun 16 2012 - 3:30pm

Uroptychus Cartesi- New Species Of Crab Found Off The Coast Of Spain

You'd think European waters would be pretty well documented by now but nature always has surprises. Uroptychus cartesi is a crab in the 5-7 cm (including claws) size range that has been found at nearly a mile deep in the underwater mountains facing t ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 20 2012 - 12:00pm

Squid Spermatophores: The Movie!

The fun folks of Nerd Nite San Francisco invited me to straighten out all the hilarious squid sperm news with a mini-talk last Wednesday. I was honored! Nerd Nite SF: Squid Spermatophore mini-talk by Danna Staaf, 6/20/12 from nerdniteSF on Vimeo. ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Jun 25 2012 - 6:58pm

Giant Pythons Take Over The World

Many people have an uncomfortable feeling about snakes and the bigger they are the more uncomfortable the people become. So when people are watching a TV show, on a channel that is supposedly a nature/fact channel, and they begin to describe the take over ...

Blog Post - Bill Boesenberg - Jun 28 2012 - 4:23pm

Long Beach Overrun with Young Squid; Fishing Hand Eats One

"That's something you don't see every day, Chauncey." "What's that, Edgar?" "A man eating a whole live squid mere weeks after news reports that eating whole squid can lead to mouth insemination." "But in th ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Jul 3 2012 - 9:42am

Saltwater Crocodiles Return To Darwin

Crocodiles and humans are natural competitors. In all our history they have been there, silently waiting in the waters of our shared world, and only in our most recent history have we had the wisdom to see their worth, magnificence and need for protection ...

Blog Post - Bill Boesenberg - Jul 5 2012 - 11:41pm

Nematode Worm C. Elegans Muscles Improve During Spaceflight

Spaceflight is tough on humans, due to weightlessness and radiation exposure. But if it bothers the nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, they aren't talking. Researchers writing in Nature Scientific Reports say they were interested in seeing how C. ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 11 2012 - 2:00pm