Cheryl's Mewsings

Today Kevin and I were up before dawn (and before the fruit bats went to bed) to catch a boat out to the Barrier Reef. It was along and very tiring day,but absolutely worth it as far as we are concerned. The boat we chose was the SeaStar. We chose it because it offered one [...]

Today Kevin and I took the train up to Kuranda, a village in the rainforest in the mountains above Cairns. We have ridden on one of the world’s great scenic railways, communed with fruit bats, eaten kangaroo pie, found a zoo dedicated to all things poisonous in Australia, and hung around with some exceptionally beautiful [...]

Hmm, teh intrawebs appear to have been busy of late. – The European Union has caught up with the fact that Wikipedia articles can tell lies about you and there’s nothing you can do about it. There is muttering about legislation. – At Knowledge Problem Mike Giberson reports on the power of anecdote. Kevin and [...]

I ought to write something more intelligent today, but I have had a frustrating evening struggling with really badly written web sites and I’m not in a good mood. In lieu of anything from me, here’s some other folks: – Sam Jordison reviews Mary Renault’s Fire from Heaven for The Guardian; – The Independent gets [...]

It has been known for some time that some species are able to regenerate entire limbs if they lose them. However, one species of jellyfish, turritopsis nutricula, goes much further; it uses the same cell re-purposing technique to turn itself back into a polyp (its immature form), thereby re-starting its life-cycle. Apparently the jellyfish use [...]

For this year’s Ada Lovelace Day I’d like to focus a little closer to home. Like many young proto-fans, I was very fond of dinosaurs while I was a kid. That may have been in part because I also happened to have an aunt who lived near Lyme Regis, one of the most famous fossil-hunting [...]

See, I take the morning off to get my hair done and all sorts of interesting stuff turns up. Here are some brief links. – Neil has tweeted this, so you have probably all seen it, but some archaeologists working in Turkey have found a temple they believe to be 11,500 years old. That’s 6,000 [...]

There are many reasons I miss California, and one of them is that when I’m there I have the option to visit Monterey Bay Aquarium. I love the ocean, and I love its creatures. And especially I love squid. So here, in lieu of a visit to Monterey, I present a video made by some [...]

Via the magnificent Peggy Kolm I learn far more about pterosaurs than I knew there was to learn, including that I must not call them “dinosaurs”. This is a must read for anyone thinking of including such creatures in a story or screenplay.

You may think that, short of a time machine, there’s no way we can answer that question. But perhaps not. A team of scientists based at the University of Florida and Oklahoma State University have been studying the communication sounds made by a wide range of different animals, and they have produced some startling conclusions. [...]

Lost world tales seem a bit silly in these days of Google Earth. Don’t we know every last corner of this little planet of ours? Apparently not. A team of scientists working in the rain forests of Papua New Guinea have discovered a whole new ecosystem with at least 40 new species of animals, including [...]

Not us, says Mycocepurus smithii. These bold little ants manage perfectly well without any males of the species, according to researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and Brazil. And being ants they certainly don’t have any problem reproducing. Goodness knows how they do it, the article doesn’t explain, but as long as they [...]

The fundies keep telling us that homosexual behavior is bad because it is “unnatural”. Just how unnatural is it? Well, according to new research from UC Davis, most species of animals exhibit some form of same-sex coupling. Details here.

I might have failed dismally to find elves in Rivendell, but Kevin has video footage of an actual genuine beaver. Cool.

Simon Bisson takes some wonderful photos. Today his LJ has sea otters. This one is my favorite.

Jeremiah Tolbert has been having a good day on teh intrawebs. He has produced this excellent analysis of what went wrong PR-wise for Amazon over the weekend, but he also tweeted referencing a very interesting post on National Geographic. Most people will, I suspect, view the use of discarded shells by hermit crabs as something [...]

The folks at The Economist seem to think it is possible.

The very helpful Bob Hole points me at this article from World Zoo Today. The research is talks about is actually the same work I blogged about a while back, but it is good to see it getting more coverage.

Here’s a bit of good news for the day. As some of you may know, that lovable psychopath, the Tasmanian Devil, has been staring extinction in the face thanks to a contagious cancer that has been decimating the population. Well according to Nature scientists studying the problem have identified a genetic marker that is common [...]

One of the oceanography web sites that I follow has just posted a top ten of marine invertebrate videos. You can see them all here, but I’ve chosen just one to share with my tentacle-loving friends. Giant octopus v shark – who would win? Nah, not even close. Don’t watch this if you are nervous [...]