Science

  • The jelly hunters.

    Last Monday was one of those gorgeous Fall days that we have up here, undoubtedly one of the last of this year. Snow has fallen since then, and though it is only a small amount it is showing no signs of disappearing. The rapidly shortening daylight hours (about 20 minutes a day as we race

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  • Attack of the luminescent jellyfish

    Some time ago Kimberlee, who is the woman behind a blog from the far north of Alaska called The Buggy Side of the Dog, posted a video of a jellyfish that produced an amazing light show along rows of cilia. While on first blush these multicolour lights along the eight rows of cilia would appear

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  • Just desert?

    The area I live in is a part of the High Arctic Desert. Long term average precipitation is something in the neighbourhood of 9 inches per year, divided roughly half and half between rain and snow. Although it varies, the last few years have shown a big increase in our rainfall, something in the order

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  • The 2nd moth and me

    Seabrooke, of the Marvelous in Nature and NAMBI has the second edition of The Moth and Me up.  Once again fascinating photos of beautiful moths from all over the world can be found there. Go, don't delay.

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  • Glowworm

    After reading a couple of posts over at A Passion for Nature about Glow Worms I ended up really curious about some things. Specifically I got thinking about glowing as a strategy when you're a relatively sedate small organism. It makes sense as a strategy for a winged animal, but less so (to me) for

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  • Coffee, clones, and cartography

    I heard of a writer, whose name I don't recall, responding to a question about writer's block something along the line of "You know, my father was a trucker but he never had 'trucker's block'". And I suppose its true to a point, but just like there are days when his father probably rued climbing

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  • The Moth and Me, First Edition

    If you enjoy nature at all, a blog you shouldn't miss is The Marvelous in Nature. Seabrooke is a delightful writer and there is something to learn in each and every one of her posts.  One of her many passions is moths, an often overlooked insect.  To help spread that passion she has created a

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  • Come here – I want to see you.

    It's the 133rd anniversary of the first telephone call, made this day by Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant, Thomas Watson. Or not. Like everything the story is not so black and white, and others including Antonio Meucci worked on similar devices, with Meucci transmitting his voice over wires some twenty years earlier. Even Thomas

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  • Its not rocket science. Well okay, it is but…

    Because for some strange reason I’m bereft of anything to say, here is a very short (less than 20 second) video clip of yesterday’s launch of the now repaired rocket.  Two things to note, the motor stuttered when it fired. My first reaction was “oh no!”.  The second thing is it was cold: -36C with

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  • And the stars look very different today

    That awesome photo was taken by the talented Kennie of Tales from the Arctic, and if you knew how briefly the rocket would be in that frame, once the motor ignites, you would be even more impressed. The rest of the photos illustrating this post are hers, Leah Leah and her brother Terry shot the

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