Monthly Archives: August 2018

Signs of Summer 13: Electric Spiders!

(Click to access an audible version of this blog) (I want to thank Robert Steffes who passed along a recent Atlantic Monthly article about the electrical nature of spider’s webs. That article led to the development of this post). Deborah … Continue reading

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Signs of Summer 12: Biocontrol of Insects

(Click to access an audio version of this blog!) About a year ago (Signs of Spring 13, May 13, 2017) I wrote about the proposed use of the CRISPR gene editing system and a “gene drive” replication amplification system to … Continue reading

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Signs of Summer 11: The Biology of Smell

(Click to access an audible version of this blog) Almost every living organism can detect chemicals in its environment. From our large, complexly structured, vertebrate perspective, we call this chemosensory ability the “sense of smell” (or, more precisely, “olfaction”). The … Continue reading

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Signs of Summer 10: To Anthropocene or not to Anthropocene?

(Click here for an audio version of this blog!) One of the things about science that puts many people off is the incredible number of words that you need to learn to be able to talk about (or listen to) … Continue reading

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Signs of Summer 9: Something is Missing

(Click to access an audible version of this blog) It always takes me a long time to notice that something is not where (or when) it should be. I am pretty quick to see new things right when they occur … Continue reading

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