MigrationsMigrationsCells, birds, and musings from a biologist 
Articles
Art in Microscopy
2009-11-24 11:11:00 Via Alex at Transcription and Translation, I see that Olympus has announced the winners to its 2009 BioScapes competition. Check them out… here’s my favorite: Credit: Dr. Alexis Lomakin – Kursk, Russia Specimen: Xenopus melanophore with microtubules Technique: Confocal Tagged: art, microscopy
Darwin and Natural Origins
2009-11-23 08:53:00 This blog post is in recognition of tomorrow’s 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin ’s book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. I’ve linked to a collection of interesting articles below the fold in honor of Darwin Day: 15 Evolution ary Gems ...
Birth of a New Species
2009-11-19 12:00:00 It’s pretty rare that biologists find an instance where speciation appears to have occurred right in front of their very eyes, but it appears that Peter and Rosemary Grant have looked closely enough over the course of a few decades to have seen it. As Allen writes on The EvolutionList, A New Species of Finch ... More About: Birth
Those Little Bustards
2009-11-13 10:19:00 A little more than a week ago, BirdLife Cyprus’s field trip officer Stavros Christodoulides was put into contact with a Larnaca-area taxidermist who reportedly had been given three Little Bustards Tetrax tetrax to stuff over the last two years. Why is that interesting, you ask? Because the presence of Little Bustards in Cyprus is news ... More About: Birds , Birding
10,000 Genomes
2009-11-11 15:59:00 This is an example of big science which could drive discoveries regarding evolution and more for years to come. A consortium of researchers are proposing in the Journal of Heredity to sequence the genomes of 10,000 vertebrate species! This would of course be a huge expansion from the already-sequenced 32 mammals and 24 nonmammalian vertebrate ... More About: Evolution
God Creates New Bird
2009-11-09 08:02:00 This is from last month in The Onion, and I would have let it go as an amusing bit of satire, but I just can’t resist seeing as how I have a well-meaning but confused creationist trying to defend the idea that an organism could be created, designed, or whatever. Or maybe he’s a concern ... More About: Creationism , Bird
Once I Counted Birds
2009-11-06 11:59:00 “Rising sea levels, birds and forests on the other side of the world – all our actions are connected.” (Cathy Fitzgerald) Tagged: video More About: Climate Change , Birds
Creationists and Birding
2009-11-04 10:17:00 Perhaps in an effort to stir the pot so to speak, Corey at 10,000 Birds raised an interesting question a few days ago: Can Creationists Be Birders? The short answer is “Of course!” For most birders, the appreciation of birds does not extend much beyond the aesthetic beauty of the birds and the ability to ... More About: Creationism , Birding
Habitat Protection in Cyprus
2009-11-03 10:18:00 I was really excited to get the quarterly edition of BirdLife Cyprus (the magazine of BirdLife Cyprus, as it’s always packed with informational goodies. One article in particular was worth sharing, by Campaigns Officer Eleni Zissimou. I wanted to quote from it, as it details the situation in Cyprus for Important Bird Areas (IBAs) and ... More About: Conservation
Evolution and You
2009-11-02 10:37:00 OVA (PBS) has an excellent set of interactive resources for learning about evolution and development, beginning with The Zoo of You and Guess the Embryo (linked to via the image at right). I simply could not pass up sharing them for their educational value. The interactive resource is part of a larger series of informational ... More About: Evolution , Development
Petition Against the 2010 Cyprus Budget
2009-10-30 10:39:00 In recent weeks researchers at the University of Cyprus and elsewhere across Cyprus have heard what the proposed 2010 national budget entails, and we’re pretty scared for our jobs now. The finance minister has delivered the budget to parliament, with proposed cuts to science funding of 75-80% for the coming year. These cuts would mean ... More About: Science , Petition , Budget
What Birds Are Trapped By Poachers?
2009-10-29 13:59:00 This is part of the series of posts Poaching in Cyprus FAQ What Birds Are Caught And Killed By Poachers? According to the first report on bird trapping levels by BirdLife Cyprus in 2002, more than 150 species of birds (39.5% of the total Cyprus check-list) have been recorded as caught with limesticks or mist-nets. (Hubbard 1967; ... More About: Conservation
Quote of the Day ? Gould and Evolution
2009-10-24 17:34:00 In the American vernacular, “theory” often means “imperfect fact”?part of a hierarchy of confidence running downhill from fact to theory to hypothesis to guess. Thus the power of the creationist argument: evolution is “only” a theory and intense debate now rages about many aspects of the theory. If evolution is worse than a fact, and ... More About: Science , Evolution , Quote Of The Day
How Many Birds Killed?
2009-10-23 11:29:00 This is part of the series of posts Poaching in Cyprus FAQ Approximately how many birds are killed seasonally? BirdLife Cyprus derives its estimates regarding the number of birds trapped from observations of the number of limesticks and nets observed during monitoring, which is done by previously described surveillance methods. The direct findings from BirdLife’s monitoring schemes ... More About: Birds
Cell Movements in Development
2009-10-21 09:36:00 Here’s an amazing video of cell divisions and movements in early embryonic zebrafish development: Mo writes about the video and the science behind it at The Neurophilosophy Blog: This reconstruction, produced by researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany using a technique called digital scanned laser light sheet fluorescence microscopy, shows the movements of ... More About: Development , Cell
How Does BirdLife Monitor Illegal Bird Trapping?
2009-10-20 11:08:00 This is part of the series of posts Poaching in Cyprus FAQ How Does Bird Life Monitor Illegal Bird Trapping? BirdLife Cyprus uses a standard surveillance scheme that has been in use since they began studying bird trapping in Cyprus in 2002. Two observers are employed to carry out field investigations aimed at monitoring illegal bird trapping activity ...
Learning by Experience
2009-10-15 11:42:00 Sometimes, the pressures of getting data just tired a person out in science. Not to mention the difficulties in learning new techniques quickly. Lately, I’ve been learning how to do RNA microinjections into 4-cell stage frog embryos. Simple, by the standards of your average embryologist, but my experience in embryology (or developmental biology, if you ... More About: Development , Experience , Learning
It?s a Small World
2009-10-13 13:07:00 Via Bioephemera, I’m reminded that the 2009 Nikon Small World competition results are out: Tagged: microscopy
Weekend Birding ? Black Storks
2009-10-12 11:17:00 Black Stork (Ciconia nigra) — A scarce passage migrant in Cyprus, it is generally seen in single figures in late April/early May and from September to November. I was lucky to see seven this past Saturday on the Akrotiri Salt Flats, and four of them again a while later, probably the same birds. Seeing seven ... More About: Black , Weekend , Birds , Birding
Bird Poaching Still a Problem in Cyprus
2009-10-06 09:15:00 Charlie beat me to it, but Martin Hellicar sent me also the latest report to the Bureau of the Bern Convention Standing Committee on Illegal trapping, killing and trade of birds in Cyprus . The report is not good (emphasis mine): The situation on the ground in the Autumn of 2009 looks very bad, first results from ... More About: Conservation , Problem , Bird
Birds in the Scope
2009-10-04 07:48:00 Found on the web, this clip has a cool feel to it, taking a view through a spotting scope with a camcorder. The effect is to give the sensation of actually being there, looking through the scope, which probably was itself shaking simply due to the wind. Moreover, the Demoiselle Cranes are just as you ... More About: Birds , Cyprus , Scope , Birding
Quote of the Day
2009-10-02 12:52:00 An excerpt from the introduction to David S. Wilcove’s book No Way Home: The Decline of the World’s Great Animal Migrations (US/UK): Cole Porter was right. Birds do it. Bees do it. Even bats with fleas do it. Tens of thousands of species migrate, and the journeys they take are as different as the creatures themselves. ... More About: Quote Of The Day
Image of the Day ? Spoonbill
2009-09-30 11:17:00 Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) – A passage migrant in Cyprus, with a few seen in wetland areas every Spring and Autumn. I saw my first two of this Autumn this past Sunday. Some background on Spoonbills: Range: The wide but fragmented breeding range of the Eurasian Spoonbill extends from Europe to northwest Africa, the Red Sea, ... More About: Birds , Birding , Image
Limesticks and Mist Nets
2009-09-28 11:20:00 This is part of the series of posts Poaching in Cyprus FAQ What are limesticks and mist nets? Songbirds are trapped (and later killed) for the illegal ambelopoulia through the use of limesticks and mist nets. Most trapping takes place in the South, and especially the Southeast, of the island during the Autumn migration, although the trappers ... More About: Conservation , Mist
Bilateral Animals
2009-09-24 12:27:00 Away from the world of birdlife and conservation advocacy, I’m still a cell/molecular/developmental biologist, and evolution is still very cool stuff to ponder. And this, is fascinating… First Evolutionary Branching For Bilateral Animals Found [ScienceDaily]: Through a laborious genetic sequencing analysis, Dunn and an international team of scientists have settled the long-standing debate and determined that acoelomorpha ...
The ?Good Days? of Ambelopoulia
2009-09-22 14:51:00 So I finally came across a literate defense of the ambelopoulia practice here in Cyprus, but it still comes up short. On the website ?????? ?????? (Cyprus Hunting), an article originally published in the Cypriot newspaper ???????????? by ?????? ?????? was reproduced, titled “?? ????? ????? ??? “???????” ???? ???? ???????” (”The good days of ... More About: Conservation , Days , Good , The Good
Migratory Bird Declines
2009-09-21 14:46:00 The majority of birds that one can see in Cyprus are passage migrants, passing through only during travels from Europe and Asia to Africa and back. Three years ago, I noted the rising awareness of a worrying migratory bird population decline in Europe. Last year, the same conclusion was reached in the State of the ... More About: Bird
Quote of the Day
2009-09-18 17:29:00 Biodiversity and endangered species are two topics on my mind today, along with a common response from Cypriots with regard to poaching and ambelopoulia here. That response being, “So what?” With that, here is a quote (okay, more of an excerpt) from David Quammen’s book Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction, ... More About: Quote Of The Day , Biophilia , Quote
What Ambeloupoulia Is
2009-09-16 15:11:00 This is part of the series of posts Poaching in Cyprus FAQ What is ambelopoulia? mbelopoulia is a controversial dish of pickled or grilled songbirds served in some Cypriot restaurants. Warbler species such as Blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla), and old world flycatchers such as European Robins (Erithacus rubecula) are the most prized, although any small bird of about ... More About: Conservation
Responding to Bird Poachers in Cyprus
More articles from this author:2009-09-15 09:54:00 This is part of the series of posts Poaching in Cyprus FAQ What can you do to help change public opinion in Cyprus? Some people from outside Cyprus, and especially western/northern Europe and the US, will express the personal reaction on seeing that so many birds are being killed on Cyprus by asking for a boycott of ... More About: Conservation , Bird 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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