A good day for fun science updates

[rebeccmeister]

First, have you yet read the Wired article about the new grasshopper species discovery? If you think it's tl;dr* watch the video first, then backtrack and read about this interesting line of work. It's somewhat relevant to me because I'm studying a wing-dimorphic cricket species - crickets are also Orthopterans, and "wing dimorphism" means that, within the species, there's variation in wing length and flight capability - as described in the Wired article, there have been important changes in flight capability in grasshoppers over evolutionary time.

Next, this piece on publicly prominent scientists should provide food for thought, regardless of how you feel about Richard Dawkins. It's pretty sad that most Americans don't know about the many other awesome women and minority scientists doing amazing things these days.

And lastly, I'll toot my own tiny horn briefly. I've updated my leafcutter ant research methods album over on flickr. I still feel I have a responsibility to the taxpaying public to share how I do the science that it funds. Besides, it's cool.



*too long; didn't read