Cephalobotics

Cephalobotics

The Economist has published a highly amusing (at least to me) and informative article about "the new robotics," inspired by the diversity of natural forms: UNTIL recently, most robots could be…
Nutmeg Liquor

Nutmeg Liquor

“I am going Nuts” introduced a misunderstood gem, the Nutmeg, and mentioned the problem of the nuts being very diverse, as you can see in the picture below, and thus a little difficult to dose. One…
Locust Swarms And Twitter

Locust Swarms And Twitter

Twitter and Facebook have been studied extensively and have provided some insights into the formation and maintenance of human social networks. But could this approach be adapted to gain…
Lolplankton

Lolplankton

A comment thread on my last post has gotten me thinking about the summer of 2009. I lived in La Jolla for a couple of months, sorting baby squid out of old preserved plankton tows, and then…
How Rice Might Easily Adapt To Climate Change

How Rice Might Easily Adapt To Climate Change

Rice accounts for nearly half the daily calories for the world's population but crops are at risk from tsunamis and tidal surges and perhaps future unknown effects of climate change.   But…
Help Solve Global Warming By Using More Wood

Help Solve Global Warming By Using More Wood

Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow so forests are a completely natural way to offset climate change - but rather than let them passively sit there, the amount of carbon…