Chris Clark

false, odors are molecules small enough to volatilize -- about 12 carbon atoms max. So no, the smell of shit is not shit itself

The topic is how owls hunt prey thru snow. I learned that snow can reach up and grab sound that was just minding its own business, passing nearby (called "Grazing incidence sound absorption").

Paper is probably salvageable but my naïve model isn't. Editor replied rejecting paper w/o prejudice. I've got some work to do on it, but I'm actually excited by it all. I learned a concept w/ strong relevance to my work, and I have an idea for additional experiments in this area as a result.

Today Sr. author again replied, he'd read my paper, he provided a short critique, named additional concepts, and answered a couple questions. Don't fully understand concepts yet but googling tells me what I need to know: Weird result not so weird, and model in my paper wrong. 3/

Looked @ refs, saw senior author, googled him, realized this concept might explain my weird result, then emailed, sketching result. Got very prompt reply; realized my 'weird' result probably not so weird. Emailed editor at journal to notify, and sent Sr. author draft of submitted paper. 2/

Withdrew my 1st scientific paper today. I submitted a paper with a weird result a couple months ago. Got a citation alert on monday, citing paper said nice things abt my paper and had a paragraph on a concept I had not heard of w/ intriguing citations. 1/

Caught a bunch of birds to show to my Vertebrate Natural History class this weekend, including this gremlin

Sadly, the companion to this piece, on which males had paternity, did not work. Sean found nests in this population, to try to measure paternity. However, a litany of problems (microsats weren't variable, windstorm caused nest failure, too little DNA in the sample) mean this part didn't work.

Flight performance during courtship in male black-chinned hummingbirds, Archilochus alexandri Elaborate male display behaviours that require high locomotor performance have been hypothesized to honestly signal male quality to choosy females. Al…

Our latest paper is out: Sean Wilcox measured the 3D kinematics of Black-chinned Hummingbirds performing one of their courtship displays. Lots of evidence of flight performance tradeoffs!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Dear student, please do not put broken supplies stuff onto the shelf alongside working stuff. Sincerely, your PI

Is that a tiny snake or a gigantic fly?

Quite possibly the easiest thing I’ve ever skinned, and now our teaching collection has a new genus of mammal

A classic Far Side cartoon featuring two gorillas sitting next to each other on a limb. One gorilla is pulling a hair out of the fur of the other, and saying "Well, well - another blond hair....Conducting a little more "research" with the Jane Goodall tramp?"

RIP to the incomparable Jane Goodall, who embodied the best of humanity.

Her rich legacy included becoming friends with Gary Larson after he drew this cartoon. (She was delighted by it, even though many at the time thought it was terribly offensive to her.)

I always wonder how much the experimental exposure to noise benefits the owl by masking the prey's hearing.

false

Let’s be clear about what happened to Jimmy Kimmel Trump’s most brazen attack on free speech yet.

After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.

Spent hours being spellbound by Convolvulus Hawk Moths last night as they nectared on Nicotiana plants in my highland garden!. Up to 3 feeding at a time, their entire abdomens glowing red hot in the thermal from flight muscle use!! #teammoth @migrantmothuk.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

What's next: "these facts don't match my preconceived ideas, this professor needs to be fired!"

Postdoc advertisement!

Hi all, I'm looking to hire a Postdoc in BIOACOUSTICS for work on Owls. Your job would be to collect & analyze bioacoustics data, and write papers. 🦉🦉🦅🐦🦜🦉🦉

a close up of a fly 's head with a blurred background . ALT: a close up of a fly 's head with a blurred background .

🚨 Hiring! We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher with expertise in computational fluid dynamics and structural simulations to investigate biomechanics and mechanosensory feedback in insect flight.

Extreme agility ✔️
Morphological computing ✔️
Meshes! ✔️

jobs.rvc.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

In other words: the algo *knows* you, maybe better than you know yourself!

From the Awwducational community on Reddit: Onagadori is a historic Japanese breed of chicken, characterised by an exceptionally long tail, which consists of about 16–18 feathers, which under the righ... Explore this post and more from the Awwducational community

www.reddit.com/r/Awwducatio...

Per the #AOS quiz bowl last night: the bird with the longest tail is the Onagadori, a chicken breed from Japan

Songbirds play optical tricks to make their feather colors ‘pop’ Concealed black or white bands on feathers boost the vibrancy of bird plumage

Pick an idiom: "more than meets the eye", "beauty more than skin [feather] deep" etc.

In work led by Rosalyn Price-Waldman, we describe a hidden (and ignored!) black or white layer found below the visible surface of bird feathers which helps make bird colours so striking!

🧪 🪶 #colsci

How long can a log remain preserved in a lake? Could any have been there for 1000's of years? any chance of a dendochronology study similar to what they did with bristlecone pines?

Clinical advances of mRNA vaccines for cancer immunotherapy - PubMed The development of mRNA vaccines represents a significant advancement in cancer treatment, with more than 120 clinical trials to date demonstrating their potential across various malignancies, includi...

The NIH says that mRNA shows promise as a vaccine against multiple cancers. Is this part of the $500M research that RFK Jr canceled?

🧪

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39798545/

What did we breathe before then?!

They are, but only about 1.5x the work of one. Sometimes they’re both asleep and sometimes they’re both screaming, the moments when 2 = 1

(And if you're asking whether her job at the pizza chain displaced a normal-bodied worker on a 1:1 basis, I don't think so but am not completely sure). I don't know how much useful work they got out of her, surely some. With the cognition of a 6 YO, she's always had a guardian

A person with the cognition of a 6YO does not live independently nor have normal expenses, so I don't know what "living wage" means here. Social security (and her inheritance) support her.