Skeptics, we need your help! There are only three days left in our Skepchick Challenge to raise money for scientists and skeptics to come to SkepchickCON! If you help us meet our goal of $1,000 by Monday, March 11, you will not only bring some kickass science education and entertainment to the Con, you’ll also get a bonus: Psychic readings by Surly Amy live on camera in hilariously spooky gl... »
Finally, signs of spring are beginning to show here in New England. Birds are singing, and hopefully some of our tiny, shiny little migrants will be returning soon. There is a Citizen Science project you can participate in that will help document the migration of hummingbirds in the spring: Starting March 15, 2013, the Audubon Society needs citizen scientists to track, report on, and follow the sp... »
Last year I wrote a post about Spider-man, and how his anatomy may not be…err, as PG as one might wish. In less than 500 words, I tried to write an entertaining post about how actual spider anatomy is not analogous to Spider-Man the superhero’s anatomy. I did not expect to enrage Fanboys all over the internet quite as much as I did, but over all counted it as a science communication wi... »
You might have seen some news coverage of a Sasquatch genome paper recently: “A team of eleven scientists with expertise in genetics, forensics, pathology, biochemistry, and biophysics has sequenced three whole nuclear genomes from a novel, contemporary species of hominin in North America. The study, “Novel North American Hominins, Next Generation Sequencing of Three Whole Genomes and Associ... »
You might have heard of Kopi Luwak or Cat Poop Coffee, an Indonesian coffee made from beans digested and excreted by civet cats. I love coffee. I mean, I LOVE COFFEE. I would inject it if I could. But…no. No to civet cat poop, for a wide variety of reasons. But insect poop tea? Well, actually, that sounds pretty interesting. I noticed this new publication this week: Xu L., Pan H., Lei Q., Xi... »
In my defense, I had a pretty shit day yesterday. The kind of day that was so shit, it could not be made happier by writing a new Bad Chart Thursday, which has quickly become one of my favorite features on Skepchick. No, it was the kind of day that could only be made better by playing hours and hours of FTL. Yes, I know I’ve already beaten it on the hardest setting (the innocent-sounding ... »
Early this morning, I posted a critique of a post by Harriet Hall on SBM discussing the complexities of sex and gender. For those who may have missed previous posts, here’s a quick set of links in the order in which the posts occurred: “Gender Differences and Why They Don’t Matter So Much” – Harriet Hall at SBM. “Why Gender Differences Don’t Matter (and Other Myths)” – Me here at Skepchick. “Sex, ... »
The internets have been abuzz with this photo today (Click for the full size version). It’s a photo of an aluminum cast of an ant nest made by Walter Tschinkel, a Florida entomologist–but there haven’t been a lot of additional details. The nest you are looking at is one of a Florida harvester ant, and appeared with many other photos and casts in a 2004 paper about nest architectu... »
