Ecology & Zoology

Last winter I noticed a few ants wandering around the bathroom. I suppose most folks would run for some bug spray or call the exterminator, but not me – I went to buy more film for my camera!! I…

I've got nothing at all against chefs. I'm just suggesting that when a restauranteur and TV personality says something like “Squid is now the dominant species in the Pacific,” Cosentino says. “The…

While last year's market squid bounty continues into the 2011 fishing season, the market squid's larger cousin is playing hard to get. The Humboldt or jumbo squid--you remember, our hungry friends…

With all the huge (and sadly tragic, in some cases) storms we have had in mostly the middle to eastern portions of the United States this Spring, many opportunities arise to see natural events rarely…

Last year, the market squid off California were so abundant that the fishery actually reached its quota for the first time in history. Normally, squid fishing season is April 1st to March 31st--yep,…

A new paper in Nature says the most widely used methods for calculating species extinction rates are "fundamentally flawed" and overestimate extinction rates by as much as 160 percent. Obviously…

As soon as you start studying fisheries science, you hear about the importance of getting fishermen and scientists to talk to each other. It's a truism once you think about it--fishermen know a…

Many people are confident that their dogs and cats can sense impending earthquakes. Could squid provide humans with the same service? Let's examine the "connections" that have been drawn between…

Over 100 million years ago, late Mesozoic forests were chock full of a diverse group of plants of the class Equisetopsida, though only one genus, Equisetum, commonly called scouring rush or horsetail…

Welcome to the month of May! The time of Beltane and Walpurgis Night, flowers and maypoles and springtime dancing. Want a May Basket? Well, um, how about a nice gall instead? Dave Hubble zooms in…