Biology

Dec 10, 20239 min read

What are Categories? Human Categorization

These words are categories, terms in which one separates the world into objects or things.

Jul 22, 202310 min read

Mixed Species Foraging in Birds

Mixed species foraging flocks of birds and other animals are common everywhere

Apr 30, 20237 min read

Mastodon Posts

Last 5 months' posts on Mastodon

Apr 2, 202312 min read

What is the Dawn Chorus?

For diurnal animals, dawn and dusk are special times.

Jan 13, 202316 min read

What is a Chair?

… and what does it have to do with a crow using a tool or the origin of life?

Nov 24, 202222 min read

Complexity, Cooperation, and the Individual

As humans, we live inside our little heads and we have this illusion that we are separate from the world and our bodies.

Aug 26, 202210 min read

Coherent Structures: Part 2 – Gels

The inside of a biological cell is considered a gel.

Jun 18, 202214 min read

Coherent Structures: Part 1, Clouds and Ocean Vortexes

Humans are excellent at seeing patterns and categorizing what they see. Some are only imagination, others form the basis of our science.

Apr 24, 202217 min read

Human Consciousness, Theory of Mind, and Smart Animals

Whether consciousness or language in humans came first is an open question.

Dec 17, 202113 min read

Monogamy in Animals

Reproduction is, of course, an important part of any animal’s life history, and mating success is a driving force in evolution.

Nov 6, 20218 min read

Is Oumuamua a seed?

Oumuamua is the first confirmed interstellar object.

Apr 25, 20219 min read

The Controversy of Cooperation: Human Political Thought

The evolution of cooperation continues to be a major controversy in biology.

Mar 2, 20215 min read

Mexican Blue Jays (Aphelocoma Ultramarina)

all of a sudden the little birds were gone and three large Mexican Blue Jays had landed in the trees

Feb 27, 20211 min read

Cave Creek Canyon, AZ

Some pictures from a trip to Cave Creek Canyon in SE Arizona in the middle of January of this year.

Feb 7, 20218 min read

Acorn Woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus)

Acorn Woodpeckers are associated with regions containing multiple species of oak tree.

Nov 16, 20207 min read

Dynamic Systems and Modeling

A dynamic system is a set of mathematical equations in which one or more variables change according to time.

Oct 13, 20207 min read

Herd Stupidity

I have been hearing the term “herd immunity” being bandied about in sometimes very dangerous ways.

Sep 6, 202010 min read

Viruses as Complex Adaptive Systems

Epidemics are as old as human cities, the first recorded mention is between 1200 BC and 800 BC in Babylon.

Aug 21, 20209 min read

Introduction to Turing Patterns

During the 1930s and 1940s a group of scientists tried to reconcile the newly rediscovered Mendelian genetics with Darwin's theory of...

Jul 19, 20205 min read

Hexagons

Hexagons are everywhere in the natural world. Most people think of honeycomb when they think of hexagonal patterns .