New Material Can Scrub Carbon Dioxide Right Out of the Air at Unprecedented Rates




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Lizard Lips

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 This is my little sister Lila Jane and I a few years ago playing put-put.  Shes adorable.  The course has all kinds of castles and pirates, but Lila's favorite are the giant lizards.   Some adorable photos..    And now some science.   Did you know that lizards don't have lips?    Nope, no lips.  This lucky lizard was getting lots of love from a sweet little mammal, but giving none in return.  Why don't lizards have lips?  Well, they don't really need lips.  But lets start at the beginning. Lizards are reptiles, and they have been around for approximately 350 million years.  The Mesozoic is known as the Age of Reptiles for good reason.  Dinosaurs dominated the terrestrial environment, but the transition from aquatic amphibious individuals to fully terrestrial reptiles required many physiological changes in the preceding era, the Paleozoic.  If you want to be on land, but will dry out, it would be most advantageous to have skin
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Primitive

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The most contentious point of evolution we observe today is that of our own species.  Many people refuse to accept that early hominids, 'primitive' humans, are primates.  Individuals fiercely preach that 'we as a species didn't used to be monkeys!' When the word primitive is used as an adjective it frequently implies slow, ignorant, raw, primal, violent, and undeveloped..  This idea of primitive as a dirty slackjawed individual needs to be undone.  To restore dignity to 'primitive' we must take primitive out of the human context, provide a relevant timescale to understand evolution, and highlight how advanced early species were. A primitive dolphin was an ancestor to modern day dolphins.  We know dolphins to be intelligent, social, and agile predators.  They are capable of complex emotions, self recognition, and cognitive thought.  An early dolphin would have been a predator, and hunting requires certain physiological characteristics.  You
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Case of the Panda Ant

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A panda ant? I just had to find out more about this insect. Surprisingly this charismatic "ant" was difficult to find, and involved translating a lot of spanish text. Alas I discovered this "ant" is actually a wingless wasp from Chile. The specimens collected and cataloged in the Virtual Biodiversity Insectarium were hermaphrodites about 8mm in length from a near coastal region in central Chile. Pretty cute for a wasp.. but its interesting how similar it looks to this Thistledown Velvet Ant, Dasymutilla gloriosa found in Mexico, California, Texas, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. Freaky.
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