Over the past few months, odd floating jellies have been washing up on Pacific US beaches by the thousands. With clear plastic-like sails, and bright blue flesh,…
View More The strange world of the bright blue VelellaCategory: Evolution
Whales Can Only Taste Salty
Five basic types of taste exist: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. Most people are familiar with all of these except the last, umami, which…
View More Whales Can Only Taste SaltyThe Tale of a New Phylum That Really Wasn’t
In 1986, a group of scientists from Australia and New Zealand described, in the one of the highest profile scientific journals, the existence of a…
View More The Tale of a New Phylum That Really Wasn’tFuture Shark: Living in an Ocean on the Brink
Last week Discovery Channel successfully botched yet another Shark Week. Big surprise there. Don’t get me wrong, there were some (and by some I mean…
View More Future Shark: Living in an Ocean on the BrinkA Narrative of Coral-Dwelling Barnacles With the Aid of Internet Memes
Not everything on a coral is actually a coral. Embedded into the hard coral’s surfaces are nearly 100 species of specialized barnacles—the Pyrgomatidae. New work…
View More A Narrative of Coral-Dwelling Barnacles With the Aid of Internet MemesSex, Snails, Sustenance…and Rock & Roll
One of the things in the title was not actually part of my latest published research, unless you count the soundtrack I played while…
View More Sex, Snails, Sustenance…and Rock & RollThe all seeing, all knowing, eye of upside down barnacles
Reader Jonathan W. wrote into DSN with this You guys are some of the most accessible in marine science, so I thought I pose this…
View More The all seeing, all knowing, eye of upside down barnaclesA (Not So Serious) Scientific Treatment of Mermaids
It is hard to know where to start in describing Karl Banse, professor emeritus at the University of Washington. He is one of the world’s…
View More A (Not So Serious) Scientific Treatment of MermaidsSleuthing the Largest Snail
Reason #381 that I love my job I spent this morning doing this: In the last few days I have been tracking down the world’s…
View More Sleuthing the Largest SnailThe Ever Increasing Size of Godzilla: Implications for Sexual Selection and Urine Production
In 1954 Godzilla was a mere 50 meters (164 ft). In the newest movie, Godzilla is estimated to be 150 meters (492 ft). For comparison…
View More The Ever Increasing Size of Godzilla: Implications for Sexual Selection and Urine Production