Man is but a worm

I’ve had a lot of life changes since my last activity her. I’ve gotten married, defended my PhD, and moved to Lund, Sweden to do my postdoctoral research with Dan-Eric Nilsson. I’m changing gears a little bit from my mantis shrimp, but I’m staying in vision research. I will now be working on some slightly [...]

Nov 2013

I guess this means my study animal is mainstream now?

Mantis shrimp have always been the coolest animal in the universe (don’t bother arguing this point), but now everyone finally seems to be aware of this fact. All it took was being feature by one of my favorite webcomics, The Oatmeal. This is a great piece of pop-science art. Sure it is rife with misconceptions, [...]

Apr 2013

What mantis shrimp field work really looks like:

These photoS and several others were taken by Jason Isley, who carefully arranged miniatures underwater in amusing scenes alongside sea life. Check out the whole set at the Daily Mail. Hat tip to Zen at NeuroDojo.

Jan 2013

Some shots from the field 2012: Critters

Here is a collection of critter shots from Lizard Island last field season.

Jan 2013

Some shots from the field 2012: Places

Here is a collection of photos from my most recent field trip to Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef last summer. I neglected to post them at the time since I was on a bit of a hiatus. As things look right now, I will have one last trip to this special place this [...]

Jan 2013

Peacock

It’s been a while, but I’ve gotten the itch to get back to writing here. Lets jump back in with a bang! Last month. I finally got a hold of the species of mantis shrimp that many would consider the crown jewel of Stomatopoda – Odontodactylus scyllarus. Personally I think O. scyllarus is a little [...]

Jan 2013

“Go it Charlie”

Happy (slightly belated) Darwin Day! To celebrate, here is a cartoon of Darwin I first saw when visiting Down House last summer. It was drawn by Darwin’s friend and classmate at Cambridge, Albert Way, in 1832. I think the drawing quite nicely speaks to Darwin’s enthusiasm for natural history, and especially beetle collecting, well before [...]

Feb 2012

Presenting at SICB tomorrow

I will be presenting a talk about my research tomorrow at SICB in Charleston. If you are at the meeting and want to see what I’ve been doing instead of updating this blog, come by Room 1 at 1:20. I will also be a the Crustacean Society social tomorrow evening. Come say hello!

Jan 2012

Spectrum of Life

Here’s my attempt at creating a blog meme. Arrange a selection of your nature photos according to their color in the light spectrum. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of anything purple, so I left that out. Also, feel free to be a bit subtler than I was. The arrangement can also tell some sort [...]

Oct 2011

Compounding

Who can tell me what this classic figure is demonstrating? This is a lead in to a much more involved post that I am working on for next week.

Oct 2011