Updated 21/08/14 Excuse the poor quality photograph (above), but I only had my phone available and I could not get the autofocus to acknowledge that the spider was the subject of the photograph, not the vegetation in the background. This is the biggest spider I have seen in my garden in the time I have …
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Category:Biology
Small Intestine…
I have had fun playing Frankenstein with this game from BBC Science. You have to rotate the organs so that they are aligned and then put them into the body in the correct location. I only managed 58% – will you do better? The small intestine looked pretty weird to me but it connected itself …
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What?
What can you tell me about the animal pictured below?
Corylus Cornuta For Tearless Teething…
“…it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” Macbeth Act 5 Scene 5 I often hear it said that ‘even a child of 12’ knows enough science to dismiss some of the extraordinary assertions of those selling unusual cures for diseases. I know you and so I think …
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The Trouble With Two Brains…
Just a little video (actually rather a long 10 minute one!) because Plutonium199 mentioned the corpus callosum in answer to a question on a previous post about the brain. The corpus callosum is the part of the brain that enables the right and left hemispheres to communicate. If it is damaged or removed (for example …
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Ah, Drums Again…
I love drumming and drummers. I was looking for Mah Na Mah Na by the Muppets (as you do) and found a video of Animal ‘battling’ Buddy Rich. Mr Rich was one of the greatest jazz drummers of all time and his soloing was the stuff of legend. He definitely gives Animal a run for …
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Wiltshire Gazette & Herald…
When I am visiting my parents in Wiltshire, my main regional paper is the Wiltshire Gazette & Herald. There are other more local ones but this is the one that we have always taken. When I was very young I used to scour its pages for crimes or mysteries in my nearby villages that I …
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Monkey Morals…
Where does our moral behaviour come from? It’s a question that is often asked and discussed in philosophy classes but a lot of work is also done on the subject by biologists. As a member of a social species that evolved in groups, evolution will have played a part in the development of the moral behaviour …
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Monkey Morals…
It is often said that religious belief is necessary to offer a framework for moral behaviour. One of the suggested functions of religion, and one reason religious instruction is given to children, is to provide a system of morals. I was brought up in a religious environment, went to religious schools and spent a good deal of my youth …
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More Methane…
Methane (CH4) is the simplest hydrocarbon molecule and the gas that we burn in the lab. It is produced when organic material rots or is fossilised. As natural gas it is one of our three major fossil fuels used to offer a source of energy for power stations such as Didcot B power station. Like all hydrocarbons, methane …
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