Anjan Contractor’s 3D food printer might evoke visions of the “replicator” popularized in Star Trek, from which Captain Picard was constantly interrupting himself to order tea. And indeed Contractor’s company, Systems & Materials Research Corporation, just got a six month, $125,000 grant from NASA to create a prototype of his universal food synthesizer.
it’s happening
it’s finally happening
(x)
thank you science
unidentified species of Rove Beetle (family Staphylinidae)
- Bijiashan, Shihding, Taipei County, Taiwan
(photo: Shipher Wu)
Various lifestages of the butterfly Melanitis phedima polishana
- family Nymphalidae, wingspan of up to 7.5 cm, found throughout East and SE Asia, larvae feed on grass. (note the small ant mimic jumping spider talking to the caterpillar in the 2nd picture).
I appreciate that there are more cat pictures than butterfly pictures in this set.
I want desperately to take a day off and go looking for insects, but if anything I need to buckle down and work harder, not give myself MORE time off.
Rose Myrtle Lappet Moth (Trabala vishnou guttata)
- family Lasiocampidae, subspecies endemic to Taiwan, species found throughout East Asia, males are green, females are yellow, larvae feed on the leaves of Poplar trees.
(photos: T/2/3L - Shipher Wu; 3R - Logan Lai; B - Thomas Brown)
Hello, darlings! Because I am grumpy and annoyed with flickr’s new site update, and because RedBubble has been more trouble than it’s worth, I am opening up a new SmugMug Portfolio for my photos! I’ll still keep my flickr account as a backup for my images, but I am closing down my RedBubble store permanently in favor of the new site. :)
Please drop by! Buy a postcard for your mom, if your mom is into spiders or owls or lizards,
Mamoru, a mantis character made for a commission (tenseicat @ Fur Affinity) based on this reference:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8273342/
I’m extremely pleased with it. It was definitely the most complicated plush I have made to date and took me a hella long time but it looks very true to the reference I think and it was a good experience for me.
check out this MANtis that my partner crocheted!!
Evolution shapes new rules for ant behavior
Stanford Biologist Deborah M. Gordon’s decades-long study of the collective behavior of harvester ant colonies has provided a rare real-time look at natural selection at work.
by Bjorn Carey
In ancient Greece, the city-states that waited until their own harvest was in before attacking and destroying a rival community’s crops often experienced better long-term success.
It turns out that ant colonies that show similar selectivity when gathering food yield a similar result. The latest findings from Stanford biology Professor Deborah M. Gordon’s long-term study of harvester ants reveal that the colonies that restrain their foraging except in prime conditions also experience improved rates of reproductive success.
Importantly, the study provides the first evidence of natural selection shaping collective behavior, said Gordon, who is also a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment…
(read more: Stanford University) (image: NSF)
