here’s a batch of photos dating from last september to mid-april.
it’s a collection of snapshots that remind me how important it is to have a great family and awesome friends. :)
Archive for April, 2009
i’m beginning to wonder what else is going to show up in my room…
this zebra spider was quickly moving over the inside (!) of my insect screen.
male zebra spider (salticus scenicus)
after caroline’s comment on the naming of alfred, i decided to call this one junior.
reading up on zebra spiders, i found out that this is a male (it has strongly elongated chelicerae.1)
this species is part of the salticidae family (jumping spiders), whose jumps are very precise and cover distances up to 20 times their own body size.
most (all?) salticid spiders have 8 eyes, 4 of which are sitting on the front of the head like huge headlights. the central pair of these is bigger and is equivalent to telezoom lenses: the retinas are movable so it is possible to focus on any object, and even change the visual angle without moving the body.
the zebra spider is very common on housefronts, in houses and on rocks or gardenfences. male spiders are usually only seen between may and july.
while i was taking pictures, junior sometimes suddenly disappeared from the viewfinder, and i found him sitting on the outer rim of the camera lense. cool strategy: if something big supposedly wants to eat you, jump right at its eye!
- chelicerae are the mouth parts of arachnids. many species have chelicerae with poison glands. [↩]
nature often keeps me busy concentrating to not just stare at something with an open mouth.
in a recent class, we looked at developmental stages of plant embryos, from the zygote to a fully grown embryo inside a mature seed.
the animation below shows a young embryo that is being formed inside the ovule (entire structure). it will grow from a single cell to a complete, viable plant embryo, and the surrounding space will be filled with nutrients and storage substances that will give the little germinating seed the best chances possible.
animation: globular embryo (arrow) in an ovule of capsella bursa-pastoris.
differencial interference contrast microscopy and herr-prepared specimen
there are lots more pictures available, i’ll hope to find the time to upload them.
cartman goes to somalia to become a pirate…
this i probably one of the best south park episodes ever. :)
- wow: http://is.gd/rYqS – 47 year-old susan boyle on “britain’s got talent” #
- hilarious: http://xkcd.com/chesscoaster #
- today: 530 meters of altitude difference in just under 1 hour. #bike09 #
- RT @instantwebmeets: New From Google Labs: Similar Images and Google News Timeline http://ff.im/-2f9jW #
- http://is.gd/txke – US company ‘to harvest energy from solar rays in space’ #
- “you better learn it fast, you better learn it young, cause, someday never comes.” – c.c.r. #
- yuck, i’m jogging uphill and a suicidal fly just made its way to my stomach. estimated heart rate: 215.3 #bike09 #
- thinking about renaming my blog to “the long way to world domination” ;) #
- just found @MarsRovers, @MarsPhoenix, @MarsScienceLab and @CassiniSaturn #
- RT @MarsRovers: So many wins for Spirit and Oppy: Engineering win, science win, and don’t forget the #herebeforeoprah win. #
- [more...]
a (pretty lousy) tribute to darwin’s jubilee
20 minutes at lake resia may have been 15 too many. :)
