a few days ago, we returned from our botanical excursion to mallorca, the largest of the balearic islands.
i had heard stories from previous excursions to this island, so my expectations were high; but even these high expectations were exceeded: apart from a great group of botanists, the biological diversity was (is) simply stunning.

there will be a separate preview of pictures. for now, here are two group photos: one was taken near the cubre dam, the other on the island’s highest (legally accessible) peak, puig massanella.

botanical excursion to mallorca – group photo: christian, denise, marianne, konrad, chiara, juergen, daniel, marianne, andrea, sigi, markus & hanspeter

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got a chance to see the new kaufhaus tyrol shopping center a few days ago.

panorama: the new kaufhaus tyrol shopping center

i must say, i’m very impressed – it looks awesome.
also: all the sprinkler heads are very handy control points in the panorama creating process. :)

a magical view of herzog-otto-strasse, taken from just below the golden roof:

panorama: herzog-otto-strasse, innsbruck

Old boy Sass farewelled.

Sadly we euthanized one of our Stewart Island founder kakapo, Sass, yesterday. Sass had been of relatively poor condition for the last few years and has gone down hill steadily over the last 3 months.

He was extremely light weight, had developed cataracts in both eyes recently, and in the last few days appeared to have been suffering from kidney failure.

As an adult of unknown age, Sass was found in April 1980 and transferred to Codfish Island in July 1987 (along with Nora, he was first to be transferred to Codfish).

He had fathered 6 chicks – ‘Robbie’, ‘Palmersan’, ‘Te Kingi’, ‘Blake’, ‘Kumi’ and ‘Kuihi’. He also had 3 grand-chicks through Kuihi – ‘Awarua’, ‘Waihopai’ and ‘Hokonui’, so his genetics are relatively well represented in the population.

Birds of an unknown age account for 34% of the kakapo population. Seeing some age related mortality is not unexpected, but reminds us of how rare and precious the kakapo are.

Sass’s passing takes the world kakapo population to 123. He will be greatly missed, but his legacy lives on.

source: kakaporecovery.org.nz

update: back in 2005, my friend matthias rohaut was lucky enough to meet sass at his feeding station, and he was also able to take pictures. (matthias got to see more kakapo than any of us). he also gave me permission to post them here, so i’ve uploaded two photos.

here are some photos of my last-minute trip to turkey – home country of the kebab, baklava, and – probably not – the turkey.
even though we were based in a tourist-oriented area outside the city of side (not far from antalya), we did get to see some of the more authentic turkey, and marketers generally backed away when we greeted them in their own language.
the weather wasn’t too dry, and we stayed at an all inclusive hotel, but who’s going to complain, with a total price of 250 € including air fares?

does anybody else have trouble not imagining a member of the avian group when they hear “turkey”?
mmmhh, turkey!
 

photos: a short visit turkey

about one year ago, i took part in a laboratory class where we learned various methods related to artificial plant reproduction.
one of the exercises was to create meristem cultures from a carnation plant (dianthus sp.), under sterile conditions.

from each shoot of the plant, we removed the developing leaves on the tip, almost down to the meristem (the few primary cells that constantly divide into more cells). we stopped the exraction at the smallest primordial leaves, placed the tiny piece of plant material on culture medium (in test tubes, under sterile conditions), added a cap to the tube, and sealed it with parafilm.
the following weeks, it was positioned beneath a daylight lamp, and after the experiment was finished, i asked if i could take one specimen home with me.

considering that it’s an almost completely closed system, i didn’t expect little william the carnation to last this long: the plant grew and grew until it reached the top, and i’ve just recently placed it upside down, so that it could grow “upwards” again.

two notes:
most people don’t consider that, in darkness, plants need to “breathe” just as animals do (as in: use O₂ and release CO₂), so the gas contents are probably still OK, if only limited. (also, i’m assuming that parafilm isn’t able to stop slow diffusion of gas molecules completely.)

supposedly getting low on fresh nutrients, the plant seems to have given up on the lower leaves so that it could develop new ones. the old, withered leaves do not decompose since there aren’t any microorganisms in the system.

photos: sterile plant culture