Science Snapshot: Seahorse

As a kid, the seahorse was always my favorite fish. Whenever I visited an aquarium I made it a point to see the seahorses first. My childhood exuberance for the seahorse continues to this day. I hope you enjoy my recent seahorse photos from my latest aquarium trip! But what made the seahorse so appealing […]

Science Snapshot: Sea Star

The above image may look like a scaly white mouth opening up to reveal tons of tiny bubblegum pink tongues, but it is actually a starfish! More specifically, this is the ventral (stomach) side of the starfish arm. I took this picture at an aquarium here in Utah, the Loveland Living Planet aquarium. When I […]

Deep Sea Pharmaceuticals

Welcome to Deep Sea Pharmaceuticals! We are happy to serve you and, like our motto states, we know that ‘the ocean holds all the keys to healing whatever ails you.’ I know what you’re thinking, “what’s wrong with my prescription drugs that come from terrestrial plants and animals? Why should I believe your ocean drugs […]

Evolutionary Mash-up: Australian Box Jellyfish

*To gain a greater appreciation for this post, be sure to read the previous “Evolutionary Mash-ups” posts about giraffe necks, dragonfly wings, and chameleon tongues. I take the best adaptations natural selections has to offer and combine them into one animal. At the end of this post I will combine all four “Evolutionary Mash-ups” animals […]

Evolutionary Mash-ups: Veiled Chameleon Tongue

*To gain a greater appreciation for the post, be sure to read the previous “Evolutionary Mash-ups” posts about giraffe necks and dragonfly wings. I take the best adaptations natural selections has to offer and combine them into one animal. At the end of the month, check out my post where I combine all four “Evolutionary […]

Evolutionary Mash-ups: Dragonfly Wings

Never have I looked more stupid than when I tried to catch a dragonfly in a net. Bug catching has been a hobby of mine for a few years now. One summer, as I was out catching bugs in the mountains, a beautiful blue darner dragonfly zipped in and out of my peripheral field of […]

Evolutionary Mash-ups! Giraffe Necks

Whether young or old, we humans have been enthralled with the amazing world of animals. We go to the zoo to see animals in person, we watch animals in their natural habitat on the television, we even watch action films like X-men where the human heroes have interesting mutations, most of which may well be […]

Rock + Plant + Animal = Coral?

As a junior high science teacher, I teach a wide variety of scientific subjects. This year, we have already covered plants, animals, and rocks. When we learned about plants and their unique ability to perform photosynthesis (a process that converts Carbon Dioxide and water into food for the plant using sunlight as its energy source), […]

The Christmas Tree

Putting up the Christmas tree every year can be a hassle, but it truly would not be Christmas in my home without one. Humanity has used fir trees (or similar conifers) as part of their celebration of Christmas for thousands of years. So even though there are few things in this world as frustrating as […]

This Planet’s Ultimate Survivalist: The Water Bear!

Last week, in commemoration of the harsh cold winter season, I wrote about an organism that could not only survive incredible temperature extremes but could also keep on ticking after nuclear warfare, unfathomable amounts of UV radiation, and even a zombie apocalypse. Endospore forming bacteria would win almost all survivalist battles. However, today I want […]