There's magic in the air...

…and possibly in these pouches packed with promise. 

Ills they are alleged to address:

anemia, gastritis, gall bladder problems, ovary issues,

menopause, lung ailments, gout, lagging circulation,

liver troubles, unhappy colons,

and, of course, cancer.

I certainly hope it is true.

Given all the things plant compounds can do for and to us,

there's certainly plenty of potential.

It's so surprising when you learn of non-human animals

using plants to aid themselves (other than eating them),

like rats who line their nests with rosemary.

Rats with rosemary-festooned nests have fewer fleas

than rats that eschew the pungent herb.

That is how I learned to decorate the coop w/rosemary.

Which means I learned it from rats.

I hope the rats out there know, somehow,

that their botanical knowhow is responsible for my happy hens.

Might not be magic, but it's pretty amazing to me.

xoxobb

800th post potpourri

classic bb photo of yore: taken whilst upside down & mega happy

at Mt. Rainier NP, hiking w/ marvelous friends.

So, not that I think numbers like this really matter, but

800 posts?!?

Apparently "biobabbler" was apt.

FUN combo of teddy bear sunflowers & pole beans I planted.

Frozen whimsey. Heaven.

I'd been thinking about what this one might be,

like a potpourri of random bio-dorky things

I've been doing & seeing & thinking lately.

'Cause that's what this blog is, really.

freakishly HUGE hole in our heads,

a.k.a. the sinus cavity. FREAKS me OUT.

But, then I randomly clicked on "insert image" in blogger,

and it brought up ALL the photos from this blog.

Trip down memory lane.

Amazing post-storm sunset after cruising Yosemite.

So, I'll share my recent things later.

For today, a random smattering of previous postage.

wetland outside New Orleans, weirdo lighting heaven.

Hi! 

Western toad at our house. Note wee size via clover comparison. *sigh*

& the 4 letter code for it is (was) WETO so we biodorks call it "wee-toe". It is wee.

bb training volunteers in rocky intertidal monitoring by doing a demo plot.

At Cabrillo NM years ago. Upgraded water wear since then. =) & now I am a volunteer.

Bambi in the yard! teeter, teeter....

Point Reyes National Seashore. Heart. Majorly.

beloved coworkers' tootsies. Good shoes for Rattlesnake Land.

Note snake gaiters on lower right. Smart. But, HOT.

Freaky things lakes do when they freeze. Had no idea. Tenaya Lake, Yosemite.

k.

Thank you all for checking in and commenting, etc., over the years.

You are are the BEST!

800 hugs.

bb

Carrizo Plain: would you like pronghorn with that?

Wanted to see the Carrizo Plain,

a super dry, somewhat elevated (2,000 feet-ish)

landscape that is home to the San Joaquin kit fox

(a species I've surveyed for many times w/o ever seeing)

and lots of other listed species.

It's a storied place, especially if you're a biologist in California.

Just mention that giant grassland, and a biologist's brain says

"oooooooh...."

Had no ambitions to see any specific wildlife or vegetation,

tho' we did plan a stop to check out the San Andreas fault.

So what are those creatures in the above photograph?

Pronghorn!

And we drove right by them.

Then Bear said "do you want to go back to see them?"

"Yes, and there was a sign for a bathroom back there."

"But it's 1.5 miles away."

"We're 30 miles from anything else!"

bb had to go (pardon).

And this landscape has SHORT short grass,

and is totally flat. NO cover.

Challenging even for an experienced (tho' bashful) field chick like me.

Here was the sign that made my heart go pitter pat:

See? The squirrel backed me up: "I'm 50 miles from nowhere."

Normally I'd be psyched about the kitfox reference,

but I was temporarily obsessed.

This cute little store was so isolated,

the dingdongs were still $1. Sold.

And the lady behind the counter was very happy

to chat about gardening, etc.

I think they don't get many customers.

Took a while to leave. =)

So, upon our return to the main road, we saw this:

pronghorn chewin' & chillin'

eep!

They'd moved MUCH closer to the road during our detour.

It's only the 3rd (or so) time I've seen them.

The first time in California.

Sooo coool!

Buns I'd happily gaze at.

Pardon the barbed wire; I didn't want to scare them off

by jumping out of my car to get above the fence line.

The lady at the store said that the farmers are fine with the pronghorn,

just plant extra wheat, and there's water at the wheat fields,

so the pronghorn hang out there.

All the time. =)

Good gig.

And if you are a spectacular running machine,

it's okay to live in a place with NO cover.

You can virtually outrun ANYTHING,

given a few steps to gather up speed.

For more on that, I highly recommend
Why We Run, by Bernd Heinrich.

It investigates why humans run,
whether they're built for it (v. just walking),
and devotes an entire chapter to
the spectacular endurance machine that is the pronghorn.

And whether or not Homo sapiens
could actually run that creature down.

Fascinating stuff.

And just one of the many exciting things the Carrizo Plain houses.
Glad we went. Gotta go back.

xobb 

2 photos = not quite summer yet...

European-paper-wasp-sicle, 5 days ago.

biobabbler-sicle, 10 minutes ago

Reynaud's rearing it's yellow-purple head.

It's not summer YET.

=)

But it's pretty nice(-sicle)!

bb

the wonder that is the human body: video demo

 
another inspiring view of what people can do with their body and imagination

Break ton Neck from Alex Yde on Vimeo.

xobb

I wanna' live! And other thoughts on the flu

 
I'll post something normal once I'm better enough that checking e-mail isn't disorienting.

Just moments ago I looked at the list of messages in my inbox. And stared.

"Uh...how do I do this? Which one do I read first? The bold ones, right? And why are they wiggling?"

Eating 2 meals in 3 days is NOT good for your IQ. Or your eyesight, apparently.

FYI, if you find yourself in your undies, curled up in the fetal position on bathroom tile at 3 a.m., and then ask (between moans and "ow"s) for a pillow and a blanket, you are not well.

This is the first time the flu has ever scared me. I can see how it's killed so many people.

Jeeze.

So teetering around the house today, trying to get re-oriented to my life. Not exaggerating.

Had to ask Bear yesterday "When was I really sick, was it last night?" "No, the night before." "Oh." I really had no idea. That's a new symptom.

I feel like I must have fried some brain cells, 'cause I keep not knowing what to do.

"What do I usually do when I'm getting over the flu?"
(p.s. imagine long pauses between each thought, with NOTHING in between. Just dead air = bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)
"Should I nap?"
bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
"Make toast?"
bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
"Do the dishes?"
bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
"Plant lettuce?"
bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Annnd she stares out the window. For a while. Then gets a glass of water. Hooray!

The one thing I do know I should not do is work. This brain is not in any state to edit other conscious people's text. If they had eaten within 24 hours of writing their papers they're way ahead of me.

xo

bb

p.s. Case in point, 1st draft of last sentence above I wrote "paper's"!!! I committed the ever-more-popular writing tic of adding apostrophes everywhere possible and completely unnecessary (as in your basic plural). My #1 pet peeve, of late. Not well.
p.p.s. And "dead air" took me 5 minutes to come up with.
"Blank air?" bzzzz "Flat air?" bzzzzzzzzzzzz
"Blank air?" bzzzzzzzzz "Flat air??" bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

the giant hole in all of our heads, a HUGE CAVE of space

 

otherwise known as the sinus cavity.

Sounds mundane, but LOOK AT THIS X-RAY!

Photo by Mnolf

HUGE empty space IN OUR HEAD!

I realize there are lots of sensors,
soft tissue, etc. there,
but the first time I saw something like this
during a college lecture, my jaw dropped.

No WONDER my voice resonates in my head
and sounds so different than what everyone else hears.
It's like in my head is the acoustic equivalent
of a small, tiled bathroom.

WARNING: a little gross, but not super gross.

This came to mind, so to speak, today
because I made some really lovely,
light-as-air, fluffy scrambled eggs.

And then walked while eating them.

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

So, yes, aspirated the eggs.

After much coughing and spluttering and honking,
something novel occurred.

Bright, fluffy, happy-looking,
perfect scrambled eggs, in small portions,
appeared in my tissue when I blew my nose.

Incredulous, I blew my nose again.
1. needed to, but, really,
2. to be sure it just wasn't some
rogue food that'd attached to my hand
or shirt and fell into said tissue
(i.e., science dork question: "Is it repeatable?").

Yup. There was more where that came from.

So, this freaky occurrence reminded me
that in our heads is a GIANT interconnected CAVITY.

For some reason, it freaks me out.

You?

xobb

"the cooking ape"

 
I actually laughed and clapped at the end, despite being alone in my house. So delightful.

Harvard Thinks Big 2010 - Richard Wrangham - 'Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human' from HTB2 on Vimeo.

This dude rocks.

If you don't know, my most serious academic and intellectual dalliance was in evolution and human behavior (before I went all conservation-biology-NPS-save-the-planet-y), so I am familiar with Richard Wrangham and love, love, LOVE thinking about this sort of stuff.

*happysigh*

In fact, my first night out of California was spent attending a meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES) when I was 20 years old.


Thanks SO much to Carl Zimmer for cluing me in to his super-interesting article in Discover Magazine. It's a full-on 5-star article on the bb-scale, A Body Fit for a Freaky-Big Brain.

FYI, to get 5 stars from bb, you gotta

• write something I see as of now or later, vs. 15 minutes ago, since I just made up this 5 star thing up,
• write something I find fascinating
• write in such a way that it's EASY for me to rip through, given my ADD-nature, this is no small task
• not write in such a way that I think your statements are questionable, based on little or low-quality data, or dependent upon questionable (and, worse, also unstated) assumptions
• preferably supply references so I can dig further (also handy if I'm not yet convinced)
  

Seriously. This has made my day.


Brain happy.


And well and efficiently fed.

xoxoxo

bb

photo quiz... a hint 4 u (ooh, and I get a little bio, so be warned)

 

So, I've received exactly ZERO guesses re: the identity of this pup.

I get it. It's not easy.

It IS, however, a fairly common annual herb used in cooking. At least, that is, by me. And the leaves you typically associate with this plant are not visible in this shot. This is the plant in BOLT mode, so things change when it's all about reproduction.

Interesting thing about this plant is its flavor: apparently there is a genetic thing where some people think it tastes great, and others think it tastes like soap.

Soap? Really? Apparently, I am not that genotype. I like it.

But it's interesting that they've figured out this "preference" is genetically based.

Quadell is listed as the user for this photo. Not sure if that = author?

Like when I learned that some people can and some people cannot process the pigment in beets.

A friend said he'd eat a bowl of fresh, home grown, roasted beets (yum!) and later he'd (pardon) pee pink.

I've seen the effect on my chickens.

I thought maybe I'd never eaten enough beets. But, I HAVE eaten an entire bowl of them.

Then I learned. I probably have the genotype that can process (i.e. break down) the pigment, so if I ever pee pink, I need to call the doctor.


ANYhow, =) y'all have any guesses re: what this plant is, now? I bet someone knows about that taste thing...

Oh, and per usual, ANY super random guess is totally welcome. As I've said, the most random why-not-'cause-I-have-no-idea guesses are frequently the most entertaining.


Now I need to go buy chicken feed. Still working on GIANT report deadline, it's due TODAY, but the girls gotta eat!

Ah, life in the sticks.

=) Keeps things basic.

xoxobb

human doing CLASSIC bighorn sheep move...

 
Apparently, ungulates are NOT the only creatures who can do this.



This is from 2008 so pardon if you've seen this, but this is JUST like what a friend saw when hiking down the Grand Canyon, home of narrow trails with CRAZY drop offs on one side and sheer cliffs on the other.

He was hiking at a good pace, turned the corner and startled a bighorn sheep who was headed right toward him.

There was basically nowhere to go.

Anyhow, the sheep quickly assesses the situation, and runs UP THE CLIFF, OVER my (6'2") friend's head, then back down to the trail.

My friend just stood there, stunned.

Who knew ball girls could do this, too.

AWESOME!!

bb

P.S. Typo for bighorn sheep was "big horn cheep." Brought up ads for cheap cars. =)

adaptation, photography, and mixed martial arts... connected? Today, yes.

 
You'll have to pardon this v. random post, but this amused me.

This morning I wanted to take a photograph of my right fist since it now looks like this, after my first night of mixed martial arts (MMA) fitness class.

Note the thickly muscled wrist... (not!)

When Bear saw my band aids he suggested I wear gloves in class.

I wore gloves in class. =)

I have the knuckles of a desk jockey.

NEVER have fought in my life, was only punching a bag (the big body bag things), and not that hard, but apparently my body is adapted to NO STRESS in the knuckle department.


This is something the body can do which continues to amaze me; adapt to what is asked of it.

I saw a special on MMA and these guys traveled ALL OVER the world to find the biggest gurus in martial arts. One gentleman they studied with, an older, tiny Japanese man, told them they were going to work on toughening up their fists.

Full of enthusiasm, the guys said "Great! How?" 'cause they'd noticed his fists were like rocks.

High Sierra rocks

He said "by punching a rock."

?!?

 (a rock. Note tiny toddler for scale, as if the trees weren't enough...)

They look at each other, then back at him, and realize he isn't kidding.

NERD ASIDE: Repeated stress (weight bearing activities (running, jumping, punching)) makes the bones build up so, in the case of punching, your knuckles/hands become more dense and hard and tough. This study showed female boxers had higher bone density than non-boxing but otherwise similarly lean women (despite super low body fat which can lead to bone density loss).


He took them out to his punching rock (I know, ow!), and he starts slugging it.

And then they have to. Looked TOTALLY unfun.

I was stunned. And it's SO low tech it makes me insane. =)


Want fists of stone? Punch stone.

To become tough, you must BE tough. Kinda deep...

Like how my husband's grandpa had HUGE hands 'cause he'd been a farmer all his life and constantly did really hard work with them. He required a lot of his body, and it responded by getting bigger and tougher. SO COOL!

This amazing photo of farmer hands is from the Christmas River blog.

I e-mailed the author but it bounced back (an aol.com account) so if it's yours and you want it attributed any other way or removed, just yell at me (biobabbler at g mail dot com).

ANY how, in order to share my tiny badge of toughness (one knuckle oozed last night!) that I'm exceedingly proud of, I wanted to take a picture of it for facebook.

Take the photo, that is, via my Nikon D50 using my left hand without the view finder.

The fist picture at the start of this entry is the best of the 12 shots I had to take.

Here are just some of the other attempts...

 

Complete and total miss. But nice shot of quilt my friend made for my wedding. =)

Nice shot of biobabbler's burly wrist...

Closer view of quilt/couch, TINY smidge of actual target at extreme bottom of frame.

And a flash-washed fraction of my fist, and my livingroom.

=)

So, I guess today's message is,

in MMA as in photography,

If at first you don't succeed,

Try, try again.

(Bear as zen master, on a rock)

And you will grow stronger.

There's another class on Thursday.

I'm TOTALLY there.

=) 

xobb

up coming posts: 100 Days of Yoga, etc.

 
So, I believe in my first blog post I reserved the right to blog a bit about fitness. Not only am I interested in it, but it relates to the human body, physiology, etc. And that all connects to the biologist in my brain, so I find it interesting.

Well, yesterday marked the 100th in my 100 Days of Yoga, so I wanna blog about that.

And I will.

BUT, I am working on it, and in order to keep it from being PAINfully dull and all-about-me-y, I am carving it up into pieces, and editing it so it is coherent and at least somewhat entertaining.

I hope I hope I hope.

Caveat caveat caveat.

=)

AND in the interim, I will be making an effort, I promise, to get my biobabbler buns OUT there and take some new photos of, as my cousin once said, "the nature."

Anyhow, this 100 Days of Yoga has been an interesting exercise, no pun intended, and I did NOT get some stuff I thought I'd get out of it, and I DID get some things out of it I never anticipated.

Have you ever set upon some sort of long-ish endeavor where the results were not what you expected? I'd love to hear about it, so if you are inspired, please "comment" away.

xoxo

biobabbler

What I wore INDOORS Jan 4th: ectomorph, c'est moi

  

That's a fuzzy hat, down coat with faux-fur lined hood, and who knows how many layers underneath.

IN THE HOUSE.

I thought about this today because despite having Zappos box in room, I cannot bear to try on shoes until I'm warm enough. Still wearing fuzzy slippers, 11 a.m.

Anyhow, recently I reviewed the wikipedia definition of ectomorph (and endomorph and mesomorph). Apparently these 3 body types were described by a psychologist named William Herbert Sheldon (circa 1940s, now not such a popular idea) and he claimed they were associated with 3 different temperaments.

THIS was news to me, the link to temperaments.

And then I read this:
"Sheldon proposed that the human physique be classed according to the relative contribution of three fundamental elements, somatotypes, named after the three germ layers of embryonic development: the endoderm, (develops into the digestive tract), the mesoderm, (becomes muscle, heart and blood vessels), and the ectoderm (forms the skin and nervous system)."

Holy back-to-college-developmental-physiology time. Wow. I'd forgotten about all that.

Then read the description of ectomorph:  "characterized by long and thin muscles/limbs and low fat storage; receding chin, usually referred to as slim."

Yes, that's me generally, save for the receding chin. The "receding chin" gave me a first whiff that I was possibly going to be called a geek...

Then the personality zone?

"Roughly the three corresponding personality types proposed by Sheldon are somewhat akin to Jung's categorization of thinking, feeling and sensing types. As such they correspond quite closely to popular stereotypes of the skinny nerd, the jolly fat man, the slow-witted tough guy."

Oh, not a geek, a NERD. Ah. Thanks. SO much better. =)

But wait, there's more.

"There is evidence that different physiques carry cultural stereotypes. For example, one study found that endomorphs are likely to be perceived as slow, sloppy, and lazy. Mesomorphs, in contrast, are typically stereotyped as popular and hardworking, whereas ectomorphs are often viewed as intelligent but fearful.^[2] Stereotypes of mesomorphs are generally much more favorable than those of endomorphs. Stereotypes of ectomorphs are somewhat mixed." [bb bolded]

I must admit, if any one in a room is, in response to an unexpected loud noise, going to leap a la Warner Brothers cats and land claws-in-the-ceiling, it's me.

A trifle jumpy, sometimes.

ANYhow, SOMEwhere on line (cannot find it now) I read that ectomorphs are supposed to be poor thermoregulators (my words). Apparently they get too hot AND too cold easily. That's TOTALLY me. I get heat rash before anyone I know (at the gym when running, etc.) and my fingers turn yellow from cold if I'm in normal clothes and it's less that 74 in a room.

Anyhow, I just thought those descriptions and links to supposed temperament were interesting. I'm sure they're WAY off in many instances, and I'm not 100% ectomorph-y (can be outgoing, known to gesticulate wildly while talking, have broad shoulders, and WISH I had delicate ankles), but it's fun to think about.

And reminds me of the doshas. Just took an on-line quiz 'cause I forgot what I am: I'm vata, almost 100%, per this "what's your dosha" quiz. Once I'd first learned of this way of looking at people and their trends, I told a friend I thought I was vata. He actually knows something about Ayurvedic stuff (I don't) and without hesitation he replied "I can't believe how vata you are." Alrighty, then. Take your whirrd for it.

"Because of this [bb'ed: general thin-ness], Vatas have very little energy reserve and can tire easily and get themselves out of balance. Vatas need to get sufficient rest and not overdo things, stay warm, and keep a regular lifestyle routine."

SO ACCURATE.

Repeated point of advice for vata: stay warm in winter. Ah, we get back to my inability to try on these shoes, despite enthusiasm.

=)

I totally married a mesomorph: muscular, quiet, calm, hard working. And as if being hyper muscular wasn't enough, he got his ankle MRI'd a few years back, turns out he has an "accessory muscle." Yeah, an extra that most people don't have. I've never HEARD of this.

LITERALLY muscles on muscles. Good Lord.

At least I'm married to someone like that. =)

And can watch him toss logs as I stand outside, in a sunny patch, in my parka and gloves, clutching my giant mug of hot coffee.

=)

xoxobb

P.S. Any comments on your type (endo-meso-ecto or doshas) are more than welcome. It's fun to think about. And I won't be the least bit hurt if you think any or all of it's bunk.

this is pretty amazing

 
Restricting reducing carbohydrates in an epileptic kid's diet can reduce seizures by 70-90 percent. WOW.

Check out the article. No to cookies, candy, soda, yes to bacon, cream, eggs.

Who knew.

The human body is so mysterious.

bb

Don't think you are amazing? Think again.

 
Check this article out, by the amazing science writer, Natalie Angier.

IN-credible.

One thing it talks about is how our eyes are pretty much able to detect light in the tiniest units that physically exist (a single photon).

You cannot really spend ANY time learning about photography and taking photographs, etc., without appreciating your eyes. What I see with my eyes is always perfectly exposed, focused, and with just the right depth of field. Replicating that via camera takes a lot of know-how. And often, still doesn't work.

A friend sent this article to me saying this is why I love biology.

Yeah, it's pretty freakin' cool. =)

biobabbler

wonders of the human body, part 3

 
Took my first spinning class tonight (uh, which might be why I'm still very awake and have energy when I'm normally a blob at this hour) and sweat like a freak and emerged very proud. Then did my 10 min of yoga (day 21 in a row). AND earlier today I hit my NaNoWriMo goal (1667 words/day). So, feeling good and proud, today.

In need of inspiration re: getting yourself strong and flexible and able to move your body about, willy nilly? Check out this beast! (might want to click on it twice to see if full-size on YouTube)



SO impressive! And some of his moves are very yoga-esque.

Anyhow, awesome and inspiring.

So, what do you want to do next?

Ready...

set...

GO!


=)

biobabbler

the wonder that is the human body...

 
and the human mind that goes along with them.

2 things:

1. This 2 minute video of guys spidermanning an urban area like an obstacle course. Amazing!!

It's called My_Morning_Run.wmv Got it from a friend. Genius!

2. This 11 minute video of the making of a poster (in 2 days) of every pose in the Anusara syllabus. Wiki on Anusara yoga.


Tanutara:  Making of the Anusara Syllabus Poster from Ross Evans on Vimeo.

Just TOTALLY amazing.

Both are completely inspiring.

wow.


Think I'll go vacuum the carpet so I can do some yoga today!