Welcome to the Fourteenth Tangled Bank! A collection of fine weblog posts that promise to help you evolve into something smarter, if not stronger.
The Thirteenth Tangled Bank hosted by Sean saw a record number of entries. This time we might not have as many, but that only means that you have more time to spend over each one.
Here are all the submissions presented in the order I received them.
First up is a a post about a topic that currently troubles the finest of scientific minds. Sean Carroll, a physicist at the University of Chicago, writes about The Anthropic Principle and gives us a lucid overview of what it means, where it currently stands and the sorts of reactions it has provoked amongst theoretical physicists and others.
The next entry bends the Tangled bank rules a tad bit. In a series of three posts, Joshua Rosenau, graduate student at the University of Kansas, tells us about his Parents’ birthdays (involves some colorful photos of frogs), Global warming and The Scaling of Animal Space Use. Somehow there seems to be a common thread relating all of them.
PZ Myers, associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota - Morris, sends out a clear message to people who hate humanity. He doesn’t mince words or pictures in classic Pharyngula style to make his point about the difference between a few cells and children.
Mike, an aspiring naturalist, writes about what is literally keeping me awake, in Made In The Shade. Here is a way to keep the environment healthy and still get that high!
S. Y. Afolee, a microbiology graduate student at Dartmouth, gives us A Brief Profile of an Endosymbiont - a very strangely named bacterium named Wigglesworthia, not to be confused with Dr. Evil’s cat, Mr. Bigglesworth.
Radagast, a California community college biology instructor, follows up his larval development pictures post from the last Tangled Bank with this one about his Manduca sexta pupae. Have they flown away yet?
Jennifer Forman Orth, Invasive Plant Ecologist at UMass Boston, tells us about the Noxious Weed Control Act and how it will provide federal assistance (read greenbacks) to bring Weeds Under Control.
David Winter, a student of biochemistry at the University of Otago in New Zealand, tells us how wasps can kill birds and the dangers posed by an introduced species to the local ecosystem.
While I am at bending the rules, I thought I’d throw in a question for all the botany experts. I was wondering if someone could tell me how this tree on the rim of the Grand Canyon got all twisted?
With that twist we come to the end of the Fourteenth Tangled Bank. Those who suffer from Triskaidekaphobia can safely come out and read these wonderful posts.
The next Tangled Bank will be hosted by Mrs Tilton of the Sixth International. You can send in your entries to (mrs_tilton chez yahoo co yew kay), or to host@tangledbank.net. The Tangled Bank is always looking for new hosts and if you wish to be one, let us know by emailing PZ Myers at pzmyers@pharyngula.org.