The Archives

News, Portfolio, Writing
INDIRECT EFFECTS
12.17.08 | Permalink | 1 Comment

Gallflies used to combat invasive knapweed in Montana–which does an estimated $14 million of damage statewide–have recently been shown to hurt native plant growth through indirect food chain “ripple effects.”
The flies, originally introduced in the 1970s, provide an attractive source of extra calories for native deermice, which leads to a deermouse population increase. Since the […]
News, Portfolio, Writing
AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL
12.09.08 | Permalink | Comment?

printable view (PDF)
As old methods fail to quell ongoing Wall Street turmoil, decision makers may soon be hunting for “America’s Next Top Model”—computer model, that is.
Some contestants will likely come from a new breed of social science simulations called “agent-based models” (ABMs). The idea is to use the huge number of calculations available to modern […]
News, Pictures, Portfolio, Science, Video, Writing
DANCE OF THE MUSSELS
11.18.08 | Permalink | Comment?

(Video courtesy of Johan van de Koppel.)
It’s a lousy dancer who steps on his partner’s foot, but groups of mussels use a similar foot game to form intricate patterns in a newly discovered underwater dance that benefits all involved.

Scientists in the Netherlands have for the first time shown how individual mussels, acting seemingly independently, naturally […]