The View From Hereby CharlesYanofsky

A Common Cuckoo being raised by a Reed Warbler. Source: Wikipedia Cuckoo birds have an unsavory reputation for laying their eggs in somebody else’s nest. There the eggs are tended with care by duped surrogate parents. When hatched, the young cuckoos unceremoniously push their nestmates over the edge and, in a case of consummate avian chutzpah, open their maw to...... more

Lenticular clouds above the Big Island. Credit: astroday.net A recent paper in Science adds evidence to the notion that ice nuclei, the particles that lead to the formation of rain and snow, are mainly of biological origin. In fact, lots of the ice nuclei contain bacteria that have wafted aloft. The researchers found that fresh snow in various parts of...... more

One of the most curious phenomena we have reported here is that of bacteria living inside the mitochondria of a tick. The name given to these bacteria is Midichloria mitochondrii (the genus name alluding to the midi-chlorians in Star Wars). This surprising finding was confined to a single species of hard ticks (Ixodidae). A new report tells us that seven...... more

by Ronald Bentley and Joan W. Bennett The year 1946 was one in which it was possible for many of the world’s peoples to have a hopeful view for the future. The horrors of World War II were over and rebuilding was in progress. International travel resumed and, as fleets of airplanes were constructed, became somewhat easier than previously. A...... more