Final answers aren’t

Over at EvolutionBlog and Why Evolution Is True, Drs. Rosenhouse and Coyne have taken down the same philosophical question posed by Dr. Elliot Sober, to wit: Can science establish that genetic mutations are not caused by god?

It is questions like this that have guided my abiding dislike of philosophy, read more

A year goes by fast

Last year about this time, I published a post about my little friends the fishing spiders, whom I call ‘friends’ not because we hang out and hammer down Pepsi together, but because my first photo sale featured one as a subject. Lately, a few have been making themselves obvious, clearly begging to read more

The road’s longer than it looks

Okay, let’s do a variation of an exercise I perform with my students sometimes. I’ll preface this by saying, this isn’t a trick question, nor is there a ‘right’ answer. It’s simple: look at this image and tell me what you can glean from it.

Well, it’s a stream or pond, with a rock at the edge or perhaps in the middle. The air appears reasonably still, from read more

One good reason

Did I mention that, to be a nature photographer, you had to get up early? No one ever looks back on their life and says, “I wish I spent more time in bed.”

Okay, wait, that’s probably a tad inaccurate. It likely happens a few hundred thousand times daily. That doesn’t make it a bad proverb, though.

Okay, yes it does. But ignoring all that, if you want to get interesting nature read more

Pride

Yes, I know this appears to be a crass copy of the pose seen here, but unless that otter is actually eating a vole, I’d hazard that the evidence leans towards coincidence.

I had earlier spotted the same species jumping spider as this one, atop a log and showing off its vivid rust-colored abdomen, but it was so shy that I never got remotely close enough to photograph – the same can be read more

… and part two

There are actually two themes I’m continuing here. The first is the limits of our knowledge, which is a “half-empty” perspective there’s a better way of expressing it, which we’ll get to in a moment. The second theme being continued here is special efforts made by scientists to communicate their work to the general public. The previous example (last read more

There isn’t always a complete answer, part one…

For those of you who have been hanging on the edge of your seat, checking thrice daily to see if I’ve offered an update, I apologize for keeping you in suspense. Actually, no I don’t – suspense is good for you, and anxiety strengthens the heart. Well known fact.

Anyway, I mentioned trying to follow-up on the read more

That’s 154 to you and me



On this date 22 years ago, the Hubble Space Telescope was borne into space on Shuttle Discovery, the one that recently did its last flyby over DC (well, okay, it had help) before delivery to the Udvar-Hazy center. The Hubble will be retired read more

Back atcha

Last year, I did a post on macro photography that featured some detail pics of a Giant Water Bug, also called an Electric Light Bug but better known by the scientific name Belostoma flumineum. This post totally rocked the internet, and by that I mean, was just another post on just another blog, read more

Good morning!


I thought I was pretty fortunate to discover a few tiny praying mantises on the azalea bushes out front yesterday, until I went out this morning right after sunrise when the dew still hadn’t cleared…

If you look closely at the top pic, you’ll see a large dewdrop adhering right between the mantis’ eyes. Which means, if you look at the image to the left, that forward bump by read more

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