And now is definitely time for the latter. I’m leaving for the upper Texas coast, to catch spring migration in all it’s glory. I shall return Sunday evening.

With a cold front that just swept through Texas reaching the coast last night, I may be arriving a day late. (When birds heading north meet strong winds blowing against them, they “fallout” by the thousands into the first land they find. If they have a strong tailwind, they’ll keep going inland past the coast. What’s good for the birders is bad for the birds, and vice versa.)

I will of course have plenty of pictures upon my return. You should do the same. Whether birding’s your thing or not, get outside and enjoy spring!

I had the oddest experience today. Coming home from school, I saw an older Asian women, traditionally dressed in a skirt with a scarf over her head. She was at the edge of a front yard, scooping water with a bowl out of the gutter and into a bucket… There are very few Asian people in this west Texas town. To see a women gathering water in this way is a first.

When I came home, my apartment once again was without water. For reasons unfathomable to me, they seem to have it turned off every few weeks for maintenance of some kind or another.

Oh well. I have a bowl.

I’ve got two posts I promise to write. The first on systems biology from a talk I attended by Leroy Hood. The second on interspecific territoriality and convergent evolution. School and birding have kept me busy.

In the meantime, I’ve got a good picture to share.

While walking down a trail this weekend, birding at in Friedrich Park on the edge of San Antonio, my mother-in-law screamed and jumped back. A 3 to 4 foot Black Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta) sat stretched out across the trail.

I had to convince the snake that I wouldn’t stop chasing him until he allowed me some pictures, but once I’d won that battle, he sat still for surprisingly long time.

I mentioned my great pleasure with the word humuhumunukunukuapuaa, the fish that Hawaii may once again give their blessing to.

Well now my father just sent me a sound file on how to actually say the word.

Now that’s awesome.

Just when I thought Tiktaalik (tic-TAH-lick) was becoming my favorite word I learn that Hawaii may once again make humuhumunukunukuapuaa the state fish, this time permanently.

Update: Here’s how to say it.

In what has to be one of the coolest stories I’ve come across in a while, a guy has decided that he wants to acquire a house, starting with a red paper clip and progressively trading it up for higher value items. He’s currently up to a year’s free rent at a place in Phoenix.

I’ve almost caught up with my responsbilities. In the meantime, I wanted to share something I came across in one of those moments I should have been working.

There’s an artist who uses Photoshop and Illustrator to create as realistic as possible scenes. Some of his earlier works, while very good, still barely look digitial. His latest work however blows me away. If you know anything about computers and Photoshop, you’ll find the following information on the piece impressive. Note in particular that he spent almost 2,000 hours creating the image.

• The image size is 40 inches by 120 inches.
• The flattened file weighs in at 1.7 Gigabytes.
• It took eleven months (close to 2,000 hours) to create.
• The painting is comprised of close to fifty individual Photoshop files.
• Taking a cumulative total of all the files, the overall image contains over 15,000 layers.
• Over 500 alpha channels were used for various effects.
• Over 250,000 paths make up the multitude of shapes throughout the scene.

How long will it be before pictures aren’t trustworthy? We’re already there in some regards but it’s only going to get easier as technology improves. It won’t surprise me when digital camera makers introduce “assurance” technology so that images off the camera can be verified as authentic.

I know I said I was taking a break, but being Good Friday and all, I thought I should share with you today how easter eggs are made.

Now, I debated putting this picture up. On the surface it seems a little immature. Fortunately I’m a biologist (in training at least). We discuss topics the general public might find immature or embarassing — namely sex — with mechanical callousness everyday. Therefore, in the interest of learning, and with no undertones of child like humor, I can offer you this picture.

Remember, this is simply a biological phenomenon. There’s absolutely nothing funny about it.

It’s crunch time. I’ll be busy the next few days finishing a paper on interspecific territoriality and convergent evolution. (No need to ask, I plan on posting about this interesting idea). So, I’ll be taking a little break from blogging.

In the meantime, the lastest edition of I and the Bird is up. (For those unaccustomed to blogging carnivals, follow the link for an explanation).

Yours truly is included for my post on mockingbirds trying to kill blind people.

Here are my favorites from the carnival, in case you don’t want to wade through them all.

Living the Scientific Life posts this article on the new species of parrot and mouse discovered from the Phillipines. The parrot is one sharp looking bird.

Bill Thompson posts about his first encounter with Pale-billed Woodpecker. What’s so cool about his post is that he actually took pictures of both Pale-billed and Lineated Woodpeckers. I left him a comment on identifying the two.

A lady out in Tucson put up pictures of a Curve-billed Thrasher building a nest. It’s all about the location.

And finally, if you think posts about backyard birding are boring, you should try reading backyard birding posts from other countries. They assuredly are not boring, unless of course you’re from that country.

I’ll reemerge from my hole in a few days.

Every year Angelo State has an event called the Moon Lecture where they bring in a top rate scientist to speak on different issues. The night before the lectures, they have an informal BBQ where faculty and certain students can hear the life story of the speaker, meet them, and ask questions. Having just arrived at school, this was my first time to attend.

This year the speaker is Leroy Hood. (And see more on Wikipedia).

He’s a systems biologist who is credited with creating the DNA sequencer, amoung other things. All you lab rats out there who love looking at DNA sequences to study evolution have Dr. Hood to thank. He’s also been involved with the Human Genome Project, various immunology projects, and a host of other biotechnology projects.

He basically spoke of his childhood (grew up in Montana) and how his interest in science was nurtured by parents and childhood teachers. One of those high school teachers convinced him to attend Cal Tech, where he arrived in 1960. He said it was the biggest culture shock of his life. Upon arriving, his roommate asked him if he’d taken some course (cancer research? — I don’t remember). “Not only had I not taken the course, I’d never heard of it.” “You’re in big trouble then, you’re not going to make it,” his roommate responded. Dr. Hood said that his roommate had failed out the first semester from playing 20 hours of bridge a day. Though I’ve never played bridge, I get the idea that it would be an emmensely more enjoyable way to fail out of college than 20 hours of video games a day, as my peers do now.

He spoke of how accessible his professors at Cal Tech were. My jaw dropped when I heard some of his teachers his freshman year. Richard Feynman for physics, Linus Pauling for chemistry, and George Beadle for biology. He had the attention of every single person in the room.

Tomorrow he’ll be giving two lectures which I will attend. As I mentioned, his interest is systems biology. I think it’s essentially the question of how we manage the information we’re getting. When you think about the amount of information contained in the genome and the interactions going on in a biological system, we’ve gotten to the point where we need ways to condense that information and think about it conceptually. Dr. Hood mentioned that medical school was a big disappointment to him because of the rote memorization and the lack of conceptual interest. (Yeah, I personally call it the dark side of biology). I believe his talks will center upon the work being done in these areas.

I’ll take notes and present the highlights. I’m very much looking forward to it.