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TimeScapes: Rapture from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.

Today evening, when I got back from work, we found her/him in our backyard. First I thought this was a ground hog, but in closer inspection, it looks more like an overgrown rat. Can anyone identify?

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I have always wondered how people, especially the UFO/Ghost Hunter/Sasquatch crowd give so much importance to eye witness reports of events. This is really an eye opener. Our eyes are only the beginning of vision. It is our mind that creates the image!

Drosophila Melanogaster (Fruit fly) is very dear to me. In my early school years, it was the answer to a quiz competition that put me in front of my arch rival. From that day onwards, I have had this warm feelings for this small fly. It probably is the most used fly for genetic research and has produced enormous contributions to science.

But, now, the cruel International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature rejected a petition to protect the name despite the confusion about the genus. The full article is here (http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100407/full/464825a.html)

According to the new taxonomy, poor Fruitfly will be, possibly, called Sophophora Melanogaster!

All I can say is, you will always be my beloved Drosophila Melanogaster, whatever the big wigs of the commission says.

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First of my last years bulbs started flowering. Here is the pictures from yesterday and today. Yes I know they are short lived, but, that is the wonderment.

Zoologist Mark Carwardine had a rare opportunity to be the unwilling mate of a rare Kakapo. Words can’t describe it. Watch it for yourself.

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They are blooming.

My Tulips just showed their heads out. Last weekend’s rain and warmer weather must have signaled them to come out. I have put over 50 of them. Looks like most of them are coming out. The extended snow cover has made the soil perfect for an early spring, provided we are not getting a freezing before April.

Here are the first pictures.

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ABE (Autonomous Benthic Explorer), which pioneered so many discoveries from deep sea was lost in the depths of pacific. (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/03/11/pioneering-deep-sea-robot-is-lost-to-a-watery-grave/)

This robot was instrumental in mapping the mid-ocean ridge and studying the strange life that flourish in the volcanic vents.

Deep sea exploration (well, easy chair exploration in my case) is such a fascinating area. The secrets deep ocean still keeps are as big as any other secrets in the universe.

It is a shame that the resources we spend on exploring the seas is meager compared to what is spend on space exploration. The technical challenges it faces are much more than space exploration as well.

Robots like ABE and its newer cousins are valuable assets to scientific exploration and in understanding the largest areas of our own earth. Wired magazine called it one of the 50 best robots ever.

The robot is assumed to have succumbed to its death due to an implosion of its glass domes followed by a cascade failure of other domes.

These were posted to SkyDrive for a while. Now that we have the next storm in full swing, I thought it is a good time to share.

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