New Year, New You…Again

With 2017 just around the corner, it's time to start thinking about how we can become better versions of ourselves. You might try to quit smoking. Or maybe it would be nice to get rid of that spare tire, you know, the one collecting dust in your basement (what did you think I was talking

A Matter of Milkweed

The Real Ultra-marathoners Pause for a minute and think about how far you travel in a day. The average American walks around 2.5 miles each day. If you are an ultra-marathoner you might cover up to 100 at most. As a runner myself, the furthest I've run at one time is somewhere around 16 miles.

Disaster Strikes and Disease Follows

When disasters strike we see images of destroyed buildings, injured individuals, and the far-reaching devastation that accompanies the forces of Mother Nature. The media covers the aftermath for a few weeks, but then coverage slowly dissipates and people watching from afar forget about the struggle still facing those affected. But for these individuals, devastation and

Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree – How Threatened Are Thy Branches

‘Tis the season for one of my favorite holiday traditions: selecting and decorating a Christmas tree. This annual holiday festivity became popular and widely adopted worldwide in the late 18th century as people started displaying ornately decorated evergreen conifer species (i.e. pines, spruces, firs) in their homes. Although the Christmas tree tradition now includes fake

A trip to the Great “Smoky” Mountains

Fall foliage, hoarfrost, and smoke, oh my! This Thanksgiving, my family and I journeyed through part of the Southern Appalachians we frequent most often: the Great Smoky Mountains. It was like any other trip through the mountains this time of year, except we saw colorful leaves still hanging on to the trees in late November

Pickled Pools: Briney Ecosystems

Often the ocean can look idyllic and inviting on the surface. Exploration of the sea floor, however, shows a harsh and unforgiving place. The Gulf of Mexico brine pools investigated by Erik Cordes and his colleagues are a model example. Subject to salinity more than four times the amount of normal seawater, and full of

In Defense of Mr. Grinch – Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?

It's the 50th anniversary of the cave creature we love to hate, infamous for stealing candy from children, lying to a toddler, and burglarizing an entire village (on Christmas Eve, no less)- all over a little noise. But maybe Mr. Grinch's dream of a quiet Christmas isn't so ridiculous after all. The holidays are perhaps

Bangladesh's Battle with Arsenic

Arsenic was a favorite poison among murderers for a long time because of its lack of odor and taste, and until the mid-19th century it could not be detected in corpses. Large quantities of arsenic can kill a person very quickly. However, a risk faced by millions of people every day is the slow and

The Branded Body

Get off the bus near the University of Georgia's Tate Center and you'll see a campus awash with Nike swooshes. Shirts, shoes, shorts, socks, hats and backpacks all proudly bear the company's distinctive logo in the school's iconic red and black colors. In fact, you have to look hard to find any of Nike's competitors'

Speciation & the Mimulus Story

Ever wonder how new species begin? Join director and narrator Nick Batora and animator Rishi Masalia as they explore the evolutionary processes of speciation and how the genus Mimulus has been used to study it. This video was made for students at the University of Georgia in BIOL 1107, an introductory biology lab, but is

How Language Affects Thought And Culture

The way our language forces us to speak has profound implications on our culture and way of thinking. There are many different types of languages around the world derived from various parent languages. For example, English is a type of Germanic Language which is a branch of the Indo-European language family. It is split into

Where have all the songbirds gone?

I love nothing more than waking on a summer's day to the sound of bird songs outside my window. If you read my last post on bird language, this should be no surprise. The piercing sirens of mated cardinal pairs, the churring of chickadees, the sweet murmurs of cedar waxwings—all of these are music to

Scroll to Top