Epic fantasy taking to the small screen...

Sorry there are a lack of posts. I am working on a couple but tend to want to do researcha and have been hectic at work of late, so no time for that!

Just a little info, passed on from my good friend Robot Fingers, about an awesome fantasy novel being made into a series. For all the nerds out there:

G.R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones is being made into a pilot for a TV series by HBO. It looks to be good and the cast has been chosen. Can't wait to see it!
http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/10/game-of-thrones-cast-with-photos-.html

But will be interested because the whole Lannister family is blonde but for somereason they have cast brunettes. If I see a repeat of Colin Farrell as 'Alexander' -bleach blonder hair and dark eyebrows I will be very dissapointed. It's not that hard to do both!

Ok, tiny rant over,
Michelle :)

Whaling about...

Okay, I suppose I should get started- it is actually really difficult to just start writing a blog. I was looking for a good place to start and that got me thinking about evolution and where ‘we’ started. I love learning about evolution and the history of our species in particular. The evidence for evolution is so overwhelming I can’t believe I can still find things written by critics, implying that evolution is non-existent.

However, the clues are all around us!

“It is important to note that suddenly, and against all probability, a Sperm Whale had been called into existence, several miles above the surface of an alien planet and since this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale, this innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity.”
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams.

Much as this whale spontaneously comes into existence in space, in the Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, whales on Earth did not. In fact, they carry their own proof of evolution in the form of a vestigial pelvis and leg like structures. I believe the structures exist in some species of whale and some dolphins. The fact that the remnants of a lower limb structure exist provides strong evidence towards the fact that these sea dwelling mammal’s predecessors walked on land before adapting to a marine life.

The first two images below are taken from http://www.edwardtbabinski.us/whales/evolution_of_whales/, as an example of the vestigial pelvic structure.

The following picture is no necessarily scientifically accurate- it comes from http://www.envisioningscience.com/whale_skeleton.html , which may well be a graphic design company, however i like how it shows the pelvis as it would appear in the body of a whale.

If your interested:

I like this article- it’s a nice interest piece on the evolution of whales from land animals, it’s a bit old, but so are the fossils!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1974869.stm

This is a good website in my non-academic (in this area) opinion. It seems to have a bit of information on the fossil periods that show whale evolution: http://www.talkorigins.org/features/whales/

If you search online academic journals for information you'll find a wealth of papers on whales fossils and current anatomy. I didn't do much research for this post- I'm still warming upto this blogging business. But the real information is out there if you want it.

:) Michelle

Welcome to Nerd Nation

I have created this blog to alleviate the boredom that has set in since I graduated and I no longer have to learn crazy-cool things about the anatomy and physiology. I love to learn new and interesting information particularly about biology and physiology. I figure that when weird questions pop into my head- if I actually take the time to find out the answer- other people might actually be interested to know the answers too! Its not everyones cup of tea, but if you like weird facts and learn the reason behind random things from nature then hopefully you'll find my blog interesting.

And because 'a vague disclaimer is nobody's friend', I must stress that if you want to use information from this blog for any sort of assignments (perhaps google has directed you here)... do your own research in case I have not been as thorough in my research as anyone should be if they are doing it for more than mere interest.

I welcome comments on anything I write if someone has more information or something to correct me on (except spelling and punctuation, which I'm shocking at most of the time, and don't actually care about anymore) or if people have things that they would like to know please ask so it will give me motivation to write this blog...

Thanks,
Michelle