Knitted snail!

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Knitted snail!
I haven't posted in a while, but this being the one year anniversary of my Tumblr blog I thought I should highlight an answer that Neil DeGrasse Tyson gave in response to the question, "What's up with chicks in science?" referring to Larry Summers' comment that women might be genetically inferior. He points out that while he is not a female, he is part of an under represented group in science and can relate to some of the same struggles that women have to deal with. I am so glad that such a prominent male scientist is speaking to issues like these! Thank you, Dr. DeGrasse Tyson. This entire panel discussion is worth a watch.
This sea of sparkles is actually a massive beach stranding of bioluminescent zooplankton called ostracods in the Maldives. Photo by Will Ho.
A snail crawls along the forest floor in the Redwoods National Park in Northern California. Photo: Sara Simmonds. May 2012.
Researchers at the IBRC and Conservation International add another species to the already mega diverse fauna of the Coral Triangle.
Newly settled baby fish school on a coral reef. Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. July 2013. Photo: Sara Simmonds
Sometimes the weather isn't so great, but we keep on sampling. Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. July 2013. Photo: Sara Simmonds
The Indonesian Biodiversity Research Center is a collaborative effort among UCLA, The Smithsonian and three Indonesian universities funded by USAID to facilitate important biodiversity research in the region. I have worked there every summer for the past four years! Thanks to Secretary Kerry for mentioning our us and talking about sustainable fisheries.
Iridescent Chromis viridis shelter in an Acropora coral. Komodo National Park. East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. August 2013. Photo: Sara Simmonds
Phestilla minor (clade 2) on Porites lobata with egg capsules. Komodo National Park, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. August 2013. Photo: Sara Simmonds
They are raising baby cuttle fish at the montereybayaquarium:
A Better Bubbler
How do you incubate cuttlefish eggs behind the scenes in preparation for our forthcoming âTentaclesâ special exhibition? You could, at a cost of hundreds of dollars, buy commercial incubators. But that would be too easy. Plus, Aquarist Bret Grasse figured he could create something just as good as the store-bought jobs.
For $2.50 and âa day in the life of one volunteer,â he makes a better bubbler out of soda bottles, plastic tubing and silicone glue. It looks like mad science, but it works. To date, heâs produced hundreds of baby cuttlefish for exhibit using the system.
The First Step: Drink the Soda
Bret and his husbandry colleagues have been working on this fabulous fizzer for about four years. The challenge is to âget the greatest number of healthy hatchlingsâ from a given clutch. He could let nature do its job, by having the cuttlefish mom rear the little ones. But ironically, this doesnât always achieve the best outcome, says Bret. The mom sometimes forgets where she left the clutches, or neglects them. Plus, removing the eggs and raising them separately allows mom to focus on what she does best: laying  more eggs.
The first step in making the worldâs best egg bubbler is the easiest: drink the soda. That done, Bret cuts the bottle in half, and affixes a small screen between the two pieces. The bottom end, where the cap used to be, also has a screen. Then the whole thing is submerged. Next, a tube injects air into the top half of the bubbler, drawing water oh-so-gently up through the whole device, and aerating the eggs with the perfect fizzinessânot too much, not too little.
A Cuttlefish the Size of a Pea
While the cuttlefish eggs do their dance in the bubbler, Bret watches and waits. Eventually, the faintest trace of a baby cuttlefish appears in the egg, and an eyespot. When they finally hatch, theyâre the size of a pea. The whole thing takes only a few weeks. The baby cuttlefish can then go on exhibit, where they reach their  three-inch full grown size in about three months.
So far, the bubblers have been used for pharaoh, flamboyant and dwarf cuttlefish, but more species are being considered as we get closer to the launch of the new exhibit April 12.
âWeâre so fortunate to have the opportunity to experiment with these techniques,â says Bret. âIt not only helps us produce animals for exhibit, but it plays into our conservation mission, by reducing pressure on wild stocks.
âItâs a dream come true for me, Chris Payne and Alicia Bitondo,â says Bret. âWe couldnât be happier to work with these animals and do this kind of troubleshooting.â
Plus, the soda is free.
Learn more about our forthcoming special exhibition, âTentaclesâ.
Discovered! A translucent snail living deep underground in Croatia In Lukina Jama-Trojama, Croatiaâs deepest cave and one of the 20 deepest cave systems in the world, scientists recently discovered a new species of snail: Zospeum tholussum. The Zospeum tholussum is tiny, fragile, and translucent, with a curvy, transparent shell to match.
"Only one living specimen was found," says a release about the discovery, first recorded in the journal Subterranean Biology, ââŠat the remarkable depth of 980 m, in an unnamed chamber full of rocks and sand and a small stream running through it.â
This snazzy new species is one of several species of snails that spend their days completely underground in the darkest dark, breathing air, yet unable to see. Zospeum are considered to be eutroglobionts, AKA exclusive cave-dwellers. So donât expect to find one in your familyâs garden.
To celebrate this discovery, a talk on snails and a talk on caves:
My life in caves: Andy Eavis at TEDxHull Though not a discoverer of snails, TEDxHull speaker Andy Eavis has been exploring caves since he was 18. In this fascinating talk, he shares stories from his trips underground â with beautiful photos to boot.
What Iâve learned from snails: Panagiota Vlachou at TEDxAcademy What can you learn from a plate of snails? A lot. At TEDxAcademy in Greece, heliciculturalist (now you know the technical term for snail farmer) Panagiota Vlachou explains how she came to farm snails, and how â for her â they became a symbol of economic recovery and even feminism. (Filmed in Greek with English subtitles)
(Photos: Top left, Croatian Speleological Server, Top right, Alexander M. Weigand; Bottom, Jana Bedek, HBSD)
See through snails!
Some of the many things we literally ran into while snorkeling this summer. Not a single day went by without seeing trash on the reef and/or the surface. Indonesia. Summer 2013.
Not all coral reefs are beautiful, mainly because people have messed them up. Komodo National Park, East Nusa Tenggara. August, 2013. Photo: Sara Simmonds.
Video of the day...Joshua Tree National Park during a meteor shower
Oddly, early mammalian carnivore paleontology is not among them⊠probably for the bestâŠ