Saturday, June 20, 2009

Luray Caverns

---More to come--- Post under development---
Ideas:

Hammers hitting stalactites

Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you?

How the cave formed...

The first air-conditioned house.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Following up on one idea from E O Wilson's talk at the World Science Festival

Using the internet to do a literature search on ants and oleic acid, some of E O Wilson's earlier research work which was a small part of the great ideas Wilson presented at the World Science Festival, a large number of related references can easily be found. Here are just a few from a Google search:

  1. A chemical releaser of alarm and digging behavior in the ant Pogonomyrmex badius (Latreille) EO Wilson - Psyche: A Journal of Entomology, 1958 - psyche.entclub.org ...ants either showed no reaction or (in the case of oleic acid) removed the paper ... ammonium sulfide, phenol, and oleic acid were tested in the same way, the Cited by 22 - Related articles - Cached - Web Search - All 3 versions

  2. Dependence of necrophoric response to oleic acid on social context in the ant, Pogonomyrmex badius DM Gordon - Journal of Chemical Ecology, 1983 - Springer ... Thus, if most of the ants on the mound surface ... midden work, an object treated with oleic acid will probably ... used at the suggestion of Dr. EO Wilson, in order ... Cited by 21 - Related articles - Web Search

  3. Defensive and other secretions of the Australian cocktail ant, Iridomyrmex nitidiceps GWK Cavill, PL Robertson, JJ Brophy, DV Clark, R … - Tetrahedron, 1982 - Elsevier ...Oleic acid 10 296(3 ... Pavan, Researches on Trail and Alarm Substances in Ants. ...EO Wilson, The Insect Societies, Belknap Press of Harvard ... 87(60),74(100),55(35) d18 Cited by 10 - Related articles - Web Search

  4. Congruency of hydrocarbon patterns in heterospecific groups of ants: transfer and/or biosynthesis? C Vienne, V Soroker, A Hefetz - Insectes Sociaux, 1995 - Springer ... chromato- graphed standards purchased from Sigma (n-heptacosane, tricosene, triolein, oleic acid, and palmitoleic ... H611dobler, B. and EO Wilson, 1990. The ants. ...Cited by 47 - Related articles - Web Search - All 2 versions

  5. The relation of recruitment rate to activity rhythms in the harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex barbatus (F. … DM Gordon - Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, 1983 - jstor.org ... The rate of recruitment to bait is positively correlated with the numbers of ants ... not correlated with the number of ants foraging. Thus the stage in the ... Cited by 20 - Related articles - Web Search

  6. The evolution of female multiple mating in social Hymenoptera MJF Brown, P Schmid-Hempel, S Pitnick - Evolution, 2003 - BioOne... Dependence of necrophoric response to oleic acid on social context in the ant, Pogonomyrmex badius. J. Chem. ... CrossRef. Hölldobler, B. and EOWilson . ... The ants. ... Cited by 33 - Related articles - Web Search - BL Direct - All 8 versions

  7. Food from seed-dispersal mutualism shifts sex ratios in colonies of the ant Aphaenogaster rudis- williams.edu [PDF] MA Morales, ER Heithaus - Ecology, 1998 - Eco Soc America... Hölldobler, B., and EO Wilson. ...oleic acid and an... Frequency-dependent seed dispersal by ants of two deciduous ... Aphaenogaster rudis response to evaluation of Cited by 51 - Related articles - Web Search - BL Direct - All 9 versions

  8. Direct behavioral evidence for hydrocarbons as nestmate recognition cues in Formica japonica ( …T Akino, K Yamamura, S Wakamura, R Yamaoka - Applied Entomology and Zoology, 2004 - J-STAGE... peak 11), n-tridecane (peak 12), palmitoleic acid (peak 13), palmitic acid (peak 14), oleic acid (peak 15 ... Hölldobler, B. and EO Wilson (1990) The Ants....Cited by 21 - Related articles - Web Search - BL Direct - All 8 versions

  9. In the Queendom of the Ants: ABrief AutobiographyEO Wilson - Leaders in the Study of Animal Behavior: Autobiographical …, 1985 - books.google.com...ants identify their own dead. When a corpse hasdecomposed for two or three days, it accumulates enough oleic acid and related ... necrophoric substances" by which Cited by 1 - Related articles - Web Search - All 2 versions


Now, say you knew nothing of ants before. These articles would likely contain many words that you don't know, and, many ideas that are new to you. By the time you waded through three or four of them, dictionary in hand
(or internet dictionary by your side) you could likely read them
relatively easily. (Check out: "Reach Reading") You would also likely know more than most people about ants... You can go beyond ants with your reading: You can read and find out many things to give you ideas for more research, ideas for improving the world, ideas for fixing the economy, ideas for curing diseases, ideas for growing more food, ideas for saving lives. Imagine that!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

World Science Festival, NYC, 2009

Brian Green and Tracy Day co-founded the World Science Festival, which is full of programs to stimulate deep thinking and awe about the science around us. Using hands-on activities, lectures from famous scientists, film, theater and performance, science was the focus of New Yor City's residents and tourists alike from June 10th through the 14th.

Take a look at worldsciencefestival.com

Ants and oleic acid... Something I learned about at the festival that I didn't know before. I think I'll read more about the relationship between ants and oleic acid.

What did you learn? Share comments.