15Jul 2015 by Vincent Summers No Comments

Surprising Insights on Global Warming by Meteorologist Jon Plotkin

Meteorology
[caption id="attachment_7412" align="alignright" width="480"] Contrails (high-moisture exhaust) by aircraft.[/caption] I’m very active since my retirement from the rat-race. I don’t have lots of time to watch or read about the weather. But I do manage to keep up. One of the better ten-minute periods I spent was on a global warming written by meteorologist Jon Plotkin of the former science site Decoded Science. What a Difference a Day Makes Some mistakenly think each day should be degrees warmer “if there is such a thing as global warming.” They want to think they know what it is without reading any scientific explanation. The global warming article is special in that it does not focus on high temperature, but temperature difference—the high temperature of the day minus the low temperature of the…
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23Mar 2014 by Vincent Summers No Comments

The Cyclops Freshwater Copepod

Biology
[caption id="attachment_27434" align="alignright" width="480"] Cyclops bicuspidatus. - NOAA[/caption]In Greek mythology, Cyclops was a violent, one-eyed giant humanoid monster. The most famous of them is Polyphemus. He was the son of the Greek god Poseidon and the sea nymph¹ Thoösa. It is that one eye that defines the cyclops. And so a tiny fresh water copepod possessing one eye (sometimes red, sometimes black) is named cyclops as well. Thanks to its small size (0.5 to 2 millimeters) and its jerky movements, it (also the daphnia) has been nicknamed “water flea.” It is instructive to watch this brief video of a male. Description Cyclops feeds on plankton. It thrives in stagnant ponds. It does not require sexual fertilization to reproduce. But it does engage in sexual reproduction during periods of drought to…
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