George Dvorsky's saved articles

I think the main hindrance is the lack of access to fire, I’m really curious as to how difficult it would be to manipulate metal with thermal vents.

Indeed, the construction and use of any energy-producing or -consuming equipment entirely immersed in water (especially high-pressure water) is fraught with problems, especially if you’re talking about electricity. In addition, the environment of deep-sea habitats is much more stable than that of anything on land, so… Read more

Asked (in my head) and answered (by George): Read more

‘the “idea that muscle morphology—and by extension, muscle and organismal function—can be gleaned from the associated attachment site is an old and very tempting one that continues to be heavily debated,”’

I prefer to think the vial is half-full.

IT REALLY IS CHEESE, I KNEW IT!!!!!!

Did they try jiggling the handle?

Indeed. Much older.

What I’m taking away from this is that cat memes are older than the New Testament.

Very incisive cat reporting per usual by George.

Pretty sure Roscosmos is shaking in their boots. Paying customers for seats in their antique Soyuz rocket are one of the few things they have going for them these days. Note that just in the last week or two they’ve announced a new rocket project that closely mimics SpaceX, both in form factor (highly similar to… Read more

Cave bears (Ursus spelaeus) went extinct just prior to the end of the last ice age some 15,000 years ago, though possibly as early as 27,800 years ago. Read more

Excellent story.  Thank you for writing it and bringing this subject to our attention.

Looney Toons leaves me feeling deceived once again. First they tell me rabbits know how to get to Albuquerque, then coyotes are super geniuses and pigs have speech impediments, now they are telling me Tasmanian devils aren’t so devilish.

This isn’t really all that surprising if you are familiar with some of the more unbiased reports from the time. While thylacine were blamed for killing sheep, this being one of the main reasons they were bounty hunted, there are few if any credible accounts of them ever being seen attacking sheep. Read more

Retraction seems like a very strange route to take. A future paper could have simply correctly identified Oculudentavis as a squamate. That’s generally how science works (it’s self-correcting). There’s definitely more to this story, and it’s a shame that Nature’s not saying.

My own research has uncovered startling evidence of how each one was chosen:

This is really cool to read about. In around 1990 I spent many dozens of hours in the field with my ornithology professor. We happened across a group of young male White-throated Sparrows overwintering and learning their song. This is certainly how dialect spreads. It was fascinating to watch and listen to them as… Read more

My husky simply couldn’t be let off the leash, as he would just make a bolt for the horizon and was determined to keep going til he caught it. He was an amazing dog, but training him was seriously difficult and I never did manage to train him to return from being off-leash. It was simply too much fun to run.