Organic Pesticides

They have just recently invented a pesticide for organic farming that can be sprayed on the crops, picked that same day, and consumed the same day that is completely harmless to our bodies. This is a big stepping stone for the "organic" market. I just wish I could remember the name of the company that invented it so I can reference them. They are based in Davis, CA and that's as much as I can remember on it.

We hear about organic foods and organic stuff a lot in advertising but we should realize what it means exactly.
www.dictionary.com
Organic:–adjective
1. noting or pertaining to a class of chemical compounds that formerly comprised only those existing in or derived from plants or animals, but that now includes all other compounds of carbon.

Fruits and veggies that are organic taste completely different from "inorganics". Organics taste so much better and "real".

(weird how organic in chemistry means "carbon based")

No time

There's so much I need to write about right now, just have no time...more to come:
Plastic surgery-> disrupting with heritable traits from being selected through evolution.
Why are we monogamous? What does it have to do with survivorship and reproduction cost?

The LAST stretch!

Okay everyone, less than a month before the semester ends!! Hang in there!!!

Updates on the Lagoon and such

On Monday morning the avian biodiversity was thriving at Colorado Lagoon. I counted at least eleven different kinds of species when I was there, only 4 of which were not migratory birds. Some of the birds I saw were American Coot, Great egret, snowy egret, great blue heron, California Pelican, ring-billed gull, two different species of sandpipers, least tern, and about three other ones that I am unfamiliar with. The invasive Bermuda buttercup is really making their establishment at the east bank restoration site, regular weeding will need to continue. I finally made my way all the way around the entire lagoon, where it is less accessible, less trash. I saw two different species of sandpipers with different length beaks walking side by side on the mudflats looking for food. Different length beaks means they are filling different niches, they looked like brother and sisters walking around together looking for food. Tomorrow morning I am going to head out to Bolsa Chica and Steam Shovel Slough, but first I need to study up on my winter migratory birds.

Blogspot Tutorial

My goal is to learn how to layout a bad-ass blog once school is over. I am getting tired of my pictures not turning out. I have just recently noticed that physical appearance is quite important.

Single life brings back biological impulse

After being reintroduced into single life for a couple of months and surrounding myself with single female friends, I noticed a great change of focus in my daily life. When you start spend way too much time talking about boys with your girlfriends and buying something new every week (my excuse being retail therapy until I can tame my emotions again), you start to think, why are you all of the sudden doing all these things that you didn't do before you were single? The answer is... *dun dun dunnnnnn*

Finding your optimal mate!! Not really surprising, right?
Biologically speaking, we as a human race and as individuals, our goal is to reproduce (pass on our alleles to our offsprings to improve our own individual fitness). Recalling back to one of my older post about sexual selection, females have larger investments than males in sexual reproduction and therefore are more "choosy" (A. Carter, BIOL 312, CSULB). Females are constantly looking for their ideal mate, and since this is an important search mission, most females will only invest time in potential mating partners and not just any individual.

So what does this translate to? Most girls will only invest time in guys that they consider to be their potential "serious boyfriend material". And guys are more likely to invest time in girls that they don't see as potential wives. This can be supported once again by the biology of the male species.
As mentioned before, sexual reproduction investment is much smaller for males. Males can expense all of their energy in sperm production (whereas females have to expense their energy on egg production AND carrying the offspring), so their focus is to spread their genes and have as many matings as possible (once again, to improve their own fitness).

After being released into single life again, I am noticing how much energy and time I expense at finding the optimal mate, it is way too exhausting!

Reminder to myself

More things to blog about...single life has brought out the biology in me, remaining 4 of female sexual selection.
Still no time! >_<

Crunched for Time!

I really want to spend some time on here, but school is a full time job! Winter migration for the birds, solar energy, list of beautiful places to go...much more. *Stressed*

Colorado Lagoon

Now that colder weather is approaching, mornings at the Colorado Lagoon are foggy. The fog cleared up pretty quickly and birds appeared. There were more snowy egrets and I saw one great blue heron, and of course the regulars as well, ducks. Today was also the first time I saw the Lagoon after the 350 restoration planting. Those little guys are looking good!! I am really hoping these plants will eventually attract more different types of birds and marine organisms. The tide was extremely low today, the lowest I have seen it so far, the algal growth on the mud flats were so bright, green and abundant. There were a lot of large pieces of trash, I picked up 4 pounds of trash, my highest record so far.

Forgive or Forget

If someone does something that is unforgivable but they try really really, and I mean really hard to get you to forgive them, do you give them another chance or no?

ScHoOl

I love school, but why do they stress us out so much with all the work at the same time. I feel like I am being forced to learn so quickly that I don't even get to enjoy my classes anymore! Help!

Math in Evolution

Math in evolutionary biology is extremely difficult. Class was confusing today, in fact I should be studying for it right now while it is still fresh in my head. It is just amazing to me that all these equations and variables are soooo arbitrary, it blows my mind how we have come up with different ways to manipulate them and turn them into something we can predict. Predicting for mutation rates, rates of evolution...it blows my mind. The intelligence of the human race should be enough evidence to prove evolution.