Gorget (bird)

A gorget is a patch of colored feathers found on the throat or upper breast of some species of birds. It is a feature found on many male hummingbirds, particularly those found in North America; these gorgets…

Gorget, from the French gorge meaning throat

A gorget, from the French gorge meaning throat, was a band of linen wrapped around a woman’s neck and head in the medieval period or the lower part of a simple chaperon hood. The term later described a steel or leather collar to protect the throat, a…

Pterion and Pteron Notes

The pterion is the region where the frontal, parietal, temporal, and sphenoid bones join. It is located on the side of the skull, just behind the temple. Structure The pterion is located in the temporal fossa, approximately 2.6 cm behind and 1.3 cm…

Cryptanaerobacter phenolicus transforms phenol into benzoate via 4-hydroxybenzoate

Benzoic acid occurs naturally in many plants and serves as an intermediate in the biosynthesis of many secondary metabolites. Salts of benzoic acid are used as food preservatives. Benzoic acid is an important precursor for the industrial…

Aetokthonotoxin (AETX) aka ‘eagle toxin’ discovered in 2021

Aetokthonotoxin (AETX), colloquially ‘eagle toxin’, was discovered in 2021 as the cyanobacterial neurotoxin causing vacuolar myelinopathy (VM) in eagles in North America. Avian vacuolar myelinopathy (AVM) is a fatal neurological disease that affects various waterbirds and raptors. It is most common…

Jeannette Pickering Rankin (1880 – 1973) wanted to be remembered as the only woman who ever voted to give women the right to vote

Jeannette Pickering Rankin (June 11, 1880 – May 18, 1973) was an American politician and women’s rights advocate who became the first woman to hold federal office in the United States in 1917.…

Rubia tinctorum aka rose madder, common madder, dyer’s madder

Rubia tinctorum, the rose madder or common madder or dyer’s madder, is a herbaceous perennial plant species belonging to the bedstraw and coffee family Rubiacea. Description The common madder can grow up to 1.5 m in height. The evergreen leaves are approximately 5–10 cm long and 2–3 cm…

Rubia cordifolia aka common madder or Indian madder

Rubia cordifolia, often known as common madder or Indian madder, is a species of flowering plant in the coffee family, Rubiaceae. It has been cultivated for a red pigment derived from roots. Common names of this plant include manjistha in Sanskrit, Marathi, Kannada and Bengali, majith in Hindi and Gujarati,…

Arginine

Arginine is the amino acid with the formula (H2N)(HN)CN(H)(CH2)3CH(NH2)CO2H. The molecule features a guanidino group appended to a standard amino acid framework. At physiological pH, the carboxylic acid is deprotonated (−CO2−) and both the amino…

A Survey of Birds and Fabulous Stones

Christopher J. Duffin (2012): A Survey of Birds and Fabulous Stones, Folklore, 123:2, 179-197 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.2012.682477 Summary: The records of fabulous stones associated with birds are here examined systematically for the…

Clach an Tiompain (the “Sounding Stone” or the Eagle Stone)

Clach an Tiompain (in English, the “Sounding Stone”) or The Eagle Stone is a small Class I Pictish stone located on a hill on the northern outskirts of Strathpeffer in Easter Ross, Scotland. Description The stone is made of blue gneiss and…

Divergence and functional degradation of a sex chromosome-like supergene (the sparrow with four sexes)

In January 2016, when the paper was published in Current Biology, it showed unequivocally that chromosome 2 was evolving like a sex chromosome. White–white and tan–tan matings were exceedingly rare. Using…