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…
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 â 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 â 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 5â10 cm long and 2â3 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 (âCO2â) and both the amino…
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. Whiteâwhite and tanâtan matings were exceedingly rare. Using…


















