Lost Blog

Unfortunately, late last week my blog was accidentally erased. So, in an effort to reinvent it with this single entry, I am going to make an (undoubtedly futile) attempt to recapitulate what was lost.
First, in looking for inspiration (from the Latin for "breathing in") to start my blog, I decided to go outside and "breathe in" the campus. I didn't get the chance to do so, though, because I was truly motivated by the dedication of two of my research students, Laura and Sean, in their efforts to miraculously produce a grant proposal to fund our snake research in a very short period of time. This act, as well as the next post concerning the computational efficiency of my non-majors students, are the types of things it takes to inspire me. Around here, actively seeking out inspiration is not required.
Another of my entries referenced a really cool bat article (Speech Gene Gone Batty) at the ScienceNow link below. It turns out (though not unexpectedly due to our evolutionary history) that the same gene that regulates bat echolocation (sonar communication) is responsible for the generation of speech in humans. Bats are amazing creatures and fascinating to work with, due in part to the agility and grace that result from their echolocation abilities. Btw, the unidentified bat pictured in the article is Rhinolophus paradoxolophus, meaning "nose crest, marvelous crest." The reason for the name is pretty self-explanatory and goes to show that scientific names really do make sense!