I've neglected this blog thingy for a while. Actually, I've not had much time to spend surfing around the allmighty internet, so that's probably the reason behind my lack of inspiration. And my new grown-up era has taken it's time too! I've been out in the field collecting caddisfly larvae and pupae for my first project, followed by rearing in our lab until the adults emerge. Then I've isolated their DNA, and what's next is kind of a secret...
Either way, I thought this might make some of your face muscles twitch. It concerns a phenomenon atleast I thought was mainly human - necrophilia. Well, it's not. For a couple of years ago, the Ig Nobel awards (the Nobel Prize spoof that celebrates bizarre and apparently pointless science) went to a Dr Moeliker who authored the paper The First Case of Homosexual Necrophilia in the Mallard, Anas platyrhynchos. Sounds to good to be true. Appearently, this guy was at his office when he heard a bang outside the window. When looking out, he saw a mallard duck raping another dead member of the same species. And it kept on for 75 minutes (!) until Moeliker stopped the whole scenario. The destiny of the unfortunate duck was probably a result of ‘Attempted Rape Flight". Ah, nature - it always keeps me enchanted.
Sources: http://www.nmr.nl/nmr/pages/showPage.do?itemid=1930&instanceid=16 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1165607.ece
Inga kommentarer:
Skicka en kommentar