The Biosphere

10:39 AM

@theforestecologist biology.stackexchange.com/questions/56718/… is hot

I wonder what happens with that one

@skillpatrol hahaha that is awesome

skill patrol

Q: Why don't birds in flocks fly into each other?

It's kind of a pity that stork still looks to be so much in control though

That frog should win, kill the bird and spread its genes

far and wide

skill patrol

Indeed, he looks like he's probably experienced that situation before.

Secret

11:13 AM

Birds Swarm Over Sunset

►

I've seen videos of hundreds of birds flying in the same general direction but creating incredible patterns in the sky seemingly instantaneously! How do they all know in what direction to turn at the same time? Is there a "Lead" bird dictating this somehow?

These are examples of complex systems, where individuals obey local rules and then give rise to emergent phenomenon. Ecology is interesting because there is a lot to learn from these natural complex systems

12:06 PM

@another'Homosapien' Now it worked :-)

12:22 PM

@Chris Obviously, coz it has to ;)

I always think that pinging in answers doesn't work

coz I've never seen it work

@another'Homosapien' It works. But not always. Or it got delayed. The last one did work.

Delayed? Well I receive notifications for 3 days old pings too ;)

in chat/comments of course

@another'Homosapien' It's the first pigmentation question in a while which hasn't been answered by me :-)

@Chris oh I suddenly feel proud 8)

are you dermatologist?

@another'Homosapien' Nope. But I did my PhD in pigmentation research. Or more precise: The regulation of it. You know all the relevant papers after some time :-)

12:33 PM

@Chris yeah I was just wondering how could you find those papers so easily... :P

@another'Homosapien' I have them in my publication database. :-)

I have a problem, let me see if you can tell me something about that

What problem?

is this pigmentation or something with the skin?

i can't find that answer either

You are talking about Blaschko lines.

See this answer: biology.stackexchange.com/questions/35661/…

Interestingly by me :-)

12:40 PM

:O :D

It is definitely genetic.

so, what to do about them then?

This explanation is quite nice: scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/08/12/blaschkos-lines

@another'Homosapien' I don't know. But I would ask a qualified dermatologist about this.

@Chris thanks! I never bothered to look for a dermatologist ;)

@another'Homosapien' I don't think it is a problem, but you can ask someone with more experience in this. At least the articles doesn't mention anything.

12:52 PM

BTW does anybody know where is RoryM?

@another'Homosapien' Why?

I like his answers, but he hasn't posted anything since a long time

Last seen Feb 11...

There are many others too, who haven't showed up since a long time

People have varying amounts of time. Same for me. I don't write as much answers as earlier.

@Chris and I thought people tend to post less after getting high reputation :P

No, not really. :-)

And the amount of questions that I find interesting is also varying.

12:56 PM

@Chris yeah I'm looking at @aliceD ;)

@Chris same here

but the most interesting part is that I get highest points for the posts I once found least interesting :D

With time you learn which questions are getting a lot of views. These are usually the ones with more popular science.

@Chris In my opinion, the questions with highest views are the ones that everyone has, like "why are so few foods blue?" or "why do I breath out of only one nostril?"

this one hasn't got much views, if it comes under what you say popular science ;)

also, when I was answering this, I knew it might get some views because its a common question

That's what I meant with popular stuff.

1:16 PM

@another'Homosapien' +1 for that one - nice

@another'Homosapien' you mean I'm not writing enough answers?

@another'Homosapien' hoooo there - the blue foods question is rocket science ;-D

A: What strange jelly-like thing is shown in the photo?

@AliceD huh that snake isn't even that cool, as far as snakes go.

I would have thought this answer would've been way more popular:

I agree with @Gerardo-Furtado's comment that what you most likely have here is a colonial tunicate (or sea squirt) from the genus Botrylloides. According to images and information available via the Taxanomic Toolkit for Marine Life of Port Phillip Bay$^2$, it appears as though you have a specime...

Also, it's not rocket science. It's band aid science

2:17 PM

@theforestecologist baha. The jelly question received my upvote! Interesting specimen

2:37 PM

@AliceD yeah, I think it's one of the coolest/strangest things I'd seen on here. (In other words, I had no idea what it was!).

Though, I think by answering it I took away from it's mysteriousness... :p. "Strange orange-spotted jelly blob" is way more interesting than "colonial tunicate" haha! :p

Thanks for the upvote :D

@AliceD you are writing answers exceptionally fast ;)

@AliceD yeah I don't think any other answer here took off so fast :O

@Chris then its fine ;)

@theforestecologist whoa I'd never thought of life in such a beautiful face, +1! :D

@AliceD thanks, I'd been dying for it (really :)

3:03 PM

@theforestecologist Are you now more satisfied with the answer you flagged?

3:22 PM

@Chris Yes. I'm satisfied.

3:41 PM

@theforestecologist Ok, great, then I will dismiss the flag without any other action.

Thanks @Chris

@theforestecologist Sure. Problem solved, no further action necessary :-)

5 hours later…

Dr.Fazle Rabbi

8:32 PM

hello all