Encyclopedia of Life Blog

Now that the EoL is up and running, the “Biodiversity of the Week” blog post will feature creatures that actually have species pages! As you may or may not know, many (most) of the EoL species pages are incomplete and the majority are just stub pages, meaning they pretty much only have a name at the top. But, as time goes on, more and more will be fleshed out and this genre of blog post will hopefully highlight that process as it happens. These entries are meant to show stellar species pages and to give an appreciation for the real meat of the EOL: the organisms it has been created to preserve. The hope is that by giving everyone a weekly dose of species fun-facts, people will be encouraged to not only spread the word about the organisms they learn about, but also continue to learn about them on their own. On that note, get ready to be amazed by the supreme:

Click HERE to actually go the page. (there are some great videos there of chicks hatching and feeding)

This bird of prey is spectacular for many many reasons. For starters, it’s a looker, enough said. These beauties are about the size of a crow and can live up to 15 years in the wild. They also mate for life. Second of all, they are THE FASTEST ANIMALS ON EARTH!! Here is a video of a speed enamored scientist/pilot doing crazy aerial experiments to measure a peregrine’s speed. He finally clocks one at 242 mph!

At that speed all peregrines have to do to kill their prey (usually other birds) is stick out a clenched foot as they zoom by. Their abilities also mean that their bodies have evolved some incredible features that allow them to both go that fast and to withstand the gravity and other forces that would wreak havoc on the bodies of most creatures (think about your ears popping during airplane landings, but A LOT more intense.) Here is a video of a peregrine divebombing a flock of starlings:

The final amazing thing about them is actually two-fold. The first part is their conservation story, which is featured in the introduction on the EOL species page. But briefly, in North America in the 1950’s they were nearly extinct, largely because of a common pesticide called DDT which thinned the shells of their (and other birds of prey’s) eggs causing them to break prematurely. This was a little known fact until the publication of the book Silent Spring, by biologist Rachel Carson in 1962, which was widely read and highlighted the plight of the peregrine as evidence for the effects of pesticides on the environment (a previously unstudied topic). Not only did the book create a public outcry which resulted in the ban of DDT in 1972, but it is also credited with starting the environmental movement in the U.S. So the successful comeback of the peregrine is even more heartwarming for its connection to the movement to save the environment in general.

The second really exciting part of that is that today, peregrines and other falcons are so prevalent that they have found a new niche in cities, commonly nesting on tall buildings and bridges and feeding on pigeons and other delicious city creatures. In New York City in 2005 there were 18 documented pairs of peregrines.

This new proximity to people has created a really interesting phenomena that not many species enjoy, and that is the 24 hour webcams of their nests! Here are links to all the “falconcams” that I could find, but I bet there are more out there: Derby Cathedral (UK), Shenandoah National Park, VA, Richmond, VA, Brisbane, AU, Plymouth, Devon (UK), Rochester, NY, and Harrisburg, PA. Have fun stalking our cute feathered neighbors!

Here are some of the highlights of the press coverage surrounding the recent launch. Most of the major news media addressed it in various degrees of thoroughness and each article has its own tone, some are very encouraging while others take a more cautionary stance. Check them out and form your own opinions. Here is the New York Times, The BBC, The Boston Globe and Nature News. There is also a site that has links to much of the press coverage of the EOL in the past year, but is also updated daily and includes major news sources as well as blogs and online columns. There are articles ranging all the way back to the first mini-launch in May 2007 posted and more appear daily. Enjoy!

Also, not listed in the site above, or anywhere online, the EoL was described in the latest issue of the Bulletin of the Royal Entomological Society, Antenna (Winter 2008 Volume 32 (1)) on p. 68) in the section called “Embiopteran Tools”. It is exciting to know that the word is being spread about the potential of the EOL to be useful in numerous fields of biology.

Here at the Encyclopedia of Life, we are on constant lookout for cool technologies and user groups. One that we have had our eye on for a long time is Drupal, a content management system that uses PHP and MySQL as the backend database. Drupal has an immensely active fanbase and an increasing number of installations throughout the world. DrupalCon was held March 3-6, 2008 at the Boston, Massachusetts Convention & Expo Center. If you’re interested in how the conference was organized and what sessions were held, take a peek at the program (PDF).

Peter Mangiafico and I attended DrupalCon and were floored by the enthusiasm. I was particularly interested in the jQuery and GIS/Mapping sessions. Brian Aker’s (MySQL) plenary was also very helpful. And, this from Peter:

I was at DrupalCon on Thursday, March 6 and the first thing I noticed was that this seemed to be the highest concentrations of laptops per square inch I have ever seen, with a higher percentage of glowing Apple symbols on the back of them than the population in general. You could tell you were in the right rooms just by glancing around and noticing folks coding in the audience in real-time. The sessions I went to were well-attended, with the “Using Drupal with External Data Sources” session spilling out of the room. It was great to see how many folks are using Drupal to solve their specific needs across different domains, from education to business.