Buggin Out

Each year I try to get out and volunteer for the local biodiversity free-for-all, lovingly known a Bioblitz. Unlike the good old days, when all that was required for this type of event would have been a couple of bug nets, a stick or two of dynamite and a shotgun (for bugs, fish and birds respectively), today's more Politically Correct scientist has to take a more cautious approach. Not that there isn't ANY killing going on. I'm a bug guy, I'll admit it. Bugs are everywhere and there are so many different flavors that one could never get board of the same ol' thing. And THESE you can kill! Yeah, jars filled with cyanide or high levels of ammonia gas are just the thing that trips my trigger. Move over DEET, ethyl acetate come on in! Plus I love taking their fragile little bodies, colorful and gorgeously patterned by millions of years of natural selection and evolution, and cramming a steel pin through them so I can stuff um in a glass case and stare at them when ever I want. Bugs are neat!




he only tough part is that in order to fit in I've had to totally change the way I look in order to "assimilate". This requires a certain degree of facial hair, as seen on all prominent scientific gentlemen.



So I've been working on that this summer.