Updates

  • Meshing with the People

    Meshing with the People

    May is going away quickly. Woke another morning with too much to do and too many opporunities to potentially lose to sleep in. Got lots of official things setup this morning: Gamboa Talk (mini) on monday, Gamboa Workshop next monday, Lunch with Bill Wcislo on tuesday, meeting with batlab on friday. From the little bit…

  • Pre-Performances

    Pre-Performances

    Before I even got here, the scientists in this strange vibrant community were already coming up with great ideas for experiential performances involving the animals. Morpho-Smack Walking through the jungle, all naturalists are randomly struck by the impromtu passing of a brilliant blue morpho fluttering by. Now they will be physically struck also! An adaptation…

  • Supplies

    Supplies

    In keeping with last year’s traditions, I show up at La Tienda to buy my first set of food and supplies during that no-man’s zone between 1-2 pm. Gives a good opportunity to write down my first field entry. Got an hour of sleep after unpacking and am now scouting locations for setting up the…

  • Packing \ Preparing

    Last year before my trip I had little knowledge about what awaited me. Back on that trip the mission was to collect as much high quality footage of social insects as possible. So I packed three DSLRs, two gopros, tons of SD cards, hard-drives and backup hard-drives, and lighting equipment. It was easy to pack…

  • Ants Secret Code – Reveal

    Earlier, I posted a video of leafcutter ants claiming that it contained a secret code. Well it’s true! Here’s how to crack the code, and how I encoded my messages in the first place.   Deciphering The astute observer may take note that the ants carrying leaves only travel in one direction (towards the nest). In…

  • Leafcutter Ants Secret Code

    Leafcutter Ants Secret Code

    The video below contains a secret message: I’ll reveal the secret and how to figure it out on Tuesday, so you’ll have all of Labor day weekend to ponder. First one to email me with the correct answer gets a prize (don’t email the whole list- serve and ruin the fun!). First one to email…

  • Magnetic Insect Testing

    Magnetic Insect Testing

    Not sure if people have been doing this for dozens of years in the insect world already (maybe this is common practice?), but I just ran some successful tests on an idea I had that I think could lead to some fun experiments. I was reading the fantastic book, The Ants, and they were discussing…

  • Bio-Tracking

    I am the lead researcher on several scientific biotracking projects at Georgia Tech   [rellink] MARS lab  Collaborators- Arizona State Univerity BioTrackPack Software [/rellink]

  • Final Pipeline | Soft Metrics

    Final Pipeline | Soft Metrics

    Last serious trip on Pipeline. What am I filming? The road. Camera pointed down the road. Regular and HDR video. Could be used for detecting Blue Morphos, but also sitting with and observing this slice through the forrest.   First thought is just boring. Dead forrest with an occasional jungle truck or Blue Morpho. But…

  • Ants Love Human Blood | Termite Rebuilding

    Ants Love Human Blood | Termite Rebuilding

    6/21/2012 Let’s hurry up and get some facts down. Quick for memory. Early to bed. Up at 7:30 but not going till 9. K_____ Just went to cecropia lot for last bits of footage, sugar water testing and termite rebuildings. Turns out they can rebuild one of these tunnels within an hour. Long-ish lunch discussing…