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$3.7 million to study quack medicine at a leading cancer center1 week ago in Genomics, Medicine, and Pseudoscience
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I am Lazarus1 month ago in Angry by Choice
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A New Placodont from the Late Triassic of China10 months ago in Chinleana
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Posted: July 22, 2018 at 03:03PM1 year ago in Field Notes
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Bryophyte Herbarium Survey2 years ago in Moss Plants and More
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Harnessing innate immunity to cure HIV3 years ago in Rule of 6ix
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WE MOVED!3 years ago in Games with Words
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post doc job opportunity on ribosome biochemistry!4 years ago in Protein Evolution and Other Musings
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Growing the kidney: re-blogged from Science Bitez4 years ago in The View from a Microbiologist
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Blogging Microbes- Communicating Microbiology to Netizens5 years ago in Memoirs of a Defective Brain
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The Lure of the Obscure? Guest Post by Frank Stahl7 years ago in Sex, Genes & Evolution
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Lab Rat Moving House8 years ago in Life of a Lab Rat
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Goodbye FoS, thanks for all the laughs8 years ago in Disease Prone
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Slideshow of NASA's Stardust-NExT Mission Comet Tempel 1 Flyby8 years ago in The Large Picture Blog
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in The Biology Files

A plant pundit comments on plants, the foibles and fun of academic life, and other things of interest.
Leafy passion for phony eggs
One of the best things about rain forest when you're teaching or studying rainforest is the myriad of interactions among organisms. You just see them everywhere. The leaf above is from a vine found growing on top of a clump of Heliconia near our cabina. It's a passion vine, Passiflora biflora. Notice the 8 conspicuous fake eggs on the leaf. Butterflies that specialize on Passiflora vines for their larvae to feed on see these fake eggs and decide not to add another egg to a leaf where other larvae will be feeding first. But these fake eggs are also nectaries on the back side, glands that secrete nectar and attract ants that will defend their nectar source thus providing another protection from herbivory. Indeed the back side of this leaf had several ants on board. Note that the top of the 2-lobed leaf is oriented upside down in this image with the apex, a tiny tip pointing down
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