#19 Australia's Flesh Eating Sundew

Ok so, they don't really eat 'flesh' per say, their main prey is insects but they have been known to trap small animals sometimes. I'm talking about carnivorous plants. Especially native Australian ones. Did you know that 187 species of carnivourous plants are endemic (only found in) to Australia? I didn't!

I have just recently gone back to my local library to borrow some books when I spotted a book about Australian carnivorous plants. It had amazing photographs and great information. It reminded me of the Sundew (genus: Drosera) I spotted last year on my ecology field trip. They were the most amazing little things I had ever seen! I have always wanted to see other carnivorous plants other than the Venus fly trap but I had no idea they grew in Australia. As you could imagine, I was half in shock, half completely excited. My first native carnivorous plant. Gosh, I love Australia.

Spoon-leaved Sundew (Drosera spatulata) - Photo taken by Jennifer Vu (me)

Here are my photos of the very first species of Carnivorous plants I found. This is a species of Sundew, commonly known as the Spoon-leaved Sundew (Drosera spatulata).

Spiders Can Be Beautiful - Interview with Mariella Herberstein

In my first year at Macquarie University, first semester, I had this really awesome and interesting Austrian lecturer who would play a random animal noise at the beginning of the lecture and let us guess what it was. Each time, it would sound like something we knew, but it always ended up being an animal no one could guess. Because of this, Mariella Herberstein became one of the most engaging and memorable lecturers of the year. The other thing that I took away from the lectures was that she loved spiders and found them really fascinating.

Later that semester, in another subject, we were watching an episode of ‘Life in the Undergrowth’ by David Attenborough. It got to the end of the episode and the credits started rolling and someone spotted this lecturer’s name, ‘Mariella Herberstein’. Everyone who had done first year biology was stunned to know someone who had worked with and helped David Attenborough (he’s like an idol to most biology students). This is where my interest to interview Mariella stemmed from.  

At Macquarie University, Mariella is an Associate Professor and the head of the Biological Sciences department. In her scientific research on the behavioural ecology of invertebrates, she looks at how spiders are significant models in behavioural and evolutionary research, the deceptiveness of spiders and orchids, and the mating behaviour and sexual selection of spiders and other insects. She is a well known academic who is constantly sought out by masters and PHD students who want to specialise in behavioural ecology of insects. I’m actually volunteering for one such student at the moment.

In this interview, you will learn more about how she became a science academic, what helping with a BBC documentary was like, the huge range of different scientific research papers she has helped with and that she doesn’t only love spiders. 

My Interview with Mariella Herberstein.

New Years Recycling Resolution

Good morning everyone! I hope you are all well and enjoyed the festive season and the beginning of 2013. Sorry I haven't been posting lately, a lot of things happening. But! I am back and ready for the new year :) My resolution will be to post a new post every week, even if it's something as small as just one photo.

I will start off the year with something for all of you to consider and think about and maybe even take take up as a New Year resolution.

So as you know I am a great lover of nature and am always striving to find ways to convince everyone who reads my blog (if you haven't been already) that our planet including all the plants and animals are worth protecting and saving and it is our duty to do so. In saying that, here is a infographic about the impacts of plastic on our world and how we can reduce the impact. Simply by recycling!

Source: OnlineEducation.net

I hope you all have a great day :)

Rainbow Spider Webs

About a two weeks ago, my family had just come back from a holiday (I wasn’t able to go) and with them came the Canon 600D my dad had bought just before they left. I was so excited to use it! One afternoon, I went outside into my backyard and scoured around for something cool to photograph. There was a spider web in the garden and it was perfectly angled on it so that it reflected the sunlight. It was a pretty cool experience as I couldn’t take photos like these with my digital camera. Here’s my best photo.

Source: Me

So a few days after I took the photo, I uploaded it onto facebook so all my friends and members of my uni’s photography society could give me some feedback. One particular guy in the photography society took interest telling me that he was studying the optics of spider webs for his PHD. He asked me whether he could use my photo for his research. I definitely agreed! Any chance I get to be a part of PHD or postgraduate studies is a definite yes. I get to help a fellow scientists, I’ll probably learn something new and I may get credit for it (which is a big plus). So a few days later we met up and transferred my photos to him. 
 

Anyway! The point to this story? I’ve decided to dedicate this post to featuring photos of rainbow spider webs! Or spider webs that are reflecting the sun’s rays because they can be some brilliant photos with an amazing array of colours. Enjoy reading and have a good day! And maybe leave me a comment telling me what you think. P.s. I hope this makes up for my absence :)

Facebook Page

So I've finally decided to create a facebook page for my blog. To all your readers out there! Go ahead and like it!

https://www.facebook.com/1000NaturalWonders

Sascha Bokelmann Feature - Photo Manipulation

A few days ago I had a look at the Daily Deviations on deviantart and came across this amazing photo manipulation. For those of you who aren't familiar with photo manipulation, on wikipedia it is defined as 'the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception.' In other words, using several images (usually photos) and mash them together to create something that just doesn't even seem real and yet it could be.

The artist of this amazing work deserved the Daily deviation. His work is amazing! Especially the few works I'm about to showcase.

His first Daily Deviation: Dragonfly