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Featured in the May 2011 issue of Smithsonian magazine is an article about the vocalizations of different species of mice. Matina Kalcounis-Rueppell, biologist at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, is a behavioral ecologist with expertise in how animals use sound. While working a California field site in 2004, she used an ultrasonic recorder ( analogous to Gordon's Bat Box ) to capture nighttime sounds, some of which she suspected to be those of mice she was studying.

Bringing the recordings into the computer, Matina's team noticed a fairly loud four-note song that turned out to be from a deer mouse. A slowed down recording of the mouse song sounds eerily akin to whale song. Have a listen.

Photo: Todd Thille

Duncan will join Richard Devine and Steve Nalepa to discuss "Sounds of Unseen Worlds" at Dubspot's Hi-Fidelity Sessions in Boston this Friday, April 22, 2011. Their presentation begins at 5PM at Bristol Studios and is free with RSVP. The event is part of the larger Together Festival taking place all week in Boston.

Wales aims to be one of the first countries to catalog DNA barcodes of all of it's native flowering plants, 1143 species in total. The reference barcodes being assembled would allow for identification of any plant species from the tiniest fragment if the plant.

This effort is in sync with global initiatives to catalog DNA barcodes for all living things. The growing database is meant to be a freely accessible online global resource.

Further information about the Welsh initiative is at The National Botanic Garden of Wales. More information on DNA barcoding can be found at International Barcode of Life, Barcode of Life, and Barcode of Life Data Systems.

Via ( UK Plant Science )

Duncan interviewed by Dan Godston for the Examiner. An overview of early influences and ongoing projects.

( Photo: Joseph Max )

'Aetheric Artist' Joseph Max will be showing a number of radionic devices at the Nova Albion Steampunk Exhibition in Santa Clara, CA March 25th-27th, 2011. Mr. Max will be presenting his Reflexophone 2.0, Aetheric Shield Generator, and a Steampunk Hieronymus Machine (pictured above).