October 2013 archive

Oct 16

Teardrops of the swan

Lacrymaria olor [CC-BY-SA-3.0 Steve Cook]

Last year, the most marvellous thing we saw in the pond-water microscopy practical was a ciliate, and this year the prize goes to that same clade. Ciliates don’t disappoint. This is Lacrymaria olor, the “teardrop of the swan”. It’s a predator, like the Vorticella from last year, but rather than sitting rooted to the spot, Lacrymaria is …

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Oct 09

The Wason card problem

Wason cards [CC-BY-SA-3.0 Steve Cook]

The Wason card problem is a well-known psychological test that probes how people think about hypothesis testing. The version I use in one of my first-year lectures is shown below. I think the original version used letters and numbers, but I’m a biologist, so obviously I use pictures of dead pets instead of numbers. We …

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