In terrifying display of phylogenetic prowess published in this month's Royal Society's Biology Letters, Inward et al. blow the collective minds of entomologists around the world with some seriously ill shit: termites, formerly order Isoptera, actually belong as a family within order Blattodae, THE COCKROACHES. The proposed name for this new family is Termitidae. Although I haven't exactly been on top of recent developments in Isopteran taxonomy, it is rare to have taxonomic reorganization at the level of order. That said, in the paper (aptly titled "The Death of an Order") the authors present an extremely comprehensive molecular analysis of this particular phylogeny. Fancy that.

Here's a quick refresher on the basic levels of Linnaen taxonomic classification, from highest to lowest level:

Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.

Come one, come all. See Iapetus, the hideous disfigured moon. Be warned, it's grotesque two-faced surface and equatorial scar may be disturbing to young children. Great minds are still unsure if the moon was born with the bilateral ridge or if it was due to an unspeakable accident. The moon's erratic behavior in orbit could be due to it's frightening split personality. Originally born a reflective white moon characteristic of Saturn's orbiting bodies, it is rumored that both internal and external sources corrupted it with a coal-black dark side throughout it's lifetime.

To this day, even a partial glimpse of it can be a traumatic experience for both amateur and professional astronomers alike. Due to it's unappealing nature (and distance from flyby probes), it still remains to be completely photographed in the wild but brave individuals may click the image above for an accurate depiction. Closer analysis of it's horrific form should follow from the a flyby of the Cassini-Huygens probe scheduled for September 10th, 2007 providing that researchers have strong enough stomaches to observe its entirety.

Hey internet user, thanks for checking out J.o.S. Great things big, small, cool, and hot are all in store for this blog so get your bookmarks and RSS feeds primed up.

Despite previous failed blogging attempts on this site, this time my comrade Kieran and I are more enthusiastic about the blog and we're taking a more personal approach.

Originally there were supposed to be four people contributing to this blog, each specializing in a different discipline of science (hence the name Jacks of Science). That would have worked out great if I knew four different people interested in science blogging as I was. Moving on, it's survival of the fittest now and this blog is our slimy new writhing offspring which should be generously fed throughout the week.

Kieran and I are both passionate about science and spreading the teachings of our scientific forefathers to the masses using the interweb as a medium. Hopefully this site will appeal to technical audiences and the lay man alike, uniting us all under the phrase:

Image Courtesy of xkcd. Check out Wikipedia for more information on exactly what is working in the above image.