VOA标准英语2009-Website of the Week — CreatureCast

The unexpected world of animals

Art Chimes 20 November 2009

Time again for our Website of the Week, when we showcase interesting and innovative¹ online destinations.

This week, it's a site where learning about evolutionary² biology is made painless, and even a little fun.

"CreatureCast.org is a collaborative blog and video series about animals," explains Casey Dunn, the evolutionary biologist who edits CreatureCast.org. "And the videos and blog posts are put together by folks at my lab here at Brown University, and also by other friends, including scientists from other universities, and even some artists."

CreatureCast takes a user-friendly, and sometimes wide-eyed look at the extraordinary diversity in the animal kingdom.

There are conventional posts, but also student Sophia Tintori's charming clay animations³.

Reproduction, which of course is a major theme in biology, is a major theme of CreatureCast.

"A lot of the aspects of biology that are most interesting about organisms often have to do with their reproductive biology," says Dunn. "For instance, in many animals, they have other means of reproducing in addition to or in place of sexual reproduction. There's all sorts of fascinating variation on that."

Biology you can relate to at CreatureCast.org, or visit our site, VOANews.com, for the link.

 

1 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

2 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

3 animations   

n.生气( animation的名词复数 )；兴奋；动画片；（指电影、录像、电脑游戏的）动画制作

参考例句：

• You'll see your team cheerleaders and mascot performing new animations as well. 你会看到啦啦队队长跟吉祥物也都会有全新的动作。 来自互联网
• Ability to create simple movie and animations using graphic & multimedia software. 能够用平面和多媒体软件制作简单的电影及动画。 来自互联网