I started noticing that my hands were swelling," she says. "And then spontaneous wounds started appearing and red streaks started going up my leg." A picture is worth a thousand words and the right picture is worth a million. The man behind the lens must be applauded for pressing the capture button at the right moment — this photo was taken right at the moment the cheerleader realized things aren’t going her way and she probably will fall. We feel bad for her, but the dread on her face makes the picture hilarious. This photograph takes during a competition and if that’s true, I am sure the fall didn’t do the cheerleader any good. The One with Too Much Going on in One Picture She went on her first expedition, funded by National Geographic, shortly after that, and started graduate school in anthropology. Since then, she's been nominated for Emmy Awards (twice), become a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, starred in two TV shows ("Wild Nights with Mireya Mayor," and History Channel’s "Expedition Africa: Stanley & Livingstone"), and become a Fulbright Scholar and a National Science Foundation Fellow. Along the way, she's conducted and published a ton of peer-reviewed research, and discovered and formally described the smallest primate species currently known, the mouse lemur Microcebus mittermeieri. Being a male cheerleader isn’t easy. To start with, male cheerleaders do not enjoy the same kind of popularity as their female counterparts. However, more importantly, male cheerleaders often have to lift their fellow squad members and perform moves and step which require a lot of physical strength. For instance, the guy in this picture is certainly trying very hard but he clearly does not have the strength for it. I love all the questions this brings to mind for me about cultural and environmental impact of scientific exploration, and the funding of scientific exploration, and the role of the entertainment industry in funding and in raising awareness. The minimum-impact camper in me screams at the idea of traveling with all those porters. But the minimum-impact camper in me has never tried to spend weeks living among gorillas or climb cliffs few people have climbed.

During the anthropology course, Mayor says she found a new passion. So she headed straight to the field, signing up for a research trip to Guyana in South America.Many of the scientists and animal species mentioned in the book are familiar to me, although the fossa, a cat-like carnivore related to the mongoose family was a new one...it is such an odd looking creature with similarities to a cat, but with a long lean body. As a result of her credentials and her enthusiasm, there's a pretty good (and important) story in this book. This, I suspect, is why Jane Goodall wrote the forward. And then there's the fact that the narrative itself is very choppy. Here's the near-death frayed rope experience as an example: I could not put this book down. I read it in an entire day. This is because a) it is a thrilling and fascinating series of stories & b) it is a very smooth read.

Elsewhere on Scientific American: Darlene Cavalier interviewed Mireya Mayor, and Bora reviewed the book But some of her fans might be surprised by what Mayor was up to before she trekked around remote regions of the world. Time for another fun fact: It was only in the 1950s that professional sports team began employing cheerleader squads and Baltimore Colts was the first NFL team to have a cheerleading team. A Cheer Pyramid Gone Wrong I had never heard of Mireya Mayor before I entered a Goodreads giveaway for it. Apparently I don't watch enough TV. So I didn't expect very good writing.Mayor says it looked similar to known species of mouse lemur, but there was something different about the one she caught. I was surprised to find that the book really isn't about her metaphorical 'journey' from cheerleader to National Geographic explorer. It's much more about her actual journeys into jungles and rain forests and deserts. It touches briefly on being a cheerleader and then applying to go on an expedition. That's about it for the metaphorical journey. Time for another cheerleading fact: While Princeton was the first university to enjoy cheers from the stands, the University of Minnesota gets the credit for having the very first cheerleader who directed the crowd. In 1923, the Uniiversity of Minnesota also became the first university to allow women to participate in the sports. The Guy with Too Much Spirit There was some getting used to it," Mayor says. "But in a very strange way, I did feel very comfortable in that element. Probably as comfortable as I felt in the city."

But this isn't a book about discovering lemurs or getting chased by elephants. It's a book about being a female scientist who is equal parts female and scientist: In the cheerleading world exists a rule: if you throw someone in the air, make sure to catch them. When you look at this picture, you realize three of the four girls followed the rule and did their part but the fourth cheerleader probably lost her focus. This picture tells us what happens when cheerleaders lose their focus and things go wrong. We told you, cheerleading isn’t as easy as it looks. What a Crappy DayCheerleaders are physically fit and can dance well. More importantly, they must necessarily also have spunk and spirit. However, when it comes to cheerleading, is there is a thing as too much spirit? Well, the man in this picture makes us believe it is quite possible. His high spirit may have led to one embarrassing photo but we certainly think too much spirit is better than having no spirit at all. Oh No, I Am Gonna Fall! The hive like mind of pro wrestling fans then created what is now known as "Fandangoing," which is, quite simply, dancing and singing along to Fandango's theme song. One of her most memorable trips was to Madagascar, where she and a colleague were studying lemurs. They set small mammal traps in the jungle to study the other wildlife in the area.

This new "craze," if you can call it that, isn't likely to hit Harlem Shake levels -- and that's probably a good thing -- but at least it has reached as far as Houston Texans cheerleading practice and given us the video you see above. Here's an excerpt from one: "the show can't decide whether to treat Mayor as an expert, or as the title and location hint, a bit of a sex symbol." He then added, "But throughout the show she wears a wool cap and drab clothes that just beg us to take her seriously." This was in contrast to the observation of another critic, who wrote, "Explorers require rugged gear, the sort Indiana Jones girds himself in. Then there's Mireya Mayor, a sexy blond explorer. She fills out a tank top nicely." I can't win. If I wear tank tops, I'm vying for attention. If I cover up, it's only because I want to be taken seriously. Regardless, the first critic lost all credibility when he called my clothes drab. They were both hip and designer. Getting through this novel was tedious at times simply due to how annoying the author was, but her explorations and adventures somewhat speak for themselves.In an age of tell-alls and TMZ, Mayor shows remarkable restraint in what she chooses to reveal about her personal life. I loved that, too. I loved the simple and limited way she describes meeting and falling in love with her husband (as well as what she tells, which isn't much, about the circumstances of their meeting and their romance). You may think cheerleading is all about dancing, stunting, cheering and tumbling. While all of those things are important, a cheerleader must also work on her cheerleading face. After all, the face is where the camera goes often. Unfortunately, we do not think anyone shared this important piece of information with this young lady. She certainly hasn’t figured out her good cheerleading face yet and the mess that her hair is here isn’t helping either. We really think the other ladies on her team should have come to her rescue, at least in the hair department. Cheerleading fact: The film Bring It On which starred Eliza Dushku, Gabrielle Union and Kristen Dunst, was a popular hit and added to the popularity of cheerleading as a sport. Here’s Why White Does Not Make a Great Cheerleading Uniform While I was in college, I was an NFL cheerleader for the Miami Dolphins," Mireya Mayor says. "I took this anthropology class really by accident, because I had to take a science requirement. I was on a very different path to becoming a lawyer."