Pause And Ponder The Periodic Parapodia Paddling From This Pterrifically Ptiny Pteropod!

Have you ever seen a venus flytrap anemone? Members of the genus Actinoscyphia, these critters resemble their namesake plant but are actually marine invertebrates related to jellyfish. They can be found on the seafloor at depths of up to about 7,000 ft (2,133 m), where they lie in wait for passing food. These anemones use their tentacles to catch and consume detritus (decomposing organic waste) that's carried by the current. Growing as much as 1 ft (0.3 m) in length, their tentacles are lined with stinging nematocysts. 

Photo: NOAA Photo Library, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

It's not the best "microbiology" art, but it has a very interesting background. Two bacteria from two different clinical cases were inoculated on the TSCB medium. This metallic blue spilling bacterium is of course Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The yellow one (positive reaction on TSCB medium) is Vibrio metschnikovii isolated from chronic UTI in a dog. It was an unusual microbiological diagnosis. But what can you do when even your dog has a better holiday than you? Problems with urination (in this dog) began just after returning from the Mediterranean, the owners and the dog intensively used the charms of warm and salty water.

CRISPR–Cas encoding of a digital movie into the genomes of a population of living bacteria. (2017)

• nature url: https://nature.com/articles/nature23017 • sci-hub url: http://sci-hub.st/10.1038/nature • https://github.com/churchlab/crispr-images

Scientists Use Electricity to Make Wounds Heal 3x Faster

Scientists have developed a specially engineered biochip that uses electricity to heal wounds up to three times faster than normal.

It’s well known that electric fields can guide the movements of skin cells, nudging them towards the site of an injury for instance. In fact, the human body generates an electric field that does this naturally. So researchers from the University of Freiburg in Germany set out to amplify the effect.

While it might not heal severe injuries with the speed of a Marvel superhero, it could radically reduce the time it takes for small tears and lacerations to recover.

For people with chronic wounds that take a long time to heal, such as in elderly folk, those with diabetes, or people with poor blood circulation, recovering quickly from frequent small, open cuts could be a literal lifesaver.

“Chronic wounds are a huge societal problem that we don’t hear a lot about,” says Maria Asplund, a bioelectronics scientist at the University of Freiburg and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.

“Our discovery of a method that may heal wounds up to three times faster can be a game changer for diabetic and elderly people, among others, who often suffer greatly from wounds that won’t heal.”

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Conifer tufts

This NPR interview with with Angela Saini about how race science never really left the global scientific consciousness is super interesting! I’m gonna read her book!

(via Myco-heterotrophic plant (Thismia calcarata) | Photo from th… | Flickr)

What are Phytoplankton and Why Are They Important?

Breathe deep… and thank phytoplankton.

Why? Like plants on land, these microscopic creatures capture energy from the sun and carbon from the atmosphere to produce oxygen.

Phytoplankton are microscopic organisms that live in watery environments, both salty and fresh. Though tiny, these creatures are the foundation of the aquatic food chain. They not only sustain healthy aquatic ecosystems, they also provide important clues on climate change.

Let’s explore what these creatures are and why they are important for NASA research.

Phytoplankton are diverse

Phytoplankton are an extremely diversified group of organisms, varying from photosynthesizing bacteria, e.g. cyanobacteria, to diatoms, to chalk-coated coccolithophores. Studying this incredibly diverse group is key to understanding the health - and future - of our ocean and life on earth.

Their growth depends on the availability of carbon dioxide, sunlight and nutrients. Like land plants, these creatures require nutrients such as nitrate, phosphate, silicate, and calcium at various levels. When conditions are right, populations can grow explosively, a phenomenon known as a bloom.

Phytoplankton blooms in the South Pacific Ocean with sediment re-suspended from the ocean floor by waves and tides along much of the New Zealand coastline.

Phytoplankton are Foundational

Phytoplankton are the foundation of the aquatic food web, feeding everything from microscopic, animal-like zooplankton to multi-ton whales. Certain species of phytoplankton produce powerful biotoxins that can kill marine life and people who eat contaminated seafood.

Phytoplankton are Part of the Carbon Cycle

Phytoplankton play an important part in the flow of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the ocean. Carbon dioxide is consumed during photosynthesis, with carbon being incorporated in the phytoplankton, and as phytoplankton sink a portion of that carbon makes its way into the deep ocean (far away from the atmosphere).

Changes in the growth of phytoplankton may affect atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, which impact climate and global surface temperatures. NASA field campaigns like EXPORTS are helping to understand the ocean's impact in terms of storing carbon dioxide.

Phytoplankton are Key to Understanding a Changing Ocean

NASA studies phytoplankton in different ways with satellites, instruments, and ships. Upcoming missions like Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) - set to launch Jan. 2024 - will reveal interactions between the ocean and atmosphere. This includes how they exchange carbon dioxide and how atmospheric aerosols might fuel phytoplankton growth in the ocean.

Information collected by PACE, especially about changes in plankton populations, will be available to researchers all over the world. See how this data will be used.

The Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) is integrated onto the PACE spacecraft in the cleanroom at Goddard Space Flight Center. Credit: NASA

FOTD #126 : entoloma haastii!

entoloma haastii (no common name) is a mushroom in the family entolomataceae :-) it is only known to grow in aotearoa, where it often sprouts in leaf litter from southern beech plants.

the big question : can i bite it?? the edibility is unknown, but it is said to be sharp-tasting & sour / bitter.

e. haastii description :

"the cap is initially conical later developing an umbo & becoming rounded or bell-shaped, reaching diameter of 1.5–5.5 cm (0.6–2.2 in) in diameter. older fruit bodies have margins that are turned upward. the cap colour is dark brown or soot-brown but always has a bluish tinge. the surface is dry, covered by radially arranged wrinkles or veins, neither striate nor hygrophanous. the gills are adnexed to almost free from attachment to the stem. they are somewhat distantly spaced, with between 16 & 22 gills extending fully from the stem to the edge of the cap, in addition to one to three tiers of interspersed lamelluae (short gills that do not extend fully from the stem to the cap edge). the gill colour is grey-bluish later becoming pink, & the gill edges are straight or somewhat saw-toothed, & the same colour as the gill face. the stem is 4–10 cm (1.6–3.9 in) by 0.3–1 cm (0.12–0.39 in), bulbous-rooting or club-shaped. the top portion of the stem is deep blue, the colour fading towards the whitish or ochraceous base, strongly fibrillose, dry, hollow, fragile, often twisted. the flesh is blue in the cap & the upper parts of the stem, but whitish or yellowish at the base."

[images : source & source] [fungus description : source]

by TheMicrobiology09 on yt