Chlorociboria Cup Fungi And Hemitrichia Decipiens Slime Mold By Alison Pollack

Microbiology!

[ID: a banner made of emojis of microscopes, bubbling flasks, and DNA, with different bacteria emojis from a combo emoji scattered between them. /End ID]

New Hope in the Fight Against Cancer: Scientists Discover Nutrient that Cancer Cells Crave

Arginine is an essential nutrient for cancer cells. Starving them could render tumors more vulnerable to the body’s natural immune response.

Cancer is one of the prominent causes of death globally, and discovering new methods to prevent and cure it is important for public health. Understanding the particular nutrients that cancer cells require is one of the strategies researchers are investigating to fight the disease.

Arginine is one of the important amino acids produced by our bodies naturally, and it is also abundantly found in food sources such as fish, meat, and nuts. According to the research published in Science Advances, cancer cells also need arginine to survive. It is possible to make tumors more susceptible to the body’s natural immune system and improve the effectiveness of treatment by depriving them of this nutrient.

The lack of this amino acid, which the researchers discovered to exist in various types of human cancers, forces the cancer cells to adapt. Cancer cells alter specific proteins to improve their ability to absorb arginine and other amino acids when their levels of that amino acid fall. Amazingly, these cells also induce mutations that lessen their reliance on arginine in an effort to keep growing.

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FOTD #066 : cornflower bolete! (gyroporus cyanescens)

the cornflower bolete (AKA bluing bolete) is a species of bolete fungus in the family gyroporaceae. it is found in asia, australia, europe, & eastern north america. most often, this bolete grows on the ground in coniferous & mixed forests :-)

the big question : can i bite it??yes !! it is choice. there are many online tutorials on how to cook it, too.

g. cyanescens description :

"the yellowish to buff cap surface is fibrous & roughened, & reaches up to 12 cm (4.7 in) in diameter. the thick stem, roughly the same colour as the cap or lighter, is hollowed out into chambers. all parts of the mushroom turn an intense blue colour within a few moments of bruising or cutting."

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

pixie’s parasol (Mycena interrupta), one of my favourites!

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the most pleasant bacteria to identify from a microbiologist's perspective. In turn, from the veterinarian's point of view - one of the worst to treat.

so the current main character of twitter are the algae tanks that are meant to function as "liquid trees" if u wanna call it that and people are very mad at them despite them being a cool and potentially useful concept. before anyone gets mad on this post in case it gets Literally Any Notes, notes:

algae is really really good at producing oxygen. more efficient than trees actually. it already produces like, grain of salt bc im getting a few diff numbers here from google, 50ish percent of the oxygen on earth. dw shes good at this.

no the scientists dont want to REPLACE trees thats just a shitty headline. the actual potential uses of these are plopping them down in places where you cant put another tree for whatever reason (including "theres a tree right there and it needs space"), in addition to trees bc as stated its Even Better at oxygen making, or when youre waiting for the trees to grow bc. they take a while.

if the tanks are as efficient as the scientists claim, one tank=two 10 year old trees. thats good! nice supplement to trees while youre waiting for them to grow and shit.

the one pictured also is a bench with solar lights and ports to charge your phone. thats nice!

apparently no maintenance isnt hard u just remove some of the algae once a month (which can then be used as fertilizer!) add some water and boom ur good 👍

stop saying "trees are free and require no maintenance" thats just false. the cost and maintenance are worth it!! but they do in fact have Cost And Maintenance. many good things in society are like this! please appreciate the work that goes into trees actually ty

again. not replacing trees. In Addition To. Alongside. Friends. <3.

ANYWAY, with those common things no one on twitter seems to understand out of the way, honestly im frustrated but (mostly) not ANGRY at the ppl not understanding that stuff. like, if u read past the headline u would know it, and i really wish yall would, but hey at least i understand being mislead by that awful fucking headline. i get it!!

what i am fucking pissed about is the people calling it ugly and saying no one wants slime tanks fuck you i DO want a slime tank

"but ohhh it looks like SLIME and DYSTOPIAN and blah blah blah" fuck YOU that slime is my BOYFRIENDS and i LOVE THEM. look at that gastly green color! it looks straight out of a mad scientists lab! its BEAUTIFUL!

i love algae and they are my friend and my lover and i will not stand for this fucking slander. you are all just too fucking weak to see the beauty in their hard work. you are blinded by tree propaganda, and just like bee propaganda you forget that there are OTHERS working day in and day out too. i love trees and (i LOOOOOVE bees btw) but do NOT forget the hard work done by algae.

if these things are as efficient as they claim then YES AMAZING LOVE IT, throw the cool slime benches hither and thither! mayhaps decorate them with a lil cool etched art (without compromising the efficiency) or some Fun Facts about how cool algae is and how NO THEY ARENT TREE REPLACEMENTS THEYRE TREE FRIENDS!!! THEY ARE FRIENDS!!!!!!!!! i would love nothing more than sitting at a bus stop under the green glow of my algae friends and i have been on this fucking train since i first saw cool concept art of this shit like a decade ago on tumblr. you CANNOT convince me giant green tanks of slop are anything BUT perfection.

and if anything i think they should fucking lean in to the slime thing. make some that look like giant test tubes. get nickelodeon to sponser a couple. teenage mutant ninja turtles crossover. stop listening to the fucking normies trying to convince you that Slime Bad and think of the fucking posslimbilities. EMBRACE THE SLIME.

[🔬 Microscope equipped.]

🧫 e-colin Follow Another day, another dollar trying to infect this host! Rise and grind pathogens 💸

4 μnotes

🦠 cell287776540923 Follow might fuck around and reactivate my oncogenes later

💊 mr-t-cell1989 grins at you violently

2,334 μnotes

🦠 natkiller28937 Follow Who up patrolling the body for cells without MHC Class I molecules 😎😎

🧬 nora-virus Follow You know what? This isn't okay. Pathogens work hard to infect host cells and reproduce. It's the only way for them to perpetuate their own existence. Letting pathogens infect host cells is absolutely necessary to prevent their total extermination. Killing is wrong! Immune cells need to learn to be tolerant of other microbes instead of destroying us just because we want to seize and consume this body's resources.

💊 mr-t-cell1989

KUNG

🦠 natkiller71642 Follow

POW

🩸 neutro-phil2

PENIS

30 trillion μnotes

FOTD #114 : purple brittlegill! (russula atropurpurea)

the purple brittlegill (also blackish-purple russula) is a mycorrhizal fungus in the family russulaceae. it grows with both coniferous & deciduous trees !! it has been recorded in europe, asia & eastern north america. :-)

the big question : can i bite it?? yes, though it's not particularly recommended. it is said to taste.. hot?

r. atropurpurea description :

"the cap is 4–10 cm (1.5–4 in) in diameter. it is dark reddish purple, with a dark; sometimes almost black centre. at first it is convex, but later flattens, & often has a shallow depression. it can also be lighter in colour, or mottled yellowish. the stem is firm, white, & turns grey with age. it measures 3–6 cm in length & 1–2 cm in diameter. the closely set and fairly broad gills are adnexed to almost free, & pale cream, giving a spore print of the same colour."

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

Cortinarius iodes and Marasmius siccus

FOTD #065 : parrot waxcap! (gliophorus psittacinus)

the parrot waxcap / parrot toadstool is a mycorrhizal fungus in the family hygrophoraceae. it is widely distributed in the grasslands of western europe, the UK, iceland, greenland, the americas, south africa & japan.

the big question: can i bite it?? it is edible & has a mild taste !!

g. psittacinus description :

"the parrot toadstool is a small mushroom, with a convex to umbonate cap up to 4 centimetres (1.6 in) in diameter, which is green when young & later yellowish or even pinkish tinged. the stipe, measuring 2–8 cm (0.8–3.1 in) in length and 3–5 mm in width, is green to greenish yellow. the broad adnate gills are greenish with yellow edges and spore print white. the green colouring persists at the stem apex even in old specimens."

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