Mikrobiotch - 🔬🧪🧫🧬

Pause and ponder the periodic parapodia paddling from this pterrifically ptiny pteropod!

Sea angels (Clione sp.) recently returned to Into the Deep/En lo Profundo. Be shore to stay tuned for animal updates as you never know who you’ll meet in this ever-evolving exhibit!

Want to learn more about sea angels? Check out our video collab with SciShow!

Unidentified protist. Quite the hyper one. 

I’ve done it! I’ve designed such an incredibly cursed molecule that MolView doesn’t even assign it a systematic IUPAC name. Behold:

The image doesn’t even show up right in the post editor lol. This thing would have such unbelievably ridiculous angle strain that if a molecule of it was ever assembled, it would almost certainly degrade instantly. Possibly violently.

FOTD #073 : apricot jelly! (guepinia helvelloides)

apricot jelly (AKA salmon salad & red jelly fungus) is a saprobic jelly fungus in the family exidiaceae. it often grows in small tufts in the soil :-) it is found in canada, the US, mexico, iran, turkey, brazil, puerto rico, china & most parts of europe.

the big question : can i bite it?? yes !! it is edible but bland.

g. helvelloides description :

"the fungus produces salmon-pink, ear-shaped, gelatinous fruit bodies that grow solitarily or in small tufted groups on soil, usually associated with buried rotting wood. the fruit bodies are 4–10 cm (1.6–3.9 in) tall & up to 17 cm (6.7 in) wide; the stalks are not well-differentiated from the cap."

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

A tardigrade.-

Back when I asked for some concepts in September on my Instagram, @ sammithyst suggested a mon based on Petrie duals, a term in topology that refers to a loop of edges that can split a 3D shape in half in a certain way. Although that was incorporated into the design of this mon (skew polygon "teeth on each dish"), the name reminded me of Petri dishes.

Petri dishes are shallow dishes with a cover that is used to grow all sorts of cells, like bacteria, fungi, and even human cells. Cells can be grown with the growth medium that is put into the dish, some sort of food like some agarose gel or a liquid mixture of nutrients.

Cantri (Poison/Psychic): When dormant, they reside completely inside their dish, only coming out when they run out of the food that dragged in. Despite having many protozoan-like cells in their body, they seem to be resistant to the antibiotics of this world.

NaH + H2O = NaOH + H2

I'll miss micro lab...

TSIA, Citrate, TSIA

Do I have like 3 other microbiology courses in my future? Yes. Will I miss this lab? Also yes, a lot. I loved this lab. My first introduction to real microbiology. The lab that made me realize I want to go into microbiology in the future. I'm happy to have taken it :)