A New Species Of African Legless Skink, Genus Acontias Cuvier, 1816 “1817” (Squamata: Scincidae)

Biology Keychains - Diatoms and Soil Bacteria!

Designed by me, available now on my Etsy!

Microcosms (2023)

linocuts on colored paper

(diatom species pictured: Stauroneis acuta, Pleurosigma inflatum, Triceratium pentacrinus, Actinoptychus heliopelta)

Matcha-microbiology 🧪

Blorbo family tree <3

Pterocarpus Angolensis is a tree native to South Africa. It’s also commonly known as the bloodwood tree due to the fact that when it’s chopped or damaged, a deep red sap which looks eerily similar to blood, seeps from the tree. In fact, the purpose of the sap is to coagulate and seal the wound to promote healing, much like blood.

Coelastrum, a microalgae. 

Punctelia reddenda

This gorgeous foliose lichen grows in rosettes up to 6 cm in diameter. The upper surface is gray-green to yellow-green with white, punctiform (point or dot like) pseudocyphella which turn into soralia which produce granular or nodular soredia. The lower surface is black toward the center and lightens to brown near the rounded margins of the overlapping lobes. P. reddenda grows on mossy tree trunks and rock in Africa, Macaronesia, North and South America, and Europe.

images: source | source

info: source | source | source

motivating myself to write my paper about fungi by talking about fungi:

in Tokyo in 2010, scientists wanted to test the limits of 'brainless' organisms, especially their decision making skills, so they made a little obstacle course in a Petri dish and sent a slime mold to navigate it. they set it up with light and oats, the oats acting as goals and the lights acting as deterrents. the oats were placed in such a way that represented the major train stations in Tokyo. in LESS THAN TWO DAYS, the slime mold had perfectly navigated the obstacle course and hit all the oat stations. when the scientists compared the Petri dish patterns to the city, they noticed that the slime mold had perfectly replicated the train lines of Tokyo. in the most efficient way possible. a task which took humans FIVE YEARS to plan, design and build. slime molds do not have nervous systems, brains, or (as it was previously believed) the ability to form complex thoughts. however, these molds were able to design this system quicker and more efficiently than humans ver have. they were even able to create a path for the shortest route through an IKEA.

the whole concept that organisms other than humans are unable to make decisions or solve complex problems is incredibly outdated and should have been disproven years ago when the Great Chain of Being was first challenged, but these ideas have stuck around for hundreds of years and are only now beginning to be opposed. for years, people thought that organisms like octopi could be tested on in labs because they were unable to feel pain or form thoughts, but only now is it being discovered that octopi have huge brains and are capable of numerous skills, they can recognize people and miss them, and they have the same or even better understanding of the world around them than humans. every other organisms' intelligence has been measured against humans for so long, that the idea that other creatures may have a different way of processing information is something completely unheard of.

in conclusion: brainless fungi and molds are redefining what humans believe to be 'intelligence' by exhibiting amazing navigation of obstacle courses, problem-solving and decision-making skills.