Question From One Of My Mycograsshoppers On Patreon: “what Types Of Potential Pests Might Be Attracted

you know what? no! *sanger sequences you and aligns you with a sequence of saxifraga rosacea no matter how many gaps i have to add between singular bases*

String identified: t g c g a a g. a t t a . t t t c g c g ' t . t. t c g c . a at c tt a a . t t . c a . t' at t t at t a a a . a ' t g t . at a c .

Closest match: Saxifraga rosaceawait how did you do that. what the fuck

Kinda wild how all the bacteria in your gut have their own DNA, like they are not related to you, they don't have your DNA in them, they are just separate lil beings that just live in your gut. They don't even know they live inside a human, but you are their whole universe

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!

Blorbo family tree <3

[March, 2023] culture stains & snow days

Can a bat protein treat human inflammation?

A protein from bats shows promise for fighting inflammatory diseases in humans.

“Bats have attracted great attention as a likely reservoir of the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Professor Wang Lin-Fa of the Duke-NUS Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) Programme and senior author of the study in the journal Cell. “But this unique ability to host yet survive viral infections could also have a very positive impact on human health if we can understand and exploit how they achieve this.”

The research is focused on multi-protein complexes called inflammasomes that are responsible for the overactive inflammation that causes serious symptoms in many diseases. Inflammasomes are also implicated in functional decline in aging.

The researchers discovered that a bat protein called ASC2 has a powerful ability to inhibit inflammasomes, thereby limiting inflammation.

“This suggests that the high-level activity of ASC2 is a key mechanism by which bats keep inflammation under control, with implications for their long lifespan and unique status as a reservoir for viruses,” explains Matae Ahn, first author and co-corresponding author of the study and an adjunct research fellow with the EID Programme and the SingHealth Duke-NUS Medicine Academic Clinical Programme.

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NYC Subway Bacterial Petri Dish Art by Craig Ward

Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa var. poroides

by fungispot

"Wherever you are on your journey to the microcosmos, the odds are high that you'll run into a diatom. They're both abundant and easy to spot because of the shells they encase themselves in. The results are beautiful, exacting geometries that create a living kaleidoscope in the microcosmos. Even if you lived your entire life without ever seeing a diatom, without ever hearing the word "diatom", you would still be living a life that's shaped by them... all the way down to the oxygen you breathe, thanks in no small part to their outsized contribution to the world's photosynthesis."

Journey to the Microcosmos- How Diatoms Build Their Beautiful Shells

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

Astrionella 630x, Bacillaria paxillifer 200x, Diatom 630x, Diatom 630x, Diatom frustule 630x, Diatoms 630x

this is the content i'm in the microscopy subreddit for