Mikrobiotch - 🔬🧪🧫🧬

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.

Root of Osmunda cinnamomea. The anatomy of woody plants. 1917.

Internet Archive

plants that never ever bloom

Blorbo family tree <3

DNA from a strawberry!!! This was super cool (the little white strands in the clear is actual dna from a strawberry!) strawberries are octoploids which means they have 8 copies of each chromosome! It makes it easier to see and extract it’s DNA. That’s wild!

the Guardian

Flora, fauna and … funga: campaigners call for new term for conservation talks

Fungi should be recognised and protected on equal footing with plants and animals, says Fungi Foundation

Mycologists, mostly from Latin America, established the term “funga” five years ago. It refers to the levels of diversity of fungi in any given place, and is analogous to “flora and fauna”, which refer to plants and animals. Unlike flora and fauna, it is not a Latin term but was chosen because it is morphologically similar. “Just like mycelium, mycologically inclusive language will spread unseen but profound [sic], permeating public consciousness (and policy) to acknowledge fungi’s vital role in the grand web of life on and in Earth,” it said. Government agencies in Australia, Brazil, Iceland and elsewhere have picked up on the word. Its creation and use reflects an increasing appreciation of the fungal kingdom and how it connects the plant world through an underground mycelial network.

[...]

Giuliana Furci and the biologist and author Merlin Sheldrake wrote: “Accounts of the living world that do not include fungi are accounts of a world that doesn’t exist. “Fungi have long sustained and enriched life on Earth. We are unthinkable without them, and yet we are only just beginning to understand the intricacies of fungal lives. It’s time we give them the attention they deserve."

Common puffball / Flaschen-Staubling fungi Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Leafy Sea Dragon (Phycodurus Eques)

nature.com

Rosalind Franklin was so much more than the ‘wronged heroine’ of DNA

One hundred years after her birth, it’s time to reassess the legacy of a pioneering chemist and X-ray crystallographer.

At the centre of Rosalind Franklin’s tombstone in London’s Willesden Jewish Cemetery is the word “scientist”. This is followed by the inscription, “Her research and discoveries on viruses remain of lasting benefit to mankind.” As one of the twentieth century’s pre-eminent scientists, Franklin’s work has benefited all of humanity. The one-hundredth anniversary of her birth this month is prompting much reflection on her career and research contributions, not least Franklin’s catalytic role in unravelling the structure of DNA.

. . .

But Franklin’s remarkable work on DNA amounts to a fraction of her record and legacy. She was a tireless investigator of nature’s secrets, and worked across biology, chemistry and physics, with a focus on research that mattered to society. She made important advances in the science of coal and carbon, and she became an expert in the study of viruses that cause plant and human diseases. In essence, it is because of Franklin, her collaborators and successors, that today’s researchers are able to use tools such as DNA sequencing and X-ray crystallography to investigate viruses such as SARS-CoV-2.

. . .

Franklin was an inveterate traveller on the global conference circuit and a collaborator with international partners. She won a rare grant (with Klug) from the US National Institutes of Health. She was a global connector in the booming early days of research into virus structures: an expert in pathogenic viruses who had gained an international reputation and cared deeply about putting her research to use. It is a travesty that Franklin is mostly remembered for not receiving full credit for her contributions to the discovery of DNA’s structure. That part of Franklin’s life story must never be forgotten, but she was so much more than the “wronged heroine”, and it’s time to recognize her for the full breadth and depth of her research career.

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]