Pictures I Had Forgotten I Took.

Call me mRNA because AUG AGA GGG UUU UUC AUG GUG GGA UGA

A tardigrade.-

Yersinia pestis

Yersinia pestis is the bacterium responsible for plague, with the most common manifestations being bubonic plague, septicemic plague, and pneumonic plague.

Image taken via transmission electron microscopy. Bar = 1 μm

Photo credit: Hans R. Gelderblom, Rolf Reissbrodt/RKI

Broad's Scientist Introduce a Machine Learning Model to Identify Genetic Factors for Cardiovascular Diseases

A machine learning model has been introduced by Broad's Scientists to identify genetic factors associated with cardiovascular diseases.

Using the heart as an investigational model, scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have designed an autoencoder-based machine-learning pipeline that can effectively predict a patient’s heart condition based on image data from ECGs and MRIs. The approach could also be used to detect markers related to cardiovascular diseases.

Nearly all areas of medical science have utilized artificial intelligence (AI) over the years. It has been effectively diagnosing diseases and predicting their transmission and prognosis. AI has been used to design therapeutic approaches effectively and has been helpful in the field of drug design. The use of AI in studying cardiovascular diseases has come a long way, especially machine learning-based systems. AI-based algorithms can be trained to predict cardiovascular disease outcomes using available diagnostic imaging technology.

Currently, the field of cardiology uses a variety of imaging technologies, such as ultrasound imaging, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), etc. The Electrocardiogram (ECG) is a widely used test to monitor the heart’s rhythm. These technologies generate a lot of data that can be utilized to analyze the condition of a person’s heart. The availability of several diagnostic modalities has raised the need for standardized tools for analyzing imaging data effectively. A multi-modal framework built on machine learning techniques has been suggested by researchers from The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The proposed system can help doctors to understand the cardiovascular state of a person using data from MRIs and ECGs. In practice, clinicians can use data generated from the machine learning program to diagnose a patient appropriately.

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"Microbial Rainbow" (detail), Tal Danino, 2018

source

Filoboletus manipularis is found in south-east Asia, Australia and other parts of the world. No one would guess that these seemingly ordinary mushrooms glow at night like magical toadstools in a fairy wonderland.

Photographer Callie Chee

(via Agar Art — A Cultural Triumph: See A Microbiology Masterpiece In A Petri Dish : NPR)

yep, it’s cultured & arranged bacteria!

As you're a proper phd scientist who made it through the gauntlet of higher education, I then assume that you have done some classes that have landed you in a fly lab or two. Do you happen to have a favorite Drosophila melanogaster mutation? Mine is apterous because they're flies who cant do the one thing they're named for (they can't fly).

I managed to avoid the fly labs, but I had amazing lectures by the inimitable Dr Vernon French during my bachelors at the University of Edinburgh about evo-devo and Drosophila. No better way to develop a deep fascination with HOX genes and other transcription factors. Off the top of my head, I think Bithorax is pretty nifty.

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Paleontologists Discover 52-Million-Year-Old Bat

The fossil represents the earliest-known species of the flying mammal

The fossil record is biased against bats. The flying mammals are small, making their fossilized remains very hard to find. And their light skeletons—ideal for flying around—mean it takes special circumstances for their bodies to be preserved. And yet, against these odds, paleontologists recently uncovered the exceptionally complete skeleton of what now stands as the earliest known bat.

To date, the most complete early bat fossils have come from an area paleontologists call Fossil Lake in Wyoming. The rock layers are world-famous for containing beautifully preserved fish, birds, mammals and other organisms that lived in the area about 52 million years ago. Among the stunning fossils recovered from these rocks, Naturalis Biodiversity Center paleontologist Tim Rietbergen and colleagues report Wednesday in PLOS One, are fossils of a new bat species the researchers have named Icaronycteris gunnelli. By comparing this new species with other early bats, paleontologists are beginning to develop a deeper understanding of how bats spread around the world in that period.

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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]