Hydra (genus)

phys.org

Predatory bacteria provide hope for chlorine-free drinking water

In a unique study carried out in drinking water pipes in Sweden, researchers from Lund University and the local water company tested what wo

In a unique study carried out in drinking water pipes in Sweden, researchers from Lund University and the local water company tested what would happen if chlorine was omitted from drinking water. The result? An increase in bacteria, of course, but after a while something surprising happened: a harmless predatory bacteria grew in numbers and ate most of the other bacteria. The study suggests that chlorine is not always needed if the filtration is efficient—and that predatory bacteria could perhaps be used to purify water in the future. Just as human intestines contain a rich bacterial flora, many types of bacteria thrive in our drinking water and the pipes that transport them. On the inside of pipe walls is a thin, slippery coating, called a biofilm, which protects and supports bacteria. These bacteria have adapted to life in the presence of chlorine, which otherwise has the primary task to kill bacteria, particularity bacteria that can make humans sick.

Continue Reading

Slime Molds and Intelligence

Okay, despite going into a biology related field, I only just learned about slime molds, and hang on, because it gets WILD.

This guy in the picture is called Physarum polycephalum, one of the more commonly studied types of slime mold. It was originally thought to be a fungus, though we now know it to actually be a type of protist (a sort of catch-all group for any eukaryotic organism that isn't a plant, animal, or a fungus). As protists go, it's pretty smart. It is very good at finding the most efficient way to get to a food source, or multiple food sources. In fact, placing a slime mold on a map with food sources at all of the major cities can give a pretty good idea of an efficient transportation system. Here is a slime mold growing over a map of Tokyo compared to the actual Tokyo railway system:

Pretty good, right? Though they don't have eyes, ears, or noses, the slime molds are able to sense objects at a distance kind of like a spider using tiny differences in tension and vibrations to sense a fly caught in its web. Instead of a spiderweb, though, this organism relies on proteins called TRP channels. The slime mold can then make decisions about where it wants to grow. In one experiment, a slime mold was put in a petri dish with one glass disk on one side and 3 glass disks on the other side. Even though the disks weren't a food source, the slime mold chose to grow towards and investigate the side with 3 disks over 70% of the time.

Even more impressive is that these organisms have some sense of time. If you blow cold air on them every hour on the hour, they'll start to shrink away in anticipation when before the air hits after only 3 hours.

Now, I hear you say, this is cool and all, but like, I can do all those things too. The slime mold isn't special...

To which I would like to point out that you have a significant advantage over the slime mold, seeing as you have a brain.

Yeah, these protists can accomplish all of the things I just talked about, and they just... don't have any sort of neural architecture whatsoever? They don't even have brain cells, let alone the structures that should allow them to process sensory information and make decisions because of it. Nothing that should give them a sense of time. Scientists literally have no idea how this thing is able to "think'. But however it does, it is sure to be a form of cognition that is completely and utterly different from anything that we're familiar with.

Coelastrum, a microalgae. 

microscopy lab dump :]

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

Internet Archive

Microbelr

ₒ ⹁,.‸¸⸲,⸒ .⸲,⹁ .‸.⸲ ,¸⸲, .‸¸⸲ .‸.‸¸ ¸⸲ .‸,. ,.⸲,⸒‸ .. ⸲‸,⸲

ₔ ¸⸲.‸¸⸲⸒‸. .⸲,⹁ .‸.⸲ ,¸ ,.⸲,⸒‸.‸¸⸲ .‸.‸¸ ¸⸲ ₛ ⹁,¸⸲,⸒ .⸲,⹁ .‸.⸲ ,¸⸲, .‸,. ,.⸲,⸒‸ .¸⸲.‸‸. ⸲‸,⸲

ₛ ⹁,¸⸲,⸒ .⸲,⹁ .‸.⸲ ,¸⸲, .‸¸⸲ .‸ ₒ ⹁,.‸¸⸲,⸒ .⸲,⹁ .‸.⸲ ,¸⸲, .‸¸⸲ .‸.‸¸ ¸⸲ .‸,. ,.⸲,⸒‸ .‸¸¸⸲ .‸,. ,.⸲,.‸.⸲ ,¸⸲, .‸¸⸲ .‸. ¸⸲ .‸.‸¸ ¸⸲ .‸,. , ¸⸲, .‸¸⸲ .‸.‸¸ ¸⸲ .‸¸ ¸⸲ .‸,. ,.⸲,⸒‸ .‸,. ,.⸲,. ‸‸.⸲ ,¸⸲, .‸¸⸲ . ‸¸ ¸⸲ .‸¸ ¸⸲ .‸,. ,.⸲,⸒‸ .‸,.⸲ ,.‸.⸲ ,¸⸲, .‸¸⸲ .‸. ¸⸲ .‸.‸¸ ¸⸲ .‸,. ₛ ⹁,¸⸲,⸒ .⸲,⹁ ᵏᵘⁿᵍ ₔ ¸⸲.‸¸⸲⸒‸. .⸲,⹁ ᵖᵒʷ ₊ ¸⸲.⸲,⸒ .⸲,⹁ ᵖᵉⁿᶦˢ .¸⸲.‸.‸¸‸. ⸲‸,⸲

[You need to equip the 🔬 Microscope to properly view this post.]

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.

[src]

Chlorociboria cup fungi and Hemitrichia decipiens slime mold by Alison Pollack

pixie’s parasol (Mycena interrupta), one of my favourites!