My name is Billy D and I’m here to say I heart diatoms in a major way.
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This photo of Chondrodendron tomentosum was taken by Stephen S. Nagy
billy dalto
Until a few days ago, on my inestimably long list of unknown unknowns was the fact that the chewing organ of sea urchins, which is composed of five teeth and a fleshy tongue-like structure, is called Aristotle’s lantern because it was described by Aristotle in his History of Animals as being similar in appearance to a horn lantern.
Among other things, sea urchins eat brown algae, a dietary preference to which I can relate, as I’ve likely at some point eaten ice cream thickened with alginate, a polysaccharide extracted from brown algae. When I next run into a sea urchin in a social setting, I will be sure to explore this common ground.
If I were a sea otter and I were somehow looking at photos on the Internet, this one would make me salivate.
(via pforu)
The NYT reports that the EU’s highest court ruled that France has not adequately protected the Great Hamster of Alsace, which they say is the last wild hamster species in Western Europe. The current estimated population size of 800, though representing a fourfold increase over the last four years, is not considered large enough to ensure long-term survival of the species.
I only hope it will still be possible to find the Great Hamster grazing on alfalfa in the wild when Jean-Luc Picard is born in France in the 24th century.
Sometimes I wonder if I’m not serious enough about diatoms.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Eukaryotes aren’t really my bag but I’ve heard that the pretty ones are diatoms. Can anyone confirm or deny the identity of my friend in center field here?
Oh my! There’s a good chance Damhnait has inadvertently crashed a diatom party. Diatoms are possibly the most abundant eukaryotic aquatic organisms, so they make frequent appearance in water samples. When I took phycology in college, I could pretty much count on finding at least a few diatoms mingling with other regulars like Spirogyra and their ancient prokaryotic friend Spirulina on days when we were asked to collect samples for class.
Diatoms are usually divided into two broad groups: pennate and centric. Our little friend is clearly not in the latter group, whose members are typified by radial symmetry (I’ve previously posted a few examples of centric diatoms). Particularly in the larger version of the above image, there appear to be parallel riblike costae running the length of the cell, a feature commonly seen in the frustules of pennate diatoms (costae can be clearly seen in several of the diatoms here).
Unfortunately, I lack the expertise to make a more precise classification, which in diatoms is generally done by closely examining the details of their frustules. Moreover, there’s some possibility that I’m completely mistaken, and this is actually something that belongs in Raynor’s wunderkammer.
This is my algae party mix. I do my best to optimize the proportions of the ingredients, but there are always leftover desmids.
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Photo by Nathan Pallace
While desmids, a group of green algae, aren’t glamourous as and don’t exude raw sexuality like diatoms, they are still quite lovely. This one has just started dividing, a process which is well worth watching.
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Photo by Dr. Antonio Guillén.
I would like to write three sentences, only two of which are true:
I watched Speed last Sunday night and thoroughly enjoyed revisiting the heroics of Jack Traven. I’m diligently searching for a partner with whom I can build a meaningful long-term relationship. Most forms of the oxygen-transporting metalloprotein hemoglobin are heterotetramers.
This is a fruit fly. A set of its neurons were labelled with a fairly new generation of Brainbow transgenes.
(Source: technologyreview.com)
