#E1523D

Iela Mari: The World Through a Lens, Babalibri, Milano, 2010 
(Italian and English language)

via: Stopping off place

I’m hungry!!!
Marine worm courtesy of Philippe Crassous

WAR IN OUR HUMAN TRENCHES

The captions shows the dramatic encounter, in the liver, of our unsung heroes, the immune cells, and an invading parasite, the trypanosome. Each side bears an impressive arsenal of chemical weapons that will define at the end the unset, or not, of the Sleeping Sickness. 

via: FEI Company

freakyfauna:

Anthropogenie.
Comparisons between cross-sections of different animals and their embryos at different stages of development.

From Anthropogenie, oder, Entwickelungsgeschichte des Menschen I [The evolution of man : a popular exposition of the principal points of human ontogeny and phylogeny vol. I] by Ernst Haeckel. Leipzig: W. Engelmann. 1874.

Found here.

English books availables on BHL

Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky

Illustration from Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks” by Mark Buchanan

The Foraminifera (hole bearers), or forams for short, are a large group of amoeboid protists which are among the commonest plankton species. They have reticulating pseudopods, fine strands of cytoplasm that branch and merge to form a dynamic net. They typically produce a test, or shell, which can have either one or multiple chambers, some becoming quite elaborate in structure.   These shells are made of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) or agglutinated sediment particles. About 275,000 species are recognized, both living and fossil. They are usually less than 1 mm in size, but some are much larger, and the largest species reaching up to 20 cm.

Chemical analysis of fossilized foraminifera, shell-building one-celled creatures, helps climate researchers determine oceanic temperatures during a mini-ice age hundreds of years ago. Globigerinoides sacculifer (top left) and Globigerinoides ruber white (bottom right) are planktonic organisms that spend their lives floating near the surface but fall like sand grains to the bottom of the ocean when they die. Uvigerina peregrina (top right) and Cibicides wuellerstorfi (bottom left) are benthonic organisms that live and die on or in sediments on the seafloor.

Read More: The Next Ice Age, Discover Magazine and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Daisy Ginsberg, The Synthetic Kingdom

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is a postmodern Michelangelo — equal parts designer and researcher. Her magnum opus, The Synthetic Kingdom, is a collection of prints, animations and objects that suggest how synthetic biology might add to the tree of life. Each of its sculptures represents a speculative syn-bio curiosity, from a new strain of light-emitting bacteria that evolved from a hairball found in a patient’s stomach, to bioluminescent kidney stones in bioelectronics-factory workers.

“Synthetic biology is promising to change the world, from sustainable fuel to tumour-killing bacteria,” says Ginsberg, 28. “But personally I’m sceptical about how we should use it — just because we can do it doesn’t mean we should.” She employs these fictional objects to raise questions such as “where do we draw the line?” and “what’s natural, and what’s synthetic?”

1. COLONIC ALCHEMY
Perhaps the ultimate pathology: the patient’s waste material turned to gold. It had always been thought that gold was impossible to synthesise. Genetic testing failed to reveal the origins of these prized alchemical bacteria. Previously uncelebrated, the colon is now a place of manufacture and our most precious organ.

2. MATERIALS: DISPOSABLE CUP
Triggered by light, engineered bacteria secrete the fibrous protein KERATIN, producing a biodegradable material to replace petroleum-derived plastics.

3. KIDNEY
Inside this resin “kidney” are large glow-in-the dark “stones”

via: Wired

The Daily Dish project by Klari Reis

“Thanks to Touba for this link. Welcome to all my new readers.
Enjoy last days of August.”

Dragon Fruit or Pitahaya

A Pitaya (pronounced /pɨˈtaɪ.ə/) or pitahaya (English pronunciation: /ˌpɪtəˈhaɪ.ə/) is the fruit of several cactus species, most importantly of the genus Hylocereus (sweet pitayas). These fruit are commonly known as dragon fruit – cf. Chinese huǒ lóng guǒ 火龍果/火龙果 “fire dragon fruit” and lóng zhū guǒ “dragon pearl fruit”, or Vietnamese thanh long (green dragon). Other vernacular names are strawberry pear or nanettikafruit.

via: Flickr

Human blood cells, SEM

Caption: Human blood cells, coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM). Seen here are platelets (small, roundish) and a neutrophil white blood cell (large, whitish).

via: Science Photo Library

Model of Taraxacum officinale (Dandelion)

via: Universitaets Sammlungen