breaststroke

[bpod-bpod]

Seeing is Believing

Investigating how the eye develops is a challenge in our delicate embryos. Often scientists turn to simpler, yet similar organisms like the medaka fish (Oryzias latipes) looking for pieces of the overall puzzle. The consensus is the animal eye usually forms from two parts: the lens develops on the 'outside' of a layer of embryonic tissue, while the retina forms from a loop of progenitor cells growing behind the lens. Yet these medaka lenses (pink) develop on the 'inside' of the retinas (green) – so what is going on? These early eyes are grown from an organoid, a ball of stem cells nurtured in the lab to mimic the real thing. In this case, however, they’ve developed differently, possibly revealing multiple evolutionary paths to achieve a developed eye, but also highlighting the importance of different perspectives and techniques when building a picture of delicate early life.

Image made using Leica Microsystems microscopy

Written by John Ankers

Image from work by Elin Stahl and Miguel Angel Delgado-Toscano, and colleagues

Centre for Organismal Studies Heidelberg (COS), Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife (reviewed preprint), April 2026

You can also follow BPoD on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Bluesky

[mapsontheweb]

Cranial shapes in Europe

Cranial shapes in Europe

[mapsontheweb]

Budapest sits on a seafloor

[desert-love]

20 Places to See Ancient Petroglyphs & Pictographs in the Southwest > https://tripmemos.com/petroglyphs-southwest/?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=ma

20 Places to See Ancient Petroglyphs & Pictographs in the Southwest

The American Southwest is a treasure trove of ancient art etched onto the canvas of the desert landscape. As you journey through this region

[anarchistmemedistro]

Immigrants held at ‘inhumane’ California ICE facility start hunger strike

Immigrants at an ICE detention complex in Southern California have launched a hunger strike, citing inadequate medical care, and overcrowdin

[mapsontheweb]

Most spoken language by linguistic region in Spain

[urbancelt]

More anti war street art

Toronto Canada

[phobic-human]

May Day Demonstration, Taksim Square, Istanbul, Türkiye, 1977.

[whencyclopedia]

The Mesoamerican civilizations represent a long continuum of complex societies that emerged independently in Central America and southern Mexico from roughly 1500 BCE to the early 16th century CE, prior to Spanish conquest. Rather than a single empire or linear progression, Mesoamerica was shaped by successive cultural horizons in which shared ideas, such as maize agriculture, ritual calendars, urban ceremonial centers, and sacred kingship, were continually adapted to local environments and political structures. These societies developed without large domesticated animals or metal tools, relying instead on intensive agriculture, labor organization, and sophisticated knowledge systems.

[whencyclopedia]

Code of Ur-Nammu: The Oldest Law Code in the World

The Code of Ur-Nammu (circa 2100-2050 BCE) is the oldest extant law code in the world. Presenting himself as the father of his people, Ur-Nammu encouraged his subjects to think of themselves as one family and of his laws as the rules of a home. Punishments, except for capital offenses, took the form of fines in the same way a child might be deprived of a favorite pastime or toy for misbehaving. Ur-Nammu issued the code with the understanding that his people knew how to treat each other with respect, and a fine for lapses would serve as a reminder.

Read More

⇒ Code of Ur-Nammu: The Oldest Law Code in the World

[radicalgraff]

"The future they want for you"

Mural seen in Baltimore, USA

[nobrashfestivity]

Irving Penn (1917–2009), Ginkgo Leaves, New York, 1990. Dye transfer print. Image/sheet: 22¾ x 19½ in (57.8 x 49.5 cm). This work is from an edition of twenty-two.

[mapsontheweb]

Where the Anglo Saxons came from

(by u/gamerjosh12345)

[agodyaykin]

© Andrey Godyaykin

Site | Telegram

[radicalgraff]

Posters promoting the 13th Congress of the International of Anarchist Federations (IFA-IAF) which takes place in Athens on 3-5 April 2026.

The International of Anarchist Federations (IFA-IAF) is an international anarchist organization founded by the Carrara Congress in 1968. It unites anarchist federations from Europe, Latin America and beyond.

During the Congress a public meeting against militarism and war under the title "The position of anarchists on military conflicts and the threat of the generalisation of war" will take place on Saturday 4th April at 20:30, at the Lelas Karagianni 37 Squat.

[bpod-bpod]

Skin Side Insides

Why are some mammals furry and others, like us, not so? It's known that acquiring features in the skin tissue called epidermal rete ridges correlate with less hair, but the nature of the relationship has been unclear. By analysing the structure, gene activity and cell interactions in the skin of many mammalian species from grizzly bears to dolphins (mouse skin section shown), this study reveals rete ridges form after birth in several species not, like hair follicles and sweat glands, in the embryo. And gene mutations causing less hair don't induce rete ridges nor vice versa. Hence, rete ridges are not directly coupled to hair development. Such details could inform new approaches to wound repair and skin disease treatments

Image made using Leica Microsystems microscopy

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Sean M. Thompson and colleagues

School of Molecular Biosciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature, February 2026

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[caldrive]

Unnatural Landscapes 3: Oilfield.

Part 3 of my new Unnatural Landscapes series, with a soundtrack in collaboration with my friend Garry Manley (Tactics, Popular Mechanics, Saturday Maybe). California, 2025.

With this one I wanted to try to get the surreal strangeness of the view from the Kern River bluffs overlooking Oildale and Bakersfield, all shimmering ceaseless micro-movements… going nowhere. I've been doing still photography of the area for decades, but this is the first time I think I got it even halfway successfully in video. Garry's soundtrack really makes this video.