Exploring our Ecosystems

This blog is dedicated not only to education about our natural world, but also to information and resources about how to protect it. You don't have to be a scientist to care about the environment; this blog is aimed at the casual reader. Come explore the world of ecology!

[art-tension]

Microbiologists Create ‘Starry Night’ And Other Art With Bacteria For First Microbe Art Competition

American Society for Microbiology | microbeworld.org | Facebook

SEE THE LEGENDS

The American Society for Microbiologists recently hosted its first international ‘Agar Art’ challenge in which microbiologists from around the world used various microbes and germs to create beautiful works of art in petri dishes. The submissions included recognizable paintings like Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ as well as original microbe paintings.

The scientists used nutritious agar jelly as a “canvas” for their colorful microbes. While they do add an element of randomness as they grow, they can also do things that paint cannot – some of them emit bioflourescent light under certain conditions, while others, guided by the scientists, grew into perfect tree-branch patterns or jelly-fish tentacles.

For more about the process behind art like this, read about the work of Tasha Sturm, a microbiologist who used an agar dish to capture the germs on an eight-year-old boy’s hand.  Source: boredpanda

[currentsinbiology]

How DNA could store all the world’s data

It was Wednesday 16 February 2011, and Goldman was at a hotel in Hamburg, Germany, talking with some of his fellow bioinformaticists about how they could afford to store the reams of genome sequences and other data the world was throwing at them. He remembers the scientists getting so frustrated by the expense and limitations of conventional computing technology that they started kidding about sci-fi alternatives. “We thought, ‘What’s to stop us using DNA to store information?'”

Then the laughter stopped. “It was a lightbulb moment,” says Goldman, a group leader at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) in Hinxton, UK. True, DNA storage would be pathetically slow compared with the microsecond timescales for reading or writing bits in a silicon memory chip. It would take hours to encode data by synthesizing DNA strings with a specific pattern of bases, and still more hours to recover that information using a sequencing machine. But with DNA, a whole human genome fits into a cell that is invisible to the naked eye. For sheer density of information storage, DNA could be orders of magnitude beyond silicon — perfect for long-term archiving.

[currentsinbiology]

Blue Rivers of Bioluminescent Shrimp Trickle Down Oceanside Rocks in Okayama, Japan

Photographed off the coast of Okayama, Japan, The Weeping Stones is a photo series by the creative duo Trevor Williams and Jonathan Galione of Tdub Photo that captures the eerie blue light emitted by a native species of bioluminescent shrimp. More commonly referred to as sea fireflies, these rare creatures live in the sand in shallow sea water, floating somewhere between the extremes of high and low tide. At just 3 mm in length the shrimp are extremely small light sources, but when grouped together they take on abstract patterns that light up the water around them.

[currentsinbiology]

 Googly-Eyed Purple Squid Sighting Delights Scientists

A purple squid with eyes so googly it could easily be mistaken for a character in the movie “Finding Nemo” was recently spotted by scientists off the coast of Southern California.

The so-called stubby squid (Rossia pacifica) is a species of bobtail squid native to the northern Pacific Ocean. These adorable sea creatures can be found in waters from Japan to Southern California, and typically dwell along the ocean floor, at depths of around 984 feet (300 meters), though they have been spotted as deep as 4,260 feet (1,300 m), according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).

The stubby squid’s giant eyes, that “look painted on,” delighted the scientists aboard the Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus. In a live stream of the Nautlius’ undersea explorations, one researcher said the googly-eyed squid looks “like some little kid dropped their toy.” [Photos: See the World’s Cutest Sea Creatures]

[ecosci]

This is what Earth will look like in 100 years

At this point, you're probably fully aware of how hot it is. But in case you're unaware: It's really, really hot.

[mothernaturenetwork]

Megan Lorenz’s award-winning Puffin Photography 

“I would like to think he was a romantic puffin…” Megan Lorenz

[montereybayaquarium]

<3 puffin!

[ecosci]

Watch: Timelapse Video of Coral Bleaching

[lukapoet]

my first foray into flight was not in an airplane. i earned my wings in the backyard of my los angeles home in the june gloom.

the climb skyward resulted in a lot of scraped knees, hands rubbed raw, wrists pulled sore.

as i ascended, the little cities in the leaf litter strewn around the sturdy trunk dropped off into the distance.

though i was maybe six feet airborne over my little empire i thought myself a bird.

i opened my wings, soared for a fleeting moment, and then reunited with the soil, face-first.

now, i am sure to never climb higher than how far i can fall.

[ecosci]

Reminder that I have a poetry blog.

[marineexplorer]

Cruisin - Weedy seadragon - Phyllopteryx taeniolatus #marineexplorer by John Turnbull Via Flickr: Weedy seadragons are a fish, but they do not have a powerful tail for swimming. The bony plates which cover their bodies also limit their movement, so their propulsion comes from a small fluttering fin on their back. Zoom in on this shot to see the fin - it’s semi-transparent and starts as the black and white bump. They must therefore stay near kelp, which they use for camouflage, to avoid being eaten. Kurnell

[skunkbear]

You can learn more about this immortal animal in our latest video.

[skunkbear]

An update to the chart - this fish (a Greenland shark):

Reaches sexual maturity at 150 years - and lives to be at least 272 years old. That’s older than any other known vertebrate - but in theory, it still has nothing on the hydra.

Full story!

Image Credit: Julius Nielsen/Science

[ecosci]

some jackalope: "shark infested waters"

me cupping my hands around my mouth: THEY LIVE THERE

[ecosci]

Off topic: I have a poetry blog!

You can find it here: lukapoet.tumblr.com

[nubbsgalore]

under a starry serengeti night sky. photos by will burrard lucas, who employs both camera traps and a dslr camera mounted to a small remote controlled buggy to capture these photos. 

[inlandwest]

GOP Platform Proposes To Get Rid Of National Parks And National Forests

By Jenny Rowland / Think Progress 7/15 The Republican platform committee met this week to draft the document that defines the party’s official principles and policies. Along with provisions on pornography and LGBT “conversion therapy” is an amendment calling for the indiscriminate and immediate disposal of national public lands.

The inclusion of this provision in the Republican Party’s platform reflects the growing influence of and ideological alliance between several anti-park members of the GOP and anti-government extremists, led by Cliven Bundy, who dispute the federal government’s authority over national public lands.

“Congress shall immediately pass universal legislation providing a timely and orderly mechanism requiring the federal government to convey certain federally controlled public lands to the states,” reads the adopted language. “We call upon all national and state leaders and representatives to exert their utmost power and influence to urge the transfer of those lands identified.”

The provision calls for an immediate full-scale disposal of “certain” public lands, without defining which lands it would apply to, leaving national parks, wilderness areas, wildlife refuges, and national forests apparently up for grabs and vulnerable to development, privatization, or transfer to state ownership.

Keep reading

[eearth-deactivated20180601]

For the first time since 1941, anthrax has hit Western Siberia, with 1,500 reindeer dying and 13 Yamal nomads being hospitalized including 4 children.

This is because unusually high temperatures (it’s 10 degrees Fahrenheit higher than normal) have melted permafrost containing the corpse of a reindeer that died of the bacteria 75 years ago.

Anthrax goes dormant when frozen, turning into a spore that reanimates when the temperature rises. Scientists estimate it can survive in this state for a minimum of 100 years.

In Siberia, dozens of herders have been relocated, a quarantine is in place and a state of emergency has been declared by the mayor.

This renews concerns that ancient viruses and bacteria could once again pose a threat, as the earth warms.

In 2014 scientists discovered that a Siberian virus, pithovirus sibericum, which lay dormant in permafrost for 30,000 years, became infectious again once thawed.

[vitabreva]

The article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/07/28/anthrax-sickens-13-in-western-siberia-and-a-thawed-out-reindeer-corpse-may-be-to-blame/

[kleenexwoman]

this is not a consequence of global warming i had ever envisioned but now it’s the scariest thing i’ve ever heard

[ecosci]

Climate change doesn’t just affect the weather.

[nubbsgalore]

[nubbsgalore]

honduran white tent bats roosting under a heliconia leaf, which they sever down the length of its midrib to create a ‘tent’ that provides a waterproof shelter and protection from potential predators. (click pic or link for credit x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x)

[autistic-aesthetics]

Fuzzzy.. .

[thegreenwolf]

Source; please do not remove.