#microbiota

[myxomycota]

a tiny springtail on Craterium minutum

by Barry Webb

[cryptonature]

Writer milestone!

I have a poem in a biology textbook!

I’m really delighted by this.

(Thanks to Margaret Riley and Princeton University Press for reaching out.)

[witchble]

there’s just something about the stubbornness of life that fills me with awe. everywhere we look on earth — from caves sealed for millions of years to the deepest oceans — life is there. and if it can survive in places like that, why not elsewhere? europa likely hides a vast ocean beneath its ice. mars shows signs it once had water. telescopes are picking up gases on faraway planets that, here on earth, mostly come from living things. even tardigrades have survived the vacuum of space.

the universe is so vast, with billions of galaxies and countless worlds. even if the odds are small, how could life not exist beyond us? i feel lucky to be alive right now, watching science peel back the mystery layer by layer. life is more resilient, more surprising, and more sacred than we ever imagined.

i can’t wait to see what else is waiting to be uncovered.

[the-ghost-bird]

Oh yes, i'm normal, i'm just daydreaming about inhaling fungal spores and having it change me to the point where we become one and develop a symbiotic yet codependent relationship with each other.

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Meet Chonkus: the CO2-chomping alga that could help tackle the climate crisis

Synechococcus elongatusis soaks up carbon dioxide for its photosynthesis and stores more than other strains

Chonkus’s real name is Synechococcus elongatus, and it is a large and heavy strain of blue-green alga that soaks up CO2 for its photosynthesis, grows fast in dense colonies and stores more carbon than other strains of this microbe.

Being so heavy, it tends to sink rapidly to the seabed, helping lock away its carbon into a dense slimy sludge. All of which could make chonkus useful for helping get rid of CO2 and curbing the climate crisis.

Not only that, but blue-green alga can be used for producing food supplements, such as omega-3 fatty acids, the antioxidant astaxanthin, and the high-protein food spirulina.

Chonkus was discovered basking in sunlight in the shallow warm seas off the coast of Sicily’s Vulcano island, where carbon dioxide and other gases seep into the sea from volcanic vents.

[anskupics]

First snow

[bpod-bpod]

Mucus vs Microbes

Goblet cells of the colon make the the gut lining's protective layer of mucus and also sense when more mucus is needed if microbes penetrate the barrier. This study examines how this gut-microbiota relationship is regulated in new-born mice before they're weaned.

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Åsa Johansson and colleagues

Department of Medical Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Institute of Biomedicine, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

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

Published in Journal of Experimental Medicine, May 2025

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[starry-dwarf-froggo]

It's Time for Science! (Aka, I Think Bacteria Are Neat and Want to Show Off my Petri Dishes Like Cool Rocks):

Now, I know what you're thinking

This is K. pneumoniae, known for causing pneumonia, grown on MAC.

MAC, or MaConkey Agar is a type of growth material that changes color when bacteria ferment lactose, and it's used to identify gram negative organisms.

Well, bacteria have membranes that protect them from the environment, much like how we have skin.

"Starry, what the hecc are grams?"

Gram positive bacteria are bois that have Dummy Thicccccccc tm cell membranes

Gram negative bacteria are scrunkily lads that have skinny ass membranes

The bacteria above, K. pneumoniae is just one of these scrunkily lads

And when they're put on this type of media...

They make a really pretty sunset color