#phototaxis

[bel-by-the-sea]

oc / bee posting

[sleeplesssmol]

Moth Code- Interim Report: Besides the Eclipse

A report from the Foundation about Ms. Grace and Manus Vindicatae's goals.

Transcript below:

Interim Report: Besides the Eclipse

The moth-attraction experiment mainly induced strong homesickness. To end my uncontrollable crying and depressive symptoms, this phototaxis research will be temporarily concluded. I will start compiling the summary report as usual.

Manus Vindictae has leveraged the information gathered from crossing the "Storm" to present Ms. Grace as a prophet, thereby earning the trust of the Nukutai people in this era. According to internal records, the Nukutais, displaced by rising sea levels, were meant to be contacted and properly resettled by our branch. It may be time to reconsider our strategy of passively awaiting era events to unfold, to avoid such incidents in the future.

From birth, the Nukutais will receive a shell which, through special arcanum rituals, records their entire emotional journey. This is how they described it during previous consultations. They take pride in passing on shells filled with beautiful memories to their descendants. In essence, the Nukutais' "Spirit Shells" carry an arcanist's lifetime of emotional fluctuations, making them excellent carriers of arcane energy, and a prime target for Manus Vindictae.

Ms. Grace, who carried out Manus Vindictae's plan to win over the Nukutais, is suspected of being directly under the command of Mr. Forget Me Not and linked to the earlier incident involving the transfer of Ms. Kimberly's contract item. Given her numerous malicious actions in the "Free Breeze" incident, which had a profound impact on all parties involved, it is recommended that she be added to the wanted list.

The exact goal of Manus Vindictae remains unclear, but since Ms. Grace took over "Free Breeze," there have been multiple unusual sailing records. Based on the findings from this research, it is suspected that Manus Vindictae is stationed in a region even further south. Australia has already undergone comprehensive checks during the Uluru Games. It is now recommended that subsequent searches focus on South America and South Africa, particularly in regions like Chile, Argentina, and the Republic of South Africa.

[twilika]

Bel-by-the-sea’s webcomic Phototaxis is really cool!! It’s got bugs and ghosts and friendship and nature---everything I love is in there! If you haven’t read it, check it out on Webtoon too. I’ve been meaning to draw the characters for forever and finally got to do it!

[black-mesa-research-facility]

you can phase through walls? Have you ever left Black Mesa?

“Yea, once! But we're...sorta surrounded by desert. Miles and miles of desert. And Sunkist's fur gets really hot really easily, it wouldn't be good for her!”

“...Plus. I don't wanna leave my dad here...”

[eka-mark]

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.12620.001

Abstract: Bacterial phototaxis was first recognized over a century ago, but the method by which such small cells can sense the direction of illumination has remained puzzling. The unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 moves with Type IV pili and measures light intensity and color with a range of photoreceptors. Here, we show that individual Synechocystis cells do not respond to a spatiotemporal gradient in light intensity, but rather they directly and accurately sense the position of a light source. We show that directional light sensing is possible because Synechocystis cells act as spherical microlenses, allowing the cell to see a light source and move towards it. A high-resolution image of the light source is focused on the edge of the cell opposite to the source, triggering movement away from the focused spot. Spherical cyanobacteria are probably the world’s smallest and oldest example of a camera eye.

[bpod-bpod]

Tiny Dancers

Sweeping across lakes and seas around the world, Euglena are single-celled organisms that share similarities with both plants and animals, making them interesting to study. Here though it’s their dance moves on show. Euglena are light-sensitive – they swim away from blue-coloured light in a process known as phototaxis. Here researchers take advantage of this, magnifying a dish of Euglena onto a screen while projecting the nearby gyrating humans as tiny blue light silhouettes down into the dish. All of a sudden we have human/ Euglena dance partners, each reacting and responding to each other’s moves. As well as leaving visitors to this exhibit with fresh thoughts about what’s possible in biological research, the interactive technology could perhaps be modified to better understand more harmful light-responsive bacteria, all while friendly Euglena are being investigated as a potential food source, rich in omega-3 acid.

Written by John Ankers

Image from the Exploratorium

Research from the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, and Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

Image copyright held by the Exploratorium

Research published in Nature Biotechnology, October 2019

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[alphynix]

If insects are attracted to light sources, why can't they just fly towards the sun and die?

Nobody actually knows for certain why some insects are attracted to light sources.

The main idea seems to be that they’re mistaking a bright light for the sun or moon are trying to use it for navigation. (Either because they’re trying to use it as a reference point and fly at a specific angle from it, or because an unobstructed light source in nature would normally indicate a clear flight path.) But since the artificial light is much smaller and closer than they think it is, they get disorientated and end up flying in circles or slamming straight into it.

Another possibility is that the light is giving them a sort of sensory overload. They might get dazzled and blinded by a bright light source in the dark, and their automatic response is to just keep trying to go in the same direction, and they accidentally fly into the light over and over again.

Some artificial lights may also be giving off frequencies of ultraviolet light normally reflected by flowers, so some insects might simply be looking for food.

The reason they’re not affected by the sun or moon in the same way is because they’ve evolved for hundreds of millions of years in the presence of those natural light sources and know how to compensate for them. They’ve had comparably little time to adjust to human-made campfires and candle flames, and even less to adapt to electrical lights -- so the problem is probably that we’re putting a lot of bright lights in places where insects just don’t expect them to be, and confusing the heck out of them as a result.

[retrogradedesigns-blog]

3 out of the 4 hand bags for the Phototaxis collection I just really like stingray leather