#sunflower pollen

[mudwerks]

(via Nikon Small World 2023 photo microscopy contest: Meet this year’s top 20 winners | Ars Technica)

Second place: a matchstick igniting by the friction surface of a matchbox.

Sunflower pollen on an acupuncture needle.

[cerberusdailynews]

[CRIME] Court Rules Sunflower Pollen Snorting Legal, But Idiotic

via Errithis Articles Systems Alliance courts overseeing the nascent colony of Chasca have delivered a ruling which may seem plain common sense, but we assure you requires some additional context. The ruling comes after a long and convoluted case of suspected drug trafficking and transportation of hazardous materials from another colonization candidate world in the cluster known as the Maroon Sea. Authorities at Chasca were first alerted in June to the possible smuggling of drugs, with a passing scientific expedition making a layover at the colony acting as unwitting couriers. However, the situation was judged far more severe when reports of colonists experiencing allergic reactions reached Chasca’s healthcare provisioners. The scientific expedition was part of an ongoing research campaign into Nodacrux, a potential colonization candidate world hampered by dangerous airborne pollen. Chasca’s authorities were soon concerned that an opportunistic researcher had sold deadly pollen at the colony, passing it off as a new drug. However, forensic examinations determined that the mystery ingredient afflicting the colonists was merely pollen from the Earth sunflower, an entirely legal substance with no narcotic properties. The courts subsequently found the Chascan con men not guilty of trafficking in drugs. Instead they were found guilty of counterfeiting and fraud.

[symbiotic-science]

Sunflower pollen has medicinal, protective effects on bees

With bee populations in decline, a new study offers hope for a relatively simple mechanism to promote bee health and well-being: providing bees access to sunflowers.

With bee populations in decline, a new study offers hope for a relatively simple mechanism to promote bee health and well-being: providing bees access to sunflowers.

The study, conducted by researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, showed that two different species of bees fed a diet of sunflower pollen had dramatically lower rates of infection by specific pathogens. Bumble bees on the sunflower diet also had generally better colony health than bees fed on diets of other flower pollens.

The study showed that sunflower pollen reduced infection by a particular pathogen (Crithidia bombi) in bumble bees (Bombus impatiens). Sunflower pollen also protected European honey bees (Apis mellifera) from a different pathogen (Nosema ceranae). These pathogens have been implicated in slowing bee colony growth rates and increasing bee death.

The study also showed a deleterious effect, however, as honey bees on the sunflower diet had mortality rates roughly equivalent to honey bees not fed a pollen diet and four times higher than honey bees fed buckwheat pollen. This mortality effect was not observed in bumble bees.

[chroniquesmicroscopiques]

POLLEN DE TOURNESOL

Près de chez moi il y a un champ de tournesol

Le pollen de tournesol fait environ 35 µm de diamètre:

Une vue rapprochée, on voit les trois pores et la surface hérissée: