biopeaches

[biopeaches]

For anyone that left their experiments running over the weekend, I hope you left this cartoon on your equipment to deter people ‘helping’

[biopeaches]

BE NOT AFRAID

[biopeaches]

you just got press crow'd. reblog to instantly press crow your friends

[biopeaches]

I adore messy annotations.

A page suffocated by scrawls, scribbles, lines, arrows, circles, highlights, all near illegible. As though the reader couldn’t contain those thoughts. They were overpowered by emotions and ideas. A ruler-less underline because you read that quote and the pen couldn’t be in your hand any quicker. Scribbled sentences that require the book to be turned upside down or on its side to be read again. Exclamation marks, because you’re at loss for words and the author said it best. Books of mine start with ruled lines and perfect hand writing, but by the end are sometimes too messy to be reread. I find messy annotations the most beautiful, the most intimate.

[biopeaches]

I have never agreed more with a statement in this site 🦈. Sharks are super interesting animals and can give us a lot of insight on some interesting biological processes!

If you're scared of sharks, you just don't know enough about them.

I have a lot to say on sharks. They're my favorite animal! But I feel that, despite the general sentiment toward them being much better than like 20 years ago, some people still don't care about them or fear them.

Of course, a healthy fear of wild animals is always good, especially if you're unfamiliar, because you don't know their behaviors. And you don't want to trespass in their home or, in a sense, offend them, because you won't know how they'll react.

When it comes to sharks, I think people just don't know enough about them to truly care for them. But! We have come very far since a certain film hit the theaters, and there is a much more positive sentiment. In aquariums and such they'll be like "wow! big shark! let's go see the dolphins." Which is fine, if dolphins are your thing. I've just seen a lot of shark exhibits primarily ignored or barely paid any mind. In documentaries they're almost always portrayed as these terrifying and bloodthirsty beasts, when that isn't really the case. (Of course, many of these documentaries I've seen will show a shark and make it seem scary or daunting before even talking about them and making a huge shift in tone. Such as in the Monterey Bay episode of Our Great National Parks).

But just knowing even a little bit about them, how they interact with reefs and kelp forests and the deep sea and the open ocean and even us, can mean so much in getting people to care about them. They're our neighbors, so maybe we should all get to know them better.

[biopeaches]

Beaches are the best place for biologists and geologists

It's a trip whenever I go to a beach and I'm sure geologists feel the same. Like the sand is filled with a bunch of pretty rocks and you can probably observe the results of a lot of interesting processes in the surrounding mountains/rock structures.

And the amount of interesting living things you can find there is incredible. There are small bright purple fish, jelly fish, barnacles, crabs, rays, and the microfauna might be even more diverse.

Anyways I just love beaches

[biopeaches]

What happened to the frogs?! I remember when I first joined I accidentally pressed something and singing frogs showed up but now they are gone. Where did they go???

[biopeaches]

Are geologists perpetually mad at trees? Like sometimes I look at a mountain and think that it'd look pretty interesting if it were rocky but that's it. I wonder if geologists feel any rage towards the trees for covering up all the rocks they go crazy about.

[biopeaches]

Cheek Cells!

Cheek cells are epithelial cells, a special type of cell found all throughout the body. They have been observed on the outer and inner surfaces of our body such as the skin, blood vessels, the digestive tract, or even the lungs 🫁.

Cheek cells are also a type of "Hello World" for Microscopy and Biology, usually being one of the first cells observed under the microscope by students.

Side note: I stained these cells using Methylene Blue and in the process of trying to get rid of the blueness from my pipette I accidentally broke it T-T

[biopeaches]

Chem profs are the craziest. My favorite quote from one of them is:

“This reaction is not that effective for killing people, maybe for burning down buildings but there’s better material for that, I’ll bring that on thursday”

Rewatching organic chemistry lectures to prepare for an exam, but instead of taking notes, I’m writing down the weird things my professor says. And so…

An incomplete list of the unhinged stuff my organic chemistry professor has said:

Rule one in organic chemistry: carbon is a working girl. It bonds with basically everything

This is an alcohol. Something quite popular amongst students, I believe

A thiol kinda looks like an alcohol. But alcohols are usually enjoyed, whereas thiols is what skunks use when you’re stupid and unfortunate enough to piss them off. Do with that what you will.

There will come an age when your doctor gets worried about your high cholesterol levels, which often makes people wonder why we even have cholesterol if too much of it is so unhealthy. Let’s say it like this: if suddenly all your cholesterol vanished, your doctor would be pleased but you wouldnt be. You’d be a puddle on the floor.

How to know whether an anion is stable? Rule number one, and I’m sorry to say this, but gentlemen, your girlfriends lied. Because size does matter.

No self respecting scientist uses the IUPAC- naming system. But you still need to know it for the exam. Sucks to be you

An addition reaction is the most romantic reaction in chemistry: two things become one. But romance never lasts, and so just like that, one thing can fall apart into two again

For the exam, the bar is nearly on the floor. Just don’t write anything that is impossible and you’re good. And yet every year there are students who dig beneath the bar and fail anyway

The Sanger reaction was named after chemist Frederick Sanger, who is the only chemist to ever receive 2 Nobel prizes in chemistry. Marie Curie was also a chemist who got 2 Nobel prizes, but one of those was for physics so that’s a bit more complicated. Of course, there’s also the chemist Linus Pauling, who got 2 Nobel prizes as well… but one of them was the Nobel prize of peace and those don’t count

[biopeaches]

Fungal Spores and Hyphae From a Molding Orange 🍊

These little guys are the reason we shouldn't eat molding fruit. The spores (little circular things) can cause an allergic reaction when consumed and the fungi can also release harmful toxins to our own cells.

[biopeaches]

Sugar Crystals from Honey 🍯

Fun Fact about honey! Even though bacteria and other microbes love sugar, honey is almost completely sterile, bacteria won’t be able to grow well in it. This is because in spite of having bacteria’s favorite snack, honey not only lacks a high water content, it’s also highly acidic, slightly more than tomato juice 🍅 . This makes it a horrible environment for almost any type of organism. Even if bacteria manage to find their way into some honey, they quickly become dormant. That’s why honey won’t spoil! This also gives honey some antibacterial properties which might help heal some minor wounds and even help fight off minor infections.

[biopeaches]

A Munching Rotifer

[biopeaches]

Different Sections of a Pine Young Staminate Cone

One of the prettiest prepped mounts that came with the microscope.

[biopeaches]

Ah a Tardigrade...

PERRY THE TARDIGRADE?!?!?

[biopeaches]

I can't wait for the microscope camera I ordered to arrive. It's so hard to take videos with only a phone and they end up shaky either way.