Largest bacterium ever found is surprisingly complex
‘Microorganism’ is a misnomer when it comes to centimetre-long Thiomargarita magnifica.
Lurking on rotting leaves sunken in the mangroves of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean live some extraordinary thread-like creatures. These filament-like organisms, up to a centimetre in length, are the biggest single-cell bacteria yet to be found. Named Thiomargarita magnifica, they live by oxidizing sulfur, and are 50 times bigger than any other known bacteria.
Biologist Olivier Gros found the bacteria in 2009 while exploring the mangroves of Guadeloupe, where he works at the University of the Antilles in the French West Indies. “At the beginning, I thought it was something like a fungi or something — not bacteria, but a eukaryote, maybe,” Gros says. Unlike bacteria and archaea, which are simple microorganisms, eukaryotes — which include animals and plants — have complex cells containing a nucleus and organelles such as mitochondria…
A unicellular organism from the Phacus genus. It uses an eyespot-like photoreceptor and a flagellum on the front of its leaf-shaped body to navigate toward light sources.
Using electricity, a new method offers the possibility of recycling CO2 while also performing a notoriously difficult reaction, producing compounds potentially useful for drug development.
Scientists at the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (ICReDD) in Hokkaido University have developed a method that has the potential to help recycle waste CO2 while also producing molecules useful for drug development.
In addition to the ever-more important demand for carbon-neutrality, chemists are increasingly interested in using carbon dioxide (CO2) in syntheses since it is abundant, inexpensive, relatively nontoxic, and renewable. However, the reactivity of CO2 is relatively low. To overcome this, the team led by Professor Tsuyoshi Mita utilized an electrochemical method in which an electron is added to either the CO2 molecule or to the other molecule in the solution, making it far easier for them to react with each other.
(via Microbiology on Instagram: “. 𝘾𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙙𝙖 𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨 on Chromogenic Candida agar. 𝘾𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙙𝙖 𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨 has a high clinical importance and is the second etiological agent…”)
I realize I never posted this but I graduated last spring and have generally just been working and figuring out what to do with my life for the last year.
Turns out the research life is definitely my future, and I have big news…
I got accepted to a PhD program!! I’m currently in the middle of the application cycle so I’m not sure what program I’ll end up in, but I was so worried I wouldn’t get accepted at all so having one of my top choice programs as an option is amazing.
Anyways, time to bring this blog out of retirement for real this time. See you in the summer when I make my way back to the life of a student.
well, blobfish actually look much more suited to their environment- when they are actually seen in their environment. this image i found on google maps explains it well!
their bodies are best suited for surviving at about 60 to 120 times as much pressure as we experience at sea level. (fun fact- maintaining a swim bladder would likely be very inefficient at that pressure. in order to be able to float, blobfish are made primarily of a gelatinous mass that is slightly less dense than water!) when they get pulled up in fishing nets, or by a natural disaster, their body rapidly depressurizes, expanding their tissues beyond their natural limits, turning the barely-swimming, deep-dwelling fish on the left into the more commonly portrayed image on the right.
while doing a little more research on this, instead of doing my final research paper like i should be, i discovered that there is only one instance of a blobfish specimen being kept alive in captivity, located at the Aquamarine Fukushima, in Japan! the specimen was pulled- alive- through about 750 to 1,200 meters of water before it was moved to the aquarium. now look at this screenshot from a news article about it because im about to cry over it.
Herpes simplex is the criminal genius of viruses, breaking into the cells lining our more delicate body parts before finding their way into our nervous system, where it hides itself in our DNA. Precisely how they carry out this complicated hijacking sequence is only partially understood.
Now a study led by researchers from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in the US has uncovered a vital piece of the puzzle, one that could potentially point the way to new ways to treat or even prevent this incredibly common disease.
we all need to collectively unlearn the idea that certain achievements (i.e. graduating college, getting a job, moving out, etc) only count if they’re achieved by a certain age or within a “normal” time frame.
going through life at your own pace does NOT equate laziness or failure.