#microbes

[fruitblush]

Ode to the Microbe

Prints

[angelnumber27]

"Microbial Rainbow" (detail), Tal Danino, 2018

source

[linseedling]

I guess I'm really into rotifers now.

[sofubis]

微生物アクリルマスコット アクリルマスコット (ikimon)

[science-bastard]

the petri dish is closed today because the microbes have a tummy ache

[garblegarden]

Whoooooo wants keychains?

I was originally going to wait until the keychains got here to put them on sale, but I'm getting antsy, so they're on preorder! I estimate I'll receive all of them in a few days and then they'll ship out immediately, if you dare to purchase one. 😈

First up, a bunch of friendly fishy keychains! A coelacanth, a wild type betta, and a furry trout.

Then, some algae! Featuring shapely diatoms and dinoflagellates, as well as some nice green cyanobacteria.

Check them out here! https://garblegoods.bigcartel.com/

[rancid-men-stimboards]

Science stimboard for anon

X X X - X X X - X X X

[mindblowingscience]

Scientists have engineered the microbiome of plants for the first time, boosting the prevalence of 'good' bacteria that protect the plant from disease. The findings published in Nature Communications by researchers from the University of Southampton, China and Austria, could substantially reduce the need for environmentally destructive pesticides. There is growing public awareness about the significance of our microbiome—the myriad of microorganisms that live in and around our bodies, most notably in our guts. Our gut microbiomes influence our metabolism, our likelihood of getting ill, our immune system, and even our mood.

Continue Reading.

[adelicateculturecell]

Journey to the Microcosmos- We Recorded Too Much Slow Motion Footage So Here's a Bonus Video

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

[stupidscav]

the autism

yeah I'm making microbes into scugs,, also sketch page I don't really like (might actually keep the scug design tho)

closups under cut

sillies

and scugs

doodle page

^ I might keep this as a spearmaster design,,

[librarycomic]

Club Microbe by Elise Gravel. Drawn & Quarterly, 2024. 9781770467026. 56pp. https://www.powells.com/book/-9781770467026?partnerid=34778&p_bt

Every book of Gravel's feels like a party, and this one celebrates microbes by showcasing facts about them and how fun they are to draw. My favorite illustration is the one about useful germs that live in our intestines, which features a toothy grin and a fart. I loved Gravel's enthusiasm for bacteriophages, prochlorococcus ("We're superheroes!"), hand washing, and cool Latin names. The book swept me along and made me want to draw.

If you've never heard Gravel's name, you may recognize her art from the USPS's Message Monsters postage stamps. https://www.painted-words.com/2020/11/elise-gravels-message-monsters-are-among-the-u-s-postal-services-new-stamps-for-2021/

And if her drawings in this book leave you wanting more, check out The Mushroom Fan Club, If Found… Please Return to Elise Gravel (her sketchbook), and my favorite of her books, The Great Antonio.

[wikipediapictures]

Bacillus anthracis

“Photomicrograph of Bacillus anthracis from an agar culture demonstrating spores; Fuchsin-methylene blue spore stain.” - via Wikimedia Commons

[wachinyeya]

Fungus Devastating Frogs on Nearly Every Continent May Have an Achilles Heel–and Scientists Think it Could Save the Amphibians https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/fungus-devastating-frogs-on-nearly-every-continent-may-have-an-achilles-heel-and-scientists-think-it-could-save-the-amphibians/

“A pandemic among frogs has been going on worldwide for years—the culprit: a fungal infection that has affected amphibians on nearly every continent.

But now, the discovery of a virus that has evolved to replicate inside this fungus could be the key to saving nearly 500 species of frogs that have experienced declines due to this amphibian pandemic.

Viruses are the smallest organisms we know about, and researchers at Univ. of California, Riverside weren’t out looking for one when they found it embedded in the fungus DNA.

The fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis or Bd, wasn’t prevalent until the late 1990s, when suddenly frogs just started dropping dead all over the world.

“We wanted to see how different strains of fungus differ in places like Africa, Brazil, and the U.S., just like people study different strains of COVID-19,” said UCR microbiology professor Jason Stajich.

To do this, Stajich and colleagues used DNA sequencing technology. As they examined the data, they noticed some sequences that did not match the DNA of the fungus.

“We realized these extra sequences, when put together, had the hallmarks of a viral genome,” Stajich said.

The team found that the virus—a single-strand DNA virus which literally is the smallest known organism—is integrated into the nuclear genome in some strains of Bd.

Attempts to cure virus-positive isolates were unsuccessful; however, differences between naturally virus-positive and virus-negative Bd isolates suggested that this virus decreases the growth of its host in vitro, the authors write.

They speculate that if the virus could be replicated and then engineered to further reduce this growth, biologists may have a method of saving amphibians like the harlequin frogs of Ecuador which have been heavily affected by Bd.

The scientists say that a lot more research is needed before such a cure might be manufactured, including for questions like how this virus infects its host.””

[geologyjohnson]

Fossil Microbial Mats

Extreme close ups of 1.3 billion year old microbial mats in muddy OM rich chert. Fossils are the dark filaments and spheres, surrounded by a pale coating of phosphate and silica. Some fossils have been replaced by silica, phosphate, or pyrite. The little spheres and long filamentous structures are the fossil microbes. The scale bar at the side says 20 microns, which is a bit thinner than a human hair. So that gives you an idea of how tiny these microbes where.

Each sphere and filament was a tiny colony of individual microbes. So each sphere and filament is like a tower block full of apartments the microbes lived in, and the mat is like a city.

But these mats were so dense and thick, that if you scaled up one of the fossil microbes to the size of an average human, the mat would be 25 km high and cover all of Europe and most of Asia.

Mats like this covered the floor of Earths shallow seas long before animals and plants evolved. The tops of the mats were photo synthesisers, below them live microbes that could convert sulphur and iron into energy.

These microbial communities worked nonstop for billions of years, changing the chemistry of the Earths oceans and atmosphere, pumping out oxygen, and making the world habitable to more complex life like the first simple animals, and eventually humans.

They were here long before even the simplest animals and plants, and they will be here long after we have gone. Microbial mats like this will probably be some of the last life on Earth, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were common on warm, wet, rocky planets throughout the universe.

[fluttershywheresheshouldntbe]

On a microscope slide

[ozgur-ce]

Bugün gençlerle işlediğimiz konu çevremizdeki mikroplar (iki ayaklılar değil tabi ki 🤪)

Çevreden aldığımız örneklerle besiyerine ektiğimiz bakterilerimiz bugün üremişler size de atayım dedim belki ilginizi çeker, bakın çevremizde nerelerde ne çok bakteri var 🦠🧫🔬

Aslında bu kadar küçük olmaları bizim de evrenin bütününde ne kadar küçük bir zerre olduğumuzu hatırlatır hep bana... Önemli olan soru şu: faydalı bakteriler gibi buradaki görevimizi yerine getirebildik mi? Yoksa zararlı bir mikrop olmayı tercih mi ettik?