“Sensing Danger”
Winner of 1st Place in Nikon’s Small World in Motion Competition of 2012.
An efficient innate immune reaction is triggered when an inguinal lymph node (center) is damaged by a laser. Neutrophils, which are the most abundant type of white blood cells in mammals, are seen “rushing” to the site of damage. (Note, however, that even though this GIF loops every 2.5 seconds, what you are seeing actually occurred over a period of 13.7 minutes.) This type of response is often studied for the development of adaptive immune response.
Nikon Instruments said the movie won 1st place because it demonstrated the delicate balance between science and art. “Dr. Kamenyeva’s image is the perfect combination of cutting-edge science with aesthetics that we look for in Small World, to help raise the profile of science with scientists and non-scientists alike,” said Eric Flem, the communications manager for Nikon Instruments.
Credit: Olena Kamenyeva, National Institute of Health’s NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
If there are any high school or university students studying science (including psychology), who would like to be a member of this blog and contribute, please let me know, because I don’t have the time to post much any more, other things have taken priority.
This might look like lace, but its actually lichen. Photos by i n i m i n i .
This is off the Bermuda Triangle, where 16+ ships washed up on a sand bar. The mystery is still unsolved
Actually the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle has been given a scientific explanation: methane vents which have been discovered in that region.
Methane reduces the density of water, causing ships that would normally float, to instead sink.
Methane, when in gas form, messes with the electrical components of aircraft, causing them to fail and sometimes fall right out of the sky.
Methane also causes the water to turn a ghostly greenish color, and the “ghost ships” reported to be seen are simply green reflections of the ships that scatter the bottom of the triangle.
Fucking science, man.
so
the bermuda triangle
is caused
by ocean farts
(via pumpykin)
Welwitschia mirabilis
One of the rarest and strangest plants in the world, Welwitschia mirabilis is often referred to as an “underground tree” and can live up to 2,000 years in the arid Namib desert. It’s comprised of two leaves, a stem base and a tap root. The leaves become frayed but never stop growing and never shed, giving the plant it’s Medusa-like appearance. It uses them to collect moisture from sea fog. The long tap root can extend 6ft underground to collect water.
The only member of the Welwitschia genus, it’s thought to be a relic from the Jurassic Period, when the Earth was covered with ferns and gymnosperms, and thus a “living fossil”.
(via scientificillustration)
It’s like cyberspace door knockers who try to give you leaflets with pictures of Jesus on them even though they didn’t bother to ask if you were religious at all or of what religion you belonged to.
I know he said “I am the way I am the truth I am the life”, we sung it in primary school with shitty hand actions during assembly.
Salvation is overrated.
Genus Lybia
(Boxer Crabs)
also known as pom-pom crabs, Boxer Crabs are a genus of small crabs in the family Xanthidae (mud crabs). the name pom-pom/or boxer comes from the mutualism that they hold with sea anemones, in which they hold the cnidarian in their claws and use them for defense, and in turn the sea anemone gets more food by moving around.
Phylogeny
Animalia-Arhtropoda-Crustacea-Malacostraca-Decapoda-Branchyura-Xanthidae-Lybia
(via staceythinx)
look at glutamine synthetase
isn’t it magical
glutamate and ammonia to glutamine
this is the kind of bizarre thing they adorn lunchboxes with
Dr. Gordon Beakes
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, UK
Specimen: Desmid Micrasterias ovata showing chlorophyll autofluoresence (red) and cell wall.
Technique: Confocal microscopy
(via rotiferola)
