Microbial art — the process of creating living paintings with bacteria — has been around for nearly 100 years. It was first created by Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin in 1928 and was also an amateur artist. Atlas Obscura looks at this blend of art and science, some of the skilled folks who make it, and the potential health risks if it's not done carefully.
I realized that I haven’t showed you all of my black hole doodles yet! This is probably the most recent one. I can tell because the shading makes the holes look more convincing, and that took me a lot of practice to figure out how to do that. Can you find the waterbear?
I call this piece… Cosmic Ooze Doodle No. 108 Watercolor, ink, colored pencil on 8” square cotton paper #art#MathArt#BlackHole#surface#watercolor#painting#astronomy#microbes
It's #FollowFriday: If you love #science and #STEM follow @animalculum !
He always has a fascinating mix of studies and articles that bring you back the big Aww!
"E. coli and S. enterica were found to survive in low- and non-alcoholic beer at all temperatures, pH, and % ABV under study. L. monocytogenes was observed to be less resilient, with population size declining below the detection limit after a few days."
There's a growing link between microbes, mood and mental health.
@KnowableMag reports: "New research suggests that to maintain a healthy brain, we should tend our gut microbiome. The best way to do that right now is not through pills and supplements, but better food."
✅A method for predicting mega-floods 🌊
✅An unknown earthworm 🪱
✅A protein that protects our #genes 🧬
✅The impact of urban #green spaces on our #health 🌳
✅A chip for cultivating #microbes and #neurons 🦠
✅A programme to facilitate breast surgery 🔢
✅Endangered Old World fruit #bats 🦇
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Scientists have been looking for health-promoting #microbes in the #feces of people from traditional communities—some of whom feel exploited.
'At the same time, members of the communities being studied say some projects aren’t being done ethically or equitably. Even recent research projects have taken biological samples without consent and attempted to artificially manipulate the way hunter-gatherers eat and live, says Shani Mangola, a member of the much-studied Hadza society in Tanzania. He and others are concerned about the risk of what’s called biopiracy—taking natural resources from poorer countries for the benefit of wealthier ones.
'"Some people don’t understand [and ask], Why are these people taking my hair? Why are they taking my poop?” says Mangola. “They need to understand what the research is about, what the impact is, and what value it brings to the communities and to the world.”'
#Researchers propose that a taste for #fermented morsels may have triggered a surprising jump in the growth rate of our ancestors' #brains.
In fact, a shift from a #RawDiet to one that included #food items already partially broken down by #microbes may have been a crucial event in our brain's #evolution, according to a perspective #study by evolutionary #neuroscientist Katherine Bryant of Aix-Marseille University in France and two US colleagues.
For anybody who wants to understand why as a gardener (or rather food grower) I talk about soil microbiology, nutrient cycles and composting all the time, here's an educational video that might give you some more insights: Geo Girl on "Why #microbes are necessary for all life on earth" https://youtu.be/zv0UjvCT6wE
Although humans would say we’ve been an intelligent species for hundreds of thousands of years, distant #aliens 👽 wouldn’t have been able to detect that we were any smarter than #microbes 🦠 until we started developing #technology. Since about the time humans invented the means of communicating by #radio we’ve been looking for this kind of transmission coming from other places in #space. Now that we know how to send information via #laser signals, we also look for these in distant space 🌌. https://www.planetary.org/articles/are-aliens-real
The more I learn about advances in scientific knowledge regarding #fungi, the more I'm convinced that our general belief that humans are the apex of anything on this planet is pure insecure projection, and wrong.
A billion years old, fungi ate rock to create soil and life on land, more than once, including us.
And climate change is weaponizing fungi to kill us in a way less dramatic than #TheLastOfUs but perhaps just as surely, eventually.