What #insect do you picture when you hear the word “#fly?” A few familiar species may come to mind, yet #flies represent one of the most biodiverse groups of animals on Earth. According to The Smithsonian, “there are more than 110,000 described species of flies in the world.”
“One family,” Dr. Adrian Smith notes, “the gall midges, which you’ll see a bit later, is thought to be home to a million undescribed species. But even this common housefly, when I see it flying at 8,000 frames per second, is astonishing.”
Can I get some follow recommendations? I’m acutely aware that of the people I follow who post about our planet’s systems, most of them are climate people. I’d love to follow more people posting at a #systems level. Y’know, the people who distill down expert knowledge into consumable packets for the rest of us. Think #hydrology/ #freshwater/ #oceans, #biodiversity, #ecology, #biology, #agriculture, #energy, #economics, #geology#planetaryBoundaries … these kind of topics. Boosts appreciated!
When researchers examined mice that had recovered from severe influenza, they came upon a surprising discovery: Taste bud cells had grown in the animals' lungs.
Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that includes nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin's own, prompting Darwin to publish his theory #OTD in 1858.
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology; it was published on 24 November 1859. via @Wikipedia
Layman's explanation: This sounds like it could a huge step forward in fighting cancer! While this result is bound to only be applicable and practical for a subset of tumors, it gives rise to the possibility of a new or existing drug that can weaken tumors and make them easier to fight....
If you're worried about #LLM-based #AI, you're focusing on the wrong thing and may lack imagination.
This, and related developments (I can't view them as advancements, knowing how this all will end) are what's going to end the human race as we've known ourselves.
Much good can be derived from technologies like this, but we—being as we are—will ultimately go much to far.
I don't think we're prepared for our instant evolution (and, separately, eventual mechanization).
I'm all for advancing #technology, but when it's done purely for profit I assume, based on history, that such advancements will ultimately do much significant harm along with any good that may be achieved.
#LLM's and #AI have a long way to go before they're an existential threat to humanity on their own.
It's advances in the melding of technology and #biology that are as likely to doom us as save us, for now.
"'What we could clearly show is the marsupial way of developing is the one that's changed the most from the ancestor of marsupials and placentals,' says Anjali."
Oh boy, this is some Black mirror kind of stuff. Synthetic human embryos. Amazing and frightening. No sperm or ova required. #science#biology#synthetic#embryology
It is called Gymnosporangium clavariiforme or more common "Tounges of Fire". Around a month ago they popped up all around where I live.
The fungi infects a juniper to form the characteristic "Tounges of Fire" which spread spores. These need to land on a hawthorn as a second host. The spores produced on the fruit of the infected hawthorn then need to find a juniper again and the cycle repeats.
Only a single particle of light is required to spark the first steps of the biological process that converts light into chemical energy, scientists report.
Wanted to share my nicest spore print to date. It came out exactly as the underside of the hat that you can see in the second picture. Most likely Protostropharia semiglobata, but need to confirm the spore size.
Moved over to the fediverse today. Lets see if this works here 🙂
For my introduction a picture I took yesterday of Scuttelina sp. through the stereo microscope. The genus seems to be "complicated", but as soon as I can get my hands on my compound microscope I'm hopeful that I can identify the species.
The weirdest part is that I kind of remember all the bees and birds going silent during the solar eclipse, but I don't recall them like dropping out of the sky like this
Though we've finished engineering what we want to present at the ELECTRO #webinar, and what we want to show at #Euromar2023, we're continuing to make refinements and add new features to #NMROnline – ELECTRO!
TIL A bad bout of flu triggers 'taste bud cells' to grow in the lungs (www.sciencedaily.com)
When researchers examined mice that had recovered from severe influenza, they came upon a surprising discovery: Taste bud cells had grown in the animals' lungs.
Tumour immune rejection triggered by activation of α2-adrenergic receptors - Nature (www.nature.com)
Layman's explanation: This sounds like it could a huge step forward in fighting cancer! While this result is bound to only be applicable and practical for a subset of tumors, it gives rise to the possibility of a new or existing drug that can weaken tumors and make them easier to fight....
Bees don't fly in the dark and it's freaking me out! (streamable.com)
The weirdest part is that I kind of remember all the bees and birds going silent during the solar eclipse, but I don't recall them like dropping out of the sky like this