lfkulture

[lfkulture]

Just a little tardigrade (waterbear) swimming around for your Wednesday needs.

[lfkulture]

I want to say this is a litonus, but it seems a little big. If it is, this protozoa is found in fresh water and, in this case, activated sludge. It's carnivorous and eats other bacteria and protozoa like stalked cilitates. I like seeing its cilia move on the upper surface.

[lfkulture]

A vorticella (right) and a mosquito larva from my rain barrel. I was very happy with this seeing as I have never captured a vorticella in the wild outside of the wastewater treatment plant. In the bottom picture you can see some diatoms hanging out there as well. All of these things were hanging in and around an exoskeleton of some sort.

[lfkulture]

I should be going to bed seeing as I need to be at the airport tomorrow at 4 a.m., but I thought I would post The Stuff of Nightmares since I haven’t posted anything in a while and I’m leaving for vacation. 

This beauty comes from the bottom of my rain barrel. Most likely the remaining exoskeleton of a fly larva or an aquatic beetle. There were a number of exoskeletons from this sample, and all of them were interesting in their own way. This one was the most visually disturbing one that I came across; the others were little islands of other inhabitants. I’m always amazed how much detail from these exoskeletons remain intact. I guess they are skeletons after all.

[lfkulture]

Not only are they biologically immortal, but hydras have to rip their skin tissue in order to open their mouths - not to eat, but to spit out anything they didn't digest. Biology is weird.

[lfkulture]

Behold, The Mighty Water Bear!

Tardigrades, aka Water Bears, are a type of extremophile, a name that’s well-deserved. Tardigrades are able to go into what’s called a ‘tun state’ where they become virtually invincible. They’ve survived the vacuum of space and extreme radiation, they’ve been dried out and resurrected decades later, they handle boiling temperatures and deep freezing down to 1 degree Kelvin (molecular motion stops at 0 degree Kelvin) and they’ve managed to look adorable and cuddly while doing it! Basically, Water Bears are the most badass microorganism around. Don’t mess with Water Bears.

Get more info and see the full video via Sci Fri

[lfkulture]

This is incredibly cool.

I was lucky enough to find a log full of termites behind my house. You know what that means? Gut protists!

Termites can’t actually digest wood for themselves, so they form symbiotic relationships with protists and bacteria to help break down the wood for them

I squished a termite under a slide and saw all these flagellates come out. These unicellular creatures make up a third of the body weight of termites, and I’m lucky enough to be studying them as a lab intern

Another neat fact: termites are closely related to cockroaches! 

[lfkulture]

Here are some rotifers for you! I think most of them are Platyias quadricornus but it looks like there are some from the Lecane genus as well. I like the bottom left picture the best because it’s an empty lorica, or shell, of a rotifer. 

These were taken from the wastewater treatment plant’s aeration basins.

[lfkulture]

That’s really awesome! I like how you can see the medulla in some of the hairs.

Cross Section of Human Hair @ 400x

See How ===> www.mieco.us 

[lfkulture]

While raking the yard I came across a fallen oak branch that had some black jelly roll fungus on it. The top left is the undersurface of the fungus, while the other pictures are of the upper surface where its spores are produced. The star-looking thing in the top right picture might be an oak trichome, or oak hair, if you will. 

[lfkulture]

If you were going to write a book called "Raising Tardigrades For Fun, Show And Profit" (jk) then where would you tell people to get their pedigreed Tardigrades and what would you tell them to feed their pampered pets? Even mongrel ones would do. 8)

It depends if my idea of being able to make cat or dog-sized tardigrades could be a reality. If so, there are two classes of tardigrades: Heterotardigrada and Eutardigrada, but there’s not a huge difference between the two. It would probably come down to personal preference in pedigree of tardigrade; personally, I love the ones at the wastewater treatment plant. They’re stubby and remind me of pandas for some reason. But some people may like ones with longer legs, bumpy skin, or antennae.

Another reason I like my wastewater tardigrades is because I think I could get a set up where I have a cat and a cat-sized tardigrade, and the cat would produce the food, so to speak, for the tardigrades. That’s not what’s going on in reality with them, though. My wastewater tardigrades actually feed on protozoa, bacteria, and micro-animals like rotifers and other tardigrades. Most other tardigrades feed on plants. You would have to make sure you know whether your tardigrade is carrnivorous, omnivorous, or phytophagous and plan accordingly.

The major downside to having a tardigrade is that while they don’t have to live in water they do need to live around water, in a very humid, almost misty environment at the very least. Even though the summers in Kansas (where I live) are known for having oppressive humidity, I don’t think it would be enough to sustain a large tardigrade year round. Unless I want to install misters throughout my house and learn to love being slightly damp all the time, I think I’ll stick to tardigrades of the microscopic variety.

[lfkulture]

I found a dead weevil in some rice the other day. And you can say “Ewwww” about it, but weevils are major pests for grains and cotton almost worldwide. It’s not wholly unusual to run across one somewhere. However, as far as beetles go, I always thought weevils were rather cute. 

[lfkulture]

Boy, do I love fermented foods and the microbes that make them.

How Microbes Make Fermented Food

Just like any form of life, microbes need energy. To get it, they consume molecules they come into contact with for sustenance. No metabolism is perfect, though, and even the smallest meals produce waste products, a process known as fermentation. A microbe’s trash can be a treasure to us, though—these waste molecules are key ingredients in the fermented foods and drinks that are cornerstones of cuisine around the world.

Fermentation works by feeding sugars to microbes like yeast, a fungus, or a bacteria such as Lactobacillus. The two types of microbes have different means of processing the carbohydrates they dine on. For bacteria, the end product of fermenting sugar is a simple molecule called lactic acid, a weak acid with a rather sour taste. Yeast, one the other hand, produces a molecule called ethanol, the inebriating agent in alcohol. Humans figured out early on that both of these waste products could create tasty dishes while also helping food keep longer, as demonstrated in the three recipes below.

Pickling

Fermenting vegetable matter with bacteria (specifically strains of Lactobacillus) produces sour-flavored, long-lasting treats. Better known as “pickling,” this process is used in cuisines all around the world to crafts foods from kosher dills to kimchi. The process is thought to have originated thousands of years ago in Egyptian society. 

Beer

Fermenting grains or fruits with yeast is a tradition at least as old as pickling, and one that’s also known around the world. Luckily for folks who enjoy a beer or glass of wine with dinner, yeast converts sugars into alcohol instead of lactic acid. While the two substances have similar chemical formulas (lactic acid consists of  six hydrogen molecules, teamed with three carbon and three oxygen atoms, while alcohol binds six hydrogen atoms to a pair of carbon atoms and a single oxygen atom) they do very different things when they come in contact with our bodies and communicate with our brains—hence the difference between sour-tasting pickles and inebriating beer.

Sourdough Bread

But what happens when a concoction combines Lactobacillusand yeast? Sourdough bread is a good example of this forced symbiosis. Bakers have taken advantage of a wide array ofLactobacillus species and their close relatives to produce three kinds of sourdough bread. The lactic acid from the bacteria and carbon dioxide produced by the fermentation of yeast give this bread its distinctive tangy taste and fluffy texture. The fermentation process also converts the linoleic acid in bread flour into fatty acids that resist the growth of mold and help the loaf stay edible longer, a quality that made this food a favorite among gold surveyors in California. In addition, the presence of yeast means that sourdough freshly out of the oven will have some alcohol in it, although this content evaporates as time goes by.

Learn more about microbes in the new exhibition, The Secret World Inside You, now open! 

Images: AMNH/M.Fearon

[lfkulture]

Happy ‪#‎MicroscopeMonday‬! This is a 2-day-old larva of a parasite called Loxo, maker of “zombie crabs.” Loxo, short for Loxothylacus panopaei, parasitizes mud crabs by hijacking their reproductive systems and forcing them to produce barnacle larvae instead - even if the crab is male! In the Chesapeake Bay, Loxo is considered invasive and may parasitize up to 90 percent of an area’s mud crabs. In Florida, where it is considered native, parasitism rates are lower—usually 10 percent or less. This could mean the Florida crabs have had more time to adapt.

Photo credit: Carolyn Tepolt

[lfkulture]

I love this idea of microscope Monday!

This Microscope Monday, we’re celebrating the Naked Dinoflagellates. Single-celled Gymnodinium species like this are sometimes called “naked dinoflagellates” because they lack armor, or cellulose plates. Look closely to see one of its whip-like flagella as it moves through the water. (Video: Tim Mullady)

[lfkulture]

Oh wow! There's so many types of tardigrades. This one looks very different from the ones that we find at the wastewater plant - it seems bigger and more angular. That's a great find!

Today marks a very special day for Merismo Microscopy! 

I’ve finally found my first tardigrade! This little guy was found crawling around some algae in a saltwater aquarium. Do you see the little eyes and paws? 

They’re quite popular on the internet due to the incredible extremes this tiny animal can survive through. When it enters a state of suspended animation called anhydrobiosis, it can live through near absolute zero temperatures as well as boiling water, radiation, and the vacuum of space (source). Hooray for the tardigrade!

[lfkulture]

I looked for microscope in the search , and i found you , i guess i found the best place on tumblr :)

Awww, thanks! I'm pretty surprised at the response I've gotten from this tumblr. I'm so happy that other people are interested in my weird hobby! Stay curious, everyone!