#neuron cell body

[biologist4ever]

Exploring the Golgi Apparatus

The Golgi body (inside the cell) receives proteins and lipids from the endoplasmic reticulum, modifies them by adding sugar molecules (glycosylation), sorts them, and then packages them into vesicles for transport to their final destinations—whether that be within the cell or exported outside.

The Golgi body, often referred to as the cell’s "post office" plays a crucial role in processing and packaging proteins and lipids.

[ohno-the-sun]

I could not get @oobbbear mad scientist au out of my head I love it so much

[humancelltournament]

Human Cell Tournament Round 1

Propaganda!

A neuron, neurone, or nerve cell is an excitable cell that fires electric signals called action potentials across a neural network in the nervous system. Neurons communicate with other cells via synapses, which are specialized connections that commonly use minute amounts of chemical neurotransmitters to pass the electric signal from the presynaptic neuron to the target cell through the synaptic gap. Neurons are the main components of nervous tissue in all animals except sponges and placozoans. Plants and fungi do not have nerve cells. Molecular evidence suggests that the ability to generate electric signals first appeared in evolution some 700 to 800 million years ago, during the Tonian period.

Endopeptidase or endoproteinase are proteolytic peptidases that break peptide bonds of nonterminal amino acids (i.e. within the molecule), in contrast to exopeptidases, which break peptide bonds from end-pieces of terminal amino acids. For this reason, endopeptidases cannot break down peptides into monomers, while exopeptidases can break down proteins into monomers. A particular case of endopeptidase is the oligopeptidase, whose substrates are oligopeptides instead of proteins.

[puppyeared]

When you backread through a fun conversation you had with someone for hours an angel gets its wings

[lockhartandlych]

A One-Sided Chat

we know what the universe is

anything and everything we can ever know

matter, energy, forces

an infinity of atoms

a saddle-shaped blob

we know how the universe is

young and virile

burst from a singular point

smaller than the smallest thing

feverish, racing outwards

too hot to truly know itself

we know when the universe is

13.8 billion years and counting

slowly cooling

crawling

faster and faster

towards a fate unknown

we argue and argue as to where it will end

theories, hypotheses, whiteboards and chalk

whether it will tear apart

and all that we know will come undone in an instant

whether it will collapse

back into the speck it once was to be reborn anew

or whether it will grow dark

cold and dead

forever

a living thing is categorized in seven ways

we grow, from child to crone

we move, from cradle to grave

we breathe, from first gasp to last rattle

we see, from first light to last revelation

we consume, we excrete

we can even, if we choose, make another

stars explode

cells apoptose

nebulas spin threads of stellar dust into light

bone marrow gives birth to infant cells

the boundaries of time accelerate

like breathing lungs straining against ribs

i grow and i age

you grow and you age

and both will one day die

we know what, how, when, where

but we do not know why

why is a question for the philosophers

for the theologians

for the existential insomniacs to ponder

but even so, as we are here

i cant help but wonder

as to our purpose

the purpose of the cells

which senesce and dissolve

or the singularities that tear apart

the very laws by which they were made

i am a body of cells

you, body of stars

i am a body of organs

you, of nebulas and supervoids

i move, and so do you

the neurons within me think

and i think within you

i am living

you are living

and living things deserve a name

who are you?

[sunast0es]

did you know they live in your brain rent free?

[mediumgayitalian]

“I’d pick you up at the airport.”

“What?”

“If we were normal. I would — have one of those signs, you know. When you came back from your adventures.”

“Oh.” Nico snorts. “I’m still fucking off all the time when we’re normal? And you’re not coming?”

“It is woven within your very soul to fuck off as you please,” says Will sagely. “You get antsy. You know, like a house cat.”

He laughs when Nico shoves him. Less when he loses his balance and rolls into a tree, but he crawls back, anyway, kicking Nico’s ankle as he lies back next to him, folding his hands over his ribs. Nico watches him for a moment, tracing the round edges of his knuckles, until Will’s smile begins to twitch with him knowing, and he looks hastily back to the sky. It’s embarrassing, Will’s snorting huff of amusement, but more than that it’s electrifying, zapping a trail down Nico’s spine and making him shiver.

He can feel the heat Will is always throwing off, blazing every centimetre from his shoulder to his heels, a hair’s breadth away, a millimetre of distance.

“What else would it look like?” He clears his throat. “Our, um. Our normal?”

Will hums. “New York, probably. Big-ass penthouse with your trust fund.”

“I’m a trust fund baby?!”

“Hey, Nico, how much does dish soap cost?”

Nico opens his mouth, and closes it again. Will’s snickers get louder. Is it considered bad etiquette to banish one’s significant annoyance to the Underworld? Only permanently, probably. If he only keeps him there for a couple weeks it should be find. A couple weeks would be appropriately humbling.

“And what do you contribute?” Nico asks, instead of answering. (Not because he doesn’t know. Obviously. Because he is dignified, that’s why.) “Your dimples and boyish charm?”

“Yes, obviously.”

Well.

“…Okay, fair.”

Will snickers triumphantly.

“You still a doctor?”

“Mhm.” Will shifts, mouth curled in amusement. “Paediatric in Mount Sinai. We live close, by the way. You said it’s cause it’s close to Central Park but really you like to hide my lunch in the mornings to have an excuse to come see me.”

“Sounds like you forget your shit a lot, actually.”

“That, too.”

He looks over and smiles at Nico and for a moment he is convinced, wholly genuinely and truly, that the sun that’s been hiding behind the clouds all day has finally peeked out, because he can actually feel his whole body warm, in that slow-rising, penetrating way; he can actually smell the surge of sunshine in the air, feel the red glow in the backs of his eyelids, taste the brightness of the light. Every one of his neurons sinks into his system, sighing, cells reacting to thousands of years of memory of the gentle warm of the Earth’s closest star.

But the sun is not shining, and there is only Will, and his too-big teeth brush against the bottom of his lip, and his dimples show, and his eyes crinkle, and he is more radiant in even his old stained camp shirt and fraying jean shorts than his father has ever been and could ever hope to be. A thousand planets could thrive under a hundred blazing stars and none could come close to him. He knows it, how those ancients felt, the drunken surety as they stood and challenged the gods, swore up and down that their beloveds outshone Venus, Diana, Juno; Will does, Will does, and Nico understands intimately the hubris in a way he scoffed at as a child, because the words bubble and boil and threaten bursting inside of him now. What claim have the Olympians? Over sunlight? Over beauty? Over Will?

“We’re happy?” he says instead, choking hoarsely over the veneer words, over the blocked desperation, truth. “In our normal, we’re happy?”

“Always,” Will whispers. He twists onto his knees, crawling the two inches over to press close, close, closely, hand gentle on Nico’s stomach when he tries to sit up, and presses his lips to Nico’s cheek, dry, twitching with his smile, shaking with his laughter. Nothing is funny, and he isn’t joking, but Nico can feel the giddiness bubbling up and out of him the way sadness flows out in tears; when Will is giddy he giggles, constantly, hiding it barely in his hands, and now he presses it into Nico’s skin, because he knows how Nico aches to hear it, how he watches him like he’s burning it into the ridges of his brain. “I am always happy with you, Niccolò.”

“I love you,” Nico says, fiercely, and it will never be enough, not in English, not in Italian, not in Greek, but he will try. “Te amo. Capiscimi? I love you, Will, I —”

“I know.” The tiny little vibrations of his laughter are — intoxicating; Nico is drunk, ascending. “I know, di Angelo. Sap. I love you, I know.”

He dissolved into giggles into the crook of Nico’s neck, and Nico is lying, still, facing the clouds, and he is warmed, and he is warmed, and he is warmed.

[gothic-thoughts]

Pinky Promise

Ghostface x Black Fem Reader Drabble

Bimbo!Reader

CW: peeps named Emma caught a crazy stray im sorry 😭

TW: murder mention

Word Count: 952 (give or take)

After waking up at 2 am, you drag your groggy naked body out of bed, wrap a little blanket around yourself, and slip on your slippers, preparing for the cold air in the hallway. As soon as you open your room door, your phone rings, the sound of your favorite song muffled by the blankets. Confused, you walk back to the bed and rummage through your comforter until your phone falls onto your mattress with a soft thud. The screen was lit up, showing ‘Unknown Caller’ on the screen to which you tilt your empty head and pick it up.

“Uh, hello?”

“Well hello there, pretty girl~”

You chuckle, immediately flattered by the man’s tone and compliment: “Um, hi...? Who is this?”

“You have such a pretty voice over the phone, (Y/n). Sounds sexier than I expected.”

You pause, freezing your steps in the hallway, “Wha- I... wait, how’d you know my name?”

“Oh, I know a lot of things, baby.”

“Really?”

“You may not see me but I see everything.”

“Oh, like a god?”

The man chuckled, mocking your stupidity, “In a way, yes. And you know what, gorgeous?”

“What?”

“Since you asked me how I knew your name, that means you’re not as dumb a bitch as Emma said you were.”

You gasp softly, “She said that?”

“That and more, princess. Emma gave me an earful; going on and on about how ‘all you do is be pretty’ and that ‘you've got nothing going on’.”

“She... wouldn’t say that—”

“You were nothing but a stupid bimbo to her. She may be right, but the least she could do was say it to your face, don'tcha think?”

“Well, I mean...”

“Emma isn't a very nice person, is she?”

“No, I mean, yes! She’s my bestie!”

He chuckled into the phone, loving how much he was frazzling your singular brain cell with rapid-fire information as you made your way into your kitchen, giving him a better view of you.

“Is she now? I think she was pretty fucking messy, in more ways than one.”

Your grip on the blanket around you tightens, “What do you mean?”

“Well I’m only calling you as per her recommendation, sweet cheeks. She thought she could trade her life for yours, but I quickly informed her that’s not how I roll. And believe me, she had a lot more to say before I split her open tits to thighs.”

You freeze in the middle of the kitchen, jaw-dropping as you lose your breath, your eyes stinging with tears. He chuckles at your faltering breaths while you rack your small brain for why else he could be calling. Your hand trembles against the phone as you frantically look around your kitchen, hoping to find an obvious camera before deciding to close the kitchen curtains.

“Mm, so there are neurons firing in that skull.” He laughs, watching you panic on his monitors, “Do you know why I’m calling?”

“To.... to kill me too...?” The words leaving your mouth make a tear roll down your cheek.

“Now why would I do that, pretty girl?”

“I don't know!” The stress and confusion make you burst into tears. “I swear I don’t know, just please don't hurt me.”

“Aw, there's no need to cry, beautiful, I just want to ask you something.”

“What, that’s all?”

“Mhm; I just want you to tell me what your favorite scary movie is.”

“What? I-I-I—”

The man sighs. “Come on, you don’t need brains for this, baby, this is easy. What’s your favorite scary movie?”

“Um, Halloween... t-the Rob Zombie one.”

“That's a remake, you know.”

“Y-yeah, I rewatch it all the time.”

“Interesting. What do you like about it?”

“Um, Michael's backstory makes you feel bad for him and then I like his long hair when he's older.”

The man chuckles in your ear, “So you like big guys with long hair huh? You like masks too?”

“I guess, maybe, I don’t know...”

“So, let's say a handsome guy with long hair walks into your room wearing a mask: what would you think?”

“How would I know he's handsome if he's wearing a mask?”

“You'd ask him to remove it?”

“I want to know what he looks like.”

“Mm, so you don’t like masks, that’s a shame. So he takes it off and then you realize it's me: how would you feel about that?”

You whimper, thinking he meant he was in your room, “I'd be scared.”

He smirked. “Why’s that, sweetheart? I've been a nice enough guy, haven’t I?”

“But you... You killed my friend...”

“A friend who didn't like you... She got what was coming to her. So why are you scared?"

“I-I don't know. Uh w-why else would you be calling me if you weren't gonna... gonna—”

“What you're feeling right now is nothing compared to what I do to people I hate. You're safe with me, baby.”

You wipe your cheeks with the back of your hand, choking up sobs. “You promise?”

“I promise, you wanna know why?”

You take a deep, shaky breath to try and compose yourself, “Why?”

“I like you, (Y/n). I love how fucking clueless you are— so interesting for someone without a single thought in their head. I never know what you're gonna say next. You keep me engaged— entertained: I like that.”

“Really?”

“Uh-huh. And that voice? Ugh, you have no idea the things I'd do for you. You're helpless, and you're mine now. I’m gonna call you every night just to hear you speak, ya hear me?”

“Okay... Okay, if it means you won’t hurt me.”

“I already promised, didn’t I? You don’t have to worry that pretty little head about that.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(a/n): wrote abt ghostface, still managed to make it abt Michael 😩😩 how I even 😭

[gotyouanyway]

i really love when time lords use their regeneration energy as a power source i wonder what it’s like just existing knowing your body is capable of producing that much energy (or forcefully expending it, anyway). it’s obviously just a fact of life for them but god once you feel that happen for the first time how do you go on? feeling the potential for it just smouldering away under the surface all the time. time lords are always so aware of what’s happening in their bodies at the cellular level. imagine that first rush of neurotransmitters flooding your synapses after you get fatally injured, all those little channels opening and closing letting everything flood in and out, action potentials building and firing a million times a second as every neuron and cell prepares to tear itself apart. and you know it’s going to hurt because your body has more important things to worry about right now than dulling the pain. you feel like a machine burning itself for fuel with the energy building and building until it rips out of you. idk how you can get over that or forget it. i would be thinking about it every minute of my life

[spacedace]

Reluctant War AU Part 4

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Everything I know about Flash and the FlashFam (& Flash enemies) comes from fandom and theflashmuseum on tiktok so fair warning on that lol

Sorry if Barry is out of character or things don't line up with canon. Canon is a stranger I think I passed in a crowded room once, I did not ask for its number lol

Anyway, time to touch a bit more on that whole Ancient of the Speedforce Elle thing yeah? Here be a sprinkle more of that and I promise there's more to come haha

Gonna start posting this on Ao3 soon, probably Monday or Tuesday, so heads up I may stop adding these parts here on tumblr once I do

---

It lived beneath his skin.

For a long time Barry had never believed in magic. His world was grounded, scientific, made of predictable rules and laws. Tools that could be used to explain everything strange or supernatural away as just another odd twist of the massive universe they all belonged to.

It took perhaps a little longer than it should have to admit that magic was as real as thermodynamics and gravity and atoms. That the world was a great deal stranger than even science - for all its own wildness at times - could account for. There were things that went bump in the night. Hells below and heavens above and things that crawled and clawed their way out from the places in between.

It was almost a little embarrassing how long it had taken him to admit to such things, when considering his relationship with the Speedforce.

A force of the universe. Like gravity or time, pushing and pulling everything along. Something that could be explained with all the familiar scientific concepts that had buoyed him along in life for so long.

Except.

Except.

Buzzing, burning, blistering. Not painful but felt. Making his hair stand on end, his fingers tingle and numb. Sliding against his veins, bouncing between scar tissue and freckles. Pressing out from the confines of his sternum, rattling against his rib cage as it shifted and moved. Twining around each and every vertebrae. Coiling over and under itself within his skull, darting along the paths of his neurons and nerves. It hummed in every cell in his body. Darted and danced in the space between the atoms that made up his very existence.

The Speedforce lived beneath his skin.

Lived.

Not existed. Not contained. Lived.

He couched it in terms of science, but science - despite his long time refusal to acknowledge it - wasn’t really able to explain the full scope of what he could feel. Not just the power of the Speedforce, but the…the identity of it. The living part that made it’s home in his body, existing in a way that was separate from him. Distant and indistinct most of the time, but…sentient.

He could feel it. Warm and excitable, delighting every time he tapped into it. Pushing him from behind urging him on and on, tugging him forward from ahead beckoning to go, faster, faster. Joyful in his victories, despairing in his loses.

It lived beneath his skin.

Until it didn’t.

He followed its joyful calls, pushed beyond what he should, what he knew was safe. Chasing that welcoming chant of faster, faster until he was there. In the Speedforce. More even, was the Speedforce.

He was everywhere. Beyond everywhere. In every possible everywhere it was possible to be. Every world, every universe, every multiverse.

To enter the Speedforce, to merge with it, was to become part of existence itself.

He couldn’t remember everything about it once he came back. He got flashes, sometimes, quick moments in dreams of places, of moments. What stuck with him most had been the feeling of it all. That had been the hardest part of returning. The sense of terrible loss, of having been surrounded by such a giddy, delighted, devoted love only to be pulled back from the heart of it. Returned to how he had been before, drifting at the edge of it all, it had been painful, agonizing even.

He…adapted, eventually. The sense of it all was still there, just distant. Something he’d come to feel he’d see again, someday.

It had been different, recently.

His powers were the same, he just as fast as ever, but…there was something…off. Changed. A sense that while his speed remained, the Speedforce had become, for lack of a better word, quiet. Distant.

He’d been having dreams, since it started. Not the quick glimpses of his time where he’d merged with the Speedforce. No, instead they were more nightmarish. Not nightmares exactly, though he felt like they should be with what they contained, but something else. Something that felt unnervingly real, left him confused and reeling when he woke with the certainty that when he opened his eyes he’d see the same as what his dreams held.

In the dream, he was in a room.

Cement and metal, hostile and brutalistic in design. He was bound in place, standing upright with feet and hands spread wide and locked in place within strange devices. Gleaming chrome and brilliant green, a painful thrum of energy surging through his body - not the Speedforce, something else, deeply unpleasant pulsing through every cell of his being and freezing him in place more firmly then the restraints did. Projectors hung from the ceiling, displaying images of landscapes, changing every ten second or so.

The sight of them made him nauseous, body shivering and spasming with the burning, agonizing need to go, but at the same time there was something distantly soothed by them too. Like a gnawing hunger abated with water and crumbs. The need for food not gone but the pangs diminished by the false feeling of being full.

In the dream he felt like he was dying.

In the dream he was afraid that maybe he couldn’t.

That he’d be trapped alive in that state forever, watching places he’d never see in person again as he was trapped in one place. His mind spiraling his Core splintering under the weight of it all, scared so scared. He wanted his brother, wanted to see the cement walls explode into dust and debris and see him there, ready to save the day like he had so many times before.

He just had to wait. His brother was looking for him, would have everyone in the Realms looking for him. He just had to hold on.

Barry didn’t have a brother. He only remembered when he woke, heart hammering in his chest fast even by his own standards, mouth tasting of bile and body aching with the need to go.

He hadn’t been sleeping much these days, even before the King of the Dead declared war.

It was having its effects, as sleep deprivation always did. His mind drifting, catching again and again on the dream, attention far away from the world around him. How many times had he been startled by someone calling his name, touching his arm? How many times had they given him a pinched, worried look that told him they’d been trying to reach him for longer than they should have before he noticed.

He was aware, distantly, of the glowering, stern faces around him. The flinty looks of his friends’ and partners’ eyes as they stared at the image of Waller’s scowling mug.

She’d declined an in-person meeting, hunkering down in some bunker somewhere trying to avoid the consequences of her latest atrocities. Or maybe just trying to avoid the very real possibility that one of the members of JL Dark might try to kill her for what she’s caused.

Or JL light, for that matter.

Bruce and Clark had their rules that they lived by, but Diana certainly wouldn’t hesitate to splatter Waller’s brains across the nearest available wall. In reviewing footage of one of the last battles - she’d been at the other one at the time, trying to contend with a ghost in the shape of an ethereal dragon - she’d recognized the spectral figures of Amazons long dead, fierce even in death as they fought with a warrior’s pride along side the rest of Phantom’s armies. They followed a figure that towered even above the Amazons, four arms and gleaming armor and a name that Barry associated with ruin and forgotten hope but who was so much more to Diana. Heroes long departed to the fields of Elysium, stepping out of their well earned rest to fight once more.

A few hadn’t survived the weapons the GIW shot them with. Barry didn’t know what that meant, for a ghost to die. If they simply returned to their afterlife or -

He tried not to think about the or.

They’d been going back and forth for awhile now. Voices faraway, muffled. The world felt as if it was underwater, blurred and cold. Clark had gotten to his feet at some point, Waller’s grip on a pen so tight on the screen he expected to see if burst at any moment. It was an important meeting, an important discussion. One he needed to be apart of, aware of, but it all escaped him. Sand held too tightly, slipping through his fingers. On the screen, Waller hit a button on the computer beside her and the image changed.

The world burned back to life in sharp relief.

The dream.

The room.

Cold cement. Projections of unreachable places on the walls. Chrome and green machinery in a configuration meant to contain.

It looked larger on the screen.

Maybe it was how small the figure held prisoner inside it was.

She was young. A child, no older than Superboy Jr. or Robin. She looked like Phantom - her father - but there were differences. Her hair was white, but it didn’t look like the spun starlight of her father’s. Instead it burned, the bright hot crackling of the plasma of a lighting bolt striking. Skin the blur of shapes caught just at the corner of the eye as you ran past, Eyes -

Looking at him.

The image had come up, a live feed - he knew it was live, knew he was looking at her where she was at that exact moment - and she’d been as he was every time he tried to sleep. Trembling and shuttering, eyes squinting against the pain, trying to stay open so as not to miss a single moment of the flat images imposed on blank cement walls. Desperate to fill the fathomless hunger burning deep down in the Core of her.

But then a shuttering breath and her eyes - the burning green of an afterimage - snapped up to the camera. Snapped up to look at him, recognition in her young face. And despite never having seen this girl before, he recognized her too.

The Speedforce lived beneath his skin.

She lived beneath his skin.

He could feel her there. Buzzing, burning, blistering. Not painful, but felt.

Not as felt as she used to be.

The image snapped back to Waller’s face, smug and self-satisfied. Talking - lying - about the how the girl was there, what the GIW’s intentions for her were. Barry was on his feet, but so was everyone else. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, could only hear static, the rush of wind, the crack of the lightning bolt. A call for help.

It was then that the alarms began to blare. On the screen someone rushed in to whisper into Waller’s ear. Bruce was running out of the room towards the Zeta tubes and Barry was right there with him and there was so much chaos around them, men in white and Gothamites and Ghosts banding together to rain terror down upon them and something massive and horrible and living towering above it all and Barry let go of that last bits of logic and thought.

Instinct, older than he was. The echo of a voice that had called him for years now, carrying him along, biding him forward:

Run.

Someone might have shouted after him as he left Gotham behind. He didn’t know.

All he knew was the pounding of his feet upon the ground, the wind in his face, the Speedforce lashing and frantic and hopeful burning and sizzling beneath his skin. Calling him further and further away until he stood in a vast, empty field staring at a single, rusted shack near ready to collapse before him.

He wasn’t alone.

Wally. Bart. Max. More still. Not just his family and friends. Eobard. Hunter. Thaddeus. Everyone touched by the Speedforce.

They didn’t speak. Bodies humming and thrumming, crackling with energy and intent.

Minds as one, they focused on the shed, the hidden hatch inside, the base hidden deep below.

The Speedforce lived beneath their skin, and no one was going to steal it away from them.

[proxentauri]

when i saw @n0rtist's ability forms i had to do reuniclus.....i hope it's not too late to be featured in the video! :0 we may have crossed from ability form into actual alternate form territory (see the original colours below the cut to see how crazy different they could have been)

as someone in evo microbio this was insane amounts of fun to do and i was able to pull inspo from places i'd never think to reference in my regular art!

itemized essay explaining the science and my design choices in more detail below the cut:

Ability Form 1: Overcoat

The science

Based on bacterial biofilm, which is basically when a bunch of bacteria get together in the same spot and start excreting this sticky slime stuff that structurally keeps the bacteria together (and also act as a medium for sharing useful resources between the bacteria, like enzymes, nutrients, etc.).

The design

The strings connecting the bacteria is based on what the slime stuff looks like on a microscopic level, specifically in electron micrographs like this one

The violet colour of the (rod) bacteria in the biofilm is a reference to Gram staining, which is a type of bacterial stain used to classify bacteria into two groups: bacteria that contain peptidoglycan in their cell walls (which stain violet) and bacteria that don't (these stain pink). Peptidoglycan is this pretty chonky polymer compound that's used to strengthen bacterial cell walls, so I thought it fit the role of Overcoat (which protects your Pokémon from things like weather)

Ability Form 2: Magic Guard

The science

Based on the myelin sheath, which are these segments of tube-like insulation that surrounds your neurons (see picture here). Mostly people talk about how it makes your neural signals propagate faster, which is true, but this ability form was more of a reference to its general protective role; it physically and electrically insulates your neurons. (Surprisingly I could not find a super good primary source for myelin providing physical protection, so don't cite me on that, but given it's literally a physical barrier this seems like a pretty safe assumption.)

The design

The entire body is based on a pseudounipolar neuron, which just means it only has one part extend out of the main body but shortly after it splits into two long parts (axons). I could have made it a bipolar neuron I guess (two parts extend out of the main body), but having a neck made it look a little closer to the base form's body

I wanted to give it dendrite fingers but it looked too creepy. I'm not sure if the three long fingers I gave it in the final design made it less creepy.

Since Overcoat and Magic Guard are both shield-type abilities, they're drawn as more closely related on the the phylogenetic tree (white thing in the center).

Ability Form 3: Regenerator

The science

This one is the most hype imo. In 2015 Dr. Will Ratcliff did this pretty sick experiment about the evolution of multicellularity (since at some point a long time ago life was single-celled) where he kept propagating the same single-celled yeast for a mega long time, and eventually the yeast evolves a multi-cellular "snowflake" form where after undergoing mitosis, the resulting daughter cells don't split, but stay attached, resulting in the yeast forming these clusters that create these cute little branches. I don't know where I was going with this. Oh right, the branching out reminded me a lot of regenerating limbs, so that was the inspiration for this one.

Anyway this is like one of my favourite experiments ever, there's some pretty good news articles out there about if you want to learn more about it!

The design

The segments are yeast cells, and the balls within are the nuclei.

The colour scheme was based on this fluorescent microscopy photo of the snowflake yeast. Originally I had the nuclei be bright orange in reference to this other microscopy picture but I thought the colour scheme was deviating too much from the base form for an ability form lol.

Speaking of here's the original unhinged colour drafts:

if i did commit to the full alternate form i think the biofilm one is poison, myelin one is fighting, yeast one is uhh...dude idek, i mean the fluorescent microscopy vibe is pretty strong so maybe electric lol? it's giving ghost vibe too though

i was originally planning on citing stuff but it's a tumblr post and I've already linked Ratcliff's work and i want to go to bed lol. If any of the science is wrong just call me out i'll fix it. otherwise, i hope someone out there appreciates the science references !! it's 8am good Night

[lilislegacy]

Ok guys this is somewhat of a controversial take on Jason Grace’s powers. You can tell I was nervous writing this out because I used capitalization lol. Please read till the end

I want to start by saying I love Jason Grace. He is such a cutie. I adore him. And he is a very, very powerful demigod. And he is totally capable of very evil things, just like Percy. This take concerns a certain ability that a lot of people seem to think he has, but I don’t think people realize how unrealistic is. (I mean people can still hc whatever they want, it just doesn’t mean it’s canon.) Okay, here goes

There is absolutely no evidence or reason that Jason Grace would be able to control the electricity in our bodies. And here’s why…

I know so many of you really love that idea, and justify it by using the logic that percy can control people’s bodily fluids, so since jason can control lightning, he could control neurons and action potentials. But here’s the thing: The reason percy can control bodily fluids is because bodily fluids, like saliva, blood, and tears are largely made up of water, so he can manipulate the content of those substances that is water. And water is water. H2O is H2O. Percy directly controls all water. That’s his power.

Jason, however, controls weather. Which means he controls clouds, thunder, wind, rain, and yes, lightning. But just because lightning involves electricity does not mean he controls ALL electricity. He controls rain, right? Rain is water. But jason does not control all water. Just rain. Because it’s weather. And before you completely ignore what I just said about rain, and argue “but if he can control the electricity that causes lightning, he could control the electrical signals in people’s brains and muscles,” I see where you’re coming from, but the electricity in lightning is NOT the same electricity in our bodies. Unlike water, not all electricity is the same. Water is a basic chemical compound, in all its forms. Electricity, however, is the flow of electric charge through conductive materials, which produces energy. And those materials and types of energy vary. There are different types. The two we are discussing here are static electricity and bioelectricity.

Static electricity is the accumulation of electric charge on the surface of an object. Did you ever do that experiment where you rubbed a balloon on your head and your hair stuck up? Static electricity causes lightning when there is a buildup of electrical charge in the atmosphere during a storm. When the charge difference between clouds, or between a cloud and the ground, becomes too much, it creates a sudden discharge of electricity, which we see as lightning.

Bioelectricity involves chemicals. It refers to the electrical signals and currents produced within living organisms. It works through the movement of charged particles, called ions, across cell membranes, which allows for communication between cells, nerve impulses, muscle contractions, and various physiological processes.

So here’s the thing. Even if Jason could control ALL static electricity, which likely is NOT the case, it’s not even the same type as the electricity that makes neurons fire. And like I stated, Jason/Zeus has control over weather and storm elements, which may involve electricity, but does not mean he controls all electricity.

Okay besties, now before you show up in my comment section aggressively defending jason and assuming I think he’s weak, let me clarify: I am not saying Jason is not powerful as hell, or that he could not do some creepy ass evil things. He definitely could. For instance, he’s shown through his control over wind that he can manipulate air currents in various ways. MEANING he could create a vacuum effect, and suck all the air out of a person’s body. Like… HELLO? He could collapse their lungs. Deprive their brain of oxygen. He could repeatedly suck the de-oxygenated air, aka CO2, out of their lungs, and then force it back in. Which would be torture. Death by slow suffocation. So using his control of wind and air currents, Jason could be terrifying as hell if he wanted to be, and could do unspeakable things to human beings. I’m simply saying that his ability to summon lightning has absolutely zero connection to the hypothetical ability of being able to control people’s neurons. They’re not even somewhat related processes.

Please don’t yell at me. I love Jason. I think he could be very very scary and evil if he wanted to. Him as a villain would be catastrophic, and I’m not doubting that in any way.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I remember in the game, like during Riddle's flashback, Mama Roseheart says that a food was full of something that would make him smarter. But that kinda sounds like something from a factoid. Do we know if she's actually a qualified doctor?

Mrs. Rosehearts is a licensed medical mage. We have no reason to believe she isn’t, especially not when Riddle cites her occupation as a reason for her being well-respected in their community. Why would Riddle and their entire hometown perpetuate a lie and revere a woman if she’s not in such a powerful position?

I don’t think the scene you brought up is as much of a “gotcha” as it may seem to be. It might give the impression that Mrs. Rosehearts is one of those pseudoscience peddlers, but only if you take her dialogue at face-value and consider no other context.

Firstly, it’s important to note that Mrs. Rosehearts claiming the birthday cake has lecithin-rich ingredients, which will “make [you] smarter” occurs in the Japanese text.

The localization is more specific and has Mrs. Rosehearts instead claiming that the lecithin will “improve cerebral function”. Between JP and EN, EN actually provides the more nuanced wording this time.

The reason she says this is because lecithin DOES play an important role in cognitive function. It is necessary to make choline, an essential nutrient to then make acetylcholine. Acetylcholine, as it happens, is a neurotransmitter that conveys messages between the neurons and all cells in the body. In the simplest terms, lecithin is vital in brain function and memory development. If Riddle doesn’t get enough lecithin, it could legitimately impede with his studies, since the brain wouldn’t have what it needs to support optimal learning.

It isn’t pseudoscience, it’s real science and you will find numerous studies that back this up. The only reason it comes off as “fake” is because Mrs. Rosehearts grossly oversimplifies the explanation in her dialogue. This most likely happened because 1) adults tend to talk to children this way, especially to make less desirable food sound more appealing (which is the case for Riddle’s mom) and 2) the Twst writers know that most of their general audience don’t want to sit through a long lecture about how lecithin is converted to other substances to support the brain.

Mrs Rosehearts doesn’t actually mean that she believes Riddle will magically become smarter if he eats food with lots of lecithin in it. She most likely means she wants him to eat ultra healthy in general because the alternative, junk food, won’t give him the nutrients he needs for the high amount of studying he does.

[silenttrxxs]

-joker! choi san x harley! reader

you’d been working as a psychiatrist for years now, always wondering how the brain worked. How the neurons firing computed and became what makes you…you.

You had no idea what you was really in for today. You had been speaking daily with one of your patients and this one being particularly some would say difficult but to you he was just “him”. Choi San, he was notorious for being the most dangerous patient ever. There wasn’t a single diagnosis that could be deemed correct for him. Your entire life was now revolved around trying to figure out what was wrong with him.

What you didn’t realise is that during the daily meetings you had been having, you felt yourself becoming more attached to him. Your feelings towards your patient becoming a lot more difficult to hide. You didn’t want to loose your job but you didn’t want to loose this one chance you may have had with him.

You’re sat at the table, clipboard placed on the metal and your posture profession as it can be. He’s sat across you, staring into your eyes with such a lustful look that it was hard to keep your composure. His lips parting to speak.

“Hey follow me” San said standing up and offering a hand to you. You looked around, noticing you was the only one working the entire a ward today. You grabbed his hand fireworks exploding throughout your body before you reached his “cell” he called it this thinking that being stuck here was more or less a prison sentence and it was time he got the fuck out.

“I know you want me, baby” San breathed out his lips inches away from your ear. You felt your own breath hitching as he spoke.

“S-San we really can’t…” you breathed out your logical sense kicking in for just a second before being completely ripped away from yourself.

“I’d give you the world darling, you’re just as crazy as me, that’s why you can’t find a single diagnoses for me” San said laughing a little.

“You’re unique that’s all I can really say” you said.

San took a moment to look at you in your eyes before attaching his lips to yours and stealing each and every ounce of oxygen from your body.

“F-fuck” was all you managed to breath out before you felt his knee pressed harshly against your core. The heat was sure to be present to him. It was only confirmed once you looked into his eyes. A sadistic smile plastering his face as he pulled your clothes off, throwing them across the room. His hands wrapping around your neck as he pushed you onto the bed. You knees buckling as you hit the edge. Falling onto the mattress below.

“S-San” you breathed out before you felt his hands wrapped around your neck. His knee pressed into your core as he looked down into your eyes.

“Such a fucking slut” San breathed out before digging his nails into your hip. You felt yourself getting wetter the more pressure he added. You could feel his nails almost piercing your skin. He used his other hand caressing your cheek before squeezing your jaw harshly. Your mouth opening for him.

He spat into your mouth, a grin plastering his face as you moaned, your eyes dilating with intense pleasure. You wouldn’t admit that this is what you had been dreaming about for a long time. You whined as you felt the release of his hand from your jaw and the feeling of him caressing your body. Gently rubbing your clit. Whining loudly you threw your head back. He continued his attack on you, his hand still wrapped around your neck squeezing a little before he felt you clenching around his fingers. Taking them out and sucking the juices from his fingers he looked at your face. The sight below him making him twitch.

He took himself and lined up to your core, pushing in harshly, his thrusts almost animalistic as he felt you clenching around him. Your walls coating his cock perfectly.

“G-god baby, you’re made to take this” San moaned out thrusting harder chasing his own high.

A string of curse words is all that could be heard leaving your body, he took his time, slowing a little to mark your body, to ensure you had something to look at later.

He left your body limp, your eyes stained with tears as he ruthlessly pounded into you, you was in his hands now. He had control over you in every way possible. You would let him have you in every single way possible now. He spilled into you for the 4th time that night. His eyes still laced with lust. You screamed as you cun for the 6th time, the peircing noise bring you both to your senses. His eyes locking with yours as he slowed his rhythm, his body relaxing. Slowly pulling out of you he watched as his seed fell from your core onto the mattress below. Taking a cloth he wiped the mess before throwing it somewhere and climbing into the bed. He smiled as you wrapped your body around him. Pulling the blanket over the pair of you he kissed your forehead.

“You’re mine” he hummed a playful giggle leaving his lips.

[ghostplasmas]

Walking iterator design! Inspired by @capricoopla 's mobile iterators! I went for more of a mix between a few different things- namely nosk from Hollow Knight! It was supposed to look like a massive spider but it kinda looks like a fucked up giraffe weevil.

(more in depth design nerd stuff under the cut)

The body being built more akin to a spider allows for the neurons the iterators need to be stored somewhere safe and protected- the abdomen! Aka their massive spider booty. It can hold a TON of neurons- albeit very very cramped with minimal space for the neurons to move. This DOES affect the iterators- making them experience mood swings, constant spaghetti string thoughts™, and memory jumbling, but it allows for them to stay properly sapient and allows them to keep their memories and processing power.

The thorax (the part the head is connected to) is the main powering system. Inside isa leftover refraction cell- being inputted into a much smaller scale heart. The section it's hooked up to regulates the "voltage" being put out- that way the entire thing doesn't explode from an overload. The refraction cell is how the entire body is able to move in the first place!

The body is very heavy and sturdy, being able to withstand the rain if needed.its also covered in vents from its ventilation, as well as some addition steam valves to let trapped vapor from its coolant systems out.

[bethanythebogwitch]

Wet Beast Wednesday: comb jellies

It's ctime for another post about aquatic critters. Ctoday I'm ctalking about the cterrific ctenophores. This ctimeless lineage of gelatinous invertebrates may hold answers about the origin of animals cthemselves. So from ctiny to ctitanic, lets go over the comb jellies to ctell their ctale.

(Image: a cydippid comb jelly. It is a round, mostly translucent animal with few visible structures. Rows of combs made of cilia run down its side and appear rainbow-colored due to light scattering. Two sticky tentacles trail behind it. End ID)

The comb jellies are members of the phylum Ctenophora. There are between 100 and 200 known species. The ambiguity is because several species have been mistakenly been named more than once. That's pretty small for a phylum, but the comb jellies have some pretty diverse body plans. Ctenophores are fairly simple animals, that have some shared traits with the cnidarians, though they are not believed to be closely related. Ctenophores are round animals that, like the cnidarians, have bodies composed of two layers of cells sandwiching a gelatinous matrix called the mesoglea. One side of the body has a mouth that opens into a large internal body cavity via the pharynx (throat). The cavity acts as a stomach and connecrs to canals that run to other parts of the body. Also in the cavity are cells for reproduction, digestion, and bioluminescence. On the outside of the body are rows of cilia called combs that run from the mouth to the back. The cilia beat in sequence from mouth to rear to propel the ctenophore forward, though they can also be reverse to move it backwards. Most ctenophores have tentacles that are lined with sticky structures called colloblasts that are used to capture prey. Prey is drawn through the mouth and pharynx into the main body cavity where muscular action and digestive enzymes break it down. Unusable food is ejected back out through the mouth.

(Image 5 different species of comb jelly with different body plans. Some are rounded, others and longer and flattened, One has two large lobes, and one is splayed open. End ID)

Comb jellies have a primitive nervous system consisting of nerve nets with no brain. Unlike the nerve nets of other animals, which are connected by synapses, ctenophore neurons are fused together into a structure called the syncytium. There are two nerve nets, one focused around the mouth that controls the sensory organs, mouth, pharynx, and comb rows. A second nerve net is focused around the aboral organ, which lies opposite the mouth. This organ contains a structure called a statocyst that regulates balance and helps the ctenophore determine which direction to swim in. The nervous system uses different biochemistry than any other animal. This could indicate that ctenophores developed a nervous system independently of other animals, indicating they may be a sister group to all other animals. More on that in its own paragraph. The genome that codes for the nervous system is the smallest of any animal and may be the absolute minimum needed to have a functional nervous system.

(Image: a long, flattened beroid ctenophore. Its mouth is very wide and runs along most of the front of its body, It has no tentacles. End ID)

Comb jellies have a large number of different body plans, with three being particularly common: the cydippids, lobates, and beriods. Cydippid comb jellies have very rounded bodies with a pair of long tentacles that are lined with colloblasts. The jellies drag the tentacles through to water to trap small invertebrates and plankton for consumption. Lobates have large muscular extensions called lobes that extend beyond the mouth and their tentacles line the inside of the lobes instead of trailing behind them. Cilia direct water into the lobes where the tentacles catch planktonic prey. The beroids are the only comb jellies without tentacles. Their bodies are flattened and their mouths are extremely large and line with thick cilia that act like teeth. Beroids are pursuit predators that hunt other ctenophores by either swallowing them whole or using their "teeth" to bite off chunks.

(Image: Lampocteis cruentiventer, the bloody-belly comb jelly, a lobate. Its body is red and a pair of scoop-shaped lobes extend on either side of the mouth. End ID)

Other, less common body plans include the ganeshids (who have lobes like the lobates, but the pharynx extends into the lobes and they use tentacles for hunting), the thalassocalycids (who have developed a body plan and hunting style more like jellyfish. Only one species is known), the cestids (who have very long, ribbon-like bodies and short tentacles that swim by undulating like an eel. The largest comb jelly, Cestum veneris or Venus's girdle, is one of these can can reach 1.5 m/5 ft in length), and the platyctenids (who have modified their pharynxes into structure similar to a snail's foot and live on the seafloor or in symbiotic relationships with other invertebrates. They lack combs and cannot swim).

(Image: a Venus's girdle. It is a flat and very long comb jelly that looks more like a transparent flatworm than a comb jelly. End ID)

(Image: platyctenid comb jellies on a coral. They are whitish, bag-like animans with U-shaped bodies and mouths that open down and have extended organs used as feet emerginf from them. They have no combs. End ID)

Most comb jellies are hermaphroditic, with some species being simultaneous hermaphrodites (produce sperm and eggs at the same time) and other species being sequential hermaphrodites (transition between the types of gametes they produce). Three known species have evolves distinct sexes. Most simultaneous hermaphroditic species can self-fertilize. Eggs and sperm are released into the water column to fertilize. Juveniles look like miniature adults and do not go through a larval stage. The platyctenids have different reproductive behavior. Their eggs are retained in an internal brood pouch until they hatch. Juvenile platyctenids are planktonic and will go through a metamorphosis where they transition into their bottom-swelling adult forms. Platyctenids are also capable of asexual reproduction by budding off clones of themselves. Many species are capable of producing gametes as juveniles, become infertile as they mature, then begin producing gametes again as adults. Ctenophores will continuously produce gametes as long as they have enough food.

(Image: a group of lobate ctenophores. End ID)

There is some debate on where exactly comb jellies fall in the tree of life. Specifically, the debate is about how they relate to other animals. Historically it has been thought that animals were divided into the sponges on one side and and metazoans (everything else) on the other side because sponges lack certain features found in all other animals like a nervous system, sense organs, and muscles. Ctenophores were often placed as sisters to the cnidarians (jellyfish, anemones, and other radially-symmetrical animals) and bilaterians (bilaterally symmetrical animals). The placozoans (simple animals that consist of a blob of cells) were placed either on the sponge side, metazoan side, or their own group depending on who you asked. More recently, there has been a shift to grouping the sponges and placozoans with the metazoans as all being a sister group to the ctenophores. That would make ctenophores the sisters to all other animals. Genetics makes my head hurt but it appears that the data is inconclusive and there's still a lot of debate to be had. The fact that soft bodied animals like comb jellies rarely fossilize makes things harder as it means we only have a very small number of fossils to examine. Finding out where ctenophores fall in relation to other animals would answer a lot of open questions about the evolution of the first animals.

(GIF: A beroid comb jelly eating another comb jelly. The two bump into each other and the beroid opens its mouth and engulfs the prey. It then closes its mouth, trapping the prey in its body cavity. End ID)