In A Unique Study Carried Out In Drinking Water Pipes In Sweden, Researchers From Lund University And

Filoboletus manipularis is found in south-east Asia, Australia and other parts of the world. No one would guess that these seemingly ordinary mushrooms glow at night like magical toadstools in a fairy wonderland.

Photographer Callie Chee

Conifer tufts

FOTD #126 : entoloma haastii!

entoloma haastii (no common name) is a mushroom in the family entolomataceae :-) it is only known to grow in aotearoa, where it often sprouts in leaf litter from southern beech plants.

the big question : can i bite it?? the edibility is unknown, but it is said to be sharp-tasting & sour / bitter.

e. haastii description :

"the cap is initially conical later developing an umbo & becoming rounded or bell-shaped, reaching diameter of 1.5–5.5 cm (0.6–2.2 in) in diameter. older fruit bodies have margins that are turned upward. the cap colour is dark brown or soot-brown but always has a bluish tinge. the surface is dry, covered by radially arranged wrinkles or veins, neither striate nor hygrophanous. the gills are adnexed to almost free from attachment to the stem. they are somewhat distantly spaced, with between 16 & 22 gills extending fully from the stem to the edge of the cap, in addition to one to three tiers of interspersed lamelluae (short gills that do not extend fully from the stem to the cap edge). the gill colour is grey-bluish later becoming pink, & the gill edges are straight or somewhat saw-toothed, & the same colour as the gill face. the stem is 4–10 cm (1.6–3.9 in) by 0.3–1 cm (0.12–0.39 in), bulbous-rooting or club-shaped. the top portion of the stem is deep blue, the colour fading towards the whitish or ochraceous base, strongly fibrillose, dry, hollow, fragile, often twisted. the flesh is blue in the cap & the upper parts of the stem, but whitish or yellowish at the base."

[images : source & source] [fungus description : source]

Call me mRNA because AUG AGA GGG UUU UUC AUG GUG GGA UGA

It's not the best "microbiology" art, but it has a very interesting background. Two bacteria from two different clinical cases were inoculated on the TSCB medium. This metallic blue spilling bacterium is of course Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The yellow one (positive reaction on TSCB medium) is Vibrio metschnikovii isolated from chronic UTI in a dog. It was an unusual microbiological diagnosis. But what can you do when even your dog has a better holiday than you? Problems with urination (in this dog) began just after returning from the Mediterranean, the owners and the dog intensively used the charms of warm and salty water.

nature.com

Rosalind Franklin was so much more than the ‘wronged heroine’ of DNA

One hundred years after her birth, it’s time to reassess the legacy of a pioneering chemist and X-ray crystallographer.

At the centre of Rosalind Franklin’s tombstone in London’s Willesden Jewish Cemetery is the word “scientist”. This is followed by the inscription, “Her research and discoveries on viruses remain of lasting benefit to mankind.” As one of the twentieth century’s pre-eminent scientists, Franklin’s work has benefited all of humanity. The one-hundredth anniversary of her birth this month is prompting much reflection on her career and research contributions, not least Franklin’s catalytic role in unravelling the structure of DNA.

. . .

But Franklin’s remarkable work on DNA amounts to a fraction of her record and legacy. She was a tireless investigator of nature’s secrets, and worked across biology, chemistry and physics, with a focus on research that mattered to society. She made important advances in the science of coal and carbon, and she became an expert in the study of viruses that cause plant and human diseases. In essence, it is because of Franklin, her collaborators and successors, that today’s researchers are able to use tools such as DNA sequencing and X-ray crystallography to investigate viruses such as SARS-CoV-2.

. . .

Franklin was an inveterate traveller on the global conference circuit and a collaborator with international partners. She won a rare grant (with Klug) from the US National Institutes of Health. She was a global connector in the booming early days of research into virus structures: an expert in pathogenic viruses who had gained an international reputation and cared deeply about putting her research to use. It is a travesty that Franklin is mostly remembered for not receiving full credit for her contributions to the discovery of DNA’s structure. That part of Franklin’s life story must never be forgotten, but she was so much more than the “wronged heroine”, and it’s time to recognize her for the full breadth and depth of her research career.

Microbiology!

[ID: a banner made of emojis of microscopes, bubbling flasks, and DNA, with different bacteria emojis from a combo emoji scattered between them. /End ID]

by Edward Jones on yt

Vermilion Waxcap // Hygrocybe miniata

Scarlet Waxcap // Hygrocybe coccinea

gorgeous mold in a petri dish, Sporothrix schenckii