The Sciences
Thank You, Domain Archaea ...
The Midway Geyser Basin at Yellowstone National Park, teeming with colorful archaea and bacteria. Creative Commons Wing-Chi Poon. Click image for license and source.
Stories by Jennifer Frazer
Evolution
Mosses Make Two Different Plants From the Same Genome, and a Single Gene Can Make the Difference
Two plants in one. Both are mosses, but they look wildly different. Creative Commons ndrwfgg. Click image for license and link. One of the most astonishing secrets in biology is this: every plant you see makes two different plants from the same genome...
Evolution
The Swimming Sea Cucumber and the Exploding Paint Pack
Sea cucumbers aren't all boring, trundling bags. Some of them swim -- and glow. Though I opted to focus on creatures found at greater depths in my last post, one of the creatures observed by the Deepsea Challenger expedition in the New Britain Trench at a relatively shallow 1000 meters was just such a swimming sea cucumber...
Evolution
Roots Down, Shoots Up. But How Does a Plant Know Which is Which?
From the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary. Credit: Wikimedia When an avalanche tears down a mountain, a revealing, if inadvertant, botanical experiment is sometimes begun...
Evolution
True-ish (and Hilarious) Facts About the Anglerfish
Anglerfish and comedy always seemed like a natural pairing. But it took internet humorist Ze Frank to bring the two together in one delicious dish. The natural history documentary parody series "True Facts About ..." by Frank has become a minor youtube sensation...
Evolution
What The World's Tiniest Free-Living Microbe Is Doing In You
Confused by what this might be? So were scientists for several hundred years. Apparently, the occupant of this contorted alder root also likes hanging out on your floor.
Evolution
Nematodes on Best of the Blogs, and an Interview with Woese
Last month, I was lucky enough to be asked by fellow Sci Am blogger Carin Bondar to compose and record a short spot about my first February nematode post (Nematode Roundworms Own This Place) for our new Sci Am feature Best of the Blogs...
Evolution
Cameron's Team Divulges Discoveries in Deepest Trenches on Earth
It's often said that we know less about the bottom of our own ocean than we do about the surface of Mars. The governments of the world, and our government in particular, seem presently much less than enthusiastic about exploring the oceans of our own planet than in exploring other planets (ocean research seems to have taken a particular hit in the last decade of Congressional budget cuts, although admittedly, all agencies have seen cutbacks)...
Evolution
The Colossal Squid is Still At Large, and Other Thoughts on the Giant Squid's Deep Sea Film Debut
Preserved colossal squid? Or alien from "Independence Day"? You decide. The colossal squid at the Museum of New Zealand in Wellington. Creative Commons Y23.
Evolution
A Stuffy Government Yearbook and Its Beautiful, Exotic Worms
Consider this image: Is it a work from a modern-day Book of Kells ? A Chinese seal? The cover of The Neverending Story ? No.Would you have guessed it is from a U.S.
Evolution
Nematode Roundworms Own This Place
The next time you find yourself becoming mosquito chow, remember this video: This is Strelkovimermis spiculatis -- a parasitic nematode, or roundworm -- casually escaping from an unlucky, soon-to-be-expired mosquito larva...
Evolution
Mosses With a Real Inferiority Complex
Mosses, which probably already have an inferiority complex, must feel especially inferior in Sequoia National Park. When you stand in the shadows of giants, how will you ever get noticed?If you are lucky, someone like Lena Coleman will come to your rescue.You may have recently read David Quammen's wonderful profile of The President, the second-largest tree on Earth and a resident of Sequoia National Park...
Evolution
The Startling Mechanical Beauty of a Rotifer in Motion
This curious creature, captured here under the microscope, is not a protist. It's an animal. An animal, in fact, that can be smaller than some unicellular microbes.
Evolution
Darwin's Neon Golf Balls
The beech orange, likely Cyttaria darwinii. These were sprouting near Ushuala in southern Argentina. Image courtesy Bruce Muller; used with permission.
Evolution
Archaea Are More Wonderful Than You Know
Thermococcus gammatolerans -- a flagellate archaeon that thrives in hot, oxygen-starved waters. Note the tuft of flagella. This microbe lives in water hotter than about 160F.
Evolution
Take This Shell and Shove It: The Mollusk That Became a Worm
An aplacophoran cuddled up with a bubblegum coral, according to Alistair Dove at Deep Sea News. NOAA Okeanos Explorer; public domain. Click image for source.
Evolution
The Dark Bacillus Crystal
Toxic "parasporal" crystals of Bacillus thuringiensis. Jim Buckman/ P.R. Johnston. Public domain. In this photograph are elegant, microscopic agents of death.
Evolution
Were Weirdo Ediacarans Really Lichens, Fungi, and Slime Molds?
The Ediacaran fossils Dickinsonia (big guys) and Parvancorina (little shield-shaped guy at lower left). Photo by Gregory Retallack. Does these look like lichens to you?
Evolution
Pesky Glaciers and Differing Geography Forced Faster Conifer Evolution in Northern Hemisphere
Conifers of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres: Pinus ponderosa (my all-time favorite, among some smaller spruces and firs) in California and Araucaria angustifolia in Brazil.
Evolution
Mycoplasma "Ghosts" Can Rise From the Dead
"Ghosts" of Mycoplasma mobile -- stripped down cytoskeleton covered in the tattered remains of the cell membrane. Source: Nakane and Miyata 2007.
