Brief BioI was born and raised in Kalamazoo MI. I earned my bachelors of science in biology from Western Michigan University. I met and fell in love with a big goof of a man named Cliff. I have a fat lazy cat named Kerby and a dog named Bear. |
From Physorg, several species of cyanobacteria create rope-like structures that “allows them to colonize physically unstable sedimentary environments, and to act as successful pioneers in the biostabilization process.”(From the abstract) These ropes wrap around grains of sand to prevent the sand grains from shifting.
From BBC, a study that looks at wood falls(trees and other vegetable matter that settle on the ocean floor) and what creatures eat them. And there is a crab that eats from these wood falls. Connected to this is the worms that eat whale bone. As humans explore more and more of the ocean, the different sources of energy used is incredible. Then there is the florescent coral that heals itself.
Sorry for the crazy headline. From BBC News, in a Hungarian cave, great tits hunt and eat pipistrelle bats. Including eating off the head of the bats. See video and graphic pic by following the link.
From the New York Times, a cool finding about a microlayer of microbes at the oceans’ surface. These microbes form an oily biofilm which maybe involved with gas exchange in the ocean.
From Nat Geo, the caterpillar of the Isabella moth, when infested with parasitic fly larva will eat more leaves containing alkaloids.
From Science Daily, in my backyard sinkhole in Lake Huron they have found cyanobacteria that uses sulfur in photosynthesis. Like the lakes of Antarctica the sinkhole house unique organisms that NASA has been looking at for clue to life on Mars. Which also could produce novel compounds useful in biotechnology, medicine, etc.
From Eureka Alert, A bacterial phage has been found in Iceland that can be used as a viral nanoparticle. Because of the way viruses work, they are ideal for self-assembly of materials.
Quote: “Future applications may be found in liquid crystal assembly, nanoscale templating, nanoelectronic and biomedical applications.” said Dr Dave Evans of the John Innes Centre.
A recent study of Vetiver grass, used in perfume and cosmetics has an associated bacteria that helps create different properties in the essential oil the grass produces. The grass produces base oil that various types of bacteria metabolize the create the different smells and tastes in the oil.
From Physorg.com, an experiment done in Israel looked at how bacteria adapted to temperature differences. The bacteria under higher temperature increased the amount of heat-tolerant fatty acids in the cell membrane
On a personal note I was let go from DLD.
A look at how deadwood beetles helps with the recovery after forest fires. The pile of dung that they product seems to increase soil microbial activity. This adds nutrients to the soil and helps plants regenerate.
With forest fires an increasing in damage to property, there is a need for prescribed fires. There is a course teaches how to create these fires.
