Drugs Under The Microscope

“i should drink more water” i remind myself, halfway through my fifth coffee

Sea Slug - Phyllodesmium serratum 

Phyllodesmium serratum (Nudibranchia - Facelinidae) is a colorful species of sea slug known from Japan, Philippines and Australia, whose color is dependent on the color of the food it is eating.

As seen in the photo, it has branched digestive glands that ramify into the cerata and dorsal surface of the body.

Although one of the most interesting adaptations found in this genus is the widespread participation in a symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae), P. serratum does not have such a relationship, and is unusual in feeding on a wide variety of octocorals.

References: [1] - [2] - [3]

Photo credit: ©Klaus Stiefel (CC BY-NC 2.0) | Locality: Kurnell, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (2013)

Happiness Molecule

Viscosity can have a notable effect on droplet impacts. This poster demonstrates with snapshots from three droplet impacts. The blue drops are dyed water, and the red ones are a more viscous water-glycerol mixture. When the two water droplets impact, a skirt forms between them, then spreads outward into a sheet with a thicker, uneven rim before retracting. The second row shows a water droplet impacting a water-glycerol droplet. The less viscous water droplet deforms faster, wrapping around and mixing into the other drop before rebounding in a jet. The last row switches the impacts, with the more viscous drop falling onto the water. As in the previous case, the water deforms faster than the water-glycerol. The two mix during spreading and rebound slower. In the last timestep shown, the droplet is still contracting, but it does rebound as a jet thereafter. (Image credit: T. Fanning et al.)

Aurora - Nutirwik Creek, Brooks Range, Alaska | by Fred Wasmer

The Oldest Ancestor of Modern Birds Has Been Found in China

Ever since the birdlike dinosaur Archaeopteryx was first discovered in 1861, paleontologists have tried to decipher the evolutionary origins of modern birds—the only surviving descendants of the dinosaurs.

Now, paleontologists based out of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have reached a new milestone in this quest. The CAS team has discovered the oldest fossils from the Ornithuromorpha group of dinosaurs, the common ancestor of all modern bird species.

The two specimens date back 130 million years to the Early Cretaceous period, when pterosaurs still dominated the skies. They belong to a new species named Archaeornithura meemannae, a feathered wading bird that lived in what is now northeastern China. The CAS team, led by paleontologist Min Wang, published a detailed analysis of the new specimens today in Nature Communications.

Continue Reading.

Chemistry Valentine’s Cards by Nick Uhlig.

Psychology: Why do people do the thing?

Sociology: How do people who do the thing interact with other people who do the thing?

Anthropology: Who else has done/is doing the thing and where are they?

Philosophy: What is the meaning of the thing? Where did the thing come from?

Why Sequencing DNA in Space is a Big Deal

… And How You Can Talk to the Scientists Who Made It Happen

Less than one month ago, DNA had never been sequenced in space. As of today, more than one billion base pairs of DNA have been sequenced aboard the International Space Station, Earth’s only orbiting laboratory. The ability to sequence the DNA of living organisms in space opens a whole new world of scientific and medical possibilities. Scientists consider it a game changer. 

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, who has a background in genomics, conducted the sequencing on the space station as part of the Biomolecule Sequencer investigation. A small, commercial, off-the-shelf device called MinION (min-EYE-ON), manufactured by Oxford Nanopore Technologies in the UK, was used to sequence the DNA of bacteria, a virus and rodents. Human DNA was not sequenced, and there are no immediate plans to sequence human DNA in space. 

(Image Credit: Oxford Nanopore Technologies)

The MinION is about the size of a candy bar, and plugs into a laptop or tablet via USB connection, which also provides power to the device. The tiny, plug and play sequencer is diminutive compared to the large microwave-sized sequencers used on Earth, and uses much less power. Unlike other terrestrial instruments whose sequencing run times can take days, this device’s data is available in near real time; analysis can begin within 10-15 minutes from the application of the sample.

Having real-time analysis capabilities aboard the space station could allow crews to identify microbes, diagnose infectious disease and collect genomic and genetic data concerning crew health, without having to wait long periods of time to return samples to Earth and await ground-based analysis.

The first DNA sequencing was conducted on Aug. 26, and on Sept. 14, Rubins and the team of scientists back at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston hit the one-billionth-base-pairs-of-DNA-sequenced mark.

Have more questions about how the Biomolecule Sequencer works, or how it could benefit Earth or further space exploration? Ask the team of scientists behind the investigation, who will be  available for questions during a Reddit Ask Me Anything on /r/science on Wednesday, Sept. 29 at 2 p.m. EDT. 

The participants are:

Dr. Aaron Burton, NASA Johnson Space Center, Planetary Scientist and Principal Investigator

Dr. Sarah Castro-Wallace, NASA Johnson Space Center, Microbiologist and Project Manager

Dr. David J. Smith, NASA Ames Research Center, Microbiologist

Dr. Mark Lupisella, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Systems Engineer

Dr. Jason P. Dworkin, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Astrobiologist

Dr. Christopher E. Mason, Weill Cornell Medicine Dept. of Physiology and Biophysics, Associate Professor