naughtyfoxface:

beware-the-jack-o-lantern:

asspirate:

squiddlediddlez:

rainbowbarnacle:

jumpingjacktrash:

oh my gosh i want a teeny octopus

Always reblog teeny octopus.

i want one ; - ; id love it and feed it and make sure its aquarium is an accurate replica of its natural habitat

can I

have one

awwwwwww

<3

Eeeeee!!

(via macpye)

wnycradiolab:

discoverynews:

Animals Inside and Out and Frozen In Time

From the same team that created “Bodies: the Exhibition,” a new exhibition at the Natural History Museum of London peels away the skin of hundreds of species to reveal their anatomies.

“Animal Inside Out” opens in London on April 6, 2012 and runs until Sept. 16, 2012. It features about 100 specimens displaying the structure of many creatures.

The animals were preserved using the technique of plastination which was used by Gunther von Hagens in the “Body Worlds” exhibit.

Here, a woman examines a plastination of a shark.

more images here

Booking my ticket to London in 3…2…1…

WHAT WHAT WHY WAS THIS NOT THERE WHEN I WAS THERE. WHY. WHY. 

scientificillustration:

n298_w1150 by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

405. Corynolophus reinhardtii 406. Melanocetus johnsonii (Humpback anglerfish)

407. Liocetus murrayi (Murray’s abyssal anglerfish)

Oceanic ichthyology. v.22 atlas.
Cambridge, U.S.A. :Printed for the Museum,1896.
biodiversitylibrary.org/item/25480

ANGLERFISH INSTA-REBLOG!! 

(via crookedindifference)

thisworldisamazing:

Watched this in biology class the other day, had it stuck in my head all day.

On the plus side, if I get an exam question on it then I should be able to answer it pretty easily!

Somewhat unrelated, but Dr. Kary Mullis seems like an interesting character. I looked him up to see if he was the guy my lab prof talked about going to a lecture he gave at her University where he talked to a bunch of excited, PCR-enthusiast biologists about the art he was doing. 

According to his wikipedia page, he claims he once spoke to a glowing green raccoon and once wanted to sell jewelry with the DNA of dead famous people in it. 

Oh, and he doesn’t believe in climate change. Or AIDS being the result of HIV.  

Which just goes to show that  scientists definitely aren’t boring, and even Nobel Prize winning ones definitely aren’t always right about everything. 

(via thisworldisamazing-deactivated2)

Spent an hour feverishly pipetting clear fluid into more clear fluid, labeling tubes (and using the wrong tubes), using a centrifuge to flush clear fluid through a filter, putting more clear fluid in, flushing out that clear fluid, flushing out that clear fluid again, finally pipetting minute and possibly inconsequential amounts of clear fluid into the filter, then centrifuging the hell out of that in order to get THE FINAL PRODUCT of a tiny amount of clear fluid in the bottom of a plastic tube. (for 9 samples, because I believe my professor was wrong about one of the ones I was supposed to use, so I used both).

the prof said it was supposed to take 20 minutes. clearly not the way I did it. 

wnycradiolab:

staceythinx:

Susana Soares’s design work is as fascinating as the science behind it:

Scientific research has demonstrated that bees have an extraordinarily acute sense of smell and can be trained to perform health checks by detecting a specific odour in peoples’ breath.

The project consists in a series of alternative diagnostic tools that use bees to diagnose accurately at an early stage of a vast variety of diseases.

Could this revolutionise medicine as we know it?

Oh gosh, I don’t know about this.  I just feel like someone’s going to end up with a bee in her windpipe.

bee doctors!

mad-as-a-marine-biologist:

Why deep-sea anglerfish have such extra-ordinary jaws

NICE fangs, shame about the bite. The oversize fangs of some anglerfish may help them to snap their weak jaws shut around prey, improving their odds of bagging a meal.

The dragonfish family (Stomiidae) go after large prey, and so have jaws that open wide. Closing them quickly is not easy, says Christopher Kenaley of Harvard University, since drag increases exponentially with jaw length, and rises even more if bulky prey are sticking out the front. What’s more, dragonfish jaw muscles are very weak.

Kenaley built a computer model of the jaws and found that shutting them around prey lying on its side took up to 1 second - more than enough time to allow it to get away. However, that dropped to just 125 milliseconds when the prey was lodged upright between the teeth.

Kenaley says the results suggest the fangs may not just impale prey as previously thought but help keep it in the best orientation to reduce drag on the jaw when it shuts. He presented the findings earlier this month at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting in Charleston, South Carolina.

(via mad-as-a-marine-biologist)

wnycradiolab:

Guys, remember the edible cell?  Truly the most delicious of all elementary school science projects.  Looking at these is making me so nostalgic, I want to plan an edible cell party where everyone has to bring one.

(Full disclosure: one of these is a professional job.  Don’t feel bad if yours looked more like this.)

wnycradiolab:

nabokovsnotebook:

“Welcome to the cockeyed world of artist-photographer Lori Nix, as she takes us behind the scenes at the Natural History Museum. Nix’s diminutive dioramas unfold as microcosms—where the world of science collides with an overactive imagination, with amusing results. Nix fabricates these elaborate miniature scenes in her Brooklyn studio, forgoing any kind of digital intervention. Nix: “I’m greatly enamored with the Natural History Museum, and visit it as often as I can. My series Unnatural History is a look at the inner workings of the museum. The images feature animals and situations where the science and/or facts they represent are a little confused.” 

Description from Rebecca Horne’s (rather excellent) Discover magazine blog “Visual Science”

These are great!  And now I want to be friends with both Lori Nix and Rebecca Horne.

DEEP SEA ANGLERFISH INSTA-REBLOG. 

The water boatman is the loudest animal for its size! AND IT IS TINY. Also, check out that figure. 

We are also apparently louder than elephants for our size. I think that deserves a pat on the back. 

from: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110701121519.htm