Tag: science

Blooms in the Baltic

Every summer, phytoplankton – microscopic plant-like organisms –
spread across the North Atlantic, with blooms spanning hundreds and
sometimes thousands of miles. Nutrient-rich, cooler waters tend to
promote more growth among marine plants and phytoplankton than is found
in tropical waters. Blooms this summer off Scandinavia seem to be
particularly intense.

On July 18, 2018, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8
acquired a natural-color image of a swirling green phytoplankton bloom
in the Gulf of Finland, a section of the Baltic Sea. Note how the
phytoplankton trace the edges of a vortex; it is possible that this
ocean eddy is pumping up nutrients from the depths.

Though it is impossible to know the phytoplankton type without
sampling the water, three decades of satellite observations suggest that
these green blooms are likely to be cyanobacteria (blue-green algae),
an ancient type of marine bacteria that capture and store solar energy
through photosynthesis (like plants).

In recent years, the proliferation of algae blooms in the Baltic Sea
has led to the regular appearance of “dead zones” in the basin.
Phytoplankton and cyanobacteria consume the abundant nutrients in the
Baltic ¬and deplete the oxygen. According to researchers from Finland’s
University of Turku, the dead zone this year is estimated to span about
70,000 square kilometers (27,000 square miles). Read more: https://go.nasa.gov/2uLK4aZ  Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

These Lizards Are Full of Green Blood That Should Kill Them

“Animal blood comes in a rainbow of hues
because of the varying chemistry of the molecules it uses to carry
oxygen. Humans use hemoglobin, whose iron content imparts a crimson
color to our red blood cells. Octopuses, lobsters, and horseshoe crabs
use hemocyanin, which has copper instead of iron, and is blue instead of
red—that’s why these creatures bleed blue. Other related molecules are
responsible for the violet blood of some marine worms, and the green
blood of leeches. But the green-blooded lizards use good old hemoglobin.
Their red blood cells are, well, red. Their green has a stranger
origin: Biliverdin.

They should be dead. Biliverdin can damage DNA, kill cells, and destroy
neurons. And yet, the lizards have the highest levels of biliverdin ever
seen in an animal. Their blood contains up to 20 times more of it than
the highest concentration ever recorded in a human—an amount that proved
to be fatal. And yet, not only are the lizards still alive, they’re not
even jaundiced. How do they tolerate the chemical? Why did they evolve
such high levels of biliverdin in the first place? And why, as Austin’s
colleague Zachary Rodriguez has just discovered, did they do so on
several occasions?”

Source: TheAtlantic

These Lizards Are Full of Green Blood That Should Kill Them

Trees may have a ‘heartbeat’ that is so slow we never noticed it

A high-precision,
three-dimensional survey of 21 different species of trees has revealed
an as-yet unknown cycle of subtle canopy movement during the night. Such
‘sleep cycles’ differed from one species to another. Detection of
anomalies in overnight movement could become a future diagnostic tool to
reveal stress or disease in crops. 

Trees may have a ‘heartbeat’ that is so slow we never noticed it

We Finally Know How Birds Can See Earth’s Magnetic Field

A special eye protein is helping birds to “see” Earth’s magnetic field! If that’s not cool, I don’t know what is.

The ability to see Earth’s magnetic field, known as
magnetoreception, relies on the presence of specifically the blue
wavelength of light. The complex process involves “radical” intermediate
molecules which are sensitive to Earth’s magnetic field. The Earth’s
magnetic field, as it relates to the direction the bird is facing, could
alter the intermediate radical molecules differently, giving the bird a
sense for where it is facing in relation to the Earth’s magnetic field.

While
the exact way birds visualize Earth’s magnetic field is part of further
investigation, scientists believe the Cry4 protein acts as sort of a
filter over the bird’s vision. This filter would allow birds to see a
sort of compass of the Earth and direct their migratory flights
accordingly.

Source: Forbes

We Finally Know How Birds Can See Earth’s Magnetic Field

Science has proven that:

  • Humans have auras (x)


  • Humans have organs that sense energy (x)


  • We inherit memories from our ancestors (x)


  • Meditation repairs telomeres in DNA, which slows the process of aging. (x)


  • Compassion extends life (x)


  • Love is more than just an emotion (x)


  • Billions of other universes exist (x)


  • Meditation speeds healing (x)

The Fungus That Turns Ants Into Zombies Is More Diabolical Than We Realized

Science wasn’t actually certain how fungi
like cordyceps “hijacked” their host’s behavior, and we always kind of
assumed it was causing some simplistic damage to the brain.

As it turns out, it works much more elaborately and much MORE like
the dramatized sci-fi horror parasites constantly inspired by it.

These fungi integrate themselves on the cellular level with the
host’s tissues, actually seem to send signals to the host’s muscles and
even alter the host’s genes with their own.

All the while, THE BRAIN ISN’T INVADED AT ALL.

These fungi, all along, have been converting their hosts into
animal-fungal hybrids they control while the host’s brain and
consciousness remain helplessly alive and largely unaltered.

The Fungus That Turns Ants Into Zombies Is More Diabolical Than We Realized

Dyanstor daruis is a caterpillar native to Trinidad, you can find these incredible snake head chrysalises
hanging on the underside of forest leaves. You’ve likely heard of or
seen caterpillars that mimic snakes before, like the gorgeous Hemeroplanes triptolemus, but to see a chrysalis like this almost perfectly put on a viper’s visage…that’s something else.


Images courtesy of Andreas Kay;  powered by deviantArt//LuciRamms.