ID Credit: Divingfirst On 小红书

for real though imagine being one of the first botanists to study fern and lycophyte sex and you put the sex water (the water in which they are having sex bc they love it soooooo much) under the microscope and theyre cranking out these damn Doohickies that swim like people sperm.... what is going On down there

Teachers: Earn graduate credit and advance your career in six weeks with our flexible online courses! Connect with the Museum’s scientists, labs, exhibitions, and specimens. You can choose from a variety of courses ranging from Marine Biology and the Solar System to Climate Change and Virology. The courses are asynchronous, providing participants with the flexibility to complete weekly activities at their own pace—and can be taken anywhere at any time! Subject to school/district approval, courses may be used toward professional development, salary advancement, and recertification. Sign up for our summer session today—classes start July 8!

Photo: A. Keding / © AMNH

The many faces of reactive plasma cells - all found within the same chronic skin infection in a dog!

Plasma cells are activated B lymphocytes and their purpose is to secrete immunoglobulin. When they become reactive, or stimulated, they can be binucleated, multinucleated, and have a variety of morphological changes occur including the formation of Russell bodies. Russell bodies are round to globular intracellular aggregates of immunoglobulin; their formation is due to an imbalance between the rates of synthesis, folding, secretion, and degradation of immunoglobulins.

While most Russell bodies are rounded, one (of many) phenotype of Russell bodies can present as crystalline bodies. Immunoglobulin crystals are very uncommon to see in plasma cell proliferations, and very few reports have been authored on them in veterinary medicine. I feel very lucky to have found three different types of crystalline bodies as you can hopefully appreciate in the above pictures!

Enjoying the little things and taking life one day at a time

Different species of Euglena found in pond water. They are either green, red, or a mix of both and usually have a visible red eyespot. 

Photographed by merismo

Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator

The species name of this bacterium contains the Latin phrase Candidatus (candidate) due to the fact that the species record has not been published in a taxonomically valid manner. It is not associated with any family, order, or class, but is included as a candidate under the phylum Firmicutes.

Candidatus D. audaxviator is a unique species, isolated from the Earth's surface for millions of years and a loner in its ecosystem. These bacteria do not need sunlight or chemical energy for their food or metabolic processes, instead subsisting on radioactive energy for their needs. They are able to fix their own nitrogen and cannot survive in the presence of oxygen.

The species name, audaxviator, is taken from Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” and means “descend, bold traveler, and attain the center of the Earth.” Photo credit: NASA (public domain)

pssssst...

guess what.

you deserve to be happy.

pass it on.