Life Has Been Busy And Stressful And Very Very Strange But At Least Pathology Can Always Be Depended

it would be so cool if you did e. coli in a jason mask (my friend brought this up. doesn’t have to be e. coli tho :P)

or if you did a microbe with the markiplier pink mustache :DDDDD

I've definitely done E. coli before, but I'll absolutely take the hat suggestions! I'm always in need of those.

January was challenging and hectic, but February has been pleasant so far.

hello 🐙

Some of you may be familiar with model organisms in biology but even so, you may think about mice, rabbits or flies rather than ctenophores. The whole purpose of having a model organism is to be able to understand particular biological functions/processes by using an organism that can be maintained easily, has a relatively short generation time and has its genome sequenced (this allows us to really understand their genetic makeup). Since this species of ctenophore (Mnemiopsis leidyi) has had its genome sequenced it allows us to identify key genes/proteins and try to determine their function.

The work I am currently doing for my project is focused on understanding the origin of the nervous system.

There's been a long standing debate amongst scientists over which species of animal first diverged from all other metazoans whether it be sponges or ctenophores. For a long time it has been thought that sponges are the sister group to all metazoans, although more recently studies have suggested that ctenophores are. Sponges are really simple animals that lack nervous systems, whereas ctenophores are more complex and have a nervous system. If ctenophores are then in fact found to be the sister group to all other metazoans, it poses the questions about whether the complex structures such as neurons and synapses evolved once or multiple times independently?

If you check you can see a diagram showing what I mean by the "sister group" to all metazoans. The first pic identifies sponges as the sister group, but with more analysis on a molecular basis, the 3rd pic could be possible.

Since most of the studies on neurons and nervous systems more generally are focused on metazoans, the work at this lab uses ctenophores to understand more about their complex biology with the aim of understanding the origins of neurons.

the deep sea creatures when a scientist shows up with a flashlight outta no where

What a couple of weeks. I've been doing some new experiments and the air conditioning unit in the microscopy room leaked and flooded so the computer has been out of action for a whole week! I've also been chasing up a lot of orders that haven't arrived vet and l'm just sat here like pls

On a positive note, l've been getting good DNA yields

All I wanna do is sleep and eat cake. Is anyone else feeling fed up and overwhelmed atm?

Wake up babe new fish dropped

I am the owner

Of this damage, the weapon

Fired to make the wound

Eyes full of apologies

Belie my gunpowder smile