"Pelomyxa Are Giant Amoeba, Capable Of Growing As Much As 5 Millimeters In Length. So It Doesn't Seem

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leaving a three hour lab be like:

what time is it? why is it dark outside? where did the sun go?

I'm starving.

I'm never doing that again (literally has the same lab scheduled the following week).

biologists will be like this is a very simplified diagram of a mammalian cell

chemists will be like this is a molecule

'Pet' slime mold keeps this watch ticking

A "living" smartwatch powered by a slime mold needs food and care to function. Can it make us less fickle consumers of technology?

Using a slime mold, an electrically conductive single-cell organism, researchers created a smartwatch that only works when the organism is healthy, which requires the user to give it food and care.

Devices such as cellphones, laptops, and smartwatches are constant companions for most people, spending days and nights in their pocket, on their wrist, or otherwise close at hand.

But when these technologies break down or a newer model hits stores, many people are quick to toss out or replace their device without a second thought. This disposability leads to rising levels of electronic waste—the fastest-growing category of waste, with 40 million tons generated each year.

Scientists wondered if they could change that fickle relationship by bringing devices to life—literally.

After creating the slime mold watch, they tested how the living device affected its wearer’s attitude toward technology.

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ScienceAlert

Man Bitten by Stray Cat Contracts Infection Unknown to Science

The bite of a fluffy cat on the street can be more dangerous than you might think.

In the United Kingdom, a 48-year-old who was bit by a stray feline ended up contracting a species of bacterium that scientists have never seen before. His immune response to the foreign microorganism was a doozy. Just eight hours after receiving multiple bites, the man's hands had swollen to such a great extent that he took himself to the emergency department. His puncture wounds were cleaned and dressed and he was given a tetanus shot before being sent on his way with antibiotics. A day later, he was back at the hospital. His pinky and middle fingers on his left hand were painfully enlarged and both his forearms were red and swollen. Doctors had to surgically remove the damaged tissue around his wounds. He was also given three different antibiotics intravenously and was sent home with oral antibiotics. This time, thankfully, the treatment worked and he made a full recovery. Back at the hospital, however, doctors were busy trying to figure out what had happened. When they analyzed the microorganisms present in samples from his wounds, they found an unrecognizable Streptococcus-like organism.

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Quand on pense qu’il ni a plus rien… y’a encore un peu de vie!

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scientists of tumblr, what is a concept that no matter how may times you study it, you'll forget it within 24 hours?

Therocephalians were a group of synapsids very closely related to – or possibly even ancestral to – the lineage leading to modern mammals. They were a diverse and successful group of carnivores during the latter half of the Permian, but suffered massively during the "Great Dying" mass extinction, with only a handful of representatives making it a few million years into the Triassic.

Tetracynodon darti was one of these rare Triassic therocephalian survivors, living in what is now South Africa around 251 million years ago. Only about 25cm long (~10"), it had slender limbs and strong claws that suggest it was a scratch-digger. Its long snout was lined with pointed teeth, and it was probably an active predator hunting by snapping its jaws at fast-moving prey like insects and smaller vertebrates.

Its combination of small size, burrow-digging habits, and unspecialized diet may be the reason it scraped through the Great Dying when most of its relatives didn't – but unfortunately it seems to have been a "dead clade walking", disappearing only a short way into early Triassic deposits.

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References:

Fontanarrosa, Gabriela, et al. "The manus of Tetracynodon (Therapsida: Therocephalia) provides evidence for survival strategies following the Permo-Triassic extinction." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 38.4 (2018): 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2018.1491404

Sigurdsen, Trond, et al. "Reassessment of the morphology and paleobiology of the therocephalian Tetracynodon darti (Therapsida), and the phylogenetic relationships of Baurioidea." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 32.5 (2012): 1113-1134. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254315180_Reassessment_of_the_Morphology_and_Paleobiology_of_the_Therocephalian_Tetracynodon_Darti_Therapsida_And_The_Phylogenetic_Relationships_of_Baurioidea

Wikipedia contributors. “Tetracynodon” Wikipedia, 21 Aug. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetracynodon

Wikipedia contributors. “Therocephalia” Wikipedia, 01 Oct. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therocephalia