for April 22nd.
Here’s my ersatz journal of what I found on the ‘Net that I can process into an item.
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Whatever shape your housekeeping is in. it will be worse on the International Space Station.
Mutant Bacteria Discovered Aboard International Space Station
As subtitle:
It’s Alive!
What is?
“In a press release, NASA said that when scientists from the Jet Propulsion Lab looked at samples of the drug-resistant Enterobacter bugandensis bacteria found on the orbital outpost, they found that the strains had mutated into something that literally doesn’t exist on Earth.
“‘Study findings indicate that under stress, the ISS isolated strains were mutated and became genetically and functionally distinct compared to their Earth counterparts,'” the press release reads. “‘The strains were able to viably persist in the ISS over time in significant abundances.'”
And more than that,
“What’s even crazier: E. bugandensis was apparently able to not only coexist ‘with multiple other microorganisms,’ but was also demonstrated in some cases to “‘have helped those organisms survive.'”
And the Microbe itself:
“Study findings indicate that under stress, the ISS isolated strains were mutated and became genetically and functionally distinct compared to their Earth counterparts. The strains were able to viably persist in the ISS over time in significant abundances.”
Where is it there?
“According to the paper, the strains studied in the new research were “isolated from various locations within the ISS,” along with all the other nasty stuff that causes its peculiar smell. “
Does the station stink?
“Along with E. bugandensis, NASA has been studying other potentially harmful viruses, fungi, and bacteria as part of its second microbial tracking mission, which has astronauts literally scrape the ISS walls and put what they find under microscopes to see how weird they got.”
So, if you go up there, be careful you don’t catch something.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mutant-bacteria-discovered-aboard-international-100055548.html
Article by Noor Al-Sibai.
Here’s the microbes
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Purple planets, People?
In search for alien life, purple may be the new green
Green is the color we think of as meaning life,
“But an Earth-like planet orbiting another star might look very different, potentially covered by bacteria that receive little or no visible light or oxygen, as in some environments on Earth, and instead use invisible infrared radiation to power photosynthesis.”
And here on Earth:
“Instead of green, many such bacteria on Earth contain purple pigments, and purple worlds on which they are dominant would produce a distinctive “light fingerprint” detectable by next-generation ground- and space-based telescopes, Cornell scientists report in new research.”
What are they?
“What is collectively referred to as purple bacteria actually have a range of colors, including yellow, orange, brown, and red, due to pigments related to those that make tomatoes red and carrots orange. They thrive on low-energy red or infrared light using simpler photosynthesis systems utilizing forms of chlorophyll that absorb infrared and don’t make oxygen.”
For finding life on other planets:
“Purple bacteria can survive and thrive under such a variety of conditions that it is easy to imagine that on many different worlds, purple may just be the new green.”
I suppose.
https://phys.org/news/2024-04-alien-life-purple-green.html
Article by James Dean, Cornell University
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Photographer captures image of rare fish that walks on its ‘hands’
A few columns back, I posted an item about the angler fish that fishes for fish through an attached lure. Here is another fishing fish, but they walk on their hands.
Where is the handfish found?
“In the dark and silty depths of Tasmania’s Derwent River, an unusual kind of fish can be found walking – not swimming – along the riverbed. The spotted handfish, which moves using pectoral fins that look like hands, lurks in the murky depths, ready to pounce on any prey it attracts with the fluffy lure above its mouth. Its cream coloring and dark brown or orange spots blend in with the sandy floor, making the fish hard to spot, and even harder to photograph. This, coupled with the fact that the species is critically endangered, with fewer than 3,000 individuals thought to remain in the wild.”
And there is hope for them:
“Efforts to preserve the spotted handfish, and its even more critically endangered relatives, the red handfish and Ziebell’s handfish, are ongoing. The National Handfish Recovery Team plans to revive all three species, which are found in the waters of south-eastern Australia. Of the red handfish, only 100 adults are thought to remain, while the Ziebell’s hasn’t been spotted in the wild since 2007.”
https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/20/world/australian-handfish-photograph-c2e-spc-intl-scn
Article by By Nell Lewis, CNN
Here’s a spotted Handfish:
And here’s a red one:
Save them!
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That’s all, folks. Could this column be useful? It might come in handy.
Here’s a baby pygmey goat
POETRY, PROSE AND ANYTHING GOES 