Lackadaisical semaphores and a puddle of jam

rhamphotheca:

Granulated Sea Star (Choriaster granulatus)

Choriaster granulatus is a large seastar, and is easily identified by its five distinctive large, short, thick conical arms. It is usually pale pink in colour, has small, brown papillae in clusters located in the central part of its body. This species grows to a maximum radius of approximately 27 cm.

It lives in shallow waters, of the Indo-Pacific, at depths of up to 40 m, and is found on rubble slopes, coral reefs,in the reef front, back reef, the external reef, and frequently in locations with rubble and detritus.

This starfish feeds on algae, detritus, and dead animals. One of its predators is the sea snail Triton’s trumpet (Charonia tritonis). It also eats various small invertebrates and coral polyps…

(read more: Wikipedia)

(photos: T - Sam Chow: M - Bernard DuPont; B - Richard Ling)

Nature is brutal and uncaring, but at least there’s generally an accepted order to it. Some things are just meant to be food, while other bigger and toothier things are meant to be predators. But some creatures seem to be bucking the system, brazenly rising above their station and doling out murder in unforeseen ways to remind us all of how precarious our own perch on the evolutionary ladder may be. For example …

(Source: rhamphotheca)

nationalgeographicdaily:

Photo: Sergey Gorshkov

The Artful Dodgers of Wrangel Island, arctic foxes steal as many as 40 snow goose eggs a day and cache them for their pups.

fuckyeahbranchs:

Nudibranch by Timothy Willis on Flickr.

nationalgeographicdaily:

Photo: Sergey Gorshkov

A feisty fox drives a snow goose from her nest, a gambit before an act of egg thievery. A colony of geese migrates to the island in May after wintering in North America.

doctorwhogifs:

Classic Who Monsters You’ll Never See on New Who - Kandyman

(In this case, the BBC promised Bassett’s that they wouldn’t use Kandyman again, due to the character’s resemblance to Bertie Bassett.)

(via wayward-dragon)

(Source: blondiraq, via reckon)

astronomy-to-zoology:

Sea Slater (Ligia oceanica)

Also known as the sea roach or common sea slater, the sea slater is a species of woodlouse found near temperate waters from Norway to the Mediterranean and parts of the eastern coast of North America. Sea slaters are found in rock pools and other shoreline areas where they feed on seaweed, diatoms and marine debris.

Phylogeny

Animalia-Arthropoda-Crustacea-Malacostraca-Isopoda-Ligiidae-Ligia-oceanica

Image Source(s)

(via rhamphotheca)

rhamphotheca:

Biomimetic Nanosponges Absorb Toxins released by Bacterial Infections and Venom

provided by Univ. of Cal.-SD

Engineers at the University of California, San Diego have invented a “nanosponge” capable of safely removing a broad class of dangerous toxins from the bloodstream – including toxins produced by MRSA, E. coli, poisonous snakes and bees. These nanosponges, which thus far have been studied in mice, can neutralize “pore-forming toxins,” which destroy cells by poking holes in their cell membranes. Unlike other anti-toxin platforms that need to be custom synthesized for individual toxin type, the nanosponges can absorb different pore-forming toxins regardless of their molecular structures. In a study against alpha-haemolysin toxin from MRSA, pre-innoculation with nanosponges enabled 89 percent of mice to survive lethal doses…

(read more: http://phys.org/news/2013-04-biomimetic-nanosponges-absorb-toxins-bacterial.html)

More information: A biomimetic nanosponge that absorbs pore-forming toxins, http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nnano.2013.54.html

svdp:

part of photographer/art director Madame Peripetie’s “Dream Sequence” series.

(Source: waterpistolman, via weareallstarstuff)

elettrogenica:

Agnes Roberge making casts for plastic surgery patients at Christie Street Hospital Toronto, Ontario, 1944 Photographer: Ronny Jacques

: collectionscanada.gc.ca

(via reckon)

brandistrickland:

Brandi Strickland, 2013
apx 11 x 8.5”
collage on book page
print

(via reckon)

rhamphotheca:

Cape ground squirrels (Xerus inauris) on high alert, in the Namib Desert, near Solitaire, Namibia.

(photo: Hans Hillewaert)

(Source: reckon)