What Physical ‘Life Force’ Turns Biology’s Wheels? | Quanta Magazine The bacterial flagellar motor is finally understood after 50 years. In its workings, columnist Natalie Wolchover finds the essence of life.

A powerful electrical motor propels bacteria in virtually every gut and puddle on Earth. After 50 years, it has finally been understood. @nattyover.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/what-physica...

Structural basis for DNA processing and membrane translocation by ComEC in natural transformation Natural transformation is one of the major pathways of horizontal gene transfer in bacteria, enabling the acquisition of extracellular DNA and its integration into the host genome. ComEC is a membrane...

ComEC structure is out!! 😍
Congratulations to the authors! That’s not an easy one. We have been trying for years to get that structure…
We failed and gave up.

Protein-templated synthesis of dinucleotide repeat DNA by an antiphage reverse transcriptase. @science.org

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

i made a version of wikipedia you can doomscroll
xikipedia.org

Addressing taxonomy shortfalls requires an educational reform Simões et al. [1] highlight the global neglect of taxonomy education, with a specific focus on plant taxonomy. Their analysis empirically confirmed concerns that botanists have repeatedly raised [2,3], underpinned by the persistent issue of the broader decline of taxonomic expertise (http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/taxonomy/documents/uk-review.pdf). Simões’ [1] recommendations offer important steps toward strengthening plant taxonomy. However, their suggestions could be further enhanced to address some of the underlying causes and consequences that extend beyond plant taxonomy [4].

Addressing taxonomy shortfalls requires an educational reform #plantscience

Photo of a clam shrimp, shelled freshwater crustacean, on a black background next to a centimeter ruler. The shrimp is about 5 mm long. The orange circles are her eggs

basically I painstakingly took hundreds and hundreds of professional glam shots of these things. you can glean some very niche shrimp-related information from the shape of the shell

Pyrochroa coccinea, the black-headed cardinal beetle, astride a daisy. A gorgeous bright red beetle.

An acorn weevil, Curculio glandium; the weevilyest weevil that I’ve ever come across outside of the tropics.

Go out and find a beetle. It’s almost always worth it.

real, i found out about the character limit when i tried to post an ID :(

ID: digital drawing of harrow and two large skeleton constructs walking in the forest, along a dirt path that tapers off in the distance. the two constructs lead, while harrow trails behind. she has her right arm raised with an open palm facing upwards, and there are two small bones floating above it. her head is turned slightly towards her hand, with bone earrings on one vaguely visible ear. she is wearing the lyctoral robe around her shoulders, six rib cage bones around her body, the two-handed sword on her back, and black boots. ahead, the skeleton construct on the left is stepping on the trunk of a tree, causing it to bend to the point of breaking. the other skeleton stands slightly behind the first one, with a standing-up posture and open hands. they are slightly off the path, such that they can clear trees. the foreground is mostly solid colours with simple lineart, while the forest background is faded and darkened. there are trees with patchy leaves, and one fallen tree on the path, behind harrow and on her left

harrow hiking on her 14th planet #thelockedtomb #tlt #art

white mushrooms grow at the top left portion of the log, orange cup fungi grow at the top right portion of the log, and bird's nest fungi grow at the bottom left. lichen is growing on the tree. /End ID.]

[ID: drawing done with colour pencil, depicting 2 morels with their mycelium in the soil, with hyphae stretching out towards the roots of a nearby tree. a small log-like branch lies on the soil between the morels and the tree. orange bracket fungi grow out of the left side of the log,

morel art for fungurary :)