Thursday, January 14, 2010
Plant/Animal Slug
"It’s easy being green for a sea slug that has stolen enough genes to become the first animal shown to make chlorophyll like a plant.
Shaped like a leaf itself, the slug Elysia chlorotica already has a reputation for kidnapping the photosynthesizing organelles and some genes from algae. Now it turns out that the slug has acquired enough stolen goods to make an entire plant chemical-making pathway work inside an animal body, says Sidney K. Pierce of the University of South Florida in Tampa.
The slugs can manufacture the most common form of chlorophyll, the green pigment in plants that captures energy from sunlight, Pierce reported January 7 at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. Pierce used a radioactive tracer to show that the slugs were making the pigment, called chlorophyll a, themselves and not simply relying on chlorophyll reserves stolen from the algae the slugs dine on.
“This could be a fusion of a plant and an animal — that’s just cool,” said invertebrate zoologist John Zardus of The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. "
Source: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/green-sea-slug/
The Tall, the Small, the Weird and the Weirder
Source: http://pixzii.com/animal/28-examples-of-excellent-animal-photography-shots/
Face To Face
Face To Face, Chris Walker
What can I say?
I was young and foolish,
Following the teachings of those
I thought I could trust.
Day to day I listened,
To them speak the words
they thought I should know.
Day to Day, I gathered what they spoke,
Never questioning,
Never thinking,
Never knowing the truth
Hidden inside the words I heard.
They told me stories of happiness and eternal joys,
Of riches beyond a mans imagination,
and the pain that would be felt no more.
So I beleived.
I'm sure I did.
I read and sang,
I knelt and spoke to the wind,
The words I thought I should say.
I did the things the others did.
I saw them happy,
Speaking of the joys,
It had brought them.
So I beleived, I'm sure I did.
Day by day,
I read and sang,
I did the things the others did,
But hope began to drain.
I did the things the others did,
Not for myself,
It held no hope,
No joy,
No eternal promises,
Any longer.
So I did the things the others did,
Not for myself,
But just for them.
They see the face I gave them.
They see the face I created,
Just for them.
But day by day,
That face grows weak,
And to keep it up,
Every minute,
Of every hour,
Of every day.
Hurts more than I had ever thought.
So pain by pain,
I hide the truth,
And count the days,
Til they see the truth.
Chris Walker, 2009
What can I say?
I was young and foolish,
Following the teachings of those
I thought I could trust.
Day to day I listened,
To them speak the words
they thought I should know.
Day to Day, I gathered what they spoke,
Never questioning,
Never thinking,
Never knowing the truth
Hidden inside the words I heard.
They told me stories of happiness and eternal joys,
Of riches beyond a mans imagination,
and the pain that would be felt no more.
So I beleived.
I'm sure I did.
I read and sang,
I knelt and spoke to the wind,
The words I thought I should say.
I did the things the others did.
I saw them happy,
Speaking of the joys,
It had brought them.
So I beleived, I'm sure I did.
Day by day,
I read and sang,
I did the things the others did,
But hope began to drain.
I did the things the others did,
Not for myself,
It held no hope,
No joy,
No eternal promises,
Any longer.
So I did the things the others did,
Not for myself,
But just for them.
They see the face I gave them.
They see the face I created,
Just for them.
But day by day,
That face grows weak,
And to keep it up,
Every minute,
Of every hour,
Of every day.
Hurts more than I had ever thought.
So pain by pain,
I hide the truth,
And count the days,
Til they see the truth.
Chris Walker, 2009
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