Staphylococcus aureus is a Gram-positive coccus that forms “grape-like” clusters of cells. It is also known for the “golden” appearance of its colonies, which is produced by a protective carotenoid pigment called Staphyloxanthin (Clanditz et al., 2006). S. aureus is an opportunistic pathogen with many toxins and virulence factors at its disposal.
The microbe I fear most, in a rather pretty photo
Peter Carrington
Peter Carrington, an illustrator from Manchester, makes artworks about science, natural history and his struggle to gain knowledge. As Carrington states,
“I’ve always had an interest in science and nature, and during my studies I decided to combine this with my practice. Through deeper research into different scientific areas it quickly became apparent that, due to having dyslexia, I was never going to get a grip of the topics to make work that wasn’t shallow and ill-informed. I became frustrated that I wouldn’t be able to use the visual language of the sciences that I had become obsessed with. It was at this point that this frustration became the forefront of the work and the drawings became a portrait of me and my struggle with dyslexia. I began using the visuals of science and natural history journals to create seemingly scientific illustrations.”
Carrington’s work harkens back to the history of biology and botany, where drawing and labels were the key to all knowledge, then he adds his own bit of mystical influence. Now Carrington is focusing on the human need for order. Through labels and numbers he demonstrates our need to categorize. To see more of his work, click here.
I know I normally post human-biology oriented art, but this was so lovely I had to share. After all, we people are part of the ecosystem. :)
Top Airports for Spreading Germs ID’ed
An infectious disease that really wants to go global would do well boarding planes at JFK or LAX, according to a new computer simulation that ranks U.S. airports by their potential to kick-start an epidemic.
The simulation could help public health officials decide how and where to allocate resources such as vaccinations in the early days of an outbreak, says Ruben Juanes of MIT, who describes the analysis online July 19 in PLOS ONE.
I love the messiness of biology. That a+b doesn’t always equal c. Sometimes a+b equals d. But no matter what, there’s always a purpose. Everything has a purpose.”
— J, describing biology (and his worldview of sorts) in a nutshell.
