The medical term for a canker sore is an aphthous ulcer. Aphtha means "ulcer". So a canker sore is ... an ulcerous ulcer.

*facepalm*

When you need to glue crayfish to plastic, or anything else to anything else for that matter, This to That is there.

Viewed from human scale to city-block-scale, city streets look well-aligned, on a grid, planned out in meticulous detail. (And they are; city planners and surveyors get paid good money to ensure this.)

Viewed from slightly higher up, they look like slime molds:





A fascinating chapter from a book about our friends the Dictyostelia

Now, what I'd like to know is, what are the self-assembly rules for Dictyostelia? What kind of space do they like to have between them and their neighbors?

Well, thanks to the magic of green fluorescent protein, here's how they come together:



Also, their cell signaling has been caught and immortalized on film:


Thanks, internet!

By way of halax, a phylogenetic tree of mixed drinks.

I notice a few glaring omissions -- the Boilermaker should really be down there with the 110 in the Shade, for instance -- but overall I'm quite entertained. Also, LOL at the Kir Royale as the basal clade for the "drinks with champagne in them" clade.

Huh. I notice that the author describes the 110 in the Shade as the "platypuses and slime molds of the drink world". As I'm sure my college and Project A-Kon buddies recall, damn do I love getting my platypus drunk on.

(and a reference to my gmail address, at that.)

DNA, RNA;
Meredith L. Patterson
Modifies genomes
For profit and fun;

What are the goals of her
Mutagenerative
Hobbies? Creating an
Army of One.