lightsinthedistance-modernlife

I stumbled across a very interesting article the other day, via Wired . It elaborated upon a study on the spotted salamander ( Ambystoma maculatum ) and its relationship with algae. I hope you’ve got a good grip on your chair, because you’re liable to fall out of your seat otherwise. It’s pretty sweet news. Algae is quite useful. It’s food for smaller organisms, and photosynthesizes, providing the rest of us with oxygen, which is a good thing. In the case of the spotted salamander, it’s an even more intimate relationship. The salamander lives with algae within its cells, which is the truly exciting news. Symbiosis between salamanders and algae isn’t anything new: it was even known in this salamander before the new study. But the crux of the matter is the degree of the symbiosis. Since the algae are within the salamander’s cells, that is a darn close relationship. In fact, such an intense relationship was previously thought to only occur between algae and invertebrates. This is the fi...

What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the phrase "solar power?" Nudibranchs? Yeah, I thought so. Today's Science Video Friday introduces an amazing little sea slug with some brilliant colors and a unique energy-gathering strategy. Elysia diomedia uses kleptoplasty: ingesting the plastids from the algae it eats without destroying the plastids, and then using those photosynthetic plastids to produce energy for itself. That's one of the coolest things I've ever heard of. For more information, check out The Sea Slug Forum .