Top 5 Misconceptions About Evolution Addressed: Amazing Infographic 

Top 5 misconceptions about evolution: A guide to demystify the foundation of modern biology.

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For when you’re banging out those primer sequences…

This diatom is unique in that it can slide and retract relatively quickly using a mucilage layer. They’re fun to watch!

Exactly why they do this is so far unknown. My hypothesis is that they do this to dislodge clumps of sediment or organic detritus that have fallen on top of them. Since diatoms are photosynthetic, it would make sense to try and get rid of of stuff that blocks out the light. 

HIV virus particle, budding influenza virus and HIV in blood serum as illustrated by David S. Goodsell. 

Goodsell is a professor at the Scripps Research Institute and is widely known for his scientific illustrations of life at a molecular scale. The illustrations are usually based on electron microscopy images and available protein structure data, which makes them more or less accurate. Each month a new illustrated protein structure can be found in Protein Data Bank molecule of the month section and you can read more on how his art is made here.

Light microscopy and electron microscopy are powerful imaging techniques for the study of micro-molecular environments. While light microscopy will identify fluorescent regions of a sample, electron microscopy has much better resolution, with some electron microscopes being able to image individual atoms. Correlative light and electron microscopy combines the advantages of both, and is quickly gaining popularity. Previous studies using this technique have focused on the imaging of proteins – pictured are mVenus fluorescent proteins (yellow) embedded in a mammalian cell. The fluorescent proteins are contained within the cell membrane, but outside of the nucleus, providing ultrastructural information. Now researchers are looking to attach small fluorescent markers to molecules of interest using a novel bioorthogonal chemistry approach – the markers attach to living cells without affecting the innate biochemical processes. These fluorescent ‘tags’ are expected to survive certain reactions – tumours could be monitored in vivo during reaction with anti-cancer drugs such as doxorubicin.

Image from work by Errin Johnson and colleagues

Division of Structural Biology, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, UK

Published in Nature Scientific Reports, March 2015; and research from van Elsland and colleagues, Journal of Chemical Biology, May 2015

Wolf Pack Seen in Northern California for First Time Since 1924

California has its first wolf pack since the state’s gray wolf population went extinct in 1924.

State and federal authorities announced this week that a remote camera captured photos earlier this month of two adults and five pups in southeastern Siskiyou County.

They were named the Shasta pack for nearby Mount Shasta.

The pack was discovered four years after the famous Oregon wandering wolf OR-7 first reached Northern California.

Evolving a Defense, Mimics Save Themselves - NYTimes.com

carlzimmer does it again! Great writing on mimicry in the nytimesheadline

Bill Nye inspired a generation to love science. Now, two filmmakers are making a documentary about the real person behind the Science Guy, and his quest to change the world.

The Bill Nye Film (now live on Kickstarter!) will be answering your questions about science, climate change, space, the film, and more on Wednesday, July 29 starting at 3pm EST/12pm PST.

Have a question for Bill or for the filmmakers? Ask it here, and follow the answers on Wednesday here!

Epithelial cells - Image of the Week - July 20, 2015

Description: Cryopreserved human mammary epithelial cells were revived and stained for cytokeratin 18 (in red) to reveal the keratin-containing intermediate filaments found in the intracytoplasmic cytoskeleton of epithelial tissue, E-cadherin (in green) to visualize the calcium-dependent cell-cell adhesion glycoprotein, and DAPI (in blue) to label nuclei.

Licensing: Attribution Only: This image is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License

Darkfield photos of seeds by Viktor Sykora, including carrot seeds (photo 3) and bird of paradise (photo 5).