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FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend on the final contemplation of the fabulous orchid family, and their elaborate and bizarre sexual deceptions of insect pollinators. Few creatures on this planet have gone to such lengths to achieve complicated reproductive strategies. Was this all about the conservation of nectar, an energetically expensive commodity? Other plants have managed that budget without a problem. The question is still unanswered. View in LinkedIn

THE LEADING EDGE. “The ‘cadavers’ of organisms that divide by fission are their molecules and atoms that become increasingly diluted and ultimately lost in those cells at the leading edge of the expanding population. Or, these molecules are lost to further progeny when fission products die.” https://lnkd.in/esfPTAR View in LinkedIn

IMMORTAL POPULATIONS. “Individual micro-organisms, like individual humans are mortal, but as populations both appear to be immortal.” https://lnkd.in/esfPTAR View in LinkedIn

FOOD FORAGING BEHAVIOR. "Food frauds...are species that exploit the pollen-, oil-, or nectar-foraging activities of their pollinators." Bait-and-switch. https://lnkd.in/db9X2SK View in LinkedIn

BACTERIAL IMMORTALITY. “ Bacteria reproduce through binary fission. A parent bacterium splits itself into two identical daughter cells which eventually then split themselves in half. This process repeats, thus making the bacterium essentially immortal.” https://lnkd.in/dSv9Bfm View in LinkedIn

SCENTED HONEY POT. "Growing evidence suggests that floral volatiles can play an important role in specific pollinator attraction, thus mediating floral isolation. In European sexually deceptive orchids of the genus Ophrys, well known for their highly specific pollinator attraction, floral chemistry is known to be the primary mechanism for maintaining pollinator attraction and floral isolation." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03308.x/full View in LinkedIn

POINT OF NO RETURN. "The onset of sexual reproduction has been hypothesized to be the point of no return in the ontogenetic sequence of any living organism." This is defied by Turritopsis nitricula. http://www.biolbull.org/content/190/3/302.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

FAKE SEX PHEROMONE. "The “sexually deceptive” orchid Chiloglottis trapeziformis attracts males of its pollinator species, the thynnine wasp Neozeleboria cryptoides, by emitting a unique volatile compound, 2-ethyl-5-propylcyclohexan-1,3-dione, which is also produced by female wasps as a male-attracting sex pheromone." https://lnkd.in/d3KgzuJ View in LinkedIn

ONTOGENY REVERSAL. "All stages of the medusa Turritopsis nutricula, from newly liberated to fully mature individuals, can transform back into colonial hydroids, either directly or through a resting period, thus escaping death and achieving potential immortality. This is the first metazoan known to revert to colonial hydroids, either directly or through a resting period, thus escaping death and achieving potential immortality." http://www.biolbull.org/content/190/3/302.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

Trump administration lifts ban on pesticides linked to declining bee numbers. Unfathomable. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/04/trump-administration-lifts-ban-on-pesticides-linked-to-declining-bee-numbers?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other View in LinkedIn