Loom Junior

Bacula (penis bones) from rats and voles. Humans are rare among mammals for lacking one.

A formula for the entire universe...

What a mouse looks like to its own brain. 

(via Mouseunculus: How The Brain Draws A Little You – Phenomena: The Loom)

A remora with a suction disk on its head, used for attaching to other fish. Fossils now shows how it evolved. See What Good Is Half A Sucker? – Phenomena: The Loom 

Ticks are exquisitely sophisticated blood-extracting, pathogen-injecting tools. In the June 2013 issue of Outside Magazine, I give these little beasts their due.

Jason Affourtit writes, “The encircling equation represents biologicalnitrogen fixation, which was at the core of my undergrad/graduate labwork. Working in that research lab (which was originally just part of requirements for med school!–my intended goal) totally changed my focus…So it’s an homage to that period of time, my wonderful advisor, and that lab. DNA has been central to my work life in genomics and has run through as a common theme. So to me, a G-C basepair seemed a natural symbol of that.”

Here is Martha, the last passenger pigeon. She died in 1914 and is now stored at the Smithsonian. Could fragments of DNA from her cadaver--and those of other passenger pigeon--allow us to bring the species back from extinction? I look at the possibility of de-extinction in the April issue of National Geographic.

Single-celled organisms are evolving into proto-bodies made up of hundreds of cells--in real time.

American chestnut trees once dominated the eastern U.S., until a fungus wiped them out. Should they be altered to let them bounce back?

Tardigrade (water bears) are tiny animals that are so tough they can survive in space. (via Astronomy Picture of the Day)

A parasitic crustacean that replaces a fish's tongue. Details (including its odd sex life) here: Tongue-Eating Fish Parasites Never Cease to Amaze – Phenomena: The Loom