It's so cool how current research into mycorrhizal networks talks about plants and fungi communicating, making decisions and engaging in "dialogue" because there is really no other way to describe it
They each have so many, like potentially hundreds, of different chemicals produced as signals to their symbionts
what really fucks me up though is the paper i read this morning talking about plants' decision making in balancing their immune response against pathogens vs. their need to form symbiosis with beneficial organisms. Basically plants have to distinguish between helpful symbionts and parasites and they have to actively initiate symbiosis with one while producing an immune response against the other. The paper was saying that this decision making process would have to be like a series of logic gates. excuse me are you saying that PLANT is COMPUTER.
Spread the word.
Sometimes a Son’s Greatest Fear is Becoming His Father
Careful with birding you can become addicted to noticing beauty in everything and appreciating nature
BEWARE OF THIS!!
Foxes disguised as monks. On the left from Japan and on the right from Denmark.
there’s something that’s incredible about the intersectionality and flexibility of werewolves as metaphor.
anger issues? werewolf. intrusive thoughts? werewolf. unresolved trauma? werewolf. rejection by society? werewolf. autism? werewolf. transgenderism? werewolf. queer expression of any sort? werewolf. plurality? werewolf. dissociation? werewolf. repression of any sort? werewolf. abuse cycles? werewolf. emotion so strong it physically changes you? werewolf!!!
really doing it all
My brother in law recently became a veterinarian and it has really driven the point home as to how fucking bonkers veterinary medicine is. We don't expect human physicians to really know much outside of their own specialty - a dentist, an otolaryngologist, and a maxillofacial surgeon are three totally different dudes. Meanwhile a veterinarian at a wildlife rehab center is doing orthopedic surgery on a hawk and then doing rounds on baby hedgehogs in the hedgehog NICU and administering antibiotics to a ratsnake. And he also knows how to perform surgical interventions on a cow! What the fuck! Those are all totally, wildly different kinds of animal!!
Shout out to veterinarians, they know Too Much.
Saddest thing ever is reading an academic paper about a threatened or declining species where you can tell the author is really trying to come up with ways the animal could hypothetically be useful to humans in a desperate attempt to get someone to care. Nobody gives a shit about the animals that “don’t affect” us and it seriously breaks my heart
via @swatercolor [insta]