the gift of algae

[jinian]

Yesterday our culture curator brought me a present -- my very own bottled algae culture. She says it was in thanks for doing a good job teaching last quarter, but I think she also likes to make these. They survive pretty much indefinitely in their little bottles, and most labs in the building seem to have at least one bottle hanging around.



The feathery guys are Batophora, each of which is a single cell. (Crazy talk, but apparently true.) The little bulbs are Ventricaria, also single cells but multinucleate. Biology yay!

Comments

[submarine-bells.livejournal.com]

What an interesting present! Single cells, you say? Wow, huge for single cells! So they don't run out of space/resources in that little bottle after a while? What do "mature" versions of the little culture bottles look like?

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

So cute (the multi-celled organism in the pic too!)

[katybeth]

Neat!