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illustration by Katie Scott

Royal Treatment: Queen honeybees have the same genes as worker bees, but are double the mass, live two years as opposed to the worker’s six weeks, and have the ability to reproduce. Who gets to be queen? Those who eat more royal jelly, the proteinaceous secretion worker bees produce with hypopharyngeal glands in their heads. Bees chosen to become queens are fed royal jelly all six days of their larval stage while other bees get the treat for just the first two. “The only difference between the queen and the worker is their diet,” says Christina Burden at Gro Amdam’s Arizona State University honeybee lab.

The Genome in Turmoil - Issue 2: Uncertainty - Nautilus

illustration by Katie Scott

To Petal or Not To Petal: Known for its layered and frilly blooms the color of butter and eggs, toadflax, a plant in the snapdragon family, can boast flowers of varied styles. Two genetically identical toadflax plants can grow petals of different shapes, depending on whether the gene LCYC, which controls petal symmetry, has been silenced or not. When the LCYC gene is switched on, the petals curl up and around the stamen and carpel like delicate tongues. When the gene is heavily methylated and, consequently, deactivated, the petals spike straight out like a ninja star.

The Genome in Turmoil - Issue 2: Uncertainty - Nautilus

illustration by Katie Scott

Instant Armor: Daphnia, crustaceans that are three times smaller than a house mosquito—and often referred to as water fleas—are experts at building fortresses out of themselves. In dangerous times, when predators such as the common carp and yellow perch swarm around, the tiny fleas grow tail spines, helmets, or neck teeth from their cuticle, a shell-like layer of skin. “It makes them look bigger and, also, it’s harder for a small predator to physically eat them,” explains Mount Allison University biologist Vett Lloyd. The growth initially happens over the flea’s lifetime, but the physical trait can get passed onto the second and third generation if the environment remains unsafe. If dangerous hunters disappear, Daphnia grandchildren won’t exert energy building the extra armor. “Assuming there are no predators for their offspring, they’ll cut back because it’s energy-expensive,” Lloyd says.

The Genome in Turmoil - Issue 2: Uncertainty - Nautilus

From the May 16, 1949 issue of Life:

…The colors and construction of the table express another kind of relationship among the elements: the repetition, at regular intervals, of the chemical properties of the first few. Characteristics are thus repeated periodically in the progression form the simplest to the most complex. The table is so organized that elements whose chemistry is almost identical are grouped together in blocks of connected by solid arrows (all the inert gases–helium, neon, etc.–fall in the single gray block at the left). Broken arrows relate groups of elements which are similar in most respects but differ in a few of their properties. All related elements are given different shades of the same color… (» more)

// experialist:wnycradiolab

“Prometheus” by Sachin Teng (album cover for All Eyes on Saturn EP)

beautiful

// sachinteng:darksilenceinsuburbia

Les Portugais à Paris : Au fil des siècles & des arrondissements

illustrations d’Irène Bonacina

// joyinthecity:carleenallen

The First 389 Prime Numbers in Ternary by Owen Schuh

Harper’s Bazaar Spain, April 2013 (+)
photographer: David Sims
Karlie Kloss

Hermès