Cosmos S2e1 “ladder To The Stars” / l2g / “waltz Of The 101st Lightborne” Joanna Newsom /

I feel like any aliens that were prey at some point in evolution would have an odd fear of humans. Mostly cause they look like predators, act a bit like predators, and ARE predators. One perfect example is when we're focused on something like a mosquito that's been bugging us for a long time and we are just done.

Alien: "What. What..?"

Human: *HUNTING down a mosquito it saw*

Alien: ".... yeah I am really uncomfortable...."

Human: *quiet footsteps, pupils dialated, intense focus,*

Alien: *WAR FLASHBACKS*

Human: "Found you." *absolutely desimates the mosquito, squashing it into a million pieces as it's guts and various body parts liquidize into blood of the bloodthirsty, now stained on the palm of the human. A living being now reduced to a useless corpse as the human wipes the remains on their pants*

Alien: "I feel like I've just gained trauma."

If five pebbles found triple affirmative.

Reblog if you ARE a woman in STEM, SUPPORT women in STEM, or ARE STILL BITTER about Rosalind Franklin not getting credit for discovering the structure of DNA and the Nobel prize going to Watson and Crick instead.

Five selfcheckouts

Why in the actual fuck would you send me this? Have you gone insane, little creature? Do you need me to call someone to come pick you up?

Well too bad. The only thing picking you up is a king vulture. That's right, I've told my messenger to leave a vulture grub at your exact location. Soon you will be devoured by a horrible creature from the sky. No scavenger will be able to save you. They shall freeze in place from fear the moment they see it descend from the sky. Lizards shall flee as soon as they notice it's shadow. Even the mightiest creatures inhabiting this world will tremble in fear when it arrives. It will pierce you with its tusks, and tear you apart with its beak. It shall feast on your corpse like a miros bird that's been starving for 15 cycles. Your karma will go down so much you won't ever be able to build it up again. Miles away, all iterators will receive message of your demise. A live video will be streamed from one of my overseers to every public channel available, and every single iterator out there will watch as the terrible bird swoops down and grasps your helpless corpse. And even if the vulture fails, I have sent a messenger to find every single intelligent creature alive and tell them of your horrible act. You will only be remembered by the crime you have committed. Not a single creature will ever love you again. Cycle after cycle you will find that you are unable to experience the beauty this world has to offer. And deep down you'll know that it all started when you sent me this horrible message. After an near eternal amount of cycles, you will finally decide to follow my advice and head west, past the farm arrays. Where the land fissures, you'll go down into the earth and search your way deeper. Then you will bathe in the void sea and contemplate your actions. You'll know that you could have prevented all of it. You could have been happy. And knowing this, you'll leave this world. Filled with regret.

there was no other option, you had no choice. please. you had no choice.

Gather round, children, and let me tell you the tale of the sturddlefish. In the year 2019 in the mythical land of Hungary’s Research Institute for Fisheries and Aquaculture, some scientists were trying to save some endangered fish. The Russian sturgeon and American paddlefish are distantly related species that are both endangered. The scientists were trying to induce gynogenesis in the sturgeon. 

This is a type of parthenogenesis (single parent reproduction) where sperm triggers the embryo growth, but doesn’t contribute genetic material. In any type of parthenogenesis, the offspring is basically a clone of the mother. 

The scientists needed to have sperm interact with the eggs without inseminating them. So they used paddlefish sperm. Since paddlefish diverged from sturgeons 184 million years ago, the scientists figured that there was no chance of insemination. 

Much to their surprise, the paddlefish sperm did fertilize the sturgeon eggs, creating the hybrid sturddlefish. This was not expected at all due to his distantly related the parent species are. There were two sturddlefish populations from the same breeding. One that was 50% sturgeon and paddlefish and one that had twice as much sturgeon due to chromosome doubling. Only about 2/3 of the sturddlefish survived longer than a month and only about 100 survived past a year. Hybrids often have health problems that limit their lifespans. Given how long-lived the parent species are, a healthy sturddlefish could live for a long time. 

The sturddlefish will live out their lives in the research institute and the scientists have no plans of making more. I don’t know if any of them are still alive. For a brief time, a new lifeform will have come into existence by sheer accident and will soon be extinct. May they Rest In Peace 

Image from a to d: Russian sturgeon, mostly sturgeon hybrid, even hybrid, American paddlefish

A small comic in honor of the new vid {Spoilers Kinda-}

Siphonophore appreciation post