Ornithorhynchus anatinus

  

The platypus is one of only two egg laying mammals (monotremes).

  

The species has multiple threats to it's survival including feral predators such as foxes, land clearing, illegal use of yabbie traps and waterway modifications such as dams.

  

It uses its beak to find small creatures such as invertebrates in the mud at the bottom of rivers and ponds. The beak can detect the electrical impulses generated by muscle contractions in prey animals.

  

Male platypus have a poisonous spur on its rear legs which can deliver a dangerous combination of at least 19 peptides and non-protein components. It can cause paralysis in small animals and severe pain for larger animals such as humans. This was taken at Tidbinbilla reserve near Canberra, ACT, Australia.

Source: Wikipedia

 

Conocybe rugosa is a common species of mushroom that is widely distributed and especially common in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. It grows in woodchips, flowerbeds and compost.[2][3] It has been found in Europe, Asia and North America.[2][3] It contains the same mycotoxins as the death cap mushroom. Conocybe rugosa was originally described in the genus Pholiotina, and its morphology and a 2013 molecular phylogenetics study supported its continued classification there.[4]

 

Description

Conocybe rugosa has a conical cap that expands to flat, usually with an umbo. It is less than 3 cm across, has a smooth brown top, and the margin is often striate. The gills are rusty brown, close, and adnexed. The stalk is 2 mm thick and 1 to 6 cm long, smooth, and brown, with a prominent and movable ring. The spores are rusty brown, and it may be difficult to identify the species without a microscope.[5]

 

Toxicity

This species is deadly poisonous.[6] They produce alpha-amanitin, a cyclic peptide that is highly toxic to the liver and is responsible for many deaths by poisoning from mushrooms in the genera Amanita and Lepiota. They are sometimes mistaken for species of the genus Psilocybe due to their similar looking cap.

 

Thank you so much for Explore and all the faves and comments!

 

Merci beaucoup pour Explore et pour tous les favoris et commentaires !

  

Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that belong to the phylum Annelida and comprise the subclass Hirudinea. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular, segmented bodies that can lengthen and contract. Both groups are hermaphrodites and have a clitellum, but leeches typically differ from the oligochaetes in having suckers at both ends and in having ring markings that do not correspond with their internal segmentation. The body is muscular and relatively solid, and the coelom, the spacious body cavity found in other annelids, is reduced to small channels. The majority of leeches live in freshwater habitats, while some species can be found in terrestrial or marine environments. The best-known species, such as the medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis, are hematophagous, attaching themselves to a host with a sucker and feeding on blood, having first secreted the peptide hirudin to prevent the blood from clotting. The jaws used to pierce the skin are replaced in other species by a proboscis which is pushed into the skin. A minority of leech species are predatory, mostly preying on small invertebrates. The eggs are enclosed in a cocoon, which in aquatic species is usually attached to an underwater surface; members of one family, Glossiphoniidae, exhibit parental care, the eggs being brooded by the parent. In terrestrial species, the cocoon is often concealed under a log, in a crevice or buried in damp soil. Almost seven hundred species of leech are currently recognised, of which some hundred are marine, ninety terrestrial and the remainder freshwater. Leeches have been used in medicine from ancient times until the 19th century to draw blood from patients. In modern times, leeches find medical use in treatment of joint diseases such as epicondylitis and osteoarthritis, extremity vein diseases, and in microsurgery, while hirudin is used as an anticoagulant drug to treat blood-clotting disorders. S23U_24

Ornithorhynchus anatinus

 

The platypus is one of only two egg laying mammals (monotremes).

 

The species has multiple threats to it's survival including feral predators such as foxes, land clearing, illegal use of yabbie traps and waterway modifications such as dams.

 

It uses its beak to find small creatures such as invertebrates in the mud at the bottom of rivers and ponds. The beak can detect the electrical impulses generated by muscle contractions in prey animals.

 

Male platypus have a poisonous spur on its rear legs which can deliver a dangerous combination of at least 19 peptides and non-protein components. It can cause paralysis in small animals and severe pain for larger animals such as humans.

This was taken at Tidbinbilla reserve near Canberra, ACT, Australia.

Upstream view of the River Motława towards Gdańska, and the the Bazylika Mariacka as seen from a boat. There was indeed a storm on its way....

 

(Sorry for any spelling errors or mistranslations, my Polish is very scant and this was four years ago. I would appreciate any corrections.)

 

Taken with a Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium.

 

More of my photos can be found here.

The waterfront of Długie Pobrzeże, Gdańska, and the view downstream.

 

(Sorry for any spelling errors or mistranslations, my Polish is very scant and this was four years ago. I would appreciate any corrections.)

 

Taken with a Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium.

 

More of my photos can be found here.

created for The Dictionary of Image

www.flickr.com/groups/the_dictionary_of_image/

 

Whatever their evolutionary origins, foraging, flying or crawling insects such as flies are attracted to the cavity formed by the cupped leaf of the Pitcher Plant, often by visual lures such as pigments, and nectar bribes. The sides of the pitcher are slippery and may be grooved in such a way so as to ensure that the insects cannot climb out. The small bodies of liquid contained within the pitcher traps are called phytotelmata. They drown the insect, and the body of it is gradually dissolved. This may occur by bacterial action (the bacteria being washed into the pitcher by rainfall) or by enzymes secreted by the plant itself. Furthermore, some pitcher plants contain mutualistic insect larvae, which feed on trapped prey, and whose excreta the plant absorbs. Whatever the mechanism of digestion, the prey items are converted into a solution of amino acids, peptides, phosphates, ammonium and urea, from which the plant obtains its mineral nutrition (particularly nitrogen and phosphorus).

Do you remember when we worried about rust in our milk?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NOW We Have -·

Pituitary hormones (PRL, GH, TSH, FSH, LH ACTH Oxytocina), · Steroid hormones (Estradiol, Estriol, Progesterone, Testosterone, 17-Ketosteroids, Corticosterone, Vitamine D), · Hypothalamic hormones (TRH, LHRH, Somatostatin, PRL-inhibiting factor, PRL-releasing factor, GnRH, GRH), · Thyroid and Parathyroid hormones (T3, T4, rT3, Calcitonin, Parathormone, PTH peptide), · gastrointestinal peptides (Vasoactive intestinal peptide, Bombesin, Cholecystokinin, Gastrin, Gastrin inhibitory peptide, Pancreatic peptide, Y peptide, Substance P and Neurotensin), · Growth Factors (IGF's (I and II), IGF binding proteins, Nerve growth factor, Epidermal growth factor and TGF alpha, TGF beta, Growth Inhibitors MDGI and MAF, and Platelet derived growth factor, · Others... (PGE, PGF2 alpha, cAMP, cGMP, Delta sleep inducing, · peptide, Transferrin, Lactoferrin, Casomorphin and Erythropoieti

   

tags:

activism, foodhormones, milk, dairyindustry, toxinsinourfood, deZengodesigns, sacredspacestudio, omtimesmagazine, humanityhealing, wellness, healthy, namaSpirittn

Gdańska's Wielki Mlyn was erected by the Teutonic Knights in the 14th century and is renowned as the largest industrial plant in the medieval Europe (functional until 1945, it is now a shopping centre).

 

(Sorry for any spelling errors or mistranslations, my Polish is very scant and this was four years ago. I would appreciate any corrections.)

 

Taken with a Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium.

 

More of my photos can be found here.

A sea of field violets on the edge of a pine forest

 

Viola arvensis, a species of violet known by the common name field pansy. It is native to Europe, western Asia, and North Africa, and it is known on other continents as an introduced species and a weed of disturbed and cultivated areas.

 

It is a herbaceous annual plant with serrated leaves, and usually flowers with white all over, except the bottom petal (Although there are actually flowers with a tinge of purple at the top) and dehiscent capsules. It reproduces by seed. It grows 20 centimeters tall.

 

Viola arvensis was shown to contain cyclotides, a class of peptides found in plants. The peptide cycloviolacin O2 in particular has shown to possess cytotoxic activity against human cancer cells and is therefore looked at as a potential drug lead.

Pirate Ship style tour boat which would take us from Gdańska up the river and the Kasubski Canal to Westerplatte.

 

Taken with a Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium, Gdansk, Poland.

 

More of my photos can be found here.

“I've been, out on the ocean.

Sailing alone, traveling nowhere.

 

You've been, running on hard ground.

With just you around,

your heart beats the only sound.”

 

~Jes Hudak (Different Worlds)

  

Let’s call him/her Aster… the star.

Rishabh and I met Aster on our last morning in the beautiful Glacier Bay National Park. After a berry-hearty breakfast of wild-picked berries of dozen different kinds, we made it to the tide-pool ‘by the rock’. The tide was low and the pool looked busy; Barnacles, mussels, anemones, urchins, crustaceans, seaweed, and small fishes were feasting on the pool’s riches. While I was glancing the horizon for birds, Rishabh was scanning the tide pool. Little surprise therefore, he noticed the big sea star, Aster. We were excited to see Aster, but s/he probably couldn’t tell. S/he was hiding all their eyes – five of them at the tip of each arm – underneath sand and other organisms. I lowered the camera as close to the water surface as I could, tweaked the polarizer, and made a few shots, not knowing exactly what I was shooting. Turns out, I was portraying a world, which is far apart from ours in more than one ways.

 

Aster can’t see colors and ‘sees’ everything in shades of light sensitivity. If the food is abundant (see those empty mussel shells nearby?), they prefer to eat small mussels instead of bigger ones; picky eaters they can be, you see! S/he eats by dangling out one of their two stomachs onto the prey and absorbing the digested food out in the open (talk about out-of-the-body experience!). Aster lacks a heart and doesn’t know what a beating heart feels like. Aster also lacks a brain; good for him/her… they don’t have to suffer from brainless acts of others. In their ocean home, s/he is self-sufficient and could regrow from only one-fifth of their body. Emma Watson would be so proud!

 

Despite these differences, Aster is very similar to us in a couple of unintuitive aspect. Immune systems – ours and Aster’s share a few very similar self-defense providing molecules (cytokines and their receptors). The nervous system – Aster produces neuropeptides that resemble two of our very interesting neuropeptides: Vasopressin and Oxytocin. These neuropeptides play important roles in our sexual, social and stress-response behavior (‘peptides of love and fear’). In Aster, however, Vasopressin/Oxytocin like peptides relax muscles and likely regulate the out-of-mouth feeding behavior. So no, despite having subtle similarities, our worlds are still quite different.

 

And someday,

the crash of the waves will be far away,

and I will sail in your eyes.

Cause when it's time,

I'll leave the ocean behind.

Please visit my YouTube, 500px & new Instagram & Facebook channels www.youtube.com/channel/UCt5wf3DvvWAqgUd9NMUItVw

500px.com/p/svive1?view=photos

www.instagram.com/viv_vivekananda/

www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560235015998

  

Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that belong to the phylum Annelida and comprise the subclass Hirudinea. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular, segmented bodies that can lengthen and contract. Both groups are hermaphrodites and have a clitellum, but leeches typically differ from the oligochaetes in having suckers at both ends and in having ring markings that do not correspond with their internal segmentation. The body is muscular and relatively solid, and the coelom, the spacious body cavity found in other annelids, is reduced to small channels. The majority of leeches live in freshwater habitats, while some species can be found in terrestrial or marine environments. The best-known species, such as the medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis, are hematophagous, attaching themselves to a host with a sucker and feeding on blood, having first secreted the peptide hirudin to prevent the blood from clotting. The jaws used to pierce the skin are replaced in other species by a proboscis which is pushed into the skin. A minority of leech species are predatory, mostly preying on small invertebrates. The eggs are enclosed in a cocoon, which in aquatic species is usually attached to an underwater surface; members of one family, Glossiphoniidae, exhibit parental care, the eggs being brooded by the parent. In terrestrial species, the cocoon is often concealed under a log, in a crevice or buried in damp soil. Almost seven hundred species of leech are currently recognised, of which some hundred are marine, ninety terrestrial and the remainder freshwater. Leeches have been used in medicine from ancient times until the 19th century to draw blood from patients. In modern times, leeches find medical use in treatment of joint diseases such as epicondylitis and osteoarthritis, extremity vein diseases, and in microsurgery, while hirudin is used as an anticoagulant drug to treat blood-clotting disorders. S20N_542

The rebuilt facade's of Gdańska's Długi Targ Market Square on a sunny summer morning. Destroyed in the war, the residents of Gdańska bucked postwar fashion and decided to rebuild them exactly as they had been. Good for them!

 

(Sorry for any spelling errors or mistranslations, my Polish is very scant and this was four years ago. I would appreciate any corrections.)

 

Taken with a Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium.

 

More of my photos can be found here.

my lab sculpture, a real masterpiece, which is growing each time I use the robot...

 

made with the 96 tips holder...

 

my coworker said I'm buildiong my own double-strain DNA, it makes think more to my proteins and peptides.

The tower of Gdańska's Ratusz Głównego Miasta (town hall), crowned with a golden statue of King Sigismund II Augustus, and with the Fontana Neptuna at its base. I really liked this tower, despite not being amazingly tall, it gave the impression of a skyscraper.

 

Do you prefer is as is, or do you feel the B&W or selective colour version is better?

 

(Sorry for any spelling errors or mistranslations, my Polish is very scant and this was four years ago. I would appreciate any corrections.)

 

Taken with a Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium.

 

More of my photos can be found here.

The bronze Fontanna Neptuna at the base of Gdańska's Ratusz Głównego Miasta (town hall). Constructed in the years of 1606 through 1613 by Peter Husen, a Flemish sculptor. The legend of the statue says that Goldwasser (Gdansk's vodka) spouted from Neptune's trident one night in 1634 (or at least that was the rumour), and the statue was endangered by a merry crowd, hence the wrought iron barrier that now surrounds the base of the fountain. I wanted to draw attention to the sea/globe-faring symbol accompanying Neptune, and its gold colouration in light of the above legend.

 

(Sorry for any spelling errors or mistranslations, my Polish is very scant and this was four years ago. I would appreciate any corrections.)

 

Taken with a Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium and selectively decoloured using GIMP. The unmodified version can be seen here.

 

More of my photos can be found here.

I found the best peptide supplier I've ever used. The shipping was super-fast and their gear is top notch, check em out.

A commissioned photo, not wild.

 

Mesobuthus gibbosus (Brullé, 1832) is one of the most important health-threatening scorpions in Turkey. This species is considered an old species living in the Mediterranean shore of the Aegean region, including Anatolia, Greece and Aegean islands Information related to the toxin and venom compounds from M. gibbosus is restricted to one report [Diego-Gracia et al, 2013) which describes the mRNA precursors and peptides of three alpha-potassium channel toxins (α-KTxs) (Diego-Gracia et al, 2013). No data has been reported regarding the toxin genes or genomic organization in this species.

 

For more venom info, please refer to Diego-García E, Peigneur S, Debaveye S, Gheldof E, Tytgat J, Caliskan F. Novel potassium channel blocker venom peptides from Mesobuthus gibbosus (Scorpiones: Buthidae) Toxicon. 2013;61:72–82.

The Gdańsk waterfront of the River Motława, dominated by the Gdansk Zuraw (crane), the oldest preseved harbour crane in Europe, this was constructed in the 1400s, and is/was powered entirely by human effort.

 

(Sorry for any spelling errors or mistranslations, my Polish is very scant and this was four years ago. I would appreciate any corrections.)

 

Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium.

 

More of my photos can be found here.

The bronze Fontanna Neptuna at the base of Gdańska's Ratusz Głównego Miasta (town hall). Constructed in the years of 1606 through 1613 by Peter Husen, a Flemish sculptor. The legend of the statue says that Goldwasser (Gdansk's vodka) spouted from Neptune's trident one night in 1634 (or at least that was the rumour), and the statue was endangered by a merry crowd, hence the wrought iron barrier that now surrounds the base of the fountain.

 

Do you prefer this or the selective colour version?

 

(Sorry for any spelling errors or mistranslations, my Polish is very scant and this was four years ago. I would appreciate any corrections.)

 

Taken with a Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium.

 

More of my photos can be found here.

The Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra playing in the Filharmonia Baltycka hall in Gdańska, during the 29th European Peptide Symposium (2006). Lucky us! This is a selective colour version of a previously uploaded shot.

 

(Sorry for any spelling errors or mistranslations, my Polish is very scant and this was four years ago. I would appreciate any corrections.)

 

Taken with a Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium, and selective colour applied in GIMP.

 

More of my photos can be found here.

 

21-05-10 - desaturated by 15% following feedback.

Ornithorhynchus anatinus

  

The platypus is one of only two egg laying mammals (monotremes).

  

The species has multiple threats to it's survival including feral predators such as foxes, land clearing, illegal use of yabbie traps and waterway modifications such as dams.

  

It uses its beak to find small creatures such as invertebrates in the mud at the bottom of rivers and ponds. The beak can detect the electrical impulses generated by muscle contractions in prey animals.

  

Male platypus have a poisonous spur on its rear legs which can deliver a dangerous combination of at least 19 peptides and non-protein components. It can cause paralysis in small animals and severe pain for larger animals such as humans. This was taken at Tidbinbilla reserve near Canberra, ACT, Australia.

View of the Bazylika Mariacka (full name: Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or in Polish: Bazylika Mariacka Wniebowzięcia Najświętszej Maryi Panny w Gdańsku) from across the River Motława, in Gdańska, Polska.

 

My little Pentax shows it's limits here, the banding is a lot greater than I'd normally accept these days, but it handles the blues wonderfully. Pity about cutting out the Ratusz Głównego Miasta (town hall) behind the ruins, but I really liked the leading lines here and couldn't frame it in any other way without losing them.

 

(Sorry for any spelling errors or mistranslations, my Polish is very scant and this was four years ago. I would appreciate any corrections.)

 

Taken with a Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium.

 

More of my photos can be found here.

Lowland disturbed forest.

Bkt. Kiara, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Length: The length of an adult's thumb

 

Important fun fact:

Shrews have unusually high metabolic rates, above that expected in comparable small mammals (Forsman, & Malmquist, 1988). If I remember correctly, it needs to feed every 3 hours (Nat Geo Wild).

 

Shrews are unusual among mammals in a number of respects. Unlike most mammals, some species of shrews are venomous. Shrew venom is not conducted into the wound by fangs, but by grooves in the teeth. The venom contains various compounds, and the contents of the venom glands of the American short-tailed shrew are sufficient to kill 200 mice by intravenous injection. One chemical extracted from shrew venom may be potentially useful in the treatment of high blood pressure, while another compound may be useful in the treatment of some neuromuscular diseases and migraines (Hutterer, Rainer; Vogel, & Peter, 1977). The saliva of the northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda) contains soricidin, a peptide which has been studied for use in treating ovarian cancer (Hutterer, Vogel, Frey, & Genoud, 1979).

Source: Wikipedia

Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that belong to the phylum Annelida and comprise the subclass Hirudinea. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular, segmented bodies that can lengthen and contract. Both groups are hermaphrodites and have a clitellum, but leeches typically differ from the oligochaetes in having suckers at both ends and in having ring markings that do not correspond with their internal segmentation. The body is muscular and relatively solid, and the coelom, the spacious body cavity found in other annelids, is reduced to small channels. The majority of leeches live in freshwater habitats, while some species can be found in terrestrial or marine environments. The best-known species, such as the medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis, are hematophagous, attaching themselves to a host with a sucker and feeding on blood, having first secreted the peptide hirudin to prevent the blood from clotting. The jaws used to pierce the skin are replaced in other species by a proboscis which is pushed into the skin. A minority of leech species are predatory, mostly preying on small invertebrates. The eggs are enclosed in a cocoon, which in aquatic species is usually attached to an underwater surface; members of one family, Glossiphoniidae, exhibit parental care, the eggs being brooded by the parent. In terrestrial species, the cocoon is often concealed under a log, in a crevice or buried in damp soil. Almost seven hundred species of leech are currently recognised, of which some hundred are marine, ninety terrestrial and the remainder freshwater. Leeches have been used in medicine from ancient times until the 19th century to draw blood from patients. In modern times, leeches find medical use in treatment of joint diseases such as epicondylitis and osteoarthritis, extremity vein diseases, and in microsurgery, while hirudin is used as an anticoagulant drug to treat blood-clotting disorders. S20N_544

Nest of Polybia paulista. COMMON throughout Brazil in habitat that offers protection from the weather. Apparently these wasps produce a peptide that helps protect against predation from ants. etc. According to Wikipedia this is called Polybia-MP-1 and has potential as a chemotherapeutic agent against cancers. If interested check out the link from Barry Avis - Thanks Barry!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybia_paulista

 

Canudos, Bahia, Brazil.

 

©bryanjsmith.

The tower of Gdańska's Ratusz Głównego Miasta (town hall), crowned with a golden statue of King Sigismund II Augustus.

 

(Sorry for any spelling errors or mistranslations, my Polish is very scant and this was four years ago. I would appreciate any corrections.)

 

Taken with a Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium.

 

More of my photos can be found here.

The tower of Gdańska's Ratusz Głównego Miasta (town hall), crowned with a golden statue of King Sigismund II Augustus, and with the Fontana/a> Neptuna at its base. I really liked this tower, despite not being amazingly tall, it gave the impression of a skyscraper.

 

Which version do you prefer, this, the original, or the B&W version?

 

(Sorry for any spelling errors or mistranslations, my Polish is very scant and this was four years ago. I would appreciate any corrections.)

 

Taken with a Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium, and and selectively desaturated all but red with GIMP to mimic the white and red colours of the Polish Flag. (colour restored to three pedestrians for balance). Part of my new flags project.

 

More of my photos can be found here.

This species is sexually dimorphic: the females grow to approximately 1 m (39⅜ inches) in total length, while males typically do not exceed 75 cm (29½ inches). They have a large triangular-shaped head, with a relatively thin body. They are almost entirely arboreal, and the tail is prehensile to aid in climbing.

 

They are found in a wide variety of colors and patterns, often referred to as "phases". In the past, some researchers classified the different phases as subspecies. The phases vary greatly from having a black or brown coloration as a base, with orange and yellow banding to others having a light green as the base color, with yellow or orange banding, and many variations therein.

 

The venom of Tropidolaemus wagleri contains 4 novel peptides (Waglerins 1-4). The Waglerins produce fatal respiratory paralysis of adult mice. An initial study indicated that micromolar concentrations of Waglerin 1 act both pre- and postsynaptically to inhibit transmission across rat neuromuscular junctions. However, Waglerin-1 is a more potent inhibitor of transmission across the mouse neuromuscular junction. A subsequent study demonstrated that Waglerin-1 inhibited the adult mouse endplate response to acetylcholine with an IC50 of 50 nanomolar. In striking contrast, transmission across neuromuscular junctions of neonatal or transgenic mice lacking the adult acetylcholine receptor was not altered by micromolar concentrations of Waglerin-1. Biochemical studies demonstrated that the exquisite selectivity of Waglerin-1 for the adult mouse acetylcholine receptor relies upon several amino acid residues unique to the epsilon subunit of the adult mouse acetylcholine receptor. Waglerin-1's selectivity for the epsilon-subunit containing acetylcholine receptor of adult mice is complemented by selectivity of small peptide toxins purified from the venom of Conus geographus and pergrandis for the gamma-subunit containing acetylcholine receptor of neonatal skeletal muscle. The Waglerins and complementary conotoxins are useful tools to discover the contribution of acetylcholine receptor subunits to synaptogenesis. In addition, study of the Waglerins and related toxic peptides may lead to the discovery of novel molecular targets for drug development. While Waglerin-1 interacts with other members of the ligand-gated superfamily of ion channels, the potency is much less than for inhibition of the adult mouse muscle acetylcholine receptor. Structural study suggests that Waglerin-1 may undergo molecular rearrangement that allows for binding to multiple receptors. The actions of Waglerin-1 reverse upon removal of the peptide.

 

Waglerin-1 is included in several skin creams marketed as wrinkle removers. There is no scientific evidence supporting the manufacturers' suggestion that the Waglerin-1 included in their products relaxes wrinkle producing skeletal muscles.

A view of the old town of Gdańskas skyline from Gradowa Mountain (underneath the Millennial Cross). The hulk of the Bazylika Mariacka is visible to the right, and behind it, the Ratusz Głównego Miasta.

 

The Gradowa Mountain (hill) is known locally as 'Forty', and is a man made hill, underneath which lie forts, bunkers, and artillery depots. The Cross atop it was put in place in 2000 to mark 1000 years of Christianity in Gdańska.

 

(Sorry for any spelling errors or mistranslations, my Polish is very scant and this was four years ago. I would appreciate any corrections.)

 

Taken with a Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium.

 

More of my photos can be found here.

The tower of Gdańska's Ratusz Głównego Miasta (town hall), crowned with a golden statue of King Sigismund II Augustus, and with the Fontana Neptuna at its base. I really liked this tower, despite not being amazingly tall, it gave the impression of a skyscraper.

 

Which version do you prefer, this, or the original colour version?

 

(Sorry for any spelling errors or mistranslations, my Polish is very scant and this was four years ago. I would appreciate any corrections.)

 

Taken with a Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium, and converted to B&W with GIMP.

 

More of my photos can be found here.

Lowland disturbed forest.

Bkt. Kiara, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

 

Important fun fact:

Shrews have unusually high metabolic rates, above that expected in comparable small mammals (Forsman, & Malmquist, 1988). If I remember correctly, it needs to feed every 3 hours (Nat Geo Wild).

 

Shrews are unusual among mammals in a number of respects. Unlike most mammals, some species of shrews are venomous. Shrew venom is not conducted into the wound by fangs, but by grooves in the teeth. The venom contains various compounds, and the contents of the venom glands of the American short-tailed shrew are sufficient to kill 200 mice by intravenous injection. One chemical extracted from shrew venom may be potentially useful in the treatment of high blood pressure, while another compound may be useful in the treatment of some neuromuscular diseases and migraines (Hutterer, Rainer; Vogel, & Peter, 1977). The saliva of the northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda) contains soricidin, a peptide which has been studied for use in treating ovarian cancer (Hutterer, Vogel, Frey, & Genoud, 1979).

Source: Wikipedia

Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that belong to the phylum Annelida and comprise the subclass Hirudinea. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular, segmented bodies that can lengthen and contract. Both groups are hermaphrodites and have a clitellum, but leeches typically differ from the oligochaetes in having suckers at both ends and in having ring markings that do not correspond with their internal segmentation. The body is muscular and relatively solid, and the coelom, the spacious body cavity found in other annelids, is reduced to small channels. The majority of leeches live in freshwater habitats, while some species can be found in terrestrial or marine environments. The best-known species, such as the medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis, are hematophagous, attaching themselves to a host with a sucker and feeding on blood, having first secreted the peptide hirudin to prevent the blood from clotting. The jaws used to pierce the skin are replaced in other species by a proboscis which is pushed into the skin. A minority of leech species are predatory, mostly preying on small invertebrates. The eggs are enclosed in a cocoon, which in aquatic species is usually attached to an underwater surface; members of one family, Glossiphoniidae, exhibit parental care, the eggs being brooded by the parent. In terrestrial species, the cocoon is often concealed under a log, in a crevice or buried in damp soil. Almost seven hundred species of leech are currently recognised, of which some hundred are marine, ninety terrestrial and the remainder freshwater. Leeches have been used in medicine from ancient times until the 19th century to draw blood from patients. In modern times, leeches find medical use in treatment of joint diseases such as epicondylitis and osteoarthritis, extremity vein diseases, and in microsurgery, while hirudin is used as an anticoagulant drug to treat blood-clotting disorders. S20N_543

It isn't showing very well in this particular shot - but this butterlfy, known as the great orange-tip (Hebomoia glaucippe) like the name suggests has the tips of the wings in orange (trimmed with a black border) - just on the other side of the wings.

 

This is the first shot of one for me, but to tell you the truth, I really wished I got to see the caterpillar instead.

 

This might sound like an odd wish, but let me tell you, they are super-cool! It's a green caterpillar, but it has a shiny black "eye spot" on the side and when feeling threatened it can inflate segments around it's front legs to mimic a snake head and then swing the head from side to side like a vine snake does.

 

But that's not the only defense this one emplys. It also has a peptide toxin in its wings called glacontryphan-M.

A large lace monitor, Australian lizard sunning itself at the Rockhampton Zoo. Read more from Wikipedia here.

 

The lace monitor or tree goanna (Varanus varius) is a member of the monitor lizard family native to eastern Australia. A large lizard, it can reach 2 metres (6.6 ft) in total length and 14 kilograms (31 lb) in weight. The lace monitor is considered to be a least-concern species according to the International Union for Conservation.

 

John White, the surgeon-general of New South Wales, described this species as the variegated lizard (Lacerta varia) in 1790. George Shaw reported that several specimens were taken back to England. French naturalist François Marie Daudin gave it the name Tupinambis variegatus in 1802, and noted two forms. German naturalist Blasius Merrem established the genus Varanus in 1820, with V. varius as the first mentioned member set as its type species by John Edward Gray in 1827.

 

French zoologists André Marie Constant Duméril and Gabriel Bibron described two specimens in 1836, one in their possession and one from the collection of English zoologist Thomas Bell as Varanus bellii "Le Varan de Bell". This turned out to be a banded colour phase of the lace monitor that coexists with normal-coloured individuals, and is either autosomal dominant or codominant genetically. It is sometimes called the Bell's phase lace monitor.

 

The lace monitor is monotypic; no subspecies are recognised. However, genetic analysis of its mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) across its range revealed three main clades: a north Queensland clade separated by the Burdekin Gap from a clade spanning from southern Queensland through inland New South Wales across the Murray–Darling basin and into southeastern South Australia. This is divided from a third clade that spans coastal eastern Australia (northern New South Wales to eastern Victoria) by the McPherson Range and Great Dividing Range. This last clade is thought to have diverged from the first two clades around 2.7 million years ago, while these clades separated around 850,000 years ago.

 

Genetic analysis of mtDNA shows the lace monitor to be the closest relative (sister taxon) of the Komodo dragon, with their common ancestor diverging from a lineage that gave rise to the crocodile monitor (Varanus salvadorii) of New Guinea. The divergence between lace monitor and Komodo dragon lineages has been calculated to have occurred around 13 million years ago, 11 or 11.5 million years ago.

 

The species is commonly known as lace monitor, tree goanna, or lacy. It was known as wirriga to the Eora and Darug inhabitants of the Sydney basin, and gugaa to the Wiradjuri people of southern New South Wales.

 

The second-largest monitor in Australia after the perentie, the lace monitor can reach 2 m (7 ft) in total length, or 76.5 cm snout–vent length (SVL). The male reaches sexual maturity when it has a SVL of 41.5 cm. Females are generally smaller than males, with a maximum SVL of 57.5 cm, and becoming sexually mature at a SVL of 38.5 cm.The tail is long and slender and about 1.5 times the length of the head and body. The tail is cylindrical at its base, but becomes laterally compressed towards the tip.

 

The maximum weight of lace monitor can be 14 kg (30 lb), but most adults are much smaller.

 

Historically, it has been described as growing as much as 8 ft long. Regardless of the accuracy of these reports, lace monitors of such size likely no longer exist.

 

Lace monitors are found in two forms. The main form is dark grey to dull bluish-black with numerous, scattered, cream-coloured spots. The head is black and the snout is marked with prominent black and yellow bands extending under the chin and neck. The tail has narrow black and cream bands, which are narrow and get wider towards the end of the tail. Juveniles have more defined and prominent banding, with five narrow black bands on the neck and eight bands on the body.

 

The other type, known as Bell's form, is typically found in west of the Great Dividing Range from Woodgate, Eidsvold, and Mitchell in Queensland to Bourke, Macksville and Port Macquarie in New South Wales. It has also been reported from Healesville, Rushworth, and Murchison in Victoria and the Flinders Ranges in South Australia.[9] It has a base colour of yellow-brown or yellow with fine black mottling and broad, black or dark brown bands from the shoulders to the tail. The top of the head is black.

 

These common terrestrial and often arboreal monitors are found in eastern Australia and range from Cape Bedford on Cape York Peninsula to south-eastern South Australia. They frequent both open and closed forests and forage over long distances (up to 3 km (1.9 mi) a day).

 

The lace monitor is considered to be a least-concern species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

 

They are mainly active from September to May, but are inactive in cooler weather and shelter in tree hollows or under fallen trees or large rocks.

 

Despite its large size and mass, the lace monitor is an adept climber. One was recorded climbing a brick wall to seek shelter in a thunderstorm. Young lace monitors are even more arboreal than adults. They often spend most of their adult lives in the same area; one individual was recorded living in the same tree for years.

 

In at least the temperate regions, the breeding season takes place in the summer.

 

Male lace monitors fight each other by grappling while standing on the hind legs in the breeding season, and up to six males may gather around a receptive female to try and court her. Mating takes several hours.

 

Females lay an average of eight eggs in active termite nests either on the ground or in the trees, although they may lay as many as 12 eggs. When such nests are in short supply, females often fight over them or lay the eggs in burrows and perhaps hollow logs. The eggs overwinter to hatch 6–7 months later. Hatchlings remain around the nest for about a week or more before leaving its vicinity. Females may return to the same termite nest to lay their next clutch of eggs. These monitors can potentially live to reach over 20 years of age.

 

Their diets typically consist of insects, reptiles, small mammals, birds, and birds' eggs. They are also carrion eaters, feeding on already dead carcasses of other wildlife. Lace monitors search for food on the ground, retreating to a nearby tree if disturbed. They also forage in areas inhabited by people, raiding chicken coops for poultry and eggs, and rummaging through unprotected domestic garbage bags and rubbish bins in picnic and recreational areas.

 

As they often swallow meat whole, they can be at risk of harm from some meat scraps; one was reported with a t-bone steak bone stuck in its throat and another with a plastic fork in its stomach. Another swallowed six golf balls that a chicken owner had placed in their coop to prompt their chickens to lay eggs.

 

They are preyed upon by dingoes and birds of prey, and like all Australian goannas, they were a favourite traditional food of Australian Aboriginal peoples, and their fat was particularly valued as a medicine and for use in ceremonies.

 

They frequently attack the large composting nests of scrub turkeys to steal their eggs, and often show injuries on their tails inflicted by male scrub turkeys pecking at them to drive them away.

 

Venom

 

In late 2005, University of Melbourne researchers discovered that all monitors may be somewhat venomous. Previously, bites inflicted by monitors were thought to be prone to infection because of bacteria in their mouths, but the researchers showed that the immediate effects were more likely caused by envenomation. Bites on the hand by lace monitors have been observed to cause swelling within minutes, localised disruption of blood clotting, and shooting pain up to the elbow, which can often last for several hours. In vitro testing showed lace monitor mouth secretion impact on platelet aggregation, drop blood pressure and relax smooth muscle; the last effect mediated by an agent with the same activity as brain natriuretic peptide. Liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry found ample proteins with molecular masses of 2-4 kilodaltons (corresponding with natriuretic peptide), 15 kilodaltons (type III Phospholipase A2), and 23-25 kilodaltons (cysteine-rich secretory proteins and kallikrein) in these secretions. Washington State University biologist Kenneth V. Kardong and toxicologists Scott A. Weinstein and Tamara L. Smith, have cautioned that labelling these species as venomous oversimplifies the diversity of oral secretions in reptiles, and overestimates the medical risk of bite victims.

  

The lace monitor was eaten by the Wiradjuri people; local wisdom advised eating lace monitors as they came down from trees as those that had eaten on the ground tasted of rotting meat. The Tharawal ate the species' eggs, collecting them in sand on riverbanks in the Nattai and Wollondilly. Goanna remains have been recovered in middens in what is now Sydney. The lace monitor is bred in captivity as an exotic pet

Myrmecia tarsata

Sub-family Myrmeciinae

Family Formicidae.

Order: Hymenoptera

 

There are about 90 known species of Bull Ant in Australia.

 

They have characteristic large eyes (and associated superior vision) and long slender mandibles. They possess a venomous sting which delivers a potent mix of peptides similar to that delivered by wasps. (I was reminded just how potent earlier this week!).

 

Bull ant stings can occasionally trigger a response from the immune system that leave some people sensitised to the venom. Up to 10% of people who have an allergic reaction to bull ant stings are at risk of anaphylaxis from a future sting. This is a significant issue in areas where bull ants are common, such as Tasmania and Victoria. In those areas, the prevalence of systemic allergic reactions is estimated to be 3% of the population.

 

Ref:

www.allergy.org.au/patients/insect-allergy-bites-and-stin...

 

DSC05358 copy

The Bazylika Mariacka (full name: Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or in Polish: Bazylika Mariacka Wniebowzięcia Najświętszej Maryi Panny w Gdańsku), the co-cathedral of Gdańska. This the largest brick church in the world and Brick Gothic buildings in Europe. It was heavily damamged in world war 2 and was not reconsecrated until 1955.

 

(Sorry for any spelling errors or mistranslations, my Polish is very scant and this was four years ago. I would appreciate any corrections.)

 

Taken with a Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium.

 

More of my photos can be found here.

The Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra playing in the Filharmonia Baltycka hall in Gdańska, during the 29th European Peptide Symposium (2006). Lucky us!

 

I used this shot for a spot of selective colouring work; which do you prefer?

 

(Sorry for any spelling errors or mistranslations, my Polish is very scant and this was four years ago. I would appreciate any corrections.)

 

Taken with a Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium.

 

More of my photos can be found here.

..Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants whose prey-trapping mechanism features a deep cavity filled with liquid known as a pitfall trap.

Foraging, flying or crawling insects such as flies are attracted to the cavity formed by the cupped leaf, often by visual lures such as anthocyanin pigments, and nectar bribes. The sides of the pitcher are slippery and may be grooved in such a way so as to ensure that the insects cannot climb out. The small bodies of liquid contained within the pitcher traps are called phytotelmata. They drown the insect, and the body of it is gradually dissolved. This may occur by bacterial action (the bacteria being washed into the pitcher by rainfall) or by enzymes secreted by the plant itself. Furthermore, some pitcher plants contain mutualistic insect larvae, which feed on trapped prey, and whose excreta the plant absorbs.[1] Whatever the mechanism of digestion, the prey items are converted into a solution of amino acids, peptides, phosphates, ammonium and urea, from which the plant obtains its mineral nutrition (particularly nitrogen and phosphorus). Like all carnivorous plants, they grow in locations where the soil is too poor in minerals and/or too acidic for most plants to survive.

  

Flower Aparajita or Clitoria ternatea (Sanskrit: श्वेतां, विष्णूक्रांता). A Macro shot.

  

______________________________________________________________________ _______________

Copyright © learning.photography.

All rights reserved. All images contained in this Photostream remain the property of learning.photography and is protected by applicable Copyright Law. Any images from this Photostream may not be reproduced, copied, or used in any way without my written permission.

 

Thanks for your Visit, Comments, Favs and Awards !

 

No private group or multiple group invites please !

 

Where Rank is specified underneath any Explored Photo, that means that is the highest Rank achieved in Explore.

 

Those who have not uploaded any photograph yet, or have uploaded a very few photographs, should not mark me Contacts or comment on my photo. I may block them.

______________________________________________________________________ _______________

  

This plant is native to tropical equatorial Asia, but has been introduced to Africa, Australia and America.

 

It is a perennial herbaceous plant. Its leaves are elliptic and obtuse. It grows as a vine or creeper, doing well in moist neutral soil. The most striking feature about this plant are its vivid deep blue flowers. They are solitary, with light yellow markings. They are about 4 cm long by 3 cm wide. There are some varieties that yield white flowers.

 

The fruits are 5 – 7 cm long, flat pods with 6 to 10 seeds in each pod. They are edible when tender.

 

It is grown as an ornamental plant and as a revegetation species (e.g., in coal mines in Australia), requiring little care when cultivated. Its roots fix nitrogen and therefore this plant is also used to improve soil quality.

 

In traditional Ayurvedic medicine, it has been used for centuries as a memory enhancer, nootropic, antistress, anxiolytic, antidepressant, anticonvulsant, tranquilizing and sedative agent.

 

Flower and pods in different states of ripenessIn Southeast Asia the flowers are used to colour food. In Malay cooking, an aqueous extract is used to colour glutinous rice for kuih ketan (also known as pulut tai tai in Peranakan/Nyonya cooking) and in nonya chang. In Thailand, a syrupy blue drink is made called nam dok anchan (น้ำดอกอัญชัน). In Burma the flowers are used as food, often they are dipped in batter and fried.

 

In animal tests the methanolic extract of Clitoria ternatea roots demonstrated nootropic, anxiolytic, antidepressant, anticonvulsant and antistress activity. The active constituent(s) include Tannins, resins, Starch, Taraxerol & Taraxerone.

 

Clitoria ternatea root extracts are capable of curing whooping cough if taken orally[citation needed]. The extract from the white-flowered plant can cure goiter. The roots are used in ayurveda Indian medicine.

 

Recently, several biologically active peptides called cliotides have been isolated from the heat-stable fraction of Clitoria ternatea extract. Cliotides belong to the cyclotides family[4] and acvities studies show that cliotides display potent antimicrobial activity against E. coli, K. pneumonia, P. aeruginosa and cytotoxicity against HeLa cells. These peptides have potential to be lead compound for the development of novel antimicrobial and anti-cancer agents.

 

Source : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clitoria_ternatea

 

A fellow traveller on the Frocktober journey also has this dress, and describes it as a bit Stepford. I love it; it looks bright and summery, but is made of a reasonably thick cotton and in lined so, despite being sleeveless, is nice and warm. perfect for the dull, wet Wednesday on which I wore it.

 

An early detection method for ovarian cancer is needed.

 

The Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation is supporting research on autoantibodies (antibodies produced by patients against ovarian cancer) for ovarian cancer detection.

 

"Using latest laboratory technology which analyses the proteins and peptides in the human blood, they identified three autoantibody candidates with high accuracy in detecting early stage ovarian cancer."

 

They are now in the process of developing a detection test with these three autoantibody biomarkers.

 

Read more about this research: ocrf.com.au/…/autoantibody-biomarkers-ovarian-canc…/

 

Donate to support research:

www.mycause.com.au/page/185933/it-has-pockets

just watching, and waiting,

outside my sequestered door. As the oldest in the house... for whom the bell tolls... I prefer the plaintive coos of the nesting owls in the neighboring tree.

 

Once I accepted the inevitability of exposure, I focused on resistance: boosting my immune system and antivirals. I’ll share what I take daily, and if anyone is aware of any reason to *not* take these in the context of coronavirus, please let me know and I’ll update. I have not had a sick day for decades, and perhaps this helped, but remember that my personal journey is not prescriptive and that none of these have been properly studied to reach any conclusions on efficacy, yet:

 

1) Vitamin D (+ K2 for better absorption): “Studies have indicated that there is a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency worldwide. Vitamin D deficiency may affect the immune system as vitamin D plays an immunomodulation role, enhancing innate immunity by up-regulating the expression and secretion of antimicrobial peptides, which boosts mucosal defenses. Furthermore, recent meta-analyses have reported a protective effect of vitamin D supplementation on respiratory tract infections” — WHO and an apparently biased site, but some links: Vitamin D Wiki

 

2) Magical mushroom powder of Shitake + Maitake: “We found significant stimulation of defense reaction. In all cases, the most active was the Maitake-Shiitake combination” — NIH

 

3) Coconut oil: “Several in vitro, animal, and human studies support the potential of coconut oil, lauric acid and its derivatives as effective and safe agents against a virus like nCoV-2019. Mechanistic studies on other viruses show that at least three mechanisms may be operating. Given the safety and broad availability of virgin coconut oil (VCO), we recommend that VCO be considered as a general prophylactic against viral and microbial infection.” — Ateneo University

 

4) Zinc, short term use: “In this study we demonstrate that the combination of Zn(2+) and PT at low concentrations (2 µM Zn(2+) and 2 µM PT) inhibits the replication of SARS-coronavirus (SARS-CoV)” — Researchgate And some warnings about prolonged use: Oregon State

 

5) Oregano oil capsules: “Mexican oregano oil and its main component, carvacrol, are able to inhibit different human and animal viruses in vitro.” — NIH

And then found to be helpful with other viruses, like norovirus and herpes: “This study provides novel findings on the antiviral properties of oregano oil” — sfamjournals

 

6) Vitamin C: “2019-nCoV infected pneumonia, namely severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) has caused global concern and emergency. We hypothesize that Vitamin C infusion can help improve the prognosis of patients with SARI. Therefore, it is necessary to study the clinical efficacy” — Clinicaltrials

 

These are all inexpensive on Amazon, but if you want an even stronger placebo effect, find the most expensive version, as that is proven to work better :) ScienceDaily

 

7) Update: I have added Quercetin. Its impact on Covid-19 has not yet been properly researched, but the basic mechanism could be similar to Chloroquine, and is an over-the-counter supplement even if you don’t have symptoms. Best with Zinc. From molecular simulation studies: "Liu et al. (2020) successfully crystallised the COVID-19 main protease (Mpro), which is a potential drug target. Quercetin... and curcumin [among others] appeared to have the best potential to act as COVID-19 Mpro inhibitors."

 

8) I also take NMN + TMG and have been discussing possible downstream NAD+ / sirtuin effects on COVID-19 with David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School. As with all of these, nothing is proven; it's just a fascinating hypothesis. The observed age effect on mortality is stark — the younger a person is, across the spectrum, the lower the death rate and hospitalization rate. Looking to NAD+ depletion as we age, and exacerbated by inflammation, perhaps it's ultimately an energy crisis and a loss of NAD + ATP that does us in.

 

Snips from his recent book Lifespan:

“NAD boosts the activity of all seven sirtuins. And because NAD is used by over 500 different enzymes, without any NAD, we’d be dead in 30 seconds. NAD acts as a fuel for sirtuins. NAD levels decrease with age throughout the body. Human studies with NAD boosters (NMN and NR) are ongoing. So far, there has been no toxicity, not even a hint of it.” (p.134)

 

Also: "Most antiviral drugs target specific viral proteins. Consequently, they often work for only one virus, and their efficacy can be compromised by the rapid evolution of resistant variants. There is a need for the identification of host proteins with broad-spectrum antiviral functions, which provide effective targets for therapeutic treatments that limit the evolution of viral resistance. Here, we report that sirtuins present such an opportunity for the development of broad-spectrum antiviral treatments, since our findings highlight these enzymes as ancient defense factors that protect against a variety of viral pathogens." — Researchgate

 

Sinclair added trimethylglycine (TMG) in a recent podcast. He also mentions not to take NMN or NR at night as they interfere with sleep.

 

H/T Nova Spivack for the corona-relevant links. He is maintaining a more complete list here.

 

“Ah, distinctly I remember

it was in the bleak December

And each separate dying ember

wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl

to hear discourse so plainly,

Though its answer little meaning—

little relevancy bore

For we cannot help agreeing

that no living human being

Ever yet was blessed with seeing

bird above his chamber door

What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt,

and ominous bird of yore

Meant in croaking ‘Nevermore.’”

— Edgar Allan Poe

At certain brain wave frequencies, a sense of "ego boundary" vanishes. In the "theta" state, we are resting deeply and still conscious, at the threshold of drifting away from or back into conscious awareness.There is also a prana breathing tube that runs through the body. It connects the apexes of this Star Tetrahedral field. Learning how to breathe through this tube, combined with rotating the fields, produces the merkaba, a vehicle of ascension. As the brain enters deeper states, our consciousness is less concerned with the physical state, our 'third eye' is active, and separation becomes natural. You can be aware of your truth in every moment of every day by drawing on the deepest blue strand you can find. That strand won’t let you listen to third-dimensional words that are designed to deceive you. You will walk away from words that are not in the highest truth. With your truth strand out front, you won’t be deceived. You’ll know and hear truth, and if you hear an untruth, it will not work for you.Your blueprints have always been available to you, and when they’re interwoven, you can use this exercise to travel through the etheric fabric to find what you’re looking for. When you present your request properly to your higher self, you’ll be surprised by just how much you do know about where you want to go. Much of what you know is unsaid, hidden in your feelings, but accessible..Prana breathing tube that runs through the body. It connects the apexes of this Star Tetrahedral field. Learning how to breathe through this tube, combined with rotating the fields, produces the merkaba, a vehicle of ascension.he photon energy belt that the Earth will move through during the Shift is so huge that I cannot provide you with a precise description of its immensity. Second, prana is a vital life-giving breath, involving deep inhalation, which allows the photon energy to enter into the body through the crown chakra. Finally, your pineal gland is the receptacle of the photon energy in the body..These are three identical fields superimposed over each other, the only difference among them being that the physical body alone is locked, it does not rotate. The merkaba is created by counter-rotating fields of energy. The mental Star Tetrahedral field is electrical in nature, male, and rotates to the left. Since the higher energies work with your feelings, your focus must be on your emotional body. If you learn to think emotionally, you will be aware that your emotions guide everything within your realm. Your emotional body is between your mental and physical bodies, so when you feel something, the latter two bodies go along for the ride..The emotional Star Tetrahedral field is magnetic in nature, female, and rotates to the right. It is the linking together of the mind, heart, and physical body in a specific geometrical ratio and at a critical speed that produces the merkaba.The MerKaBa (sometimes spelled merkavah and, or merkabah) is a vehicle of Ascension. It was believed in ancient times, and even written about by the Hebrews, that the merkavah could be turned on by certain principles in meditation. This involves breathing changes & mind, heart, and body changes that alter the way a person perceives reality..The word “Mer” denotes counter-rotating fields of light, “Ka” Spirit, and “Ba” body, or reality. So the Mer-Ka-Ba then, is a counter-rotating Living field of light that encompasses both Spirit and body and it’s a dimensional vehicle. It’s far more than just that, in fact there isn’t anything that it isn’t. It is the image through which all things were created, and that image is around your body in a geometrical set of patterns.The field extends out a full fifty to sixty feet in diameter (18 to 20 meters), depending on your height. It looks like a flying saucer (Fig. 1). That field is an immense science that is being studied everywhere throughout the cosmos. How well someone understands the MerKaBa, is usually in direct relationship to their consciousness level..

If, when speaking to your higher self, you say, “I want to get from here to there and I want you to guide me,” your higher self will do whatever it wants, and it might be years before you see any results, because your higher self has no concept of time. If you want the unseen energies to guide you, you must learn to communicate with them effectively, and that means you must work with your feelings. The unseen energies do not understand language or words as you know them. They can feel you, and if they can feel you, they will know what you want. When these energies respond to your feelings, you will feel the responding communication from them. So, when you ask your higher self to guide you from here to there in the shortest manner possible, it means nothing, unless you focus on getting the feeling of where you want to go, and how and when you want to get there. If you give those feelings to your higher self, after you’ve woven them through the two brains, you will accomplish your goal. The key here is weaving the local and omni brains together. Practice this by contacting the Elven world, where the language is closest to yours here on the Earth plane. Photon, or love, energy is at the root of the current Shift in Consciousness. Pineal gland is the true master gland. It is situated between the eyes. It is the organ of clairvoyance, Third eye, the eye of Ra or Heru (God). Biblical Jacob saw God face to face on the island of Pe-ni-el. Its secretes melatonin which is anti ageing in effect and anti oxidant in nature. This also secretes melanin which colours our skin. The pineal gland, the most enigmatic of endocrine organs, has long been of interest to anatomists. Several millennia ago it was thought to be a valve that controlled the flow of memories into consciousness. René Descartes, the 17th-century French philosopher-mathematician, concluded that the pineal was the seat of the soul. A corollary notion was that calcification of the pineal caused psychiatric disease, a concept that provided support for those who considered psychotic behavior to be rampant; modern examination techniques have revealed that all pineal glands become more or less calcified..The pineal organ is small, weighing little more than 0.1 gram. It lies deep within the brain between the two cerebral hemispheres and above the third ventricle of the spinal column. It has a rich supply of adrenergic nerve fibers that greatly influence its secretions. Microscopically, the gland is composed of pinealocytes (rather typical endocrine cells except for extensions that mingle with those of adjacent cells). Supporting cells that are similar to astrocytes of the brain are interspersed.. The pineal gland contains a number of peptides, including GnRH, TRH, and vasotocin, along with a number of important neurotransmitters such as somatostatin, norepinephrine, serotonin, and histamine. The major pineal hormone, however, is melatonin, a derivative of the amino acid tryptophan. Melatonin was first discovered because it lightens amphibian skin, an effect opposite to that of melanocyte-stimulating hormone of the anterior pituitary. Secretion of melatonin is enhanced whenever the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated. Of greater interest, however, is the fact that secretion increases soon after an animal is placed in the dark; the opposite effect takes place immediately upon exposure to light. Its major action, well documented in animals, is to block the secretion of GnRH by the hypothalamus and of gonadotropins by the pituitary. While it was long thought that a decrease in melatonin secretion heralded the onset of puberty, this hypothesis cannot be supported by studies in humans. It is possible that the pineal contains an as yet unidentified hormone that serves that function. Melotonin is the only hormone secreted by the pineal gland. (The pineal gland is a tiny endocrine gland situated at the centre of the brain.) Melatonin was discovered in 1958 by Aaron B. Lerner and other researchers working at Yale University. Melatonin is produced in humans, other mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. It is present in very small amounts in the human body. Melatonin was previously known to cause the skins of amphibians to blanch, but its functions in mammals remained uncertain until research discoveries in the 1970s and '80s suggested that it regulates both sleeping cycles and the hormonal changes that usher in sexual maturity during adolescence. The pineal gland's production of melatonin varies both with the time of day and with age; production of melatonin is dramatically increased during the nighttime hours and falls off during the day, and melatonin levels are much higher in children under age seven than in adolescents and are lower still in adults. Melatonin apparently acts to keep a child's body from undergoing sexual maturation, since sex hormones such as luteotropin, which play a role in the development of sexual organs, emerge only after melatonin levels have declined. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that children with tumors of the pineal gland often reach sexual maturity unusually early in life, presumably because the pineal's production of melatonin has been hampered. Melatonin also seems to play an important role in regulating sleeping cycles; test subjects injected with the hormone become sleepy, suggesting that the increased production of melatonin coincident with nightfall acts as a fundamental mechanism for making people sleepy. With dawn the pineal gland stops producing melatonin, and wakefulness and alertness ensue. The high level of melatonin production in young children may explain their tendency to sleep longer than adults. In mammals other than humans melatonin possibly acts as a breeding and mating cue, since it is produced in greater amounts in response to the longer nights of winter and less so during summer. Animals who time their mating or breeding to coincide with favorable seasons (such as spring) may depend on melatonin production as a kind of biological clock that regulates their reproductive cycles on the basis of the length of the solar day.When activated, the pineal gland becomes the line of communication, with the higher planes. The crown chakra, reaches down, until its vortex touches the pineal gland. Prana, or pure energy, is received through this energy center in the head. With Practice, the vibration level of the astral body is raised, allowing it, to separate from the physical. To activate the 'third eye' and perceive higher dimensions, the pineal gland and the pituitary body, must vibrate in unison, which is achieved through meditation and / or relaxation. When a correct relationship is established, between personality, operating through the pituitary body, and the soul, operating through the pineal gland, a magnetic field is created. The negative and positive forces, interact and become strong enough, to create the 'light in the head. ' With this 'light in the head' activated, astral projectors can withdraw themselves, from the body, carrying the light with them. Astral Travel, and other occult abilities, are closely associated with the development of the 'light in the head'. After physical relaxation, concentration upon the pineal gland, is achieved, by staring at a point in the middle of the forehead. Without straining the muscles of the eye, this will activate the pineal gland and the 'third eye'. Beginning with the withdrawal of the senses and the physical consciousness, the consciousness is centered in the region of the pineal gland. The perceptive faculty and the point of realization, are centralized in the area between the middle of the forehead and the pineal gland. The trick is to visualize, very intently, the subtle body... escaping through the trap door of the brain. A "popping sound" may occur at the time separation of the astral body, in the area of the pineal gland. Visualization exercises, are the first step, in directing the energies in our inner systems, to activate the 'third eye'. The magnetic field is created around the pineal gland, by focusing the mind on the midway point, between the pineal gland and the pituitary body. The creative imagination visualizes something, and the thought energy of the mind gives life and direction to this form. 'Third eye' development, imagination, and visualization are important ingredients, in many methods to separate from the physical form. Intuition is also achieved, through 'third eye' development. Knowledge and memory of the astral plane, are not registered in full waking consciousness, until the intuition becomes strong enough. Flashes of intuition come, with increasing consistency, as the 'third eye' is activated to a greater degree, through practice. Universal Knowledge... can also be acquired...The pineal gland, corresponds with divine thought, after being touched by the vibrating light of Kundalini. Kundalini starts its ascent, towards the head center, after responding to the vibrations from the 'light in the head.' The light is located at the top of the sutratma, or 'soul thread', which passes down from the highest plane of our being... into the physical vehicle. The 'third eye,' or 'Eye of Siva,' the organ of spiritual vision, is intimately related to karma, as we become more spiritual in the natural course of evolution. As human beings continue to evolve, further out of matter, on the journey from spirit to matter... back to spirit, the pineal gland will continue to rise from its state of age - long dormancy, bringing back to humanity... astral capacities and spiritual abilities...Your body produces its own photon energy, but you can bring more of this golden energy into your body by prana breathing it in through your crown and down through your pineal. That simple activity will awaken your God cell, also known as your Signature Cell, which is in your pineal gland. Prana breathing will flow the golden particles from the pineal through the whole of your physical body, affecting the emotional, mental and spiritual bodies in the process.Next, your thought process must be pure. If you want to get from Manhattan to a specific place in Queens and you’ve never been to Queens, you must have pure thoughts about the journey, concentrating only on the specific place you want to reach, feeling every aspect of it. Then you must go into the etheric pattern until you find and get through that little “gray space” that lets you know you’ve left the third-dimensional reality. You will find yourself in Queens, looking at the specific place you wanted to reach. You will then have to back away from it until the neighborhood where it actually is comes into focus. You will recognize the surrounding neighborhood. You may not have seen how you got there, but you will have enough information, such as an address, to Google it or to ask someone how to get there. You can go from where you are to any place in the world that way during these pre-Shift times. As a four-bodied energy, you have spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical bodies, and you have four strands of DNA that correspond to each of those bodies. The first strand of DNA is the physical, the second, the emotional, the third, the mental, and the fourth, the spiritual...The four strands of DNA are powerful, but one strand is more powerful than the rest and that is the golden strand. Each set of four strands of DNA has one golden strand, which is found in the spiritual, or etheric, body. The golden strand is pure photon energy. The photon energy you bring into your body through prana breathing gets woven with everything else via the pineal gland. During the Shift, you will let go of your third-dimensional reality with the help of that magical golden fourth strand of DNA, which is equipped to transfer you into the fourth dimension.The foundation of our spiritual practice has to be very clear to us, otherwise it is very easy to enter into mistaken techniques and practices. In the Gnostic tradition, we always seek to re-evaluate our spiritual approach; our teacher Samael Aun Weor was very rigorous in his analysis of himself, his spiritual practice, and his technique. He constantly re-evaluated his method, and corrected himself in order to ensure he was on the right path. This is because he relied on practical experience, and was constantly examining the nature of suffering in himself, and was not satisfied with concept or theory. Samael Aun Weor suffered a lot, and that suffering is what gave him the impulse, the motivation, to constantly revise his spiritual practice in order to conquer suffering, and also to help others to do the same. Really, this viewpoint about suffering is the foundation of every genuine path, so understanding suffering is the foundational aspect of all teachings. In essence, spiritual practice is about harnessing energy. In the first levels, in the foundational and Mahayana levels, the two classifications of teaching, we are really learning how to discipline our mind stream and attune it with the mind stream of Christ. This is why Bodhichitta can also be translated as Christ mind (bodhi = wisdom = Chokmah; chitta = mind).

Bodhichitta is a kind of energy that vibrates with the ray of creation, with the Ain Soph Aur, a type of light that emerges out of the Absolute, a light that comes from Adhi-Buddha, the primordial Buddha. This light, which is the supreme clear light, is the type of light that is absolutely perfect, and is the first and primordial expression of the divine. It is a light of unbelievable, indescribable radiance, whose chief characteristic is a brilliant, shining love. If you meditate on that, simply that, you will comprehend why most of the teachings of Tantra you find in the world are black. They are completely contradictory to that light. That light is not interested in pleasure. That light is not interested in the satisfaction of desire. Those are the interests of demons.

When that light emerges out of the Absolute abstract space, it emerges as a form of an archetype, related to the world of Atziluth in Kabbalah. An archetype is a blue print, a primordial form that has not yet become. For that becoming to happen, there has to be a long process of development, and that is the path of initiation, the path through which the soul is born, the soul is created. We are only the embryo of soul, a seed. We are not a soul yet. This is why Jesus said, “With patience you will possess your soul.”

The development and creation of the soul depends upon it being nourished by the light of Christ, this Christic force, which is also called Avalokiteshvara, Quetzalcoatl, Vishnu, and Osiris. They are all the same force. Christ is not a person, but an energy, an intelligence, a light.

That energy creates what we see here as the Tree of Life. That energy descends and condenses and unravels and reveals everything that exists. It is also called the great breath, and is symbolized in Kabbalah and other religions as the breath of God that emerges out of the nothingness. That great breath, that exhalation, is how everything comes to exist, macrocosmically and microcosmically. That Great Breath in Sanskrit is called Prana. The relationship between the Pineal Gland and the Sun shows how much influence the Sun has on us. It is our body clock. The Pineal Gland also reads the Sun and informs animals when it is time to hibernate..Many primitive cultures related to the Sun as the closest physical structure to God due to it’s influence on daily life. Without the Sun life would be over, but the Sun shows up everyday and on-time. The Sun not only influences human bodies internally, but provides the energy for the food humans need to survive to grow. Thus the Sun is the source of life on this planet.

The Bazylika Mariacka (full name: Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or in Polish: Bazylika Mariacka Wniebowzięcia Najświętszej Maryi Panny w Gdańsku), the co-cathedral of Gdańska. This the largest church in Poland, the biggest brick church in the world and largest Brick Gothic building in Europe. It was heavily damaged in world war 2 and was not reconsecrated until 1955.

 

I know nothing about the ruins in the foreground. Wish I'd enquired now.

 

(Sorry for any spelling errors or mistranslations, my Polish is very scant and this was four years ago. I would appreciate any corrections.)

 

Taken with a Pentax Optio S, during a trip for the 29th European Peptide Symposium, and converted to B&W with a grad tint filter applied with Google Picasa.

 

More of my photos can be found here./a>

The tomato is the edible berry of the plant Solanum lycopersicum, commonly known as a tomato plant. The species originated in western South America and Central America. The Nahuatl (the language used by the Aztecs) word tomatl gave rise to the Spanish word tomate, from which the English word tomato derived. Its domestication and use as a cultivated food may have originated with the indigenous peoples of Mexico. The Aztecs used tomatoes in their cooking at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and after the Spanish encountered the tomato for the first time after their contact with the Aztecs, they brought the plant to Europe. From there, the tomato was introduced to other parts of the European-colonized world during the 16th century.

 

Tomatoes are a significant source of umami flavor. The tomato is consumed in diverse ways, raw or cooked, in many dishes, sauces, salads, and drinks. While tomatoes are fruits—botanically classified as berries—they are commonly used as a vegetable ingredient or side dish.

 

Numerous varieties of the tomato plant are widely grown in temperate climates across the world, with greenhouses allowing for the production of tomatoes throughout all seasons of the year. Tomato plants typically grow to 1–3 meters in height. They are vines that have a weak stem that sprawls and typically needs support. Indeterminate tomato plants are perennials in their native habitat, but are cultivated as annuals. (Determinate, or bush, plants are annuals that stop growing at a certain height and produce a crop all at once.) The size of the tomato varies according to the cultivar, with a range of 1–10 cm in width.

 

NAMES

ETYMOLOGY

The word tomato comes from the Spanish tomate, which in turn comes from the Nahuatl word tomatl [ˈtomat͡ɬ], meaning 'the swelling fruit'. The native Mexican tomatillo is tomate (Nahuatl: tomātl About this soundpronunciation (help·info), meaning 'fat water' or 'fat thing'). When Aztecs started to cultivate the fruit to be larger, sweeter, and red, they called the new species xitomatl (or jitomates) (pronounced [ʃiːˈtomatɬ]), ('plump with navel' or 'fat water with navel'). The scientific species epithet lycopersicum is interpreted literally from Latin in the 1753 book, Species Plantarum, as 'wolfpeach', where wolf is from lyco and peach is from persicum.

 

PRONUNCIATION

The usual pronunciations of tomato are /təˈmeɪtoʊ/ (usual in American English) and /təˈmɑːtoʊ/ (usual in British English). The word's dual pronunciations were immortalized in Ira and George Gershwin's 1937 song "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" ("You like /pəˈteɪtoʊ/ and I like /pəˈtɑːtoʊ/ / You like /təˈmeɪtoʊ/ and I like /təˈmɑːtoʊ/") and have become a symbol for nitpicking pronunciation disputes. In this capacity, it has even become an American and British slang term: saying "/təˈmeɪtoʊ təˈmɑːtoʊ/" when presented with two choices can mean "What's the difference?" or "It's all the same to me".

 

FRUIT VERSUS VEGETABLE

Botanically, a tomato is a fruit—a berry, consisting of the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant. However, the tomato is considered a "culinary vegetable" because it has a much lower sugar content than culinary fruits; it is typically served as part of a salad or main course of a meal, rather than as a dessert. Tomatoes are not the only food source with this ambiguity; bell peppers, cucumbers, green beans, eggplants, avocados, and squashes of all kinds (such as zucchini and pumpkins) are all botanically fruit, yet cooked as vegetables. This has led to legal dispute in the United States. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws that imposed a duty on vegetables, but not on fruit, caused the tomato's status to become a matter of legal importance. The U.S. Supreme Court settled this controversy on May 10, 1893, by declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, based on the popular definition that classifies vegetables by use—they are generally served with dinner and not dessert (Nix v. Hedden (149 U.S. 304)). The holding of this case applies only to the interpretation of the Tariff of 1883, and the court did not purport to reclassify the tomato for botanical or other purposes.

 

BOTANY

DESCRIPTION

Tomato plants are vines, initially decumbent, typically growing 180 cm or more above the ground if supported, although erect bush varieties have been bred, generally 100 cm tall or shorter. Indeterminate types are "tender" perennials, dying annually in temperate climates (they are originally native to tropical highlands), although they can live up to three years in a greenhouse in some cases. Determinate types are annual in all climates.

 

Tomato plants are dicots, and grow as a series of branching stems, with a terminal bud at the tip that does the actual growing. When that tip eventually stops growing, whether because of pruning or flowering, lateral buds take over and grow into other, fully functional, vines.

 

Tomato vines are typically pubescent, meaning covered with fine short hairs. These hairs facilitate the vining process, turning into roots wherever the plant is in contact with the ground and moisture, especially if the vine's connection to its original root has been damaged or severed.

 

Most tomato plants have compound leaves, and are called regular leaf (RL) plants, but some cultivars have simple leaves known as potato leaf (PL) style because of their resemblance to that particular relative. Of RL plants, there are variations, such as rugose leaves, which are deeply grooved, and variegated, angora leaves, which have additional colors where a genetic mutation causes chlorophyll to be excluded from some portions of the leaves.

 

The leaves are 10–25 cm long, odd pinnate, with five to nine leaflets on petioles, each leaflet up to 8 cm long, with a serrated margin; both the stem and leaves are densely glandular-hairy.

 

Their flowers, appearing on the apical meristem, have the anthers fused along the edges, forming a column surrounding the pistil's style. Flowers in domestic cultivars can be self-fertilizing. The flowers are 1–2 cm across, yellow, with five pointed lobes on the corolla; they are borne in a cyme of three to 12 together.

 

Although in culinary terms, tomato is regarded as a vegetable, its fruit is classified botanically as a berry. As a true fruit, it develops from the ovary of the plant after fertilization, its flesh comprising the pericarp walls. The fruit contains hollow spaces full of seeds and moisture, called locular cavities. These vary, among cultivated species, according to type. Some smaller varieties have two cavities, globe-shaped varieties typically have three to five, beefsteak tomatoes have a great number of smaller cavities, while paste tomatoes have very few, very small cavities.

 

For propagation, the seeds need to come from a mature fruit, and be dried or fermented before germination.

 

CLASSIFICATION

In 1753, Linnaeus placed the tomato in the genus Solanum (alongside the potato) as Solanum lycopersicum. In 1768, Philip Miller moved it to its own genus, naming it Lycopersicon esculentum. This name came into wide use, but was technically in breach of the plant naming rules because Linnaeus's species name lycopersicum still had priority. Although the name Lycopersicum lycopersicum was suggested by Karsten (1888), this is not used because it violates the International Code of Nomenclature barring the use of tautonyms in botanical nomenclature. The corrected name Lycopersicon lycopersicum (Nicolson 1974) was technically valid, since Miller's genus name and Linnaeus's species name differ in exact spelling, but since Lycopersicon esculentum has become so well known, it was officially listed as a nomen conservandum in 1983, and would be the correct name for the tomato in classifications which do not place the tomato in the genus Solanum.

 

Genetic evidence has now shown that Linnaeus was correct to put the tomato in the genus Solanum, making Solanum lycopersicum the correct name. Both names, however, will probably be found in the literature for some time. Two of the major reasons for considering the genera separate are the leaf structure (tomato leaves are markedly different from any other Solanum), and the biochemistry (many of the alkaloids common to other Solanum species are conspicuously absent in the tomato). On the other hand, hybrids of tomato and diploid potato can be created in the lab by somatic fusion, and are partially fertile, providing evidence of the close relationship between these species.

 

GENETIC MODIFICATION

Tomatoes that have been modified using genetic engineering have been developed, and although none are commercially available now, they have been in the past. The first commercially available genetically modified food was a variety of tomato named the Flavr Savr, which was engineered to have a longer shelf life. Scientists are continuing to develop tomatoes with new traits not found in natural crops, such as increased resistance to pests or environmental stresses. Other projects aim to enrich tomatoes with substances that may offer health benefits or provide better nutrition.

 

An international consortium of researchers from 10 countries, among them researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, began sequencing the tomato genome in 2004, and is creating a database of genomic sequences and information on the tomato and related plants. A prerelease version of the genome was made available in December 2009. The genomes of its mitochondria and chloroplasts are also being sequenced as part of the project. The complete genome for the cultivar Heinz 1706 was published on 31 May 2012 in Nature. Since many other fruits, like strawberries, apples, melons, and bananas share the same characteristics and genes, researchers stated the published genome could help to improve food quality, food security and reduce costs of all of these fruits.

 

BREEDING

The Tomato Genetic Resource Center, Germplasm Resources Information Network, AVRDC, and numerous seed banks around the world store seed representing genetic variations of value to modern agriculture. These seed stocks are available for legitimate breeding and research efforts. While individual breeding efforts can produce useful results, the bulk of tomato breeding work is at universities and major agriculture-related corporations. These efforts have resulted in significant regionally adapted breeding lines and hybrids, such as the Mountain series from North Carolina. Corporations including Heinz, Monsanto, BHNSeed, and Bejoseed have breeding programs that attempt to improve production, size, shape, color, flavor, disease tolerance, pest tolerance, nutritional value, and numerous other traits.

 

HISTORY

The wild ancestor of the tomato is native to western South America. These wild versions were the size of peas. Aztecs and other peoples in Mesoamerica were the first to have domesticated the fruit and used in their cooking. The Spanish first introduced tomatoes to Europe, where they became used in Spanish food. In France, Italy and northern Europe, the tomato was initially grown as an ornamental plant. It was regarded with suspicion as a food because botanists recognized it as a nightshade, a relative of the poisonous belladonna. This was exacerbated by the interaction of the tomato's acidic juice with pewter plates. The leaves and immature fruit contains tomatine, which in large quantities would be toxic. However, the ripe fruit contains no tomatine.

 

MESOAMERICA

The exact date of domestication is unknown; by 500 BC, it was already being cultivated in southern Mexico and probably other areas. The Pueblo people are thought to have believed that those who witnessed the ingestion of tomato seeds were blessed with powers of divination. The large, lumpy variety of tomato, a mutation from a smoother, smaller fruit, originated in Mesoamerica, and may be the direct ancestor of some modern cultivated tomatoes.

 

The Aztecs raised several varieties of tomato, with red tomatoes called xictomatl and green tomatoes called tomatl (Tomatillo). According to Bernardino de Sahagún he saw a great variety of tomatoes in the Aztec market at Tenochtitlán (Mexico City): “. . . large tomatoes, small tomatoes, leaf tomatoes, sweet tomatoes, large serpent tomatoes, nipple-shaped tomatoes,” and tomatoes of all colors from the brightest red to the deepest yellow. Bernardino de Sahagún mentioned Aztecs cooking various sauces, some with and without tomatoes of different sizes, serving them in city markets: "foods sauces, hot sauces; fried [food], olla-cooked [food], juices, sauces of juices, shredded [food] with chile, with squash seeds [most likely Cucurbita pepo], with tomatoes, with smoked chile, with hot chile, with yellow chile, with mild red chile sauce, yellow chile sauce, hot chile sauce, with "bird excrement" sauce, sauce of smoked chile, heated [sauces], bean sauce; [he sells] toasted beans, cooked beans, mushroom sauce, sauce of small squash, sauce of large tomatoes, sauce of ordinary tomatoes, sauce of various kinds of sour herbs, avocado sauce."

 

SPANISH DISTRIBUTION

Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés may have been the first to transfer a small yellow tomato to Europe after he captured the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, in 1521. The earliest discussion of the tomato in European literature appeared in a herbal written in 1544 by Pietro Andrea Mattioli, an Italian physician and botanist, who suggested that a new type of eggplant had been brought to Italy that was blood red or golden color when mature and could be divided into segments and eaten like an eggplant—that is, cooked and seasoned with salt, black pepper, and oil. It was not until ten years later that tomatoes were named in print by Mattioli as pomi d'oro, or "golden apples".

 

After the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the Spanish distributed the tomato throughout their colonies in the Caribbean. They also took it to the Philippines, from where it spread to southeast Asia and then the entire Asian continent. The Spanish also brought the tomato to Europe. It grew easily in Mediterranean climates, and cultivation began in the 1540s. It was probably eaten shortly after it was introduced, and was certainly being used as food by the early 17th century in Spain.

 

CHINA

The tomato was introduced to China, likely via the Philippines or Macau, in the 1500s. It was given the name fānqié (barbarian eggplant), as the Chinese named many foodstuffs introduced from abroad, but referring specifically to early introductions.

 

ITALY

The recorded history of tomatoes in Italy dates back to at least 31 October 1548, when the house steward of Cosimo de' Medici, the grand duke of Tuscany, wrote to the Medici private secretary informing him that the basket of tomatoes sent from the grand duke's Florentine estate at Torre del Gallo "had arrived safely". Tomatoes were grown mainly as ornamentals early on after their arrival in Italy. For example, the Florentine aristocrat Giovanvettorio Soderini wrote how they "were to be sought only for their beauty", and were grown only in gardens or flower beds. The tomato's ability to mutate and create new and different varieties helped contribute to its success and spread throughout Italy. However, even in areas where the climate supported growing tomatoes, their habit of growing to the ground suggested low status. They were not adopted as a staple of the peasant population because they were not as filling as other fruits already available. Additionally, both toxic and inedible varieties discouraged many people from attempting to consume or prepare any other varieties. In certain areas of Italy, such as Florence, the fruit was used solely as a tabletop decoration, until it was incorporated into the local cuisine in the late 17th or early 18th century. The earliest discovered cookbook with tomato recipes was published in Naples in 1692, though the author had apparently obtained these recipes from Spanish sources.

 

Unique varieties were developed over the next several hundred years for uses such as dried tomatoes, sauce tomatoes, pizza tomatoes, and tomatoes for long-term storage. These varieties are usually known for their place of origin as much as by a variety name. For example, Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio is the "hanging tomato of Vesuvius" or the Pomodoro di Pachino and Pomodorino di Manduria.

 

BRITAIN

Tomatoes were not grown in England until the 1590s. One of the earliest cultivators was John Gerard, a barber-surgeon. Gerard's Herbal, published in 1597, and largely plagiarized from continental sources, is also one of the earliest discussions of the tomato in England. Gerard knew the tomato was eaten in Spain and Italy. Nonetheless, he believed it was poisonous (in fact, the plant and raw fruit do have low levels of tomatine, but are not generally dangerous; see below). Gerard's views were influential, and the tomato was considered unfit for eating (though not necessarily poisonous) for many years in Britain and its North American colonies.

 

However, by the mid-18th century, tomatoes were widely eaten in Britain, and before the end of that century, the Encyclopædia Britannica stated the tomato was "in daily use" in soups, broths, and as a garnish. They were not part of the average person's diet, and though by 1820 they were described as "to be seen in great abundance in all our vegetable markets" and to be "used by all our best cooks", reference was made to their cultivation in gardens still "for the singularity of their appearance", while their use in cooking was associated with exotic Italian or Jewish cuisine.

 

INDIA

The tomato arrived in India by the way of Portuguese explorers, in the 16th century. It was grown from the 18th century onwards for the British. Even today, in Bengal, the alternative name is "Biliti Begun" (Bengali: বিলিতি বেগুন), meaning "Foreign Eggplant" It was then adopted widely as it is well suited to India's climate, with Uttarakhand as one of the main producers.

 

MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

The tomato was introduced to cultivation in the Middle East by John Barker, British consul in Aleppo circa 1799 to 1825. Nineteenth century descriptions of its consumption are uniformly as an ingredient in a cooked dish. In 1881, it is described as only eaten in the region "within the last forty years". Today, the tomato is a critical and ubiquitous part of Middle Eastern cuisine, served fresh in salads (e.g., Arab salad, Israeli salad, Shirazi salad and Turkish salad), grilled with kebabs and other dishes, made into sauces, and so on.

 

NORTH AMERICA

The earliest reference to tomatoes being grown in British North America is from 1710, when herbalist William Salmon reported seeing them in what is today South Carolina. They may have been introduced from the Caribbean. By the mid-18th century, they were cultivated on some Carolina plantations, and probably in other parts of the Southeast as well. Possibly, some people continued to think tomatoes were poisonous at this time; and in general, they were grown more as ornamental plants than as food. Thomas Jefferson, who ate tomatoes in Paris, sent some seeds back to America.

 

Early tomato breeders included Henry Tilden in Iowa and a Dr. Hand in Baltimore.

 

Alexander W. Livingston receives much credit for developing numerous varieties of tomato for both home and commercial gardeners. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's 1937 yearbook declared that "half of the major varieties were a result of the abilities of the Livingstons to evaluate and perpetuate superior material in the tomato." Livingston's first breed of tomato, the Paragon, was introduced in 1870. In 1875, he introduced the Acme, which was said to be involved in the parentage of most of the tomatoes introduced by him and his competitors for the next twenty-five years.

 

When Livingston began his attempts to develop the tomato as a commercial crop, his aim had been to grow tomatoes smooth in contour, uniform in size, and sweet in flavor. In 1870, Livingston introduced the Paragon, and tomato culture soon became a great enterprise in the county. He eventually developed over seventeen different varieties of the tomato plant. Today, the crop is grown in every state in the Union.

 

Because of the long growing season needed for this heat-loving crop, several states in the US Sun Belt became major tomato-producers, particularly Florida and California. In California, tomatoes are grown under irrigation for both the fresh fruit market and for canning and processing. The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) became a major center for research on the tomato. The C.M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center at UC Davis is a gene bank of wild relatives, monogenic mutants and miscellaneous genetic stocks of tomato. The center is named for the late Dr. Charles M. Rick, a pioneer in tomato genetics research. Research on processing tomatoes is also conducted by the California Tomato Research Institute in Escalon, California.

 

In California, growers have used a method of cultivation called dry-farming, especially with Early Girl tomatoes. This technique encourages the plant to send roots deep to find existing moisture in soil that retains moisture, such as clayey soil.

 

MODERN COMMERCIAL VARIETIES

The poor taste and lack of sugar in modern garden and commercial tomato varieties resulted from breeding tomatoes to ripen uniformly red. This change occurred after discovery of a mutant "u" phenotype in the mid 20th century that ripened "u"niformly. This was widely cross-bred to produce red fruit without the typical green ring around the stem on uncross-bred varieties. Prior to general introduction of this trait, most tomatoes produced more sugar during ripening, and were sweeter and more flavorful.

 

Evidence has been found that 10–20% of the total carbon fixed in the fruit can be produced by photosynthesis in the developing fruit of the normal U phenotype. The u genetic mutation encodes a factor that produces defective chloroplasts with lower density in developing fruit, resulting in a lighter green colour of unripe fruit, and repression of sugars accumulation in the resulting ripe fruit by 10–15%. Perhaps more important than their role in photosynthesis, the fruit chloroplasts are remodelled during ripening into chlorophyll-free chromoplasts that synthesize and accumulate the carotenoids lycopene, β-carotene, and other metabolites that are sensory and nutritional assets of the ripe fruit. The potent chloroplasts in the dark-green shoulders of the U phenotype are beneficial here, but have the disadvantage of leaving green shoulders near the stems of the ripe fruit, and even cracked yellow shoulders, apparently because of oxidative stress due to overload of the photosynthetic chain in direct sunlight at high temperatures. Hence genetic design of a commercial variety that combines the advantages of types u and U requires fine tuning, but may be feasible.

 

Furthermore, breeders of modern tomato cultivars typically strive to produce tomato plants exhibiting improved yield, shelf life, size, and tolerance/resistance to various environmental pressures, including disease. However, these breeding efforts have yielded unintended negative consequences on various tomato fruit attributes. For instance, linkage drag is a phenomenon that has been responsible for alterations in the metabolism of the tomato fruit. Linkage drag describes the introduction of an undesired trait or allele into a plant during backcrossing. This trait/allele is physically linked (or is very close) to the desired allele along the chromosome. In introducing the beneficial allele, there exists a high likelihood that the poor allele is also incorporated into the plant. Thus, breeding efforts attempting to enhance certain traits (for example: larger fruit size) have unintentionally altered production of chemicals associated with, for instance, nutritional value and flavor.

 

Breeders have turned to using wild tomato species as a source of alleles for the introduction of beneficial traits into modern tomato varieties. For example, wild tomato relatives may possess higher amounts of fruit solids (which are associated with greater sugar content) or resistance to diseases caused by microbes, such as resistance towards the early blight pathogen Alternaria solani. However, this tactic has limitations, for the incorporation of certain traits, such as pathogen resistance, can negatively impact other favorable phenotypes (fruit production, etc.).

 

CULTIVATION

The tomato is grown worldwide for its edible fruits, with thousands of cultivars. A fertilizer with an NPK ratio of 5–10–10 is often sold as tomato fertilizer or vegetable fertilizer, although manure and compost are also used.

 

DISEASES,PESTS AND DISORDERS

Tomato cultivars vary widely in their resistance to disease. Modern hybrids focus on improving disease resistance over the heirloom plants.

 

Various forms of mildew and blight are common tomato afflictions, which is why tomato cultivars are often marked with a combination of letters that refer to specific disease resistance. The most common letters are: LB – late blight, V – verticillium wilt, F – fusarium wilt strain I, FF – fusarium wilt strain I and II, N – nematodes, T – tobacco mosaic virus, and A – alternaria.

 

Some common tomato pests are stink bugs, cutworms, tomato hornworms and tobacco hornworms, aphids, cabbage loopers, whiteflies, tomato fruitworms, flea beetles, red spider mite, slugs,[56] and Colorado potato beetles. The tomato russet mite, Aculops lycopersici, feeds on foliage and young fruit of tomato plants, causing shrivelling and necrosis of leaves, flowers, and fruit, possibly killing the plant.

 

A common tomato disease is tobacco mosaic virus. Handling cigarettes and other infected tobacco products can transmit the virus to tomato plants.

 

Another particularly dreaded disease is curly top, carried by the beet leafhopper, which interrupts the lifecycle. As the name implies, it has the symptom of making the top leaves of the plant wrinkle up and grow abnormally.

 

After an insect attack tomato plants produce systemin, a plant peptide hormone . Systemin activates defensive mechanisms, such as the production of protease inhibitors to slow the growth of insects. The hormone was first identified in tomatoes, but similar proteins have been identified in other species since.

 

Although not a disease as such, irregular supplies of water can cause growing or ripening fruit to split. Besides cosmetic damage, the splits may allow decay to start, although growing fruits have some ability to heal after a split. In addition, a deformity called cat-facing can be caused by pests, temperature stress, or poor soil conditions. Affected fruit usually remains edible, but its appearance may be unsightly.

 

COMPANION PLANTS

Tomatoes serve, or are served by, a large variety of companion plants.

 

Among the most famous pairings is the tomato plant and carrots; studies supporting this relationship have produced a popular book about companion planting, Carrots Love Tomatoes.

 

The devastating tomato hornworm has a major predator in various parasitic wasps, whose larvae devour the hornworm, but whose adult form drinks nectar from tiny-flowered plants like umbellifers. Several species of umbellifer are therefore often grown with tomato plants, including parsley, Queen Anne's lace, and occasionally dill. These also attract predatory flies that attack various tomato pests.

 

Borage is thought to repel the tomato hornworm moth.

 

Plants with strong scents, like alliums (onions, chives, garlic), mints (basil, oregano, spearmint) and French marigold, (Tagetes patula) are thought to mask the scent of the tomato plant, making it harder for pests to locate it, or to provide an alternative landing point, reducing the odds of the pests from attacking the correct plant. These plants may also subtly affect the flavor of tomato fruit.

 

Tomato plants can protect asparagus from asparagus beetles, because they contain solanine that kills this pest, while asparagus plants contain Asparagusic acid that repels nematodes known to attack tomato plants. Marigolds also repel nematodes.

 

POLLINATION

In the wild, original state, tomatoes required cross-pollination; they were much more self-incompatible than domestic cultivars. As a floral device to reduce selfing, the pistil of wild tomatoes extends farther out of the flower than today's cultivars. The stamens were, and remain, entirely within the closed corolla.

 

As tomatoes were moved from their native areas, their traditional pollinators, (probably a species of halictid bee) did not move with them. The trait of self-fertility became an advantage, and domestic cultivars of tomato have been selected to maximize this trait.

 

This is not the same as self-pollination, despite the common claim that tomatoes do so. That tomatoes pollinate themselves poorly without outside aid is clearly shown in greenhouse situations, where pollination must be aided by artificial wind, vibration of the plants (one brand of vibrator is a wand called an "electric bee" that is used manually), or more often today, by cultured bumblebees. The anther of a tomato flower is shaped like a hollow tube, with the pollen produced within the structure, rather than on the surface, as in most species. The pollen moves through pores in the anther, but very little pollen is shed without some kind of externally-induced motion. The ideal vibratory frequencies to release pollen grains are provided by an insect, such as a bumblebee, or the original wild halictid pollinator, capable of engaging in a behavior known as buzz pollination, which honey bees cannot perform. In an outdoors setting, wind or animals usually provide sufficient motion to produce commercially viable crops.

 

FRUIT FORMATION

Pollination and fruit formation depend on meiosis. Meiosis is central to the processes by which diploid microspore mother cells within the anther give rise to haploid pollen grains, and megaspore mother cells in ovules that are contained within the ovary give rise to haploid nuclei. Union of haploid nuclei from pollen and ovule (fertilization) can occur either by self- or cross-pollination. Fertilization leads to the formation of a diploid zygote that can then develop into an embryo within the emerging seed. Repeated fertilizations within the ovary are accompanied by maturation of the ovary to form the tomato fruit.

 

Homologs of the recA gene, including rad51, play a key role in homologous recombinational repair of DNA during meiosis. A rad51 homolog is present in the anther of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum), suggesting that recombinational repair occurs during meiosis in tomato.

 

HYDROPONIC AND GREENHOUSE CULTIVATION

Tomatoes are often grown in greenhouses in cooler climates, and cultivars such as the British 'Moneymaker' and a number of cultivars grown in Siberia are specifically bred for indoor growing. In more temperate climates, it is not uncommon to start seeds in greenhouses during the late winter for future transplant.

 

Greenhouse tomato production in large-acreage commercial greenhouses and owner-operator stand-alone or multiple-bay greenhouses is on the increase, providing fruit during those times of the year when field-grown fruit is not readily available. Smaller sized fruit (cherry and grape), or cluster tomatoes (fruit-on-the-vine) are the fruit of choice for the large commercial greenhouse operators while the beefsteak varieties are the choice of owner-operator growers.

 

Hydroponic technique is often used in hostile growing environments, as well as high-density plantings.

 

PICKING AND RIPENING

To facilitate transportation and storage, tomatoes are often picked unripe (green) and ripened in storage with ethylene.

 

A machine-harvestable variety of tomato (the "square tomato") was developed in the 1950s by University of California, Davis's Gordie C. Hanna, which, in combination with the development of a suitable harvester, revolutionized the tomato-growing industry. This type of tomato is grown commercially near plants that process and can tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste. They are harvested when ripe and are flavorful when picked. They are harvested 24 hours a day, seven days a week during a 12- to 14-week season, and immediately transported to packing plants, which operate on the same schedule. California is a center of this sort of commercial tomato production and produces about a third of the processed tomatoes produced in the world.

 

In 1994, Calgene introduced a genetically modified tomato called the FlavrSavr, which could be vine ripened without compromising shelf life. However, the product was not commercially successful, and was sold only until 1997.

 

YIELD

The world dedicated 4.8 million hectares in 2012 for tomato cultivation and the total production was about 161.8 million tonnes. The average world farm yield for tomato was 33.6 tonnes per hectare, in 2012.

 

Tomato farms in the Netherlands were the most productive in 2012, with a nationwide average of 476 tonnes per hectare, followed by Belgium (463 tonnes per hectare) and Iceland (429 tonnes per hectare).

 

RECORDS

As of 2008, the heaviest tomato harvested, weighed 3.51 kg, was of the cultivar "Delicious", and was grown by Gordon Graham of Edmond, Oklahoma in 1986. The largest tomato plant grown was of the cultivar "Sungold" and reached 19.8 m in length, grown by Nutriculture Ltd (UK) of Mawdesley, Lancashire, UK, in 2000.

 

A massive "tomato tree" growing inside the Walt Disney World Resort's experimental greenhouses in Lake Buena Vista, Florida may have been the largest single tomato plant in the world. The plant has been recognized as a Guinness World Record Holder, with a harvest of more than 32,000 tomatoes and a total weight of 522 kg It yielded thousands of tomatoes at one time from a single vine. Yong Huang, Epcot's manager of agricultural science, discovered the unique plant in Beijing, China. Huang brought its seeds to Epcot and created the specialized greenhouse for the fruit to grow. The vine grew golf ball-sized tomatoes, which were served at Walt Disney World restaurants.[citation needed] The tree developed a disease and was removed in April 2010 after about 13 months of life.

 

PRODUCTION

In 2019, world production of tomatoes was 181 million tonnes, with China accounting for 35% of the total, followed by India and Turkey as major producers (table).

 

CONSUMPTION

Though it is botanically a berry, a subset of fruit, the tomato is a vegetable for culinary purposes because of its savory flavor (see below).

 

Although tomatoes originated in the Americas, they have become extensively used in Mediterranean cuisine. Ripe tomatoes contain significant umami flavor and they are a key ingredient in pizza, and are commonly used in pasta sauces. They are also used in gazpacho (Spanish cuisine) and pa amb tomàquet (Catalan cuisine).

 

The tomato is now grown and eaten around the world. It is used in diverse ways, including raw in salads or in slices, stewed, incorporated into a wide variety of dishes, or processed into ketchup or tomato soup. Unripe green tomatoes can also be breaded and fried, used to make salsa, or pickled. Tomato juice is sold as a drink, and is used in cocktails such as the Bloody Mary.

 

STORAGE

Tomatoes keep best unwashed at room temperature and out of direct sunlight. It is not recommended to refrigerate them as this can harm the flavor. Tomatoes stored cold tend to lose their flavor permanently.

 

Storing stem down can prolong shelf life, as it may keep from rotting too quickly.

 

Tomatoes that are not yet ripe can be kept in a paper bag till ripening.

 

Tomatoes are easy to preserve whole, in pieces, as tomato sauce or paste by home canning. They are acidic enough to process in a water bath rather than a pressure cooker as most vegetables require. The fruit is also preserved by drying, often in the sun, and sold either in bags or in jars with oil.

 

SAFETY

PLANT TOXICITY

The leaves, stem, and green unripe fruit of the tomato plant contain small amounts of the alkaloid tomatine, whose effect on humans has not been studied. They also contain small amounts of solanine, a toxic alkaloid found in potato leaves and other plants in the nightshade family. However, solanine concentrations in foliage and green fruit are generally too small to be dangerous unless large amounts are consumed—for example, as greens.

 

Small amounts of tomato foliage are sometimes used for flavoring without ill effect, and the green fruit of unripe red tomato varieties is sometimes used for cooking, particularly as fried green tomatoes. There are also tomato varieties with fully ripe fruit that is still green. Compared to potatoes, the amount of solanine in unripe green or fully ripe tomatoes is low. However, even in the case of potatoes, while solanine poisoning resulting from dosages several times the normal human consumption has been demonstrated, actual cases of poisoning from excessive consumption of potatoes are rare.

 

Tomato plants can be toxic to dogs if they eat large amounts of the fruit, or chew plant material.

 

SALMONELLA

Tomatoes were linked to seven Salmonella outbreaks between 1990 and 2005, and may have been the cause of a salmonellosis outbreak causing 172 illnesses in 18 US states in 2006. The 2008 United States salmonellosis outbreak caused the temporary removal of tomatoes from stores and restaurants across the United States and parts of Canada, although other foods, including jalapeño and serrano peppers, may have been involved.

 

NUTRITION

A tomato is 95% water, contains 4% carbohydrates and less than 1% each of fat and protein (table). In a 100 gram amount, raw tomatoes supply 18 calories and are a moderate source of vitamin C (17% of the Daily Value), but otherwise are absent of significant nutrient content (table).

 

RESEARCH

No conclusive evidence indicates that the lycopene in tomatoes or in supplements affects the onset of cardiovascular diseases or cancer.

 

In the United States, supposed health benefits of consuming tomatoes, tomato products or lycopene to affect cancer cannot be mentioned on packaged food products without a qualified health claim statement. In a scientific review of potential claims for lycopene favorably affecting DNA, skin exposed to ultraviolet radiation, heart function and vision, the European Food Safety Authority concluded that the evidence for lycopene having any of these effects was inconclusive.

 

HOST PLANT

The Potato Tuber moth (Phthorimaea operculella) is an oligophagous insect that prefers to feed on plants of the family Solanaceae such as tomato plants. Female P. operculella use the leaves to lay their eggs and the hatched larvae will eat away at the mesophyll of the leaf.

 

IN POPULAR CULTURE

On 30 August 2007, 40,000 Spaniards gathered in Buñol to throw 115,000 kg of tomatoes at each other in the yearly Tomatina festival.

 

In Ontario, Canada, member of provincial parliament Mike Colle introduced a private member's bill in March 2016 to name the tomato as the official vegetable of the province and to designate 15 July as Tomato Day, in order to acknowledge the tomato's importance in Ontario's agriculture. The bill did not pass in the legislature and no official designations were made.

 

Tomatoes have been designated the state vegetable of New Jersey. Arkansas took both sides by declaring the South Arkansas Vine Ripe Pink Tomato both the state fruit and the state vegetable in the same law, citing both its culinary and botanical classifications. In 2009, the state of Ohio passed a law making the tomato the state's official fruit. Tomato juice has been the official beverage of Ohio since 1965. Alexander W. Livingston, of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, played a large part in popularizing the tomato in the late 19th century; his efforts are commemorated in Reynoldsburg with an annual Tomato Festival.

 

Flavr Savr was the first commercially grown genetically engineered food licensed for human consumption.

 

The town of Buñol, Spain, annually celebrates La Tomatina, a festival centered on an enormous tomato fight. Tomatoes are a popular "nonlethal" throwing weapon in mass protests, and there was a common tradition of throwing rotten tomatoes at bad performers on a stage during the 19th century; today this is usually referenced as a metaphor. Embracing it for this protest connotation, the Dutch Socialist party adopted the tomato as their logo.

 

The US city of Reynoldsburg, Ohio calls itself "The Birthplace of the Tomato", claiming the first commercial variety of tomato was bred there in the 19th century.

 

Several US states have adopted the tomato as a state fruit or vegetable (see above).

 

"Rotten Tomatoes" is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The name "Rotten Tomatoes" derives from the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes when disapproving of a poor stage performance. "Rotten Tomatoes" took the tomato metaphor further by rating films as Certified Fresh if they got a score of 75% or higher, Fresh for films with a score of 60% or higher that do not meet the requirements for the Certified Fresh seal, and Rotten for films with a score of 0–59%.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Professor Jeremy Sanders, FRS, Head of the 800 Committee, University of Cambridge.

 

He is also the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University.

 

AND, he is the Head of the School of Physical Sciences and a Fellow of Selwyn College.

 

AND, last month the Royal Society awarded him the Davy Medal for his pioneering contributions to several fields, most recently to the field of dynamic combinatorial chemistry at the forefront of supramolecular chemistry.

 

His research work: "We are interested in molecular recognition: Metal-ligand, pi-pi, donor-acceptor and hydrogen bonding interactions are used to create new supramolecular systems that may have useful recognition, catalytic or photophysical properties. Building blocks include peptides and metalloporphyrins, and products include macrocycles, nanotubes, rotaxanes and catenanes. For more detailed descriptions see our Group Web page ".

Pancake took a good hit Sunday by a large swarm of small robo-like bees over at the park - she is still quite swollen around her mouth, sides and paws but she did enjoy rolling around in the grass this evening. It is evident these swarms of alien bees do not appreciate being displaced by the insurmountable earth moving throughout the area.. Apparently the "powers to been" in our Jefferson County, Kentucky government which approved this massive ground excavation, burrowing, tunneling and building all at once never took bee displacement or the current community's health and well-being into consideration when approving the massive undermining and development of this immediate area.

 

This is the bee - generally found throughout Europe and as far east as Western Asia. They were less than 1/2" (1.25 cm) in length with yellow bands and had red antennae.

 

Halictus sexcinctus

 

Halictus sexcinctus, commonly referred to as the Six-banded furrow bee, is a species of sweat bee found throughout Europe and as far east as Western Asia. The H. sexcinctus can be easily confused with the closely related species, Halictus scabiosae, due to very similar morphological features. H. sexcinctus show a social polymorphism in which different colonies can exhibit solitary, communal, or eusocial structure. Due to this large variance in social organization, it was suspected that it was not one species at all, but rather multiple, cryptic species. However, genetic analysis was able to confirm these varying populations as one species. H. sexcinctus will forage from multiple flower species, but prefers plant species with wide-open flowers. Their nests can be found dug into the ground in loamy or sandy soil.

 

Human Importance

Antimicrobial properties of proteins in the venom

With the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria, the need to find antimicrobial substances that function differently than current antibiotics is incredibly important. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are commonly found in the venom of arthropods, and these proteins function by breaking up bacterial cell membranes. However, these AMPs will often also damage eukaryotic cells, typically red blood cells. A substance that damages human red blood cells will be less valuable as an antibiotic for obvious reasons. AMPs that damaged red blood cells at low rates were found in the venom of several species of bees, leading to a study of the venom of H. sexcinctus. Two newly isolated peptides from the venom were found to be significantly different in structure to any other AMPs in the antimicrobial peptide database. These new proteins showed effective antimicrobial activity against four strains of bacteria (B. subtilis, S. aureus, E. coli, and P. aeruginosa) and a yeast pathogen (C. albicans). While these proteins isolated from H. sexcinctus venom show good antimicrobial properties, they also show found to damage red blood cells (hemolysis), reducing their therapeutic potential. However, when their structures were modified a few analogs with slightly lower hemolytic activity were discovered, meriting further study.[5]

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halictus_sexcinctus

 

Some of the research being done on these particular bees' venom: doctiktak.com/novel-antimicrobial-peptides-from-the-venom...