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- Bluetiful Bee | Floating Fungi | Universal Organs - The Convo Kit #36
Bluetiful Bee | Floating Fungi | Universal Organs - The Convo Kit #36
Let’s go to space. Virgin Galactic is only asking $150k up front, we can figure out the other $300k later.
Or you can forward this to three people and maybe I can write the flight off as a work expense.
-Steve
P.S. - Correction: The rocket crashing into the moon from TCK #33 is now believed to be a Chinese rocket, not SpaceX.
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Bluetiful Bee
When they say beeuty is in the eye of the bee-holder, they’re talking about blue bees. Xylocopa caerulea is a massive blue carpenter bee native to Southeast Asia, India, and Southern China.
Up to 28 mm long (bigger than a quarter)
Only females are blue and have a stinger
Live solitary, non-aggressive lives
Like other carpenter bees, xylocopa caerulea, make single-family homes inside trees rather than large nests. They mix their thick honey with pollen to create the “bee bread” where eggs are laid for a sweet first meal. Naturally, these blue buzzers are big fans of Eiffel-65’s hit song.
Floating Fungi
A Washington State University student built a canoe out of mushroom roots, aka mycelium. The objective was to raise awareness on the versatility of common fungi.
7.5-foot long canoe named MyConoe
Guinness World Record for “World’s Largest Fungal Mycelium Boat”
Took roughly 5 months to complete, but only 7 days to grow
The majority of building time was spent figuring out how to line up various parts with expected growth times. Growing forward, the builders plan to demonstrate mycellium’s usefulness, including a bee hotel project.
Universal Organs
Researchers successfully converted the blood type of eight pairs of donor lungs. The conversion turned type A lungs into the more universally accepted type O.
Over 100,000 people waiting for an organ transplant in the U.S.
45% of the U.S. have type O blood, making them unable to receive other types
Enzymes were created to break down type A and B antigens harmful to type O blood
To create those enzymes, E. coli was genetically modified twenty thousand times to reproduce various gut bacteria. About a dozen of these E. coli generated successful enzymes which were then circulated through the donor lungs for a few hours before type O conversion occurred.
China’s Amphibious Plane
China is testing the world’s largest amphibious plane, AG600. The Boeing 737-sized aircraft can patrol the entire South China Sea without the need of a landing strip.
Carries 50 people for up to 12 hours
Fully operational by 2025
Limited by its reliance on 1950s engine technology
In addition to water landings, AG600’s boat-like hull can scoop up enough water to fight wildfires as large as 43,000 square feet. When the versatile behemoth is not fighting fires or performing remote search and rescue missions, it will act as a normal commercial plane. China basically has Smokey Bear on-call with a flying fire hydrant.
Mite-y Clones
Zoologists and biologists recently confirmed the first-known existence of an all-female species. Oppiella nova, an ancient beetle-mite, was found to exhibit the Meselson effect.
Meselson effect = purely asexual reproduction
Been around for millions of years
Only 1/5 of a millimeter long
To confirm their hypothesis, researchers compared the genetic information of O. nova and a closely related species, Oppiella subpectinata. The haplotypes, or DNA variations, found throughout O. nova generations were drastically different from its traditionally reproducing relatives.
1 More Thing
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