Cute :)

I don't think it should be weird, for me to put a fruit fly outside

Wahoo! May your sciencing uncover new swathes of knowledge :D

You might know this tiny frog.

This is Mini mum (photo by Andolalao Rakotoarison), a species I had the pleasure to name—together with a team of amazing colleagues—back in 2019.

That was the start of a fascination with the process and consequences of miniaturisation for vertebrates. How the hell does this tiny frog manage to fit all of its vital organs—more or less all the same senses and organs that we have—into a package the size of a tic-tac‽ Why and how has it evolved to be so small? And why don't we get frogs that are much smaller?

Well, I just secured 1.5 MILLION Euros (!!!) in the form of a European Research Commission Starting Grant, to answer these and other related questions in the genomes of Mini frogs and other miniaturised vertebrates.

Because it turns out, there are *lots* of miniaturised vertebrates, and they push the boundaries of how small we think it is possible for a vertebrate to be! Here is a little graphic of some of them, scaled to a BIC ballpoint pen.

The project is called GEMINI: The Genomics of Miniaturisation in Vertebrates! You can read more about it on my website here, and in the press release, here!

women

My mum trying to teach me cooking:

Ok, the whole thing is to balance the three main flavor bases of the dish, saltiness, spice, and acid. It's basically chemistry and also an art as well. Are you done with the carrots?

Meanwhile me:

AMOGUS

Dragonfly naiad, from a freshwater pond. 40x magnification.

They are carnivorous freshwater larvae that devour tadpoles, mosquito larvae and even small fish!

They have compound eyes as seen in the picture and six limbs as seen in most Insecta forms

Biology just makes me swoon <3

FUCK-

You know what to do, do it with style.

EEEE colorful bugs and birds and flowers!!! I LOVE-

Illustrated here is an Ornate hawk-eagle. Just trying some stuff out with watercolor and gel pens

His face is almost muscle memory at this point

Genesis : the colored version

My art probably peaked here lmao