metazoan « Thoughtomics

Graduating vs. the Wide Open Sea

Blogging will be slow the next few weeks, as I’m currently in the process of writing up my Master’s thesis, preparing the final presentation and generally finishing up the (last) internship of my MSc programme. After everything is over, I can hopefully call myself a Master of Science. It’s a strange feeling that [...]

Sponge Genomes: Simply Complex

Spongia officinalis, or "kitchen sponge". It is dark grey because it is alive, unlike the one in your bathtub.

You might not think much of sponges. Maybe you feel that they’re only good for rubbing your back and cleaning your kitchen sink. While you’re absolutely right that sponges have to be admired for their absorbing qualities, they have much more to offer this world. Like on the front of early animal evolution: [...]

North Sea Genomes

Kelp blowing in the "wind" in Diamond Bay. Kelp forests are one of the most productive ecosystems of temperate and cooler seas. Source: saspotato on Flickr

If coral reefs are the rain forests of the tropical oceans, kelp forests are the woodlands of the Northern seas. Kelp is one of the algal species that can survive the harsh conditions of the North Sea that I know and love, together with other hardy seaweeds like bladder wrack. All these seaweeds [...]

Zip up and stick together...

… could have been a really cheesy line in an action movie. It’s also what cells in multicellular metazoans do! A little single-celled creature contains some clues about the origins of all this stickiness.

You might not realize it, but being multicellular is quite a feat! Your cells need to divide and [...]

Where did all the tyrosine go?

Proteins in complex metazoans (like us) lost a whole lot of tyrosine along the way, according to a recent Science paper. Why do we and our fellow animals have less of this amino acid than our unicellular nephews?

If you would be a single-celled organism, you would be absolutely free to divide and multiply according to [...]

Thoughtomics

Graduating vs. the Wide Open Sea

Sponge Genomes: Simply Complex

North Sea Genomes

Zip up and stick together...

Where did all the tyrosine go?

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