Starship Asterisk*

geckzilla wrote:some strange bacterial survival method where the outer layer forms a cyst until favorable conditions are met.

owlice wrote:

geckzilla wrote:some strange bacterial survival method where the outer layer forms a cyst until favorable conditions are met.

That's not a strange survival method... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbial_cyst

geckzilla wrote:i wish i had a microscope

geckzilla wrote:Tonight I was going to make a midnight snack--peanut butter and jelly. Sadly, just as I was about to scoop the jelly onto the bread, I noticed tiny gray spheres in it. Not fuzzy mold. Bacteria? Investigation revealed they were contained in at least 2/3 of the top of the jelly.

Beyond wrote:

geckzilla wrote:i wish i had a microscope

Make your own. See-->The Science Labs ... The 3 items that smartphone science needs to proceed. (makc's video)

rstevenson wrote:

geckzilla wrote:Tonight I was going to make a midnight snack--peanut butter and jelly. Sadly, just as I was about to scoop the jelly onto the bread, I noticed tiny gray spheres in it. Not fuzzy mold. Bacteria? Investigation revealed they were contained in at least 2/3 of the top of the jelly.

Purchased jelly or home made? How long since bottled (roughly)? How long since opened for the first time? (I've made my own jelly for years, but I've never seen such things.) A picture would be interesting and perhaps useful.

Rob

geckzilla wrote:
It's probably been in there for a eight months. Who knows when it was first bottled. It probably has a lot number on it and it could be determined somehow but I don't know how. It says it is best by July 2014. Here are some photos. As you can see, they are everywhere. It's pretty gross. So is that little brown bit of goop on the outside of the jar which I failed to notice until taking the photo and is now making me feel self-conscious because I've got a dirty jar of jelly with hard balls of somethings growing in it. I suddenly feel very unsanitary.

http://extension.missouri.edu/extensioninfonet/article.asp?id=3254 wrote:

<<Sometimes, jelly gets crystals, called tartrate crystals, forming in the jelly. They're not harmful and don't affect the taste, but some people don't like the appearance. Crystals throughout the jelly may be caused by too much sugar in the jelly mixture, or cooking the mixture too little, too slowly or too long. Crystals on top of jelly that has been opened and allowed to stand are due to evaporation of liquid. Tartrate crystals in grape jelly may occur if juice has not been allowed to stand overnight and then strained through a double thickness of cheesecloth before preparing jelly.

Sodium ammonium tartrate is the compound through which Louis Pasteur discovered chirality>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_tartrate wrote:

<<Potassium tartrate, dipotassium tartrate or argol has formula K₂C₄H₄O₆. Potassium tartrate is produced by the reaction of tartaric acid with potassium sodium tartrate (rochelle salt), and potassium sulfate, followed by filtration, purification, precipitation and drying. A tartrate is a salt or ester of the organic compound tartaric acid, a dicarboxylic acid. The main forms of tartrates used commercially are pure crystalline tartartic acid used as an acidulant in non-alcoholic drinks and foods, cream of tartar used in baking, and Rochelle Salt, commonly used in electroplating solutions. As food additives, tartrates are used as antioxidants, acidity regulators, and emulsifiers.>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_bitartrate wrote:

<<Potassium bitartrate crystallizes in wine casks during the fermentation of grape juice, and can precipitate out of wine in bottles. The crystals (wine diamonds) will often form on the underside of a cork in wine-filled bottles that have been stored at temperatures below 10 °C, and will seldom, if ever, dissolve naturally into the wine. Tartrates separate from new wines because they are less soluble in alcohol than in non-alcoholic grape juice; approximately half of the tartrate soluble in grape juice is insoluble in wine. The problem is that the tartrate may remain in a supersaturated state after bottling, only to crystallize at some unpredictable later time. These crystals also precipitate out of fresh grape juice that has been chilled or allowed to stand for some time. To prevent crystals forming in homemade grape jam or jelly, fresh grape juice should be chilled overnight to promote crystallisation. The potassium bitartrate crystals are removed by filtering through two layers of cheesecloth. The filtered juice may then be made into jam or jelly. In some cases they adhere to the side of the chilled container, making filtering unnecessary. The crude form (known as beeswing) is collected and purified to produce the white, odorless, acidic powder used for many culinary and other household purposes.>>

Beyond wrote:
Grape jelly can be so complicated. I use strawberry jam.

• JAM can also be complicated if you need it today:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Through_the_Looking-Glass#Symbolism wrote:
<<The White Queen offers to hire Alice as her lady's maid and to pay her "Twopence a week, and jam every other day." Alice says that she doesn't want any jam today, and the Queen tells her: "You couldn't have it if you did want it. The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday- but never jam to-day." This is a reference to the rule in Latin that the word iam or jam meaning now in the sense of already or at that time cannot be used to describe now in the present, which is nunc in Latin. JAM is therefore never available today.>>
....................................................
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
Chapter 5: Wool and Water

`But really you should have a lady's maid!'

`I'm sure I'll take you with pleasure!' the Queen said. `Twopence a week, and jam every other day.'

Alice couldn't help laughing, as she said, `I don't want you to hire me -- and I don't care for jam.'

`It's very good jam,' said the Queen.

`Well, I don't want any to-day, at any rate.'

`You couldn't have it if you did want it,' the Queen said. `The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday -- but never jam to-day.'

`It must come sometimes to "jam do-day,"' Alice objected.

`No, it can't,' said the Queen. `It's jam every other day: to-day isn't any other day, you know.'

`I don't understand you,' said Alice. `It's dreadfully confusing!'

Nitpicker wrote:One day last wet season, I found a peculiar, yellow thing existing in our veggie garden. After searching various images online, I identified the thing and discovered that it had the best name ever: Dog Vomit Slime Mould.

Beyond wrote:
'Platypus-zilla' fossil found in Australia: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24807557

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/361525 wrote:

[b][color=#0000FF]The ancient Australian megafauna were in many cases giant versions of modern marsupials, but with some differences.[/color][/b]

---

Giant carnivorous platypus species discovered by one tooth
By Paul Wallis, Digital Journal, Nov 4, 2013

<<The platypus, when first discovered, was sent to England for study. The academics of the time considered it a hoax. What would they have thought of a metre-long, carnivorous version, with teeth? The new find, called Oboduron tharalkooschild, has exposed a part of Australia’s ancient fauna never suspected. It’s about twice the size of the platypus of today. Unlike its living relative, Obdurodon had a full set of teeth, which it probably used to ensnare and eat prey. Based on the other animal fossils found at the same site, the team suspects the ancient monotreme existed between 5 million and 15 million years ago. Riversleigh is one of the world's richest fossil deposits, containing evidence of the ancestors of almost every species of modern Australian mammal."

The picture of ancient Australia is slowly getting filled in, and it was a truly strange place. The ancient Australian megafauna were in many cases giant versions of modern marsupials, but with some differences. The “marsupial lion” Thylacoleo, was basically a giant carnivorous possum. The Diprotodon, a mega herbivore, was a monster wombat. They co-existed with a huge reptilian predator called Megalania, a monitor lizard bigger than a saltwater crocodile, believed to have been a sort of super Komodo dragon. There were even carnivorous kangaroos. The “short faced” kangaroo was about twice the size of the big modern kangaroos. So adding a carnivorous platypus makes some sort of sense, in context with these very different, almost contradictory, ancestors. Predation patterns must also have been very different to other parts of the world, with indications of both predatory and herbivorous species being related to various degrees.

The new platypus, however, has added a dimension nobody would have suspected. Modern platypus are predators, but hunt small prey. Male platypus also have poison spines on their back feet which are only venomous in mating season, and not a predation weapon. It’d be interesting to know how that developed. If the giant platypus had these spines, were they weapons?

Marsupials dominated South America and Australia in the Pleistocene. The South Americans were overrun by modern mammalian invaders from the north, but the Australian marsupials have survived, with difficulty, the onslaught of both modern mammals and humans. It will be interesting to find out more about how this very hardy group of animals survived in the past, in a country which has gone from rainforest to desert. It looks like the answers are in the history.>>