Science Mystery Photo: Are these the pages of an ancient book? Flaming rivulets of lava? Go ahead and take a wild guess.
Hint: These are extraordinarily efficient assembly lines producing up to 31,000 “products” per second or 2.7 billion per day! The special arrangement seen in the photos increases the surface area of the “factories” by 20 fold, with optimum spacing for maximum efficiency.
Cool Fact: The products of this factory are released by a mechanism known as surface tension catapult, achieving speeds of 1.8 m per sec, although they only need to be ejected about 1 mm or so.
Shhh! Do you already know what this is? Don’t be a spoilsport, be a fun guy (or gal!). Share an interesting fact about it in the comments. We’ll all be wiser in the end.
Photo credits: Brian J. Kelly, Kip Taylor-Brown and Claudio Pia
#iseetheworldwithscience #ScienceSunday
madame scientist's not-so-mad musings 
mushroom
how cool (those facts, I mean, and the pics too)! I think I know what it is this time! 🙂
Spa or pool cartridge filter
Beautiful macros, right E.E. Giorgi ?
edit deleted
…. fish use “these” too, but not for the same reason.
fantastic macros! and super cool factories indeed! 🙂
One of my favourite varieties is the boletus, which have tube-gills. Wondering if the same ejection mechanism is in effect (or are they like miniature howitzers?).
Yes, indeed the biological term is lamellae, Chad W Darroch .
Robert Cronkite , are they ejecting pool toys then 🙂
David Archer , there is something called a Buller’s drop that forms at the base of the “products” and propels it.
David Archer , tell me if this link works: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2936274/figure/F1/
I like your new hint, Chad W Darroch 🙂
I’m such a fun gal, so I’m keeping the answer for me 😛
message me Rajini with the answerLOLOff to bed with me, nicely written 🙂
Very nice images and a cool and remarkably efficient process. 🙂
These certainly ensure something is always among us 🙂
I’ll insert a delicious recipe (hint hint) in your dreams and tell you the answer, Kawthar AL ABDALLA . Good night!
Gotcha! 😉 see ya!
I know this, I know this. ha!
Next time you come to Barcelona, Rajini Rao, you must taste some of the traditional ones. Usually just roasted with garlic, persil, and some salt and olive oil.
I discovered a surprising amount of quantitative research on the efficiency of the process, Louise Hughes . Right you are, William Carter 🙂
Well I had this totally wrong – thought they were pictures of a mushroom until I saw the hints!
Ugh Sorry….
I know I know I know!!!
: )
Yes, Rajini Rao – the link works. Cool stuff!
Are you just exploding, like the things in these images Angelique Smith ? Lorna Salgado too, I imagine 😉
Jim Donegan , my hint is somewhat obscure and possibly misleading 🙂
Víktor Bautista i Roca , that’s a date! I’ve forgotten what persil is.
Fun guy is a bit of a hint, isn’t it 🙂
Natalia Mitin Sort of – it’s something that can be used… at parties!
Natalia Mitin Better not be sexist, there are fun gals too 😉
Rajini Rao It’s parsley written in French, sorry! I was mixing up languages!
If I was small enough, I would sit on one
Aha!!
Jim Donegan , you will probably enjoy the physics of ejection in the linked paper above. It is carefully calibrated to launch the product just far enough to escape from the “lamellae” but not enough to embed into the next one.
My wild guess was something related to intestinal lining, but I could not resist researching it and found the answer … I lacked will power to await your answer.
Vincent Peralta , the villi of the intestinal lining also increase surface area, but hopefully not for ballistic expulsion :O
Of course, you are free to do a Google image search or anything else. It’s just fun 🙂
Aha, now you are the real expert Dan Bowden . Did you know that the spacing between them has been carefully optimized by those secondary and sometimes tertiary lamellae?
You REALLY caused me to LOL! And I wholeheartedly agree with you. Thank you for spreading happiness & laughter through science
Rajini Rao Thanks. Will check it out.
they are fungi
I do not like spoil sports. Great post…
Is this a book or am I hallucinating?
Dan Bowden , although I love to make a pizza (and eat it too), I wouldn’t want this exact specimen on there. Let’s fly agaric and leave it be 😉
You’re just a fun gal, La Vergne Lestermeringolo Thatch 🙂
Great anecdote re. Claudius. This is how Nero of the fiddling fame became emperor of Rome!
A magical trip, although I wouldn’t know anything about that Thex Dar :O
Dan Bowden Mine was unintentional. Some of the comments made me think it could be the filtration system in some weird type of mollusc or something!
lol
Looking at these, I’m also thinking the non fishy sort of non breathing apparatus. It’s 11pm, that didn’t even make sense to me! Right I’m off to bed!
the incredible acceleration must be a fun ride though, short distance but fun ride 🙂
Rajini Rao That’s what I meant: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6aXi6R-sV60/TsvYfRXgDWI/AAAAAAAABiU/VBoUJ_fg0gs/s1600/rovellons+a+la+barbaoa+amb+all+i+julivert.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MHY9_62OpOc/UHrH9QLFN0I/AAAAAAAADmQ/Hayq2PFJZ9M/s1600/rovellons+brasa.jpg
It looks delicious, innit?
Definitely, does Víktor Bautista i Roca . The first one looked like the parsley was in a pesto like consistency!
Azlin Bloor , no worries. Good night and tomorrow we can cook up some recipes with less deadly versions of these.
Deadly…mmm, the plot thickens? Good night! x
stalactites?
That’s a creative guess, JP Cavano .They do look like rock formations. But they are a living thing.
mushrooms
Mushrooms?
I plus both correct and incorrect answers 😉
Fun guy Rajini Rao ? LMFAO!! You know Rajini Rao , the funniest people in the room are usually the smartest!
Bobby Ryan , so its okay to think of myself as fun gal? 😉
The geologist was thinking about some Fungia sp. solitary coral.
http://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fungia_Coral_Top_Macro.jpg
Interesting to see the convergence of shapes. Like evolution constantly reinventing the same structures.
That’s a fantastic replicate, Olivier Malinur . Before clicking your link, I thought of the brain coral, but this one is a much closer match. Convergence in evolution, indeed.
I’m also struck by the efficiency of the lamellae. You might enjoy this diagram: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2891949/figure/F3/
I am so glad I commented in this thread. 😀
I think I have it, but let’s see.
Looks like a mushroom to me.
…go from micro to larger than lifesize 🙂
https://plus.google.com/105189038578015288310/posts/BhqvrzV3Gfb
That is one extraordinary building, Peter Harris ! It looked like there was actually a desk in the center 🙂
You can grow your own psilobicin with these guys
By those hints and descriptions…they sure do look like “fun guy”s, no?
I think my guess is too obvious. I’m thinking it’s something similar, yet obscure.
Mushroom.
I think this is a gills( wide and thin sheet-like plates radiating from stem) of mushroom.
A lamella, or gill, is a papery hymenophore rib under the cap of some mushroom species, most often but not always agarics. The gills are used by the mushrooms as a means of spore dispersal, and are important for species identification base on shape there are different types like Adnate, Adnexed, Decurrent, Emarginate, Free, Seceding, Sinuate, Subdecurrent
It could also be a 3D imaging of Golgi apparatus.
A few fenestrae would have helped there: http://retreat.nichd.nih.gov/images/competition/2009/RachidSougrat_golgi_tomo.jpg
Golgi can have in section this lamellar aspect.
Rajini Rao i am not looking at the comments, so here is my pure guess: Crusoe may have lived on something build by this.
Now you have me guessing on your guess, nomad dimitri . A palm tree?
The mystery objects are small, really close to the ground, and not sturdy enough for a raft or hut.
Nice
Rajini Rao i was thinking that they live underwater & can build entire islands (or barriers)
nomad dimitri , it’s not, but as pointed out above by Olivier Malinur there is a striking convergence in appearance. “The geologist was thinking about some Fungia sp. solitary coral.
http://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fungia_Coral_Top_Macro.jpg
Interesting to see the convergence of shapes. Like evolution constantly reinventing the same structures. ”
Rajini Rao that’s exactly what i thought it was. I love the economy of shapes within the incredible diversity in nature
nomad dimitri , if you’ve not yet guessed, these are the gills on the underside of a mushroom and function to disperse fungal spores both abundantly and explosively.
Yay, 11pm or not, I was right – for a change!
Rajini Rao interesting. in both cases, a way to maximize surface area, one for absorption, the other for dispersion.
Now we can talk recipes, Azlin Bloor ! 😉
nomad dimitri , I can’t quite wrap my head around 2 billion fungal spores per ‘shroom per day.
Wow! I actually guessed right on a science post :-).
Mara Rose that’s exactly how I felt! x
I’m with Natalia Mitin on this I won’t spore all this mush keep to myself
It definitely isn’t this:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/107426892999378119609/albums/5917617580526243921/5917617585146124354?authkey=CLqQxezI2oW3vgE&sqi=106744987826763426428&sqsi=ba903fd6-3f69-4908-822a-605eadcbccfc
and not a vulture either (you asked for” wild” guesses)
Well, that was a hallucinogenic experience, and accurately so John Condliffe .
Looking forward https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/107426892999378119609/albums/5918324023721492305/5918324026309353266?authkey=CPCn1KHarIm4oAE&sqi=106744987826763426428&sqsi=6148d309-fd89-4f78-90cc-cb0dc6d7c713
to the denouement, Rajini Rao
Peace brother! Here is the album of macro mushroom images that served as the mystery source: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-delicate-beauty-mushrooms-macro?image=1
The gills on the underside of mushrooms produce copious spores that are ejected using a unique surface tension property of a moisture drop, so that they fall between the lamellae and are caught in the eddies of air circulating underneath, for dispersal.
Nice and amazing. …
Looks organic. Maybe a fungus. Mushroom?
jaanu raja
Shrooms
Mushrooms
This is the undersurface of a mushroom cap called gills
It’s science and art. It’s some what looks like jelly fish of the deep sea.
Mashroom
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