Simon Benson

I had a blast competing at the #BUC2023 semifinals for @tcddublin! I also had some great kelpy conversations at my poster and had an excuse to draw some really weird Ceropegia flowers for the creative competition. Thanks to everyone at @BUCBotany for all the hard work 👏🌿

If the workers under a specific academic are consistently struggling, they're a prime target for other forms of misconduct imo People who understand and adhere to best practice in research should know better; it's a great litmus.

Unsurprisingly, the dipshit who wanted his postgraduate workers to go hungry so he could exploit them more effectively also has poor conduct surrounding his own rigour and approach to the scientific method. m.independent.ie/irish-news/pub…

@Grimezsz Happy to give more advice, as a lot of people will probably tell you to start a good forest or permaculture plot (which is great, but NOT a great starting point) Let me know if you've any more questions

@Grimezsz You can look into hydroponics/aeroponics setups if indoors, but they require some technical knowledge. Leaves generally are easy to grow, roots are intermediate, and fruits are hard. Growing a mixed salad with lettuce, radishes, spring onions, and herbs would be a great intro

Starting a garden to ideally fulfill all veggie / fruit / green requirements? (How hard is this?) Any suggestions? Feeling like indoor in some capacity makes most sense for potentially growing what we need year round? Asking ai for help but I have zero history w this and human input from farmers rly helped w chicken farming lol if u were doing farm in the yard in the city what wud u prioritize? Any soil testing easy and good to do?

@sam_niac Water caltrop (Traps bicornis) An aquatic edible plant grown in parts of Asia and used similar to the more commonly recognised water chestnut

my coworkers gave me a bag of these... anyone know what they are? she said its healthy and I should eat it

@LegoLostAtSea Hmm, maybe an eel spine? Certainly looks like it would be a decent match Was it soft or calcified? The vertebrae look a bit odd, so likely a spine of some sort of fish, and the fact that there's so many of them indicates to me that it's from a pretty elongated organism

Any bone experts here? Trying to work out what this is from. It's about 15" long.

@ATinyGreenCell I never really thought about it, but Ceropegia sandersonii is definitely a contender. Some crazy pollination ecology to go with this freaky beauty

It's my birthday today and all I want is to know what your favorite flower is. Please share a pic or comment below. I'll reveal mine at end of day. 🌺

@PopCrave They literally have both male and female parts, one word for which is "bisexual" in botanical terminology

Helen Mirren tells Jimmy Fallon that tomatoes are bisexual: “I looked it up very recently.”

@ATinyGreenCell Single celled or filamentous green? Any idea what markers you'll use or sequencing approach? You could probably get a species ID by using trnL or ITs and reduce sequence costs

@BotanyBenson No idea yet so im trying to isolate and then save up for sequencing

Doing an algae antibiotic assay to see if I can clear that stubborn bacterium from my algal culture. Automating the dilution gradient. 6 antibiotics, 3 concentrations. Mom enjoying the hum of the robot. Wholesome cottagecore biotech. 💚

Tonight was one of those nights where we were left speechless. Six 6-foot tables that were filled with food were emptied after 45 minutes. We handed out 260 meals and still had around fifty people without food. This is the second week that this has happened and we don’t understand what’s going on. There’s been a huge increase in our soup run and we need to start thinking strategically for future soup runs. It is absolutely heartbreaking for someone to be at the end of the queue and know that there’s not a hot meal for that person. For the people that were left, we handed out fruit and goodies but that was still not a proper meal. Tonight we have no words, we feel defeated. We need to plan properly for next week to ensure that we have enough meals - this week 300 was not enough. If you would like to sponsor a hot meal, it’s €3 per person. If any restaurants would like to sponsor hot meals, please contact us. If you would like to help us or donate, please visit msoe.ie/donate/.

@collieennis Oh 👀 A few months work in an Aquarium would be a nice break and give me an opportunity to flex my aquascaping muscles 🤔🤔

Delighted to see this wonderful amenity return.

🚨

@thorogoodchris1 Orobanchaceae have some explaining to do

The largest Rou cong rong (a traditional medicinal herb) I saw conjured out of the sand here in the Mongolian Desert was the size of a python. Truly extraordinary.

Important work

@elocinationn Expansion of layers of tissue in a limited spherical space is my guess. The apical bud is formed early on, but the growth of the inner layers can't keep up with the expansion of the outer layers, leading to crinkling Bi-sect a young cabbage and look at the heart, you'll see gaps

Why does my cabbage resemble the way the human brain folds (gyrification)? Is my cabbage conscious?

@DreamLeaf5 True, chickens are literally bony fish One cannot evolve out of ones clade, just as one can't evolve out of being related from one's ancestors We are all bony fish

Sorry but there is such thing as stupid questions