I had some other work to do this morning (Figuring out some algae stuff involving 1000 L mesocosm up a mountain) so mystery species has been sitting alone in the lab all morning…..
Made it up to the lab today to find this. It’s probably from the fridge defrosting and not the creepy “algae”.
June 13th Update.
According to a few colleagues it’s either a plant, an algae, or a fungi. So that’s been helpful.
After a day with some sunlight I think I might be seeing some chloroplasts.
It seems to like the nutrient solution I added yesterday though!
I for one welcome our new plant, algae, or fungi overlords.
I was about to say “in a sensible lab people wouldn’t waste time with this, they’d autoclave the bottles and move on” but on reflection I can’t think of a single bio lab I’ve been in that wouldn’t immediately go “ooh, mystery algae, that sounds like a fun challenge; let’s devote multiple hours to identifying it for no reason”.
I need updates tell me about the algae
The mystery algae/plant/fungi/alien is stuck in the university growth chamber. With everything going on I probably won’t get to check in on it until September, possibly not until 2021.
So by that time it will have developed what, writing?
God I hope so, then I can train it to write my thesis!
This entire post is the most on-brand biologist thing I have seen in my entire godforsaken life. The moment this pandemic is over these guys have another crisis ready for us.
Can we get an update cause this is crazy
Update: Due to the global pandemic, the algae has been left alone in a weird hidden growth chamber for a year and will likely stay there for another year. Enjoy that information!
Friday, August 13th, 2021: Yesterday I visited the algae. Today I am going to bring a preserved sample home.
I’m going to be in the field for the next 2 or 3 weeks but soon after that I hope to once again try to ID it.
Any botanists/mycologists who want to help out? I’m afraid if it’s not algae my ID skills are very rusty.
Here it is, in all it’s glory, after 2 years in isolation.
Sampling on Friday the 13th just confirms that the horror movie plot is unstoppable now
honestly if the announcement of the graphic downfall of humanity comes in the form of a tumblr post all i can say is im not surprised