Lezing door prof. dr. Marc Van Ranst: Covid en toekomstige pandemieën.

 

Prof. dr. Marc Van Ranst groeide tijdens de coronacrisis uit tot de bekendste viroloog van de Lage Landen. Neem een duik in de wereld van pandemieën.

Dag van de wetenschap.

 

How trees secretly talk to each other. The amazing science of the Wood Wide Web.

 

Ik lees zelf graag de boeken over Peter Wohlleben. Over de communicatie van bomen. Hoe paddenstoelen en bomen samen werken. Hoe bomen geur afgeven bij gevaar. Hoe ze samen werken. Daar kunnen mensen echt nog veel van leren. 

Biogas. Dit is echt interessant.

 

Dit is wel al een ouder filmpje maar vind het nog steeds tof. Ik zou thuis ook wel biogas willen. 

This cooking alternative recycles your leftovers into gas.

How Ticks Dig In With a Mouth Full of Hooks | Deep Look

 

Why can't you just flick a tick? Because it attaches to you with a mouth covered in hooks, while it fattens up on your blood. For days. But don't worry – there *is* a way to pull it out.

DEEP LOOK: a new ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small. Spring is here. Unfortunately for hikers and picnickers out enjoying the weather, the new season is prime time for ticks, which can transmit bacteria that cause Lyme disease. How they latch on – and stay on – is a feat of engineering that scientists have been piecing together. Once you know how a tick’s mouth works, you understand why it’s impossible to simply flick a tick. The key to their success is a menacing mouth covered in hooks that they use to get under the surface of our skin and attach themselves for several days while they fatten up on our blood. “Ticks have a lovely, evolved mouth part for doing exactly what they need to do, which is extended feeding,” said Kerry Padgett, supervising public health biologist at the California Department of Public Health in Richmond. “They're not like a mosquito that can just put their mouth parts in and out nicely, like a hypodermic needle.” Instead, a tick digs in using two sets of hooks. Each set looks like a hand with three hooked fingers. The hooks dig in and wriggle into the skin. Then these “hands” bend in unison to perform approximately half-a-dozen breaststrokes that pull skin out of the way so the tick can push in a long stubby part called the hypostome. “It’s almost like swimming into the skin,” said Dania Richter, a biologist at the Technische Universität Braunschweig in Germany, who has studied the mechanism closely. “By bending the hooks it’s engaging the skin. It’s pulling the skin when it retracts.” The bottom of their long hypostome is also covered in rows of hooks that give it the look of a chainsaw. Those hooks act like mini-harpoons, anchoring the tick to us for the long haul. “They’re teeth that are backwards facing, similar to one of those gates you would drive over but you're not allowed to back up or else you'd puncture your tires,” said Padgett. --- How to remove a tick. Kerry Padgett, at the California Department of Public Health, recommends grabbing the tick close to the skin using a pair of fine tweezers and simply pulling straight up. “No twisting or jerking,” she said. “Use a smooth motion pulling up.” Padgett warned against using other strategies. “Don't use Vaseline or try to burn the tick or use a cotton swab soaked in soft soap or any of these other techniques that might take a little longer or might not work at all,” she said. “You really want to remove the tick as soon as possible.” --- What happens if the mouth of a tick breaks off in your skin? Don’t worry if the tick’s mouth parts stay behind when you pull. “The mouth parts are not going to transmit disease to people,” said Padgett. If the mouth stayed behind in your skin, it will eventually work its way out, sort of like a splinter does, she said. Clean the bite area with soap and water and apply antibiotic ointment.

How Mosquitoes Use Six Needles to Suck Your Blood | Deep Look

 

DEEP LOOK is a ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small. Scientists have discovered that the mosquito’s mouth, called a proboscis isn’t just one tiny spear. It’s a sophisticated system of thin needles, each of which pierces the skin, finds blood vessels and makes it easy for mosquitoes to suck blood out of them. Male mosquitoes don’t bite us, but when a female mosquito pierces the skin, a flexible lip-like sheath called the labium scrolls up and stays outside as she pushes in six needle-like parts that scientists refer to as stylets. Two of these needles, called maxillae, have tiny teeth. The mosquito uses them to saw through the skin. They’re so sharp you can barely feel the mosquito biting you. “They’re like drill bits,” said University of California, Davis, biochemist Walter Leal. Another set of needles, the mandibles, hold tissues apart while the mosquito works. Then the sharp-tipped labrum needle probes under the skin, piercing a vessel and sucking blood from it. The sixth needle – called the hypopharynx – drools saliva into us, and delivers chemicals that keep our blood flowing. Mosquito saliva also makes our blood vessels dilate, blocks our immune response and lubricates the proboscis. It causes us to develop itchy welts, and serves as a conduit for dangerous viruses and parasites.

Give Earth a Hand ♥

https://youtu.be/Ep9MFiWXR8M

Geluk.

Je gaat het je op een dag realiseren.

Dat geluk nooit ging over

je baan of je diploma's

of het hebben van een relatie.

Geluk ging nooit over

het volgen van de voetstappen

van degenen die voor je kwamen,

het ging nooit over

hetzelfde als anderen zijn.

Op een dag, zul je het zien.

Dat geluk altijd ging over de ontdekking,

de hoop, het luisteren naar je eigen hart

en het te volgen waar het koos om te gaan.

Geluk ging altijd over

vriendelijker zijn naar jezelf,

het ging altijd over

het omarmen van jou,

de persoon in wording.

Op een dag zul je het begrijpen

Dat geluk altijd ging

over leren om te leven met jezelf,

dat geluk nooit in de handen

van de ander lag.

Het ging altijd over jou.

Bron: Lessons learned in life

 

Over de rijkdom van de slak.

 De dieren hielden een grote vergadering om uit te vinden hoe ze zich zouden kunnen beschermen tegen de roofbouw van de mensen.“Van mij nemen ze bijna alles,” klaagde de koe. ”Ze nemen mijn melk, mijn vlees en zelfs mijn huid.”“Het gaat mij ook niet veel beter,” zei de kip. “Eerst nemen ze steeds mijn eieren weg en uiteindelijk moet ik aan het spit.”“Van mij nemen ze het vlees en mijn mooie huid,” knorde het varken. “Het is schandalig.” “Je hebt helemaal gelijk,” viel de kanarievogel hem bij. “Ze sluiten mij op, omdat ze mijn gezang zo mooi vinden. Had ik maar niet zo’n mooie stem.”En zo hadden allen wel iets te klagen: de herten, de hazen, de vogels en de vissen, de walvissen en de zeehonden, de luipaarden en de olifanten.Toen allen hun bezwaren hadden genoemd, was er de zachte stem van de slak:“Wat ik heb, zouden de mensen onmiddellijk van mij afnemen, als ze dat konden. Want ik heb precies wat ze het meeste missen om goed te kunnen leven: ik heb de tijd!”