• 0 Posts
  • 2 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: October 2nd, 2023

help-circle
  • From the research paper:

    (Glowing red spider silk strands

    a) Comparison of wt and mRFP-modified major ampullate silk fibers rolled on a capillary glass (scale bars: 550 µm).

    b) Strong red fluorescence can also be seen in the major ampullate gland (scale bar: 277 µm).

    c i) The genomic implementation of mRFP into the major ampullate silk was confirmed by amplifying the mRFP DNA sequence extracted from the spider’s leg. Only those spiders with red fluorescent silk (scale bar: 138 µm) showed the mRFP sequence-derived signal in the agarose gel.

    C ii) Total-RNA was extracted from the glands, reverse-transcribed, and subjected to R-TqPCR and a melting curve analysis showing a peak at 83°C and 87°C based on a small and a large, amplified fragment.


  • I think it’s 100% a didgeridoo, but one that has been molded into a shape superficially resembling a saxophone.

    As a longtime didg player, I can tell you that the thing that makes this absolutely worth every penny is not how light it is, the paint job, etc, but the fact that it can hit so many “hoot” notes (what they call “trumpets”), and that each hoot note is tuned to be in the same scale as the main drone.

    Most didgeridoos have only one, or maybe two hoot notes, but I watched some other videos of these things being played, and I’m seeing four or five hoot notes, in addition to the main drone.

    At that point, it’s starting to grow beyond the realm of wind percussion instrument, into something that can play melodies.