A cactus takes breath at night

Most plants have their pores (stomata’s) open during the day to take in carbon dioxide, and use sunlight as a catalyst for the photosynthesis. But in the desert, plants with pores open during the hot days, lose much water through evapotranspiration. So, succulents use a modified version of photosynthesis called CAM (Crassulacean Acid Metabolism).

CAM plants open their stomata’s only at night when it is cooler so there is less evapotranspiration. Because there is no sunlight to act as a catalyst, carbon dioxide is stored as an organic acid, principally Malic Acid (C4H6O5). Carbon dioxide is

Azurite to malachite

This is a photo from an azurite, or at least of what it is left from it. The blue mineral surviving mayhem of green invaders is our protagonist today. It is one of the two copper carbonate hydroxides, but as it can be seen on the photo, it is not the most stable.

You can find it on rotting fruit

Rhizopus is a genus of common saprobic fungi on plants and specialized parasites on animals. They are found on a wide variety of organic substrates, including "mature fruits and vegetables", faeces, jellies, syrups, leather, bread, peanuts and

Magnification on screen

One of the most frequently asked questions about digital imaging is:

what is the total magnification showed on the screen?

To answer this question, we need to know four things:

Xanthidium armatum ‘inverted’

The use of an inverted microscope for observation of phytoplankton, actually belongs to the standard. The image which is shown here, has been taken with the Motic Inverted Microscope AE31E. A 35 mm cell culture petri dish with a high precision glass bottom was used. This combination has some advantages over the use of an upright microscope: