More information is coming. 🧱🔨⚠️ WORK IN PROGRESS

Feel free to ask away already!

This is a follow up to my previous post regarding strange gathering of ants on my lufa plant https://sh.itjust.works/post/57881489

I managed to identify a spot that ants gathering around and placed it under digital microscope.

this bump is what is attracting ants but I still don't know what it is or whether its the plant that produce it or the ants causing it.

Edit: Looks like I am not the only one

https://www.reddit.com/r/vegetablegardening/comments/1eeixn2/why_are_these_ants_always_on_my_luffa_im_assuming/

https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/comments/16nrve7/ants_on_luffa_plant_pls_help/

Seems harmless. Good to know

If you look at the bottom side of the leaves you'll see lot of ants. They are mostly stationary. Wonder what are they up to

I got some moldy christmas decorations (saaad) and I'm trying to salvage what I can, so I put the textile stuff (the ones that appeared ok) inside the washing machine.

What temp should I use?

I found something like a report or something that states that the enzymes should work at max 60°C: https://support.nanotempertech.com/hc/en-us/articles/20923823244177-Stability-of-Enzymes-in-Liquid-Laundry-Detergent-protocol

I also found a reddit post that says that they should work at around 40-60°C(?): https://web.archive.org/web/20251216082333/https://old.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/16q8pp2/on_what_degree_do_you_wash_clothes_in_germany/

My detergent says it's been lab tested to remove heavy stains at 40°C: https://lafamilleatable.com/en/products/p-lessive-capsule-ultimate-active-clean-3en1-skip-8710847917493 (I found a french site with info in english)

From what I gather:

• 30°C is the minimum operating temp that the detergent should be effective
• 90°C is off-limits, will probably kill the enzymes
• 40°C is the lab tested temp, probably optimal temp in terms of power usage-cleaning effectiveness
• 60°C is the max operating temp, but I dont know if it cleans better or worse than the 40°C option

PS. I picked the 60°C for now.

The eggs are a little over 1 mm in diameter. The terrarium is a wet forest biome with isopods, springtails, earthworms, julids, slugs and various assorted critters that hitched a ride when I collected Moss and earth in the forests here in middle Europe.

(And yes I'm working on reducing the amount of water in the false bottom.)

Grass, weed, tree, just some of the sources of pollen that can send our allergies off.

In my experience, I’ll react (itchy eyes, etc.) for a day or two, then it will wane. Certainly the pollen I’m reacting to doesn’t magically disappear in a day. What processes do I have to thank that allow me to suffer only a relatively short time? Are the allergen in pollen unstable and break down quickly on their own? Are there bacteria or other life forms that are helping to break the allergens down?

Tearing eyes and draining noses want to know!

This is more of an evolutionary biology question but I thought I'd ask bc I couldn't fibd anything on it

Specifically what I'm wondering is why the majority of animals seem to have their brain or central nervous system located at a specific end of their body rather than near the center of mass where you think it'd be safest? I thought of this as I watched a centipede have its tail end attacked and noticed that its head and tail end look quite similar, assumedly for the purpose of fooling would be predators, and wondered why it didn't just put its brain in the middle so it wouldn't be vulnerable at the ends.

Moreover, why do we even need heads? Why did almost every animal evolve to have all their sensory organs in one spot instead of spreading them out. Why is my face where my face is basically. Are our bodies really built to be the most durable and efficient for the terrain they evolved in and why are they all so similar?

How big would a pelican need to be to generally be capable of swallowing grown humans whole? What body changes would we expect to see in such an organism? Thanks in advance for your educated insight. Also sorry for the split infinitive. Just call me Captain Kirk!

Recently, I have been reading more and more articles saying that Alaskan lupines (Lupinus nootkatensis) are hindering the growth of trees in Iceland. Unfortunately, however, I could not find any valid reasons why this is so? The story goes that in 1945, the then director of the forest service brought two spoonfuls of seeds from Alaska to amfortify the nutrient-poor Icelandic soil, stop erosion in Iceland and prevent sandstorms. After all I know, lupines draw nitrogen from the air and store it in the soil. So why is that not good for native tree species, such as birch or larch?

There's herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores, but is there any category of animal life that can sustain itself on anything else that isn't related to living organisms?

Is the only known example of this at the moment basically...Plants, give or take the particular species & how one may interpret the question of relation to other life?

There are 5 kingdoms; Kingdom Animalia, Kingdom Plantae, Kingdom Fungi, Kingdom Minera, and Kingdom Protistae. Why isn't there another one for viruses, since they fit in neither of these kingdoms, due to the lack of DNA?

Anyone who knows how a skeleton looks like knows that there are spaces between the ribs. However, why does it have gaps between them? Why isn't it a single shell?

From my understanding, (a) the brain has no nerves, which is why you can talk to people while doing brain surgery on them; and (b) headache is caused by blood vessels constricting. Now, I am unsure whether migraines are also caused by blood vessels constricting, but in any case - what is it that is doing the sensing of this pain? Or is it a(nother) case of the brain just making shit up because it hates me?

Whenever there is something wrong in a cell, the lysosome will digesting the cell itself, so that it doesn't disrupt any of the other cells. However, an example of when this should happen in cancer. Why don't lysosomes digest the cell then?

If so, what are the potential consequences they pose to other animals or plants?

I know in a pinch people could maybe tolerate small amounts of saltwater, but if I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure you can't survive off it alone, and so...How'd that happen?

It seems kind of bizarre, but I guess the further inland people went the more advantageous it was to shed any such capacity to process saltwater?