aggiepython

[aggiepython]

another fabulous planthopper from Costa Rica, Biolleyana costalis. juveniles are colorful, with a plume of shiny blue wax filaments on their tails.

later in life they will adopt a different, more modest color scheme in exchange for elaborately veined wings. a hint of the old self remains—a tiny orange crescent on each forewing matching the markings on juveniles’ wing buds.

#really gorgeous animal in both forms #those wings.... #planthoppers #cw bugs

[aggiepython]

th-thhee the guy...

he.. I <3 Malcom "Fell" Atwell. sigghhhh.... he's so done with life <333

#fell!!!! 0: #fell atwell #pact #the top right one on the second photo is extremely fell.... #that's him 100% #and chibi fell.... chewing on him

[aggiepython]

Taxonomists, get your shit together.

#taxonomy #tribe names are all so silly... e.g. salmonini #how can u say that with a straight face...

[aggiepython]

#yeahhhhhh!!!!! #i love boardwalk #i love plants #i'll have more opportunities to see plants now that winter is over

[aggiepython]

Weevils are curious

creatures of furious

hunger for baby oak fuel;

They drill through the surface

of acorns with purpose,

frackers with snouts as their tool.

#weevilblr

[aggiepython]

new favorite bit is saying "I would be fangirling so hard if I met him in real life 😍" about random species of fish

#me today when i saw a beefly #i think it was a Bombylius major

[aggiepython]

#look at them go #good animals

[aggiepython]

Eric Drexler - Engines of Creation (1986):

Biochemists study molecular machines both to learn how to build them and to learn how to wreck them. Around the world (and especially the Third World) a disgusting variety of viruses, bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and worms parasitize human flesh. Like penicillin, safe, effective drugs for these diseases would jam the parasite’s molecular machinery while leaving human molecular machinery unharmed. Dr. Seymour Cohen, professor of pharmacological science at SUNY (Stony Brook, New York), argues that biochemists should systematically study the molecular machinery of these parasites. Once biochemists have determined the shape and function of a vital protein machine, they then could often design a molecule shaped to jam it and ruin it. Such drugs could free humanity from such ancient horrors as schistosomiasis and leprosy, and from new ones such as AIDS.

Drug companies are already redesigning molecules based on knowledge of how they work. Researchers at Upjohn Company have designed and made modified molecules of vasopressin, a hormone that consists of a short chain of amino acids. Vasopressin increases the work done by the heart and decreases the rate at which the kidneys produce urine; this increases blood pressure. The researchers designed modified vasopressin molecules that affected receptor molecules in the kidney more than those in the heart, giving them more specific and controllable medical effects. More recently, they designed a modified vasopressin molecule that binds to the kidney’s receptor molecules without direct effect, thus blocking and inhibiting the action of natural vasopressin.

was structure based drug design really so speculative in 1986? It's just how it's done now.

I guess if I think of the last great natural product drugs that I know of (the first being penicillin), taxol wasn't approved until 1993? I didn't realize that. That's a breast cancer chemotherapy, it or easier-to-synthesize variants are standard for breast cancer treatment even today. Originally found in tree bark. The first publication on artemesinin was apparently 1979?? Add some number of years before it's available to use. Artemesinin is an antimalarial. (maybe I should have called quinine the first great natural product drug?). Anyway, this means "Engines of Creation" came out alongside new drugs made the old-fahioned way, where you learn what the drug does on a biochemical level long after you find that it works, rather than the other way around. Natural product drug discovery is near-dead today, I think only one major drug company still has a natural product discovery team. (artemesinin and taxol were both govt projects though, China and USA respectively).

I wonder how the first HIV drugs were made. I think structure-based drug design. I've got another book on that, I think.

#wow #really interesting #biology

[aggiepython]

maybe i would like flies with that (ukbeetlemania on tiktok)

#why be a bee when u can be a bee fly!!!!

[aggiepython]

Greater bee fly, Bombylius venosus, Bombyliidae

Photographed in Belgium by Gilles San Martin

#bee fly #(:

[aggiepython]

i actually am mad that the sun sets so late now because i don't think it should be light out when it's still 8pm. it convinces you that you have plany off time when in fact you don't have plany off time at all and it's still 8pm. i think it should get dark at precisely 6:20pm every single day

#real #additionally i think the sun is way too bright and it should stay away for longer #if it's a sunny day i keep the curtains shut

[aggiepython]

Hi, so... I'm in the hospital. I'm not, like, dying, but they've already kept me for a couple days.

please send cat pics?

#st-just i didn't know u had a kitty cat #she looks kind of like a cinderblock #cats

[aggiepython]

waiting in line

#good cats #they look kind of like mine

[aggiepython]

Beaded cloisonné hermit crab by Amy Kopperude.

#good crab

[aggiepython]

#get welwitschia'd #the world is full of beautiful plants

[aggiepython]

the entire house this post is from is awesome

this place is so cool. a MERE 380K

#ohh man #it's kinda like a termite mound #i just know i'd take the best nap in that bed... it looks so cozy

[aggiepython]

@canisalbus i truly believe that the autism steam roller would fix machete

#my art #canisalbus #furry #i love drawing his stupid shoes #i promise he's not being medievally tortured.....