#the dirt was hydrophobic

[deadhoneybee]

My cactus is currently growing at an angle,, nothing helps,, last ditch effort is a yellow bouncy ball for morale.

#i forgot i had a plant #for three months #tried to repot #the dirt was hydrophobic #didnt help #its actually worse #its not dead tho! #a win is a win #ill see what happens #plants #cactus #cactus care #or lack thereof #rahhhh #remus coded #maybe?

[leafie-draws]

learned about hydrophobic plants todayyy

superhydrophobic plants have 2 types of leaves: waxy waxy and fuzzy fuzzy.

those with waxy leaves have a smooth, waterproof coating that repels dirt and pests and keeps them clean. while those with fuzzy leaves use tiny hairs to collect water and direct it towards their roots!

which also explains why cold-hardy vegetables like cabbages and broccoli can survive such harsh winters, they have waxy leaves so the snow just slides off :3

#leafie speaks #imagine wearing a big hat in the rain and being able to drink through it. that's hydrophobic plants babyy #and lichens were the first to do this I think?? #technically algae is hydrophobic too it just likes to couch surf #leafie plants

[froggybangbang]

Plantblr i need your help.

I... don't think my snake plant is doing well, but I'm not sure what else to do.

So I have 2 snake plants. One has 3 shoots, lives attop my bookshelf, and i a happy camper. The other one has struggled every day of its life. I removed it from the top shelf because it wasn't doing well, brought it down (i have a light that comes on and off for intervals of 1 hour every few hours between 8am and 5pm so they don't get stressed by too much light but also get light. Although i did that for my africain violet and she is no longer with us, so... that system may not be working). And then, because that's also where the stupid AC unit goes in the summer, i bought a heating mat to keep it warmer. Worked for a while, but now it is starting to look sad again. One of the main... leaf (?) Is even dying. I try to water them only when the soil is completely dry to prevent root rot, which means i water the one on a heating mat more often, but soil isn't kept wet.

My pretties:

There's also this guy. Used to have 5 leaves.

Down to 1 but he has vabies coming up. (Avocado) he's at the bottom of the bookshelf, and gets some of the light (plus whenever i remember to open the curtains). I tried snipping the tip to make more branches, as everyone says to do, but you can see uow that worked out in the dead branch there... also only water when dry. "Repotted" (same pot, different dirt type; the old one was hydrophobic) in July and at first i thought he just didn't like the new dirt (which i asked for dirst for avocado trees to my flower shop), needed to adjust to it, but... it's January now.

I know it's not much to go on, but help is welcome. 🌵

#plants #avocado tree #snake plant

[adventures-on-foster-island]

A wave of sweet smelling humidity washes over you as you step into the green house. The loud hum of large fans fills the building, though they seem to do little to lower the temperature. Ellisa and her Sceptile stand between a large table and a tall, narrow rack. The table is covered in plants, ranging from tiny seedling, to leafy bush, to draping vine. Terracotta pots, square plastic containers, and fabric grow bags line the shelves of the rack. Ellisa is already elbow deep in a wheelbarrow full of dirt as students begin to gather around.

Gardening in Small Spaces

Whether you live in a tiny studio apartment or on acres of land, everyone can grow something. With a little planning and patience, you can turn a windowsill, shelf, corner, or closet into a functional green space. Lets break it down into a few simple parts:

Location and Lighting

You should choose your location based mostly on the kind of light it will receive. Although most fruiting plants prefer bright, direct light, even a less than optimally placed window can provide enough light for some herbs and leafy greens. If you want to grow more than that, or have no good natural light source, you can find reasonably priced grow lights at your local berry shop or growers outlet. Install the lights to where it will reach the maximum space possible. If you are converting a closet, the ceiling light may not be enough, and you may need to use strip lights along the inside of the door. If you have a patio or balcony, make sure your plants are positioned to receive the most light in the morning rather than the hot afternoon sun if possible.

Containers and soil

Plants take up space, both above and below the soil. In fact, most traditional crops take up about as much space underground as they do on the surface. The container you choose should be roughly two inches bigger than the adult plant will eventually get. Additionally, plants in larger containers are more susceptible to water logging and root rot. Because of this, gardeners in small spaces often need to get creative with their potting choices. High quality potting soil can help combat these issues by providing enough nutrients to feed the plant even in a smaller container and enough drainage to direct water away from the roots until they fill the container. Soil for crop plants in containers should mostly consist of organic matter such as compost, manuer, and worm castings, as well as lots of small gravel or perlite for drainage. Another excellent option for some plants is to grow them upside down. I'm sure you are all familiar with the "Topsy-turvy" tamato berry planters, however any vining plant can be grown in this fashion, and you can make the containers yourself with materials you may already have lying around. These containers make use of vertical space and help plants thrive in a less than optimal amount of soil. Stacking pots or vertical grow towers are also efficient ways to grow several crops at once in a small space, though they can be more expensive and harder to maintain.

Water

Of course plants need water to live, however over watering can cause major problems in container grown crops. Rather than watering on a schedule, your can stick your finger down to the second knuckle in the soil, being careful not to break any roots. If it feels moist, check again tomorrow and leave your plant alone. For most plants, wait until the soil completely dries up before watering deeply. How do you know you have watered deeply? Sometimes when soil is very dry, it may become hydrophobic. Water will pool on the surface, never absorbing, or drain straight through the bottom without reaching the roots. Any container you can lift that has drainage holes at the bottom can be bottom watered, which allows the soil to slowly absorb water. Fill a bowl or other solid container about halfway with water, and place your pot right-side up in the water. Wait twenty minutes and come check on your plant. You will know that it worked if the top of the soil is damp and there is less water in the bowl. For larger pots or upside down planters that can't be lifted, try poking holes in the soil with a small stick or chopsticks and spraying the surface to wet it slowly and provide pathways for the water to enter.

What to grow

So you have everything you need to get started, what should you plant? Well, start with things you know you will eat. Tomatoes, beans, and lettuces are some of the fastest growing crops, but not everyone likes them. Start small, and consider variables such as how much time and energy you have to spare. If all you can manage to begin with are a few herbs then it's still a great place to start. Rosemary, mint, basil, and thyme are great beginner herbs. They are relatively hard to kill and smell wonderful, plus they add that extra touch to anything you cook.

Succession sowing and other helpful hints

Growing indoors means you can grow year 'round with a little timing. When you purchase seed or nursery plants, there will always be a tag that tells you how many weeks until sprouting and then until harvest. Subtract the weeks 'till sprouting from the weeks 'till harvest to get how far out you should begin the next round of seed to ensure you always have fresh produce.

Quality potting soil can be expensive, or you can compost your kitchen scraps to add to cheap potting soil. Food waste makes up a huge percentage of landfills, but you can easily combat this with a few simple items. You'll need three buckets at five gallons each, holes drilled in the bottom of two of them. Stack the buckets with the solid one on the bottom. Fill the middle bucket with kitchen scraps and paper waste, then add worms. Over the next few weeks, put all of your kitchen scraps in the top bucket. When the worms have processed everything in the middle bucket, you will see them move up to the top. The middle bucket is now organic compost that you can add to your soil! Empty the middle bucket, replace it on top of the full bucket, and repeat forever! The bottom bucket will fill with a concentrated liquid fertilizer that is also great for your fruit bearing plants. Mix your compost with cheap potting soil and perlite or small gravel, and now you have premium potting soil for a fraction of the price.

By the end of the class, Ellisa has filled the rack with various herbs and lettuces, with cucumbers, beans, and tomatoes hanging from the sides . Sceptile helps her roll it towards a closet within the greenhouse, which has been lined with grow lights, and push it inside. Campers can see how even in a very small space, they can grow enough to at least lower their grocery bill.

#pokemon #pokeblogging #pokemon irl #rotumblr #foster island summer camp #open rp

[revcleo]

on washing clothes from Mend! A refashioning manual and manifesto by Kate Sekules

(please buy the book, or rent it from a library, or order it through a library to rent from them, or rent it through a library ebook collection etc. etc.)

Wash Less

Washing is killing your clothes. Every laundering shortens a garment’s life by, oh, a month (see endnote 8*). I bet the source of the one-wear wash idea was Procter & Gamble’s Mad Men–era marketing team: overwashing sells more Tide (it can also redeposit soil on clothes and set stains permanently). Not washing is getting awfully trendy now, for green reasons, but the main mend-related reasons are that less washing—and definitely less tumble drying—paradoxically saves your favorite clothes, and probably time, too.

There are three reasons to wash a clothe: removal of stain, or of germ, or of smell. I daresay smell (or fear of) is what propels us fastest to the washing machine. But listen up.

Less Laundering ≠ More Stinking To overgeneralize, but not really, because athleisure, clothes get stinky when they’re made of synthetic fiber. Ridiculously, the clothes manufactured expressly for sweating into are the most petrochemical of the lot.

Yes your performance fiber top wicks your sweat, but then it hugs it to its bosom, maybe refusing to let it go, ever, in a phenomenon scientifically named perma-stink. Synthetics are hydrophobic but oleophilic—they hate water, but love oil—so they cling jealously to body odor compounds, but refuse the advances of your washing machine.

The more you fight your running tights, the more they resist—dryer sheets and extra detergent and heat drive the smell-causing bacteria deeper into the fibers, where they take up residence. Antimicrobial finishes such as silver chloride don’t deter them at all. It is gross.

I’m not here to lecture on eco-water-saving detergent-minimizing, though this is a happy side effect of many old-new methods. I’m here to keep good clothes alive and mendable. I confess I’m a bit conflicted about stains. Set-in stains invite mending, and mends invite conversation, and then you can tell everyone about the bacteria partying in their pants.

So I’ll ignore stains, aside from the kind that attack and degrade fabric or can’t be mended or spoil the overall beauty of a thing.

Speaking of ignoring, follow only the bits that sound appealing: the last thing we want is the return of washday labor and guilt. I’ve been around the laundry block—never owned a washer-dryer till I was a mom; been a student, a traveler, dirt poor, addicted to wash-dry-fold service—and after all this, I’ve discovered that tending clothes is actually fun.

Anyway, decide for yourself. Here are assorted old-school and costume specialist hacks to mend your cleaning routine and keep your favorite garments alive:

Gym stink. Sweat is odorless. The smell is bacteria breaking down proteins into acids. Left in a swampy pile, these reproduce like a horror film. Arrest the breeding! Rinse gym things out in plain water and hang to dry right after committing the sweat.

Or switch to all-cotton workout wear. It’s hydrophilic and oleophobic, the opposite of synthetics, so absorbs and holds or wicks sweat, but resists oils and smells.

Aromatic pits and the crotchal region. Sorry to be graphic, but you know what I’m talking about. Try these professional theater costume department and vintage dealer nowash fixes:

Give it a drink. Spritz generously with pure (cheap) vodka; let dry. No alcohol smell!

Connect to earth. Sprinkle fuller’s earth on the bits overnight. Vacuum up, with stink.

Acidulate. For allover smell, steam garment over a hot bath of white vinegar solution.

A paste of baking soda and water is much cheaper than Febreze and often works better.

SOS: Save Our Sweaters. Handwashing in cool water is the only way. You don’t need to do it often. Invest in perfume-priced cleansers or use baby shampoo. Rinse thoroughly, squeeze gently, then . . .

Reshape (it’s called blocking) the wet sweater on a fluffy towel, Swiss roll it, and kneel on the roll to squish out water. Never wring knitwear. Dry on a fresh towel, turning it periodically.

Air dry whatever you can, especially vintage, most of which should never go in the dryer. Your hand mends last longer when air dried, too. Use ordinary hangers if you lack line or frame.

Add a few drops of lavender essential oil to water in a spray bottle to spritz on while ironing.

Yellowed cotton might have gotten that way from dry-cleaning. Add borax to the wash. And hang out in the sun—which is mostly terrible and verboten for fabrics, because of this bleaching effect.

Care labels are often as generic as the website cookie disclaimer that you never read and fulfill a similar legal function. Nearly everything can be gently handwashed.

Exceptions are: velvet, satin, taffeta, brocade, some silks, anything tailored or structured, and everything under Special Concerns in the chart on pages 144–45 (Historic fabrics, weighted silk, embellished fabrics, real lace, metallics, 3d effect fabrics, fur real/fake, net/mesh, hand painted, leather, suede*). Beware rayon: very tricky and variable.

Spot clean and steam fancy clothes—or, in fact, most clothes. Vintage dealers do.

For embellished items, borrow the museum conservator method: vacuum on low with open vent and flat nozzle through a gauze screen edged with tape.

Forget wasteful sticky-sausage lint cleaners. Use an old-school clothes brush or the kind that picks up lint one direction and deposits it on the reverse journey.

Mildew. Omnipresent fungal spores that feast on your damp natural fibers. It’s serious and contagious. Dry, vacuum, dry-clean, revacuum. It may be too late for this poor garment.

A final little trick. Scribble all over metal zippers with graphite pencil: nonstick magic. endnote 8*

Unreliable statistic that I made up. This is an experiment in misinformation. Because nobody’s done this math, I wonder if the figure I just invented will get quoted and thereby eventually become true? Other notes:

No, really, perma-stink was coined by human ecology professor Rachel McQueen et al., “Odor Intensity in Apparel Fabrics and the Link with Bacterial Populations,” Textile Research Journal 77, no. 7 (2007): 449–56.

The no wash and the dry (or raw) denim movements are ecologically motivated but are also having the effect of bringing more natural fibers and finishes to market. They sell at a high price point for the most part, but this is beginning to trickle down—though such clothes can’t and shouldn’t be sold too cheap; they’re investments. Also, PS, infusing with peppermint oil or whatever does nothing long term to decrease the need for washing: all natural, untreated fibers are resistant to microbes.

Ulterior motive: as a lifelong devotee of pure cotton sweats, I prefer its wicking, slightly baggy, nonstinking qualities, and wish it would catch on.

I could go on and on about detergents, which are often foul in so many ways. For an up-todate and reliable breakdown of their relative merits, see the rated reviews by the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Environmental Working Group, https://www.ewg.org/guides/categories/9-Laundry/. You may find your go-to wash solution has earned a solid “F” grade.

Extra credit: invest in a horizontal drying rack or make one out of window screen gauze.

A steamer is a wise investment—they’re effective, gentle, and far more fun than ironing.

#hope people find this useful #I love this book #great for learning more about fabrics #also mending them

[mildmayfoxe]

i just went and jabbed at the soil in my monstera with a chopstick to loosen it up a bit before watering bc it turns into hard packed hydrophobic dirt easy since i don't water it super frequently bc the pot is so huge that i know it's gotta still be damp at the bottom and there was mushrooms in the potting soil and i squished a few of them incl one super dry one that i basically scraped off one of them stems (gross. gett OFF there) so now i'm worried i've breathed in Spores™ that will Do Something to Me™ and they've gotten into my Lungs™ but anyway i want to go to the library to get some lake reads; should i go to the cool fancy new one that probably has cool new fiction and huge huge windows (it actually is a weird design because the building is SO tall but it's only one story?? seems like they shoulda put another floor in there imo. looks gorg but you could serve the community better with more stuff inside and less open ceiling) or should i go to the older one that i've never been to because it was under renovation for a long time but because i've never been there i have no idea what they have but BECAUSE i've never been there it would be a cool new experience!!

#neither of the main branches are open today. these two small ones are only open for like four hours each if google is to be believed #could also get there and find out google's lying #chatpost #depends how much i wanna walk i guess. new one w big windows is 40min round trip other one is about 20

[hwajin]

Hey, saw your post and I love skin care (though I have a long way to go to know my stuff lol)

just for context, my skin is mixed (?). It used to be really oily, and my pores were normal-to-big, especially on my cheeks, nose and forehead. The thing is that this oil came from my skin being really dry, which made it produce more oil to compensate it. Also, I leve in Brazil and it's always hot in here, so I sweat a lot, and naturally end up producing more sebum, so even now that my skin is more balanced, I still have days in which I get pretty oily. If it's colder, I get drier.

With that being said, I think that are two things that you should pay attention: Cleanser and Hydration.

For cleanser, I can say FOR MYSELF, that dry skin/sensitive skin works better on me. My skin isn't really SENSITIVE, but it can get dry easily if I use cleansers that are too strong, and this ends up sensitizing it a bit. I don't like Squeaky Clean on my face or things that are too refreshing, like mint-feeling. So I use a cleanser that doesn't give me any of that. It's way more creamy in the sensation, and I love it (but it's from brazil, so I won't recommend it to you. There must be lots of other products in your country that would do it for you if you keep that in mind)

One thing that IS your friend is OILS. Every dirt in your face has at least some proportion of 'oil', cuz it's hydrophobic. This means you'll need something hydrophobic to get it out eventually AND/OR a product that will control the size of pores/the amount of sebum you produce.

I have a facial soap (no idea if that's how I should say it, but that's what it is lol) and a cleansing oil from hadalabo (the yellow one). For the cleansing oil, I recommend you sit it in your skin for a few minutes, so it can dissolve the oils in your face. Then, gently rub it (be careful not to rub too much or else the friction can hurt your skin and leads it to produce more oil)

Before, I used to clean my face with Essencial Fatty Acids (We have some tubs for it to scars that we can buy at the pharmacy, I suppose it's something that you might find as well) and I saw BIG DIFFERENCE in my skin. It will depend on your preference, really. The EFA one must be taken out with soap and the cleansing oil can be taken off with only water, if that's what the product recommends.

Things that might help your case: Niacinamide, Retinol and/or BHA/AHA products. They're not a MUST but they might help reducing the oiliness and control its production. You have to be careful, though, cuz not everyone tolerates it. I'd try for a serum or toner with it, just because it's easier to find those ingredients like that, and it won't take too much of your time.

One with niacinamide that I love is the Cosrx snail essence. Would recommend it 10/10. It's hydrating (not enough for winter, but it's good for me on summer)

Then, you have to find a good moisturizer. I don't have any to recommend 'cuz I didn't find THE ONE for me yet. I skin the rice one from Cosrx, but it's heavy for me, so I can't use it during the day. IT'S AMAZING OVERNIGHT, THO. 10/10. What I think you should mind is your preferences and daily routine. If you don't like the heavy ones, you won't use them. Skincare must be enjoyable, it's a moment of self-care and you won't incorporate it in your routine if it's just an obligation.

I like having one for sensitive skin, for when I shave and stuff. It helps calm down my skin. And I have one that is heavier which is great for both when my skin isn't great and is sensitive (waso shiseido. I don't know if I'd buy it again cuz of its price) but I can't put make up on with that. I'm looking for one that is in the middle of the way now SUHAHUSAUHSAUH

And sun screen and tons of water

THat's like the range of a drabble SUHAUHSAUHSAHUHUASHUSAUHSAUHSA But I hope it's helpful somehow.

this is INSANELY helpful but i'm so overwhelmed with all these products why have i never heard of any of these 😭😭😭 i have a feeling that i don't rlly know my skin at all tbh like idk what's best for it because so far no routine i've tried has helped and that's why i hated skin care for so long because if you don't see any progress you lose motivation yk?? all the comments under my post are so helpful but now i'm like so fkekifje like where to start JFJEJFJE. thank you so much tho omg i will come back to this post and check out the products!! 🫶🫶🫶

#kathys asks #later!!

[dollsonmain]

Alright, time to go drown the sedum. I don’t think the ants in the dirt are causing it to dry out, I’m pretty sure it’s the severe aphid infestation that I can’t seem to get rid of, but it could also be hydrophobic considering that dirt’s been in that pot for like...10 years? and after planting the sedum and it coming back every year, I’ve not replanted that pot.

[topazshadowwolf]

Ooooo I am curious now, what are your heardcanons concerning Nightmare's goop and washing? 👀

Oookay, so Nightmare, his goop, and washing up.

So his Goop likes to pick up the world around it. By that I mean it tends collect dust and dirt easily. Not that he’s sticky, just that small particles can easily get trapped in the ever shifting substance. And it can be shed off, easily in that shifting… or trapped as it gets pulled further in.

Now, annoyingly, his goop I imagine as hydrophobic, meaning it repels water. So it just beads on and rolls off. But he can kind comb it through to rinse things off his goop. So I see him taking long showers as he finger combs through the goop to get stuff out. Which is why he tends to wash regularly. He doesn’t want it to build up and be a pain to remove. (Between the two apple twins, Noot is more prideful and cares more about appearance.)

Warm/hot water does have a “melting” effect. Not that it melts it off of him. But a nice hot bath not only feels good as the goop is cool and it feels nice to have that warmth, but it softens the goop to make cleaning it out easier. It also causes the goop to shift over him faster. This encourages a self cleaning aspect as it shifts and possibly moves the dirt or whatever back to the surface where it is rinsed away.

And that’s my headcanon on that!

#nightmare!sans #headcanon #bathing habits #goop is hard to keep clean #gotta look his best though #he’s gotta big ego #and he knows it #even with what happened #he hates the goop #but accepts it is part of him now #and as part of him it must be presentable

[inaturalist-unofficial]

Can I suggest springtails for your iNat requests -- specifically Poduromorpha/Neanuridae? They are wonderful, incredibly underappreciated creatures and there are some beautiful observations on iNat -- if you want to see the real stunners, check out Pseudachorutinae

Thank you for writing in! Springtails are delightful creatures that I hope to photograph more, but they like to spring out of frame! It always seems I have more luck photographing them unintentionally than I do intentionally. Maybe they want to surprise you post-upload when you find them scattered in the dirt behind a bug so many times their size!

Dragon Springtails (Genus Acanthanura) © Nick Porch [ID: A dark-bodied arthropod with six orange legs and orange bumps and horn-like structures on its head and back. The protrusions are longest on top of it's head, along it's sides, and at it's rear. /End ID] Truly stunning! This individual was observed in Southeast Australia. The name Dragon suits the horns on it's head well.

Seashore Springtail (Anurida maritima) © Evan C [ID: Several dozen bluish grey springtails cluster together as they float on the surface tension of the water.]

This raft of springtails was observed in Coastal Maine, US. This species is considered cosmopolitan but is apparently not found in parts of the British Isles and the Baltic Sea. If anyone seeing this has access to a rocky coast or intertidal zone, see if you can find an aggregation of these guys! They use pheromones to group together and float easily due to their small size and hydrophobic bristles on their body.

Thank you again for the request, I learned a bit more and grew more curious!

#nature photography #wildlife photography #ecology #zoology #nature #springtails #killy killy #ask #inaturalist #entognatha #photography

[elinaline]

Plupdate ! Spring is definitely here, and summer is steadily coming.

Due to some overwork caused negligence on my part, the dirt for many of my plants became hydrophobic over the last couple weeks so it was more work to water them than usual, I'll hydrate them again tonight to make sure they're well infiltrated with water for the next half week.

My mint especially suffered, from parasite first then the dry pot, but it's making new growths now !

And I currently have an onion bloom, and mustard (I ate all of the chive bloom last week)

#plupdate

[pinene]

everyone is so dumb about growing weed

This is just what happens when you make something illegal and when all of the practitioners are paranoid weirdos who've never grown anything else, but FUCK is there an insane amount of brain rot in weed growing forums.

It's all just people SWEARING by methods that have zero empirical evidence bc their buddy told them it's important, and they've always done it, and it's not worth ~the risk~ of not doing it. there is such an ungodly amount of misinformation. like bro I grew my weed in dirt I bought from a store and some california sunshine. i occasionally fertilized it with 20-20-20 and some neem seed meal, and a tiny bud I broke off and quick dried last night got me SO FUCKING stoned .

and now i'm looking into washing/drying methods and everyone is being idiotic. people are like "idk if you wash it first i think that might destroy the terps" bro the terps are locked up in hydrophobic trichomes. have you ever got trichomes on your fingers. you can run that shit under as much water as you desire and your hands will still smell like crazy, the terps arent going anywhere... and so many ppl being like "Why would I wash my buds.. wtf that's stupid" BRO LOOK AT HOW DIRTY THE WATER GETS...idk basically everyone is convinced that their way of cultivating cannabis is the best even when it involves 18,000 steps that are unnecessary and is missing some actually good ones

#people will shell out ungodly amounts of money to grow a plant that lives happily on the sides of highways #to get like 3% more THC

[vspencerblog]

The Important Role of Sports Sunglasses While Outdoors

Whether you're a dedicated athlete or a casual outdoor enthusiast, you understand the significance of sunglasses. Sunglasses are not just fashionable accessories; they are specialized gear designed to protect your eyes from the sun's harmful rays, optimize visual clarity, and withstand the demands of intense physical activity.

In this article, we will delve into the important role of sports sunglasses while outdoors, exploring how they contribute to eye safety, performance enhancement, and overall enjoyment of your favorite sports and adventures, and why it’s wise to buy a pair of sunglasses near you.

Prevents UV Damage

Sunglasses labeled as providing 100% UV protection block both UV-A and UV-B rays. UV-A rays have longer wavelengths and can penetrate deeper into the eyes, potentially causing long-term damage. UV-B rays have shorter wavelengths and primarily affect the outer parts of the eyes, contributing to immediate effects like sunburned eyes. By blocking both types of UV rays, sunglasses offer comprehensive protection.

While polarized lenses primarily reduce glare, they indirectly contribute to UV protection. By reducing reflective glare from surfaces such as water, snow, or pavement, polarized sunglasses help improve visibility and visual comfort. We’ll recommend the best place to buy polarized sunglasses from below.

Provides Eye Protection Against External Elements

Apart from UV protection, sunglasses protect our eyes from wind and debris. Eyewear covers a larger area around our eyes and reduces the risk of windblown debris causing discomfort or potential eye injuries.

Sun and wind exposure can lead to dry eyes and discomfort. Sunglasses provide shade and reduce the direct impact of sunlight and wind on your eyes, helping to retain moisture and prevent excessive evaporation of tears, which keeps the eyes hydrated.

Sunglasses also protect against dust, dirt, and other particles in the outdoor environment. When you're engaged in activities like hiking, biking, or gardening, sunglasses act as a shield, preventing particles from entering your eyes and causing irritation or discomfort.

Selecting sunglasses with appropriate lens coatings, such as anti-reflective or hydrophobic coatings, can further enhance their protective qualities against the elements.

Improves Visual Clarity

Some sunglasses with specialized lens coatings or technologies enhance contrast perception. They selectively filter certain wavelengths of light, optimizing the contrast between objects and their backgrounds. This improves the sharpness and definition of what you see, making objects stand out more clearly.

Some sunglasses feature lens tints or coatings that enhance certain colors while reducing others. This selective color enhancement can improve visibility and visual clarity in specific environments. For example, amber or brown-tinted lenses enhance contrast and depth perception, making them beneficial for outdoor activities like hiking or skiing.

Sundaze Rays lets you buy sunglasses online with their diverse collection that contains an online shop for handcrafted sunglasses. Visit their shop today to buy uniquely shaped sunglasses. Get in touch with them to find out more.

[vaiadesignca]

The Dynamic Duo: Enhancing and Protecting Your Vehicle with Wraps and Ceramic Coating

When it comes to preserving the beauty and longevity of your vehicle, a combination of vehicle wraps and ceramic coating can work wonders. Vehicle wraps offer endless customization options, allowing you to transform your car's appearance, while ceramic coating provides unmatched protection against environmental elements. In this article, we will explore the synergy between vehicle wraps and ceramic coating, highlighting their unique benefits and the stunning results they can achieve together.

A Match Made in Automotive Heaven: Vehicle wraps and ceramic coating complement each other perfectly. By applying a vehicle wrap, you can achieve a customized and head-turning look for your car. Meanwhile, ceramic coating acts as a protective shield, ensuring that the wrap stays in pristine condition while safeguarding the underlying paintwork. This dynamic duo not only enhances the aesthetic appeal of your vehicle but also provides long-lasting protection against UV rays, dirt, chemicals, and more.

Customization and Preservation: Vehicle wraps offer unparalleled customization options. Whether you desire a sleek matte finish, a vibrant color change, or an eye-catching graphic design, wraps can transform your car into a personalized work of art. Pairing a vehicle wrap with ceramic coating takes it a step further by preserving the wrap's integrity. Ceramic coatings create a hydrophobic barrier that repels water, dirt, and contaminants, preventing them from penetrating the wrap's surface and ensuring its vibrant appearance is maintained for years to come.

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Metabolic engineering of Green Dudes Part 2

The next article, by popular demand, covers the limonene synthesis.

When you search for ‘limonene biosynthesis‘ either in PubMed or in Google Scholar, the two articles that pop out first are a review on advances in production of limonene in a huge variety of organisms and a research article on prototyping metabolic pathways in vitro before putting them into the cell.

They are both kinda hard to read, even if they are good.

The other article showcases how even good journals sometimes publish things that would be more fitting into an advertising email than in a research journal. In this case, authors are pushing forward their neural network, while diminishing the importance of actual human ingenuity in these sorts of things.

So, for today’s journal club we chose this article for its elegant approach and important insights.

Engineering of cyanobacteria for the photosynthetic production of limonene from CO2

Let’s start with the abstract!

Isoprenoids, major secondary metabolites in many organisms, are utilized in various applications. We constructed a model photosynthetic production system for limonene, a volatile isoprenoid, using a unicellular cyanobacterium that expresses the plant limonene synthase. This system produces limonene photosynthetically at a nearly constant rate and that can be efficiently recovered using a gas-stripping method. This production does not affect the growth of the cyanobacteria and is markedly enhanced by overexpression of three enzymes in the intrinsic pathway to provide the precursor of limonene, geranyl pyrophosphate. The photosynthetic production of limonene in our system is more or less sustained from the linear to stationary phase of cyanobacterial growth for up to one month.

Writing is considerably worse here than in the previous article, so, like, the first sentence says basically nothing.

The second sentence tries to catch up as a result of this, and ends up rushed. They constructed model system for producing limonene in a photosynthetic bacterial system by using an enzyme found in plants.

spoiler: the photosynthetic bacterial system here is Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 again

limonene is a valuable compound actually! Known for giving pines and oranges their distinct flavour, it also found use in cleaning industry as a renewable solvent for removing highly hydrophobic dirt, machine oil and bad odor. Being a nearly saturated aliphatic (meaning that it has no aromatic nuclei) hydrocarbon, it also can be used as fuel.

The next sentence mostly repeats the previous points, except it offhandedly points to researchers making a gas-stripping device that continuously extracts limonene from the culture.

Now, we should note that limonene in plants is an antimicrobial and antifungal compound. Does it affect our microbial culture? The next sentence says ‘no’.

This lack of strain on cells is then demonstrated as the culture kept producing limonene for a month.

The main text is written slightly better, so it's going to be a bit easier.

So, let’s move to introduction.

Fun fact also, while limonene is a monoterpene, it is still of isoprenoid biosynthetic nature. All sterols, including steroid hormones, such as cortisol, testosterone or estradiol, are triterpenes, i.e. also isoprenoids! Meaning that they can be produced entirely within the isoprenoid pathway. However, aside from making them from petroleum, plant sources are very slow to grow. Marker degradation process, for example, one that revolutionized the steroid chemical synthesis and allowed HRT to even exist for both cis and trans people, uses yams as a plant material for example.

So, of course people tried to make them in the genetically engineered organisms. And of course they started from E. coli and yeast to do it, but, then again, heterotrophic organisms live by turning organic matter into CO2, making organic matter using them is not very rational.

So, they chose a cyanobacterium for it, and used the most studied one.

So, the results are written in a very dry way. Thus, it is imperative that we look at figures. This is a metabolic pathway.

You probably remember the G3P and pyruvate from the previous article, and you might remember that phytol and carotenoids are structural moieties in the light-harvesting systems of photosynthetic organisms. Specifically, phytol is a part of chlorophylls, and carotenoids are these super-active antioxidants that give carrots their color and allow you to see at all. So, like, everything from Calvin cycle (it's the CO2 fixation cycle) and the lower right corner has to occur in the chassis organism no matter what.

Calvin cycle is when you use the carbon you got by affixing it to the ribulose to make more ribulose to affix carbon to. It's literally it. It might be called after Some Guy, but it's nothing conceptually hard. Just moving carbons around like in those children's problems of "how do you measure 5 liters of water having only a 3-liter and 1-liter bucket?"

The arrow pointing to limonene starts at GPP, standing for geranyl pyrophosphate. GPP is made by combining two "activated isoprene" blocks (DMAPP and IPP) , hence the name "isoprenoids". Isoprene is an old name for a gas that you get if you decay natural rubber, which is also an isoprenoid. It has two double carbon-carbon bonds, so it can be 'activated' by pyrophosphate group in two ways as a result. Limonene synthase is a 'magic enzyme' here, which takes the intermediate product of what is called 'primary metabolism' (you will die a lot if you do not do it) into a 'secondary metabolite' (everything else).

Well, Figure 2 is a biologist's version of those "this is going to be so tasty!!!" pictures on the culinary blogs where they post the gray dough in the least appetizing light spread thin on the ugliest dish in existence.

Of note: Cm^R and Km^R signify cassetes of antibiotic resistance to chloramphenicol and kanamycin. They can be used as selective markers, letting the strain that has it survive in the presence of said antibiotic.

Ptrc is a trc promoter. It is strong, making lots of protein. And constitutive, meaning it works always.

6xHis-tag is. Hm, it's a bit of satanic magic actually. If you put six pentagram-like amino acids (protein constituents) in a row, they will be able to bind nickel or cobalt ions, both named after demons (Nick and kobold respectively).

The second colorful sausage shows that they also expressed a cassete of usual isoprenoid pathway enzymes under a strong promoter, but like. It doesn't matter, just as insertion sites (blue arrows on a string) do not really matter. Now, for the black and white part of the figure. The pic labeled (B) is "PCR analysis of the integration of the limonene synthase using the primers 2031-9 and 2031-12". Which means that they amplified using Polymerase Chain Reaction a select part of the bacterial genome, which should contain their insert, and this part became bigger after the insertion, confirming that the insertion really happened. In the pic labeled (C) they confirm that their insert makes protein and that this protein is not immediately degraded by the cell. Pic labeled (D) sucks ass, so I am not commenting on it. So, now we know that their construction makes protein in Synechocystis, but is this protein functional?

I have absolutely no idea why they didn't put this result into the previous figure. They basically just show that an ion of the weight of limonene appears at the retention time of limonene, and is absent in the wild type strain. Whatever.

But there are many other ions here! How do we isolate limonene from this mess? And they solve it very elegantly, but also completely undersell the ingenuity of the approach. Air that we breathe is actually not very polar. Oxygen and nitrogen are monoelemental gases, carbon dioxide is perfectly symmetrical, argon is a noble gas. This means that the non-polar compounds like limonene actually would prefer to be in the air than in the water solution!

So the authors connect the air output of the culture to the cold trap (cold trap is a vessel on the path of gas that is cold and traps wanted/unwanted things by being too cold for them to be in gaseous phase) filled with octane. And all the limonene goes to the cold trap and does not poison the algae. This is genius, but also they really tried to make it look the worst way possible.

Hip Dadaist(@hypdadaist) — WHY ARE SCIENCE PAPERS LIKE THIS???

You take the stupidest and the craziest people that can still be functional, put them into an underfunded institution on the diet of deadlines, and pay them on the basis of how much papers they write. I am actually surprized that we as civilization lasted that long since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The other two figures are basically "number go up", so commenting on them seems pointless.

Discussion also sucks, aside from the calculation that they used 2.5% of cell isoprenoid synthesis by sloppily putting an unmodified enzyme under the "eh, it's going to be fine anyway" promoter. The coding sequence for the enzyme was isolated from the backyard japanese catnip their lab neighbor studied.

This is really cool because of THINK OF THE POSSIBILITIES, but also it seems like authors despaired at some point.

Like, there is probably some science fan out in the wild that will be like "you can make saturated hydrocarbons in your backyard with just sun, air and fertilizer????" and there are scientists that are like, "yeah, yeah, the clean energy ready to go whenever, we've all seen it".

That’s it for now!

Questions?

#science #molecular biology #metabolic engineering #dual power #sustainability

[forrestmilleri]

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