Phycoplankton

Author: vpochic

  • AI for bibliography: a cautionary tale

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    For a few years now, it seems to me that more and more people in research have been using generative AI for quite a lot of stuff (bold take, I know). At an ecology conference in 2024, I witnessed a lot of slideshows (including one of the plenary talks) illustrated with obviously AI-generated images, of…

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    vpochic

  • The sorcerer’s apprentices of photosynthesis

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    This is the third part of my series on Dinophysis. If you didn’t read the first and second part, go read them and come back! We’ve now seen how Dinophysis was finally cultivated in the lab: by feeding it with its prey, the ciliate Mesodinium rubrum. Both of these microbes thrive by acquiring chloroplasts from foreign origin.…

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    vpochic

  • The gingerbread house strategy

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    In these winter times, it is tempting to spend the evening sitting by the fire, reading old fairy tales. You’ve probably heard of Hansel and Gretel, a story of 2 children being lured into a gingerbread house by a cannibalistic witch? Well, today’s the day for some planktonic Hansel and Gretel. Meet the witch: Orbulina…

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    vpochic

  • Life on the walls

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    vpochic

  • On swimming

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    Swimming: the act or art of sustaining and propelling the body in water. On our blue planet, many life forms were once faced with the same question: how do I move through that aqueous medium towards that prey/shelter/sexual partner over there? What I want to discuss here is how many possible answers there are to…

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    vpochic

  • A video (in french) about interactions in phytoplankton blooms

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    The title says it all. This is a video I put together with some images and results of mine, and some CC BY images and music. Big thanks to all the people who create and share CC BY media on Commons, Free Music Archive and elsewhere on the web. Enjoy. This video itself is under…

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    vpochic

  • La vie en mer

    Un bateau c’est un monde de nœuds, de bruits, de peintures écaillées. Un monde d’habitudes où le temps est rythmé par les quarts et les repas au carré. C’est un langage où bosco, bâbord, manœuvre, côtoient bout, milles et passerelle. On se demande si on est mardi ou mercredi. On ne fait jamais la cuisine…

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    vpochic

  • The domestication of Dinophysis

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    This is the second part of my series on Dinophysis. If you didn’t read the first part, go read it, and come back! Taming the beast After the toxicity of Dinophysis was revealed, the incentives for establishing permanent cultures in laboratory conditions were high. Once mastered, lab cultures of microorganisms are a great asset for…

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    vpochic

  • A bloom of Alexandrium, from every angle

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    When I wrote last month’s post, I didn’t expect it to be relevant this soon, yet you will see that it is a fitting introduction for this one! A few days ago at the beginning of June, while scrutinising Sentinel-2 images of the Loire river turbid plume, my PhD supervisor spotted red patches in the…

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    vpochic

  • Looking at microbes from space

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    If your goal is to look for marine microorganisms, putting a drop of seawater under a microscope seems the most straightforward way. Sometimes, however, taking a step back can reveal even more. We’re talking about a big, 786-km step back – the altitude of Sentinel-2, a constellation of Earth observation satellites launched by the European…

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    vpochic