Author: vpochic
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The domestication of Dinophysis
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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A bloom of Alexandrium, from every angle
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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Looking at microbes from space
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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Toxic mussels in the time of paulownia flowers
A curious case of shellfish poisoning in Japan In the summer of 1976, coastal towns in Miyagi prefecture in northeastern Japan were faced with an unusual epidemic: 42 people presented symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea after they had eaten mussels. One year later, a similar outbreak occured, this time all along the eastern coast of…
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Phytoplankton do NOT produce 50% of the oxygen we breathe
“Phytoplankton produce 50% of the oxygen we breathe” is a sentence we often read, particularly in media pieces destined to the general public. It makes for a poignant introduction and it highlights the crucial role of phytoplankton on planet Earth. It has been employed by several respectable (and respected) oceanographers: you can find it in…
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How big are dinoflagellate genomes?
When you begin working on dinoflagellates, you quickly learn that they have (very) big genomes. But how big really? Recently, I was preparing a presentation on dinoflagellates and I was faced with this question, so I investigated a bit. I found this great data visualisation by Tom White that plotted genome size in different groups…
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Phycoplankton 