A term in biology: hyperthermophile for an extremophile thriving above 60 °C

The noun hyperthermophile is composed of the Greek words hyper,  thermos and philos for “above,”    “hot” and “love,” respectively.  The corresponding adjective is hyperthermophilic. A hyperthermophile is a microbe that lives at temperatures we consider as hot or even more than hot.

The term hyperthermophile was coined in the 1980s by microbiologist Karl Stetter, who searched for organisms existing under extreme conditions, for example at or above boiling water [1]—conditions found at hot springs and deep-sea hydrothermal vents . Such organisms belong to the domains archaea and bacteria, which include diverse groups of extremophiles living in extreme environments. At the lower extreme of the liquid-water temperature scale are psychrophiles, which “love” frigid water and icy conditions.
 
Examples of hyperthermophiles can be found among bacteria species of the genus Aquifex such as Aquifex aeolicus (first obtained by K. Stetter and R. Huber) and Aquifex pyrophilus (obtained from the Kolbensey Ridge, north of Iceland) [2].

Hyperthermophiles build a subgroup of thermophiles. Some prokaryotes (cells that lack a nucleus) can grow at or above 60 °C (140 F): moderate thermophiles live between 50 and 60 °C, while hyperthermophiles typically grow at 80 °C (176 F), but also at higher temperatures [3]. The hyperthermophile Pyrolobus fumarii (a name packed with hot associations), living at 113 °C (235 F), had been the hot-temperature record holder for some time, but a tiny single-celled microbe was then discovered that survives a temperature of  121 °C—and, therefore, was named “Strain 121.” [4]. What a strange strain!

Keywords: microbiology, oceanography, astrobiology, biotechnology, archaea, tree of life, extraterrestrial life, upper temperature limit for life.

References and more to explore
[1] Tim Friend: The Third Domain. The Untold Story of Archaea and the Future of Biotechnology. Joseph Henry Press, Washington, D.C., 2007; pp. 26-27.
[2] Aquifex: microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Aquifex.
[3] Earth science > Oceanography > Thermophiles and hyperthermophiles: accessscience.com/content/Thermophiles-and-hyperthermophiles/YB990490.
[4] Microbe from depths takes life to hottest known limit (press release, August 15, 2003, source:  National Science Foundation): www.astrobiology.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=12337.

A term in biology: psychrophile for cold-temperature microbe

The noun psychrophile refers to a cold-loving microorganism. This scientific term derives from the Greek words psychros and philos for “cold” and “love.” The corresponding adjective is psychrophilic.

The term cryophile, derived from the Greek word cryos for “cold” or “icy cold,” is often used as a synonym. Another synonym is rhigophile (for example, see page 21 in [1]). Cold conditions are those below the freezing point of water, under which organisms typically cannot access nutrients to efficiently sustain an existence such as being considered to be alive.

Psychrophiles are extremophiles, which live under extremely cold conditions (seen from a human viewpoint). Microbes that thrive in the other extreme, hot and very hot conditions, are called thermophiles and hyperthermophiles, respectively. Psychrophilic life forms include cold-adapted archaea that have been studied, for example, by the microbiologist Ricardo Cavicchioli at the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia), who collected species from the Antarctic [2].

Low-temperature conditions are also found in space and on celestial objects, including environments on planets and moons of the solar system. Therefore, astrobiologists are interested in cold-adapted microorganisms such as psychrophiles [3]. 

Keywords: microbiology, astrobiology, biotechnology, archaea, tree of life, extraterrestrial life, frigid temperatures.

References and more to explore
[1] M. Sc. Ahmed Abdel-Megeed: Psychrophilic degradation of long chain alkanes. Ph. D. Dissertation, Technical University Hamburg-Harburg, Germany, 2004 [faculty.ksu.edu.sa/75164/Ph%20D%20Thesis/Thesis.pdf].
[2] Tim Friend: The Third Domain. The Untold Story of Archaea and the Future of Biotechnology. Joseph Henry Press, Washington, D.C., 2007; pp. 221-222.
[3] Teach Astronomy > Psychrophyles: www.teachastronomy.com/astropedia/article/Psychrophiles.

A term in oceanography: brinicle for a salty ice stalactite

The term brinicle immediately raises associations with the words brine and icicle: a brinicle looks like an icicle and forms in cold or icy solutions of salt in water. Due to the fluid mechanics of cold, freezing seawater the overall form of a brinicle resembles more the shape of a tornado funnel than that of a straight, downward-pointing icicle.

Jeremy Berlin describes a brinicle descending about seven feet from the surface ice in antarctic waters, which was filmed by two British cameramen as it formed [1].  Ice stalactites look like they are out of a science fiction novel or computer animation, but they occur for real. American oceanographers Paul Dayton and Seelye Martin described them in 1971. Brinicles were successfully generated in a laboratory study by injecting cold, dense brine into an insulated tank of sea water held at its freezing point [2]. 

Sea water in polar regions, freezing at the ocean surface, can concentrate brine entrapments to very high salinities. Such brine pockets, which can have complex geometries, result into drainage tubes. When conditions are right, high-salinity drainage may descend as brine plume, “forming long, delicate, thin-walled hollow ice stalactites that on occasion can extend up to 6 m below the bottom of the sea ice ...” [3]

Brinicles are too slow forming to freeze anything in. There is no danger to submarines [1]. Brinicles are fragile and can be broken apart by currents as well as seals and divers. 

Keywords: fluid dynamics, frigid waters, seawater, dense brine.

References and more to explore
[1] Jeremy Berlin: In the frigid waters of Antarctica, briny tubes of ice can stretch down to the seafloor. National Geographic May 2012, 221 (5), pp. 30-31.
[2] Martin Seelye: Ice stalactites: comparison of a laminar flow theory with experiment. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 1974, 63, pp. 51-79. DOI: 10.1017/S0022112074001017.
[3] Austin Kovacs: Sea Ice. Part I. Bulk Salinity Versus Ice Floe Thickness. US Army Corps of Engineers - Cold Regions Research & Engineering Laboratory, CRREL Report 96-7, June 1996; Figure 3 [www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA312027].

Tourmaline: a gemstone name with Singhalese roots

The gemstone name tourmaline is though to derive form a Singhalese (Sinhalese, Cingalese) word or a variant thereof: turmali, tourmali, turamali, thuramali and thoramali are some of its spellings that can be found in the literature, buyer's guides and on websites [1-5]. The name means “mixed parcel,” referring to the large variety of color combinations in which its gemstone specimens occur [3,4]. Originally, the term tourmaline was applied to zircon and other gems by jewelers of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) [5].

Localities for tourmaline specimens include places in Asia, Europe, Africa, North and South America and even Antarctica (map in [2]). Dutch traders, shipping tourmaline stones from Sri Lanka to Europe, called them Aschentrecker (“ash puller”) due to their pyroelectric properties [1]. Tourmaline is also thought to be identical with lyngurium, described by the ancient Greek scholar Theophrastus of Eresus  (c. 371-285 BC) in his work on stones, De lapidibus,—mistaken as solidified lynx urine.

Classified as a semi-precious stone, tourmaline actually comes in different species and varieties. The Dictionary of Geology and Mineralogy [6] defines tourmaline as “any of a group of cyclosilicate minerals with a complex chemical composition, vitreous to resinous luster, and variable color, crystallizes in the ditrigonal-pyramidal class of the hexagonal system, has piezoelectric properties, and is used as a gemstone.” The dictionary gives the general formala,

(Na,Ca)(Al,Fe,Li,Mg)₃Al₆(BO₃)₃Si₆O₁₈(OH)₄,

which has to be modified to a more specific one when particular species are considered. To better understand the crystal structure of tourmalines, one may, for example, consult the CrystalMaker®-generated drawings by  Darrell Hennry and Barbara Dutrow (page 20 in [1]), depicting structural features of one of the most common tourmaline species, schorl (NaFe²⁺₃,Al₆Si₆O₁₈(BO₃)₃(OH)₃OH). Their figures demonstrate ion and polyhedra arrangement and, in particular, the cyclosilicate-coordinated structure based on rings of six SiO₄ tetraeder (the Si₆O₁₈ unit in the formula). Further, these authors explain the composition and color zoning structure of tourmalines and their significance as forensic objects in earth science and natural history. 

Keywords: geology, mineralogy, gemstones, lapidary, crystal morphology, linguistics, terminology.

References and more to explore
[1] Darrell J. Henry and Barbara L. Dutrow: The Tourmaline Diaries. Natural History March 2012, 120 (3), 16-27.
[2] mindat.org: Tourmaline [www.mindat.org/min-4003.html].
[3] Richard W. Hughes: Palegems.com Tourmaline Buying Guide [www.palagems.com/tourmaline_buyers_guide.htm].
[4] gemselect.com: Tourmaline's name... [www.gemselect.com/gem-info/tourmaline/tourmaline-info.php].
[5] Richard Scott Mitchell: Mineral Names. What do they mean? Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, 1979; page 192.
[6] Dictionary of Geology & Mineralogy. Second Edition. McGraw Hill, New York, 2003.

Lyngurium, meaning solidified lynx urine

The term Lyngurium means “solidified lynx urine.” Lyngurium was first mentioned by the Greek philosopher and naturalist Theophrastus of Eresus (c. 371-285 BC) in his work on stones, De lapidibus, in which he described the origin of a mineral by solidificaton of urine—preferably from a wild, male lynx [1,2]. This mineral is today known as tourmaline.

The false folklore believing in a gemstone made of frozen lynx urine was passed on into the Middle Ages. How do we (think we) know that Theophrastus was actually referring to tourmaline? Steven Watson puts it this way [1]:

Modern consensus assigns the name lyngurium to some form of clear amber or else a type of tourmaline, given its yellow colour and well-known static elctrical properties, even though Theophrastus says it is like amber, implying that it is not amber, and despite the fact he discusses the two stones in two clearly distinct sections of De lapidibus. Such ‘rationalist’ attempt at identification need not concern us here, since our interest is not in what the stone lyngurium was, but, rather, how and why knowledge about it was transmitted from the classical world to the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Being concerned what lyngurium was, most scientists stick with the alternate possibility. The alternative to ruled-out amber is tourmaline, based on the unusual properties (“unusual powers”) that Theophrastus attributed “his lynx-stone” with.

Keywords: geology, ethnomineralogy, gemstones, lapidary, folklore, misconception, knowledge transfer, philosophy.

References and more to explore
[1] Steven A. Walton: Theophrastus on Lyngurium: Medieval and Early Modern Lore from the Classical Lapidary Tradition. Annals of Science 2001, 58, pp. 357-379 [pennstate.academia.edu/StevenAWalton/Papers/576107/Theophrastus_on_lyngurium_Medieval_and_early_modern_lore_from_the_classical_lapidary_tradition].
[2] Darrell J. Henry and Barbara L. Dutrow: The Tourmaline Diaries. Natural History March 2012, 120 (3), 16-27.

Mobart, Tasmania

You won't find Mobart on a traditional map of Tasmania. But this nickname rhymes with the name of the capital of the Australian island state of Tasmania: Hobart (founded in 1804 as a British penal colony). The name Mobart is a play on Hobart's current transformation from a quiet down-under town into a hip and sexy destination offering performing and provoking arts, including the nearby Wunderkammer complex called Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) [1-3].

“A decade ago, Tasmania had no pulse, but now young people are staying.” says Christine Scott, curator at Hobart's Henry Jones Art Hotel (page 39 in [1a]). The national parks and reserves of Tasmania have attracted outdoor adventurers for a long time. Bushwalking and wilderness challenges can now be complemented by museum walking and experience of offbeat culture—in town and on the banks of the Derwent River, where the MONA is located.

The man behind the MONA, millionaire David Walsh, calls his museum “a subversive adult Disneyland.“ (page 39 in [1a]). The emphasis is probably not as much on “Disneyland“ as it is on “adult.“ MONA offers after-hours naked tours through the maze of artworks to confront the depictions on a raised level of alert and excitement. However, don't get undressed yet. There is a waiting list!

Thinking history, say Hobart. Thinking museum, say Mobart. Thinking nudity, say Nobart! 

Keywords: Australia, museology, hipster renaissance, entertainment, curiosity.

Note:  The art world loves playing with words, spelling and writing. Not only down under, but in every city with suitable urban space,  MobArt, may pop up. MobArt is an art gallery with a twist; it's mobile as suggested by the name: www.mobartgallery.com. The next MobArt show may happen in Hong Kong, [H,M,N]obart or in your town.

References and more to explore
[1] Tony Perrotet: (a): Tasmania's New Devil. Smithsonian Magazine May 2012, pp.36-48; (b) Nudity, Art, Sex and Death - Tasmania Awaits You: www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/Nudity-Art-Sex-and-Death-Tasmania-Awaits-You.html.
[2] Drew Martin: Holy Shit Tasmania! April 21, 2012 [museumofperipheralart.blogspot.com/2012/04/holy-shit-tasmania.html].
[3] Video tour: ArtBreak MONA,  Australia's largest privately owned gallery, breaking convention by exhibiting old and new art alongside each other rather than chronological order [www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNe1sfcsd8c].

Sarcodes sanguinea: scientific name for snow plant referring to texture and color

Sarcodes sanguinea is the scientific name for the snow plant or snow flower, which is a parasitic plant in the heath family (Ericaceae), found in Oregon, California and northwest Nevada. The genus name Sarcodes derives from the Greek word sarx for “flesh” and oeides for “like,” describing the snow plant's flesh-like texture. Its deep red color is denoted by the Latin word sanguinea, meaning “blood-red.” The brilliant red makes the snow flower unforgettable, once seen on the forest floor between coniferous trees, through which the rays of sunlight may break their path to the plant that is unable to use them for photosynthesis.  

Since the snow plant is the only member of  the genus Sarcodes, it is sometimes simply mentioned by its genus name, especially in foreign languages. Species and genus was first described by John Torrey in 1853; hence the extended scientific name Sarcodes sanguinea Torr. John Torrey (1796-1873) was an American botanist.

More about the snow plant
In English: Snow plant (Sarcodes sanguinea).
In German: Schneepflanze (Sarcodes sanguinea).

Nomenclature references
Sarcodes: Sarc'odes.
sanguinea: sanguin'ea/sanguin'eum/sanguin'eus.
John Torrey:  Encyclopedia Britannica: Torrey, John.