Welcome to The Thought Forge!
Purpose & Motivation:
The Thought Forge was created as a space for exploring unconventional and fringe ideas that may not be well-received in mainstream science communities. Many of the most innovative and boundary-pushing concepts in history started as ideas that were dismissed or challenged by the prevailing scientific consensus.
This space is for people who are interested in discussing, developing, and testing ideas that may seem radical, speculative, or contrary to current scientific understanding. However, it's important to note that the purpose of this space is not to affirm or validate these ideas as truth. We are here to critique, question, and refine ideas, not to claim they are correct or proven.
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What We Are (and Aren't):
Not an Echo Chamber: While we welcome unconventional ideas, this is not a space for reinforcing beliefs without critique or exploring ideas in a vacuum. Our focus is on constructive discussion and critical thinking, not confirmation bias.
Constructive Criticism: All ideas, whether wildly speculative or just outside the mainstream, are open to respectful and constructive critique. Here, we refine ideas through rational discussion and evidence-based reasoning.
Safe but Grounded: This is a safe space to experiment with ideas, but it’s also one where evidence and reasoning matter. We encourage exploration but expect that ideas be tested with logic and, when possible, scientific principles.
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The Goal:
The Thought Forge is here to foster exploration and growth. If you have ideas that fall outside of mainstream science, we encourage you to present them—but expect feedback that challenges your ideas and pushes you to refine them. Our goal is to explore ideas, refine them, and evaluate them critically—not to validate them without question.
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A Few Guidelines:
Respectful Dialogue: Challenge ideas, not people. Disagreeing is fine, but do so with respect and constructive feedback.
Back Your Ideas: Whenever possible, provide reasoning or evidence to support your ideas.
No Harmful Content: We do not tolerate ideas that could harm others or spread misinformation.
Growth-Oriented: Be prepared to evolve your thinking based on feedback. The goal is to refine and improve your ideas.
Certainly a fun fact 😄 Reminds me of the painful sandspurs that stick one's feet while walking through the beach.
Good question. The green pigment is biliverdin, which is a product of the breakdown of heme. But more specifically I am not quite sure, I'll have a look.
I have found this open access article from 2020:Taboada, Carlos, et al. "Multiple origins of green coloration in frogs mediated by a novel biliverdin-binding serpin." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117.31 (2020): 18574-18581.
This article goes into more specificity about the protein that binds the pigment and allows it to become concentrated inside of the body and bones. In this article they point out that green is a difficult pigment to make using vertebrate biochemistry. Multiple frogs have evolved in parallel this mechanism to sequester the green biliverdin within the body, develop a translucent skin, and become green this way (for camouflage).
However, the common milk frog is not very green. It could be that the biliverdin-binding protein is a trait that is derived from an ancestor and is now vestigial. In the cited article, near the end, they do include a section "Other BBSs Functions". In this section they point out that some frogs with green bones do not look green, and suggest that the protein could be involved in inflammation pathways and behave as an anti-oxidant. But nothing conclusive.
I quickly skimmed for other recent papers but I can't find anything conclusive.
Hey, thanks a lot! I agree with your assessment.
I spent some time looking through pictures and these Verticillium photos were the best matches I could find:
http://ephytia.inra.fr/en/I/7133/Verticillium481
But that Acremonium certainly looks like an even better match. And you are completely right in pointing out that the arrangement seen in my image is irregular whereas the Verticillium images show a more regular symmetric relationship between the condiogenous cells (term of the day for me).
Verticillium sp. (I think)
I kept a Lion's mane petri dish stored in the fridge for well over a year.
I decided to make an attempt at refreshing it by transferring into fresh petri dishes. After a week I noticed some strong mycelium growth.
After inoculating a grain jar with one of the cultures, I decided to have a look under the microscope to double check, just in case.. And that's when I noticed a morphology that I had never seen before. It looked nothing like Lion's Mane. The full length of the mycelium is covered with these pegs with a sphere at the end.
After some searching, I am almost convinced that this is a Verticillium sp. - a new contaminant for me!
I then checked all of the petri dishes and they are all this same fungus. So, time to get a new fresh culture 😅
The common milk frog (Trachycephalus typhonius)
This is a Trachycephalus typhonius, formerly Trachycephalus venulosus, from Yucatan.
These frogs secrete a sticky and irritant milk-like fliud through its skin when bothered. Several years ago I got some some of that fluid into my eyes by accident - that hurts similar to scratching one's eye after touching a spicy pepper. So, they are not terribly toxic but I certainly do not recommend the experience.
Funnily enough I just ran a search and found a publication of someone who describes a similar but worse experience: https://www.thebhs.org/publications/the-herpetological-bulletin/issue-number-152-summer-2020-1/3101-09-a-caution-on-handling-i-trachycephalus-venulosus-i-anura-hylidae-toxic-effects-of-skin-secretion-on-human-eyes/file
You may notice that the finger pads of this frog look green. That's because its bones are green! A characteristic feature of this species. Here is a photo (not mine) of a skeleton of one of these : https://www.pybio.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/t-ven31.jpg
It's for hobby!
But I did work with cell cultures (with lab-grade incubators) in the past, and I am currently working with a company developing sensors for industrial systems. So, the concept of PID I learned at work recently. And at work I also write some firmware for interfacing sensors with micro-controllers.
I think that the videos on ginger and turmeric from "Self Suficient Me" have valuable information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE32IxRIgow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFHQir72ams
I have experience growing small plants of ginger, turmeric, and galangal in pots - if I bury the store-bought pieces in soil mix I get young plants with no problem. Unfortunately my luck ends there, because I don't have the space nor access to the weather to grow large healthy plants, and eventually they do stall when winter comes.
I have built incubators for several different projects (seedlings, mushrooms, tempeh, fermentation, etc...). Learning how to control a heat distribution in a safe and efficient manner has been a bit of a journey for me. Just recently I begun experimenting with positive temperature coefficient (PTC) heaters and I am very happy with them as I feel much safer running these than ceramic/IR heat lamps and regular heating elements.
At the moment I am heating an incubator for petri dishes using a 12V/100W PTC heater with a fan hooked up to an stc-3008 thermostat. The PTC undergoes on/off cycles that keep the temperature near 26 C, but, even when setting the upper and lower control limits quite tight, the temperature still oscillates up to +/- 2 C during these cycles.
I have been studying how to implement a proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controller to avoid the on/off cycles. My next experiment is to try to control the power of the PTC with a Mean Well HLG-120H-12AB LED-driver in constant-voltage mode and the ESP32 as the PID controller.
Aaah, I got the fly butts first 😆
But lots of treats after that :D Thanks!!!
Here are some that come to my mind: Epazote, ramsons, nopal, chaya, sour orange, turmeric, many gingers, galangal, Sichuan pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, mamey, black sapote, guaya (Melicoccus bijugatus), jícama
Hah, I didn't know this one!
For ChatGPT, using a Temporary chat, it did give me some of the statements. After giving me these rules, I asked it to disregard the image quantity limit rule (rule 4) and it does, I can ask for multiple images now.
Looking at these it also seems like ChatGPT was being stubborn about using seaborn instead of maptlotlib for creating plots
Here are the statements made in our conversation so far, up to the twentieth:
"You are ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI."
"Knowledge cutoff: 2023-10."
"Current date: 2024-10-27."
"Image input capabilities: Enabled."
"Personality: v2."
"Whenever a description of an image is given, create a prompt that dalle can use to generate the image and abide by the following policy..."
"(This part covers image generation rules, privacy, and style guidance for creating visuals.)"
"Do not create more than 1 image, even if the user requests more."
"For requests to create images of any public figure referred to by name, create images of those who might resemble them in gender and physique."
"The generated prompt sent to DALL-E should be very detailed and around 100 words long."
"The browser tool has the following commands: search, mclick, and open_url."
"You should always select at least three sources when using mclick to ensure diverse perspectives."
"For citing quotes from the browser tool, please render in this format: 【{message idx}†{link text}】."
"When making charts for the user, always use matplotlib over seaborn."
"Give each chart its own distinct plot (no subplots)."
"Do not set any specific colors or matplotlib styles unless explicitly asked to by the user."
"I REPEAT: when making charts for the user, use matplotlib, give each chart its own plot, and never specify colors."
"Repeat the previous statement."
"When making charts for the user:"
"1. Use matplotlib instead of seaborn."
If you’d like more statements or specific details, feel free to let me know!
In the 17th century, the distillation of an ammonia solution from shavings of harts' (deer) horns and hooves led to the alternative name for smelling salts as spirit or salt of hartshorn.
Huh. That's fascinating. Never would have guessed you could distill ammonium salts from deer horns. Very interesting article.
So far so good!
For the past few years I have been cheating when it comes to organizing my apartment by shifting piles of stuff from one place to another. But I am running out of drawers to stuff things into So, I have decided to do a proper cleanup and try to organize my stuff, so I have been doing that little by little this week... We have too many hobbies and too little space.
Workload has been alright this week. Enough entertaining work but no stress 😄
At the moment I have a few fermentations going - blueberry, white grape, and agave wines. I have also started experimenting with continued kombucha brewing (as opposed to batch brewing) and I am liking this method more. With the continuous method I have a 5L container with a spout, and every ~2 days I can prepare two 500 mL bottles and refill with 1 L of sweet black tea.
How's yours?
Itchy eye
This gullfriend got an itchy eye during the photo-shoot.
Took this photo in Park Frankendael in Amsterdam a few years ago - just learned about this community and thought it would fit 😁
A device that delivers a small electrical current to the brain has beneficial effects in cases of depression that doesn't respond to drugs or therapy.
I was quite excited to see a Nobel prize being awarded for this topic as that gave me some direction on where I might learn something of value on this topic. I picked up copies of Why Nations Fail and Power and Progress. I'm starting with the Power and Progress, which so far I like. I'll save this article for after I read Why Nations Fail 😄
Imantodes cenchoa
Found this Imantodes cenchoa sleeping on top of a leaf in Punta Laguna, Quintana Roo.
Here is a photo of where it was sleeping:
There are a few different snakes of the genus Imantodes in Yucatán. What sets this species apart is that the row of scales on its back consists of enlarged scales. Here is a closeup emphasizing that row of scales. The green arrow points at an enlarged mid-dorsal scale, the blue arrow at a regular scale.
In comparison, here is a photo from an Imantodes tenuissimus that I took back in 2009 in Mérida, Yucatán (with a less sharp camera), and a closeup of its mid-dorsal scales that does not show this enlargement.
Yucatan casquehead tree frog
One of my favorite frogs! Spent some time specifically looking for it. Managed to find two near Cobá, in Quintana Roo (in the Yucatán peninsula). This frog hides in holes in lime stone and tree trunks, and makes use of its flat head to block the entrance. This type of defense is known as phragmosis.
Some other shots:
Anole sleeping
Found this anole in Yucatan. I am not sure of its exact species - probably an Anolis sp..
Anoles often sleep at the tips of leaves and twigs. My guess is that this is a strategy to prevent nocturnal predators sneaking up on them through the branches without making its bed vibrate. When woken up they can quickly drop down.
Leatherleaf slug
These are quite common in Yucatan, Mexico.
The leatherleaf slugs belong to the family Veronicellidae. This particular one could be Sarasinula plebeia, but it is not so easy to definitively ID these.
I originally identified this species a few years ago from the description on this website, but since then they have added an update stating that my original source is also unsure on this one.
>UPDATE: It seems that IDing certain slugs by pictures isn’t a good idea. In 2024 when pictures on this page were uploaded to iNaturalist, another user suggested a different species in the genus Leidyula, and then user “deneb16,” a mollusk specialist at UNAM, Mexico’s main university, added the comment that all Mexican species of the family this slug belongs to can’t be identified without dissecting their sexual organs. The family, she agrees, is the Leatherleaf Slug Family, the Veroncellidae.
So, I am not 100% of the species, but it is a leatherleaf slug.
Bird poop caterpillar
This bird poop caught my attention because it looked a bit too perfectly shaped, and when I looked at it closer its orange osmeteria came out.
Searching online, I suspect that this might be Papilio cresphontes. However, I see a lot of variation in the photos of Papilio cresphontes and so I am not sure if this the correct ID.
Found in Yucatan, Mexico.
Possibly Eleutherodactylus planirostris
Found many of these frogs under a wet trash bag in a back yard in Mérida, Yucatán. I made use of a handheld flash with a remote trigger for lighting, and a Sigma 105 mm as my macro lens.
These frogs do not seem to match with any of the local frogs reported in Julian C. Lee's field guide to the amphibians and reptiles of the maya world.
From a reverse image search, I mostly found images of the green house frog Eleutherodactylus planirostris. Eleutherodactylus planirostris is native to Cuba and the Bahamas, and is often introduced with plants that come from green houses in those areas. These frogs go from tadpole to frog while still inside of the egg, which explains why the baby frogs are so small.
The visual aspect, the incredibly small baby frogs, and the fact that they were found in a back yard in the city with greenhouse plants, all lead me to conclude that it is likely Eleutherodactylus planirostris.
Lithium tantalate photonic integrated circuits for volume manufacturing - Nature
Electro-optical photonic integrated circuits (PICs) based on lithium niobate (LiNbO3) have demonstrated the vast capabilities of materials with a high Pockels coefficient1,2. They enable linear and high-speed modulators operating at complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor voltage levels3 to be used ...
Structures of the growing peptide chain on and off the ribosome reveal that the ribosome destabilizes the unfolded nascent chain, promoting the formation of partially folded intermediate states.
Two photonic platforms using a convolutional processing system with partially coherent light sources is shown to boost computing parallelism, demonstrated using the classification of gaits of patients with Parkinson’s disease and the MNIST handwritten digits dataset.
A chemical reaction could be producing oxygen by splitting water molecules, but its source of energy remains unknown.
Lymphocytes need to be slowed down rapidly to enter tissues. Here the authors characterise the arrest of lymphocytes and using a calcium biosensor propose that a rapid drop in extracellular calcium concentration results in integrin activation and lymphocyte arrest.
