Eighteenth Century Microscope Monsters - io9 Comments

Eighteenth Century Microscope Monsters

physik — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:33:29 PDT

I love this site. When I start to feel like I am too dorky you guys have an argument about kingdom classification. Nice.

physik

Eighteenth Century Microscope Monsters

cde — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:36:48 PDT

@IgG4:
@botanicidal:

It's alot more complicated then that: [en.wikipedia.org]

cde

Eighteenth Century Microscope Monsters

botanicidal — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:53:35 PDT

@IgG4:

agreed... the fact that people nowadays are still referring to fungi as plants makes me think that many people were NOT paying attention in Biology class during High school. Plants clearly belong in Kingdom, Plantae and Fungi clearly belong in Kingdom, Fungi, which are distinct from the Kingdoms, Animalia, Protist, Eubacteria, and Archaebacteria. This classification system has been around for decades now.

botanicidal

Eighteenth Century Microscope Monsters

I voted for Kodos — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:17:21 PDT

Those aren't seeds sprouting, those look like some kind of plankton to me. And technically, fungi are not plants.

I voted for Kodos

Eighteenth Century Microscope Monsters

Ghede — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:42:46 PDT

@braak: See, this is why I love this site. A discussion on the classification of microscopic organisms based on eighteenth century drawings.

Ghede

Eighteenth Century Microscope Monsters

Slothrop — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:26:49 PDT

Robert Hooke's microscope work is talked about at length in the recent popular biographies:

[www.amazon.com]

and, of course, he's in The Baroque Cycle which makes him super cool.

Slothrop

Eighteenth Century Microscope Monsters

braak — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:22:15 PDT

@NefariousNewt: Maybe, but those cilia are still out of order.

Also, if you feel like you had maybe too much lunch today, and want to get some out of your stomach? Do a google image search for "hookworm."

braak

Eighteenth Century Microscope Monsters

SanskritiCynortas — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:19:48 PDT

Comment on Eighteenth Century Microscope Monsters How on earth can this be newsworthy on the sci-fi news blog, when you can find a clear historical precedent in Robert Hooke's Micrographia - published one hundred years before these prints! Not only that, but Hooke was a character in Stephenson's "System of the World" trilogy.

SanskritiCynortas

Eighteenth Century Microscope Monsters

NefariousNewt — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:31:28 PDT

@braak: It might be a pin-worm or hookworm, from the segmentation of the body.

NefariousNewt

Eighteenth Century Microscope Monsters

braak — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:18:23 PDT

@BlindKarma: I don't know. The worm looks like it's got cilia along the sides, which I think is uncharacteristic of nematode worms.

braak

Eighteenth Century Microscope Monsters

BlindKarma — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:12:06 PDT

Yeah it's a Hydra with a nematoad maybe?

BlindKarma

Eighteenth Century Microscope Monsters

braak — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:07:44 PDT

That first one looks like a hydra trying to eat some kind of small worm.

braak