Friday, November 19, 2010

Cyanobacteria - Asymmetric contemporary oxidized sterling silver necklace with Green Agate for your favorite Geek Chic

I’ve been thinking about making an addition to my Microbiology collection for some time now… This time I got inspired by Cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae and blue-green bacteria). They are probably best known for the extensive and highly visible blooms that can form in both freshwater and marine environment and can have the appearance of blue-green paint or scum. Because these blooms are toxic, it is common to close the affected beaches and thus many people get really upset with these little bacteria:) So it may surprise you that the cyanobacteria are actually one of the largest and most important groups of bacteria on earth.

…just a little bit of mandatory nerd (= science) talk now :)

Cyanobacteria are aquatic and photosynthetic, which means, they live in the water, and can manufacture their own food. Because they are bacteria, they are quite small and usually unicellular, though they often grow in colonies large enough to see. They are the oldest known fossils, more than 3.5 billion years old, in fact!

Many oil deposits are attributed to the activity of cyanobacteria. The oxygen atmosphere that we depend on was generated by numerous cyanobacteria during the Archaean and Proterozoic Eras. Prior to that, the atmosphere was unsuitable for life as we know it today.

Another great contribution of the cyanobacteria is the origin of plants. The chloroplast with which plants make food for themselves is actually a cyanobacterium living within the plant's cells. Sometime in the late Proterozoic, or in the early Cambrian, cyanobacteria began to take up residence within certain eukaryote cells, making food for the eukaryote host in return for a home.

So here is my new Cyanobacteria necklace, and for those who do not care about science as much as I do, a simple pretty abstract neck piece :)


http://www.arctida.com/en/science/46-science-jewelry-cyanobacteria-necklace-blue-green-algae-bacteria.html
 http://www.arctida.com/en/science/46-science-jewelry-cyanobacteria-necklace-blue-green-algae-bacteria.html
 http://www.arctida.com/en/science/46-science-jewelry-cyanobacteria-necklace-blue-green-algae-bacteria.html

As you've probably guessed these last pictures are microscope shots of the Cyanobacteria colonies and my visual inspiration :)

11 comments:

Vikulya said...

Great work! Wonderful necklace! I like so much the color!My congrats!

Viktoria said...

WOW! what a complex description very interesting!
beautiful necklace!

blueberrycream said...

Beautiful work and great description!

Eva Maria Keiser said...

Fresh and unique design!

SocksAndMittens said...

What an interesting design! Very pretty!

Unknown said...

Incredible! Wow! sooo beautiful. Shape, colour, complexity! Thanks for sharing

alteaperle said...

What an interesting inspiration!! Beautiful work and gorgeous color!

Morrgan said...

Lovely! As I'm a microbiologist myself, I am indeed enjoying this series of science-geeky jewelry. ;)

LiriGal said...

Beautiful necklace!

Anonymous said...

I love that this is a bacteria-inspired design! I certainly have a healthy respect for all the little bacterias out there in the world, so I can't help but love this necklace. Very cool.

Anonymous said...

In fact, i liked your necklace so much I featured it on my blog :-) Please let me know if you'd prefer I didn't! Thanks.

http://likealightbulb.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/arctidas-cyanobacteria-necklace/

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