P A S S A G E
love
dad
Sunday, May 10, 2026
Saturday, May 9, 2026
Cell
C E L L O R G A N E L L E S
Here is a dynamic, complicated world and you can
see it only by looking through a powerful microscope.
A cell needs protection from anything that might
disrupt the intricate process of staying alive.
A membrane separates the cell from everything else.
It also determines what to let in. The various nutrients
vital to the cell's well-being are good. So are messages
from other cells. The membrane is more than a wall.
It makes decisions that require sensors for detection
and authentication of objects foreign to the cell.
Approved molecules are provided a gateway for passage.
In addition, this guardian membrane is able to
constantly update the nucleus on its status.
There are many such complex processes being
performed continuously in order to sustain life
in the cell. And what is it life employs to maintain
this operation? Molecules, dynamic and self-driven
in the performance of their task. This entire
enterprise to support life is accomplished
through the coordination of molecules in
purposeful animation.
N U C L E U S C O M M U N I C A T I O N
The nucleus monitors vital aspects of the cell's status.
Something is always in need of repair. The outer wall
is always in need of replacement protein gateways.
Environmental changes may call for adjusting the cell's
metabolic rate - turn up the heat in the cold and
reduce the caloric burn when things get warm.
All this requires reliable communications between
the nucleus and the relevant cell component.
Some forms of messaging are faster than others.
Putting a protein message in a vesicle is snailmail
compared to direct messaging using the membrane.
E N D O P L A S M I C R E T I C U L U M
Here is the cell's heavy industry. The cell's proteins
are assembled by Rough ER. Spherical Ribosomes
collect on the ER's surface, passing along instructions
from the nucleus. Smooth ER synthesizes lipids,
enabling the cell to distribute energy on a convenient,
tablet form basis. They make for great storage units
and they are available in a variety of sizes.
Smooth ER also provides environmental detoxifying
much like an animal's liver.
A well-regulated ER is vital to cell welfare, so it is no
surprise to find the Endoplasmic Reticulum is in direct
contact with the nucleus membrane. You can't get
anymore immediate molecular communication
than this.
G O L G I A P P A R A T U S
Shipping and Receiving.
We get the finished proteins and lipids
from ER and prepare them for shipping.
Certain modifications first need to be made
before the actual packaging. Once the item
is packaged it is stamped with its destination
zip code, provided a vesicle for transportation,
then sent on its way.
C E L L M E M B R A N E
The cell membrane is high maintenance.
Routine exposure to outside adversity takes
its toll. Structural proteins require constant
replacement. The wall itself is made of a double
layer of fatty lipids. Each lipid molecule is bipolar,
attracted to water at one end and repulsed by it
at the other, its tail end. As a consequence, the
molecular tails always face inwards, creating an
efficient and relatively simple seal against water.
M I T O C H O N D R I A
This capsule is an absolute dynamo,
providing over ninety percent of the cell's
chemical energy. It is a vital guest
to the operation because it brings its own
DNA. Mitochondria has an ancestry
separate from the rest of the cell,
yet extreme interdependence induced them
to become one and the same.
Lichen is a symbiotic relationship between
plant and animal where algae lives its life
within the confines of an animal cell.
The animal provides a protective environment
for the algae. The plant, in return, feeds the
animal through its photosynthesis of sunlight.
DNA, the formula for life.
Highly adaptable.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, May 3, 2026
Saturday, May 2, 2026
Vertebrate
O S T R A C O D E R M
J A W L E S S F I S H
We have to go back 450,000,000 years to find
our first sign of an animal having a vertebra, or a
close likeness. Prior to that there were plenty
of jellyfish populating the oceans as well as
assorted animals of the kind you find in tidepools.
The earliest vertebrate species were simple
in plan and may have looked like oversize worms
wiggling through water. The specimen above has
two dorsal fins to stabilize the animal, behaving much
like a sailboat's keel to keep it upright.
The animal leads with its armored head,
flattened and taking the shape of a shovel blade.
The eyes are new, as is a distinct and enlarged
neural center that becomes the individual's brain.
The mind discovers light, quickly learning it is
the best and most reliable source for information,
far more than either touch or smell delivers.
Now the animal can identify something from a
distance, know its size, its headed direction
and know whether it is food or foe.
P L A C O D E R M
30,000,000 years later and we enter the
Devonian Period - The Age of Fishes.
The basic body plan of a fish is revealed
with the Placoderm. The name means
Plated Skin in Greek, referring to the animal's
armored head. Vertebrates now have a
lower jaw and with it, the ability to bite
like a true carnivore, capturing its prey using
fangs.
Then, after 60,000,000 years of life's further
development, a global environmental catastrophe
occurs, killing off most living species on Earth.
The Placoderms disappear from the fossil record.
S H A R K
20,000,000 million years have passed.
The land is now covered in thick forest.
This time of great plant abundance is
know as the Carboniferous Period, a later
source for stored energy in the form of
its buried oil, coal and natural gas.
The first animals capable of dwelling on land
would find these vast forests a never-ending
buffet.
Sharks appear in the fossil record.
Their skeleton made of cartilage makes them
lighter, faster and more maneuverable than bony fish.
The shark pictured above sports an anvil-shaped,
front dorsal fin. Its bulk hinders swimming but
the flat-head fin is a male display device important
in courtship.
A C A N T H O D I I
S P I N Y F I N N E D F I S H
Every fin attaches to a spine, except for the tail.
Its skeleton is cartilage but the head is bone.
Bone makes for a stronger helmet.
Cartilage is used to boost performance while
bone provides strength for protection.
How is it the two separate developments of
cartilage and bone, manage to combine
in one group of vertebrates?
The spiny finned fish succeeded for millions of years.
It ended with an environmental catastrophe that destroyed
most of life on Earth. The spiny-finned fish were swept
from the fossil record along with the placoderms.
O S T E I C H T H Y E S
M O D E R N B O N Y F I S H
Over 95% of all vertebrate species
in existence today are fish. They are found
most everywhere life can exist. Fish have
an exceedingly adaptable genetic makeup.
Some notable features:
M. Gills for respiration. Exchanging gases
with the surrounding water. They can't breathe
without water constantly moving over the gills.
A shark must continually swim in order to breathe.
A modern fish has an operculum, a bony gill cover
that flaps while the fish is hovering, enabling the
animal to breath while standing still.
E. Swim Bladder for buoyancy.
It gives the fish neutral buoyancy, enabling it to
hover in the water and not sink. It is a thin walled,
gas-filled sac that has proven highly adaptive.
Some species of fish that live in stagnant ponds
are able to supplement their gills with using their
swim-bladder for respiration when water becomes
oxygen deprived. Lungs replace gills for respiration
as the fish's gas bladder fulfills a new purpose.
I. Nostrils for smelling, only.
As yet they have no roll in breathing.
They are sensors that detect chemical cues
in the water for feeding and navigation.
This is a vital sensory organ behind the salmon's
remarkable journey home to the stream of their birth
for the purpose of reproduction.
A C T I N O P T E R Y G I I
R A Y - F I N N E D F I S H
Fins supported by thin, bony rays provides for
superior responsiveness and overall performance.
The design is powered by competition and
responses to continuing environmental changes.
Somehow the code to life was written.
It's instructions have been coded in molecular
verse and passed from individual to individual
for hundreds of millions of generations now.
The mystery only deepens with the additional
knowledge we gain. It's a principle of science.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, April 26, 2026
Saturday, April 25, 2026
Fish
K E L P B E D S
A forest worth of marine plantlife provides a nutrient-rich
habitat for hundreds of species tied to the ocean.
Thick kelp runs deep to its seabed roots, continuing on
for many miles, hugging the continental coastline.
The water, weighted with life, drags down the energy
of currents and storm surf, protecting the land
against erosion.
Here is our self-sustaining community of animals.
Otters bob on the surface, crushing shellfish while
seals dart about for rockfish and salmon, and
octopus linger nearby. Overhead - pelicans, terns
and gulls.
A N G L E R F I S H
The Seadevil lives in a bizarre world 4,500 feet
beneath the ocean's surface. It is a realm virtually
void of light. The pressure of this depth is enough
to quickly crush a modern submarine. And yet,
here life exists.
The creature above is called an anglerfish
because it has a rod and lure sprouting from the
top of its head. The lure's bioluminescent light
attracts curious inhabitants to their doom;
gobbled up by an enormous mouth armed with
needle teeth, and forced into a stomach that
handles most anything that fits into its mouth.
The anglerfish can swallow something its own
size in one gulp.
Down here you don't often get an opportunity
for a meal.
L A M P R E Y
Had you a ticket to ride 500 million years back
in time you would undoubtedly find many fish
such as this in the oceans of its time.
A couple billion generations later here are their
offspring, a living fossil. Today they live on the
fringe of fish diversity as jawless parasites.
No jaw, no bite. You nab your prey with a
suction cup for a mouth. Your thorny tongue
creates a nourishing open wound.
Here's a free ride.
So you stick around.
F L O U N D E R
Here is a flatfish having both eyes on the same
side of the head. One eye migrates to the other
side early in its development. Why not just have
both eyes born on the same side? Probably because
larva are just trying to survive and they need to see
everywhere. The adult hides beneath sand, his eyes
are all that appears above the surface.
They look like gravel. Maybe a bit too...
crunch. You're dead.
Plus the flounder is like a chameleon -
it changes color to match its surroundings.
If you're a small fish or crab happening by,
you're going to get eaten.
F L Y I N G F I S H
We start with a very fundamental fish design -
streamlined torso, tailfin, doral fin and so on.
Nearly all fish design begins with this.
The scenario leading to this biological variation
involves how to escape a barracuda, a predator
hot on your tail and faster than you.
Go where it can't. The air above.
If you can reach a speed of 35 mph you can
clear the water's surface. You then fan out your
enormous pectoral fins and glide some 600 feet,
out of reach of the pursuing barracuda.
Six hundred feet.
The Wright brothers' first flight was only
one hundred and twenty.
S E A H O R S E
Must be the product of a coral habitat.
Exotic. Colorful. A real animation feature
for the family until we find out dad is pregnant.
Not to worry, though. It happens all the time.
When the female finds her eggs fertilized
she passes them into the male's brood pouch.
Here they are nurtured the next two to four weeks.
Once the brood is hatched the process starts
over again. Mom presents dad with a new batch
of eggs to fertilize.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, April 19, 2026
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