LIFESCIENCES 2020

The wings of the butterflies are covered by fine scales, which easily peel off when touched. It can be clearly seen that the scales are anchored with small stems in holes of the wing surface. This wing fragment is from the domestic silk moth (Bombyx mori) whose caterpillars produce silk.

Maggots of the Green bottle fly eat through the decaying material their mother has picked out for them. Specially bred, sterile larvae are packed into celluloid bags and laid on the skin. They remove dead tissue, as well as secretions from the wound and, in doing so, release anti-microbial substances and enzymes for a better healing process.

The foot of the jumping spider (Myrmarachne formicaria) has a small claw and especially brush-like fine hair. These allow the spider to walk on smooth surfaces or on the ceiling like a gecko. This distance-dependent interaction between atoms or molecules is known as Van-der-Waals Force.

This strange looking amoeba was found in wet soil in the northern Black Forest. Amoebae capture their prey, bacteria and smaller protozoa, by surrounding them with their pseudopods and then trapping and digesting them within their body in food vacuoles. Amoebae can be found almost everywhere. They are especially abundant in moist soil and mud, but many genera are also found in fresh water and seawater.

The renal corpuscle is the blood-filtering component of the nephron of the kidney. It consists of a glomerulus - a tuft of capillaries composed of endothelial cells, and a glomerular capsule known as Bowman´s capsule (yellow). Here the Bowman´s capsule is opened and shows the podocyte cells that surround the capillaries

Ewing´s sarcoma is a rare solid malignant tumor that usually affects bone. It is the second most common type of bone cancer in childhood and the third most common in adults. The victims initially complain of intermittent pain. The symptoms often appear in the context of a trivial trauma and are therefore often misinterpreted initially as growing pains, bone inflammation or as a result of sports injury.

The foot of a gecko is equipped with several ways to clamp or stop. In this image of a toe a claw is clearly recognizable, which gives the animal on rough ground stop. Below are several brush-like upholstery. These hairs branch and are only 50-100 nm thick at their ends. They adapt to the ground directly and ensure the greatest possible contact surface, so that there is an electrical attraction between them and the ground (Van der Waals force).

The petals of the rose are covered with microscopic, grooved warts. Each wart is a single cell. They produce the velvety shimmer, which especially catches the eye with very dark roses. The oldest fossil found, which have impressions of rose petals, goes back 35 to 32 million years.

An adult of the silk moth with feelers and the big compound eyes. The big antennae help the animals smell to find a partner. The mouthparts of the animal are stunted, since the animals do not eat any more after their pupation. The cocoon of the East Asian silk moth (Bombyx mori) is processed into silk.

This microscopic fruiting body of a fungus was found on a piece of woody debris from the Northern Black forest, Germany. Beside the fungus some bacteria (greenish colored) are recognizable on the piece of wood. Fungi are responsible for the decomposition of wood and foliage. There are almost exclusively fungi that can split and utilize lignin (complex compounds in woody cell walls of plants).

Ultrathin section of an Escherichia coli bacterium with a T phage just landed on its surface. The dense, round objects inside the bacterium are not yet mature viruses. Phages are viruses that attack bacteria. They are not capable of their own metabolism, they inject their DNA into foreign cells in order to use their metabolism to force their own propagation.