h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yay! Thanks.

This is very generous of you to do...

*finds the right page*

yep, they're used to test polarity, especially in response to light.

do you know what the thallus and rhyzoid are?

no website links were given on this though... is one of the classic experiments however, there'll be a lot of stuff on it if you use the right key words

I think I know what a rhizoid is. Something about mermaids wineglasses...... I can't remember if it's an organism or a part of a single- celled organism.

brain looses attatchment to fingers at this time at night, so don't trust my spelling
rhyzoid is the 'root' , if fucus had roots that is
thallus the 'stem'

in fucus eggs one end will be the rhyzoid and attatch itself to the rocks by sucreting a sort of glue.. The thallus is the end with the fronds..

Due to the 'glue', fucus is very usefull in polarity experiments (polarity being how a plant cell knows which way round it is and where it is in relation to its neighbours). The glue means that the eggs can be 'stuck' on a machine called a clinostat



got that so far?

I'm with you.

alright then...

a clinostat being a cylindrical machine that turns slowly - the aim being to council out the effects of gravity.

The next bit is very hard to describe without a diagram..

In the clinostat is a metal 'plate', made of nickel. In it are several holes on which the eggs are stuck. On one side of the plate a light is shone, the other is left dark. You'd expect the thallus to develop on the side with the light, and the rhizoid on the other...

..this is acheived by some nice biochemistry.

Still got it?

I think.....

Is bladderwrack a plant or an alga?

Oops, lost the thread..

Alga, tis a seaweed after all

*Is watching carefully out of mild curiousity only*

well I went off to the meet, then couldn't find the thread... maybe the plants have gone now..

*Watches gingerly at a safe distance, having seen what happens when science goes awry*

*pokes gently with stick*

I think they've gone...

*peers out from behind the shrubbery*

Are you sure it's safe to come out now?

Hellooooooooo, any plants out there?


No answer, they must have gone

Good. I'd hate to think they'd been conspiring against us.

They may have been cospiring to infect us with hayfever

I don't have it.

Nor do I, they were unsuccessful

Perhaps the tide is turning...