And the winner is....foraminifera!
We have a winner in the search for my 150th interest, provided by farwing: foraminifera. Foraminifera are planktonic, ocean-dwelling, single-celled organisms that secrete shells made of calcium-carbonate. These shells drift to the bottom of the ocean after the organism dies, where they eventually become a primary component of chalk formations.
Microscopic photograph of foraminifera shells.
Now, the fact that farwing suggested this interest is a strange coincidence. She claims that the word just popped into her head. "Foraminifera" is indeed a very cool and mellifluous word. But what farwing could not have known is that for my senior thesis in college I did research using forams. I peered through a microscope at ancient beach sands from several locations in coastal South Carolina looking for forams. In addition to inducing eye-strain, I was trying to find out what species of foraminifera had been living in the ancient Atlantic when that particular sands had been deposited. Those samples that contained the same species had been laid down in the sea at about the same time. (The eyes of all non-science majors have now glazed over).
So, because of the strange coincidence of Farwing's suggestion as having a direct bearing on my past, and also because of the sheer beauty of the word, my 150th lj interest will be: foraminifera.
Microscopic photograph of foraminifera shells.
Now, the fact that farwing suggested this interest is a strange coincidence. She claims that the word just popped into her head. "Foraminifera" is indeed a very cool and mellifluous word. But what farwing could not have known is that for my senior thesis in college I did research using forams. I peered through a microscope at ancient beach sands from several locations in coastal South Carolina looking for forams. In addition to inducing eye-strain, I was trying to find out what species of foraminifera had been living in the ancient Atlantic when that particular sands had been deposited. Those samples that contained the same species had been laid down in the sea at about the same time. (The eyes of all non-science majors have now glazed over).
So, because of the strange coincidence of Farwing's suggestion as having a direct bearing on my past, and also because of the sheer beauty of the word, my 150th lj interest will be: foraminifera.