{"id":1088,"date":"2025-12-22T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/?p=1088"},"modified":"2025-12-23T17:02:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T17:02:05","slug":"festive-yet-toxic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/?p=1088","title":{"rendered":"#MicroMonday: Festive, Yet Toxic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;6a0942af50fcf&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-key=\"6a0942af50fcf\" class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"680\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" src=\"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-23-Bigelow-Laboratory-Psedu-nitzchia.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1089\" style=\"width:1320px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-23-Bigelow-Laboratory-Psedu-nitzchia.jpg 900w, https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-23-Bigelow-Laboratory-Psedu-nitzchia-300x227.jpg 300w, https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-23-Bigelow-Laboratory-Psedu-nitzchia-768x580.jpg 768w, https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-23-Bigelow-Laboratory-Psedu-nitzchia-500x378.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><button\n\t\t\tclass=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\taria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n\t\t\taria-label=\"Enlarge\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--right=\"state.imageButtonRight\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--top=\"state.imageButtonTop\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Screenshot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Merry #MicroMonday! Check out this light microscopy of<em> Pseudo-nitzschia australis<\/em> cells collected off the coast of Maine during the 2016 bloom, the first time that<em> P. australis <\/em>was detected in the Gulf of Maine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While this microalgae may bear a passing resemblance to fun seasonal icons such as pine needles or dangling icicles, it&#8217;s actually toxic. But don&#8217;t fret: <strong>Bigelow Laboratory<\/strong> researchers are developing a faster, more accurate way using environmental DNA to detect it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-a89b3969 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-text-align-center wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bigelow.org\/news\/articles\/2025-12-16.html\">Read the Story<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\ud83d\udcf8: Peter Countway<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Merry #MicroMonday! Check out this light microscopy of Pseudo-nitzschia australis cells collected off the coast of Maine during the 2016 bloom, the first time that P. australis was detected in the Gulf of Maine. While this microalgae may bear a passing resemblance to fun seasonal icons such as pine needles or dangling icicles, it&#8217;s actually [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1089,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","css_class_manager_body_classes":"","css_class_manager_use_in_post_loop":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[27,72,19,34,58,54],"class_list":["post-1088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-ocean-function","tag-gulf-of-maine","tag-harmful-algae","tag-microalgae","tag-microscopy","tag-peter-countway","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1088"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1091,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1088\/revisions\/1091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}