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While the shining summer sea dances in the glass of your mirror
Anyone who lives in Boston or within visiting distance, this is a public service announcement that the Blaschka glass invertebrates which Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology has been restoring since 2006 are now on permanent display. There are 430 in the collection; I was told this afternoon that there are currently 62 on view and the selection will rotate frequently. They are extraordinarily beautiful. Jellyfish. Anemones. Cephalopods. Nudibranchs. Anything soft-bodied and delicately colored that preservation in formaldehyde would have turned into a fistful of glop, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka recreated in glass for educational study. The glass flowers are more famous (and unique to Harvard, having been commissioned on the strength of the Blaschkas' sea creatures, which were supplied to museums and universities around the world), but I expect to find myself returning to these sea-conjurations more often. The Portuguese man o' war is precisely the vibrant violet-blue of the living animal, its tentacles ribboned like candy. I'd never seen any of the anemones before; their tentacles are as boneless and translucent as the real thing. I texted ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
derspatchel, "I covet the Sacoglossan Sea Slug (Stiliger ornatus)."
(I really do. I just don't have thousands of dollars to spare.)
It's been a stressful several weeks. I wanted to visit a museum. It was worth it.
derspatchel, "I covet the Sacoglossan Sea Slug (Stiliger ornatus)."(I really do. I just don't have thousands of dollars to spare.)
It's been a stressful several weeks. I wanted to visit a museum. It was worth it.
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Nine
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Here's a photographic selection from a collection in Dublin.
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I like that image so much.
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Maybe we can mount an expedition around Readercon.
(That said, I know you can find some closer to home. If you're still in London, there's a set at the Natural History Museum and possibly some at the Design Museum.)
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I love them. They are so very beautiful and everything about them delights me.
[edit] I mean, look at this.
Little sea harlequin!
Yes!
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Don't I wish!
Nembrotha kubaryana—the variable neon sea slug—sounds like something invented by Tolkien. The nomenclature on the Regal Sea Goddess (Felimare picta) is not blowing smoke. Nembrotha cristata has pretty much won my heart.
I miss the sea so much. Last year was a changeful, productive, incredibly happy (if incredibly full of logistics—two moves and a marriage) year, but it was a very dry year. Maybe I should just visit the aquarium.
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Sacoglossan makes it sound like it speaks in tongues. The glossolalia of the sacoglossan sea slug.
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Here; I found it high-resolution. If you search for "Blaschka glass invertebrates," you get a stunning array of pictures.
Sacoglossan makes it sound like it speaks in tongues. The glossolalia of the sacoglossan sea slug.
It does! Or the slug itself is the sea's tongue, rippling words as it crawls.
(They photosynthesize, using a method called kleptoplasty: they incorporate the chloroplasts of the algae they consume into their own bodies. I had no idea this was possible until last night and think it is fantastically cool.)
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I think I've discovered my new favourite beastie! That's amazing.
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Story! Story! Everyone should write about sea slugs!
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Glad it was pleasing to you.
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