22-Day Old Scarlet Shiner Photograph, Plus Georgia Textbook Court Decision

I was able to sit down this afternoon with a digital dissecting microscope and take some images of one of the fish that Phil Kukulski gave me yesterday. Two of the 22-day-old fish were dead so I put them in 10% phosphate buffered formaldehyde. The image below is at 20X magnification, top-lit on a white background. The fish is 5.9 mm long from snout to the pigmented tip of the caudal (tail). The stomach/intestines is the one clearly visible internal structure without staining. The gills are also visible. They're not very well developed, but they're in the right place and fully functional. In fish larvae at this stage a key marker is the placing of the chromatophores, visible as black spots. The fish's midline is obvious, along with a heavy spotting on top of the head. I also euthanized two fish today that are 20 days old, I hope to photograph one of them tomorrow. In the next period of time we also hope to Nissl stain one or more of these fish which should highlight the nervous system. Amy isn't sure how it'll work on a whole fish, we'll soon see.

Also, this is just in from the National Center for Science Education. Anti-evolution textbook stickers will be removed from high schools in Cobb County, Georgia. Alright!

Selman v. Cobb County settled: Stickers stay out!

http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/news/2006/GA/272_selman_v_cobb_county_settled_12_19_2006.asp
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Selman v. Cobb County settled: Stickers stay out!
by Nick Matzke

Americans United for Separation of Church and State has just posted the following press release indicating that a settlement has been reached in Selman v. Cobb County School District. The case concerned the constitutionality of "warning label" stickers placed in the front of biology textbooks in Cobb County. The stickers were removed after a district court found them unconstitutional, but the decision was vacated by the Court of Appeals and returned to the district court for further evidence. Under the agreement reached today, the stickers will remain out of textbooks. For further background on the case, see NCSE's Selman webpage and previous NCSE news stories. NCSE was involved in the preparations for retrial and further details will be posted in the future.