Mauna Dasari

#2026MMM if you liked the art tonight, and you'd like to support the art team who made it, you can find it available as stickers in the Erminea shop: ermineainc.org/shop/

I’m an NIH whistleblower. The scientific community cannot afford to avoid politics “Scientists are often encouraged to avoid politics. But this advice is outdated, if it was ever correct in the first place,” writes Jenna Norton, NIH whistleblower.

A heads down approach will not save science. We need to speak up, live our values, and demand integrity.

www.statnews.com/2026/03/12/n...

Historic oil painting RCS 15 from the church with signs of biodeterioration on both sides. (A) Front side of the painting, (B–D) Back, (E–G) Stratigraphy of the painting under UV light. (E), the ground layer, the paint layer, and the surface of the varnish (F), and the ground layer and the paint layer (G), all with visible penetration of dark septate hyphae. Light and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (K–M) images show conidiogenous structures of Aspergillus on the back and massive growth on the front side of the painting.

RIP the mold? Or the library?

Xerophilic fungi like Aspergillus thrive at very low moisture and slowly consume paintings and paper—maybe by switching on enzyme genes that digest cellulose, glues, and binders.

#RIP #2026MMM www.mdpi.com/2309-608X/10...

a wooden table features an upright green book with the title "Panthera leo". Winding library shelves in a curving corridor can be seen behind the book, with 2 lions facing away from the foreground

#2026MMM #LibraryDivision #TeamLions Art by Olivia Pellicer @opellisms.bsky.social

#2026MMM 😉

If we define mold as the specific structure a fungi takes, the destruction of that structure would qualify as a kill for #2026MMM intents and purposes 🤓 bsky.app/profile/chum...

that book was delicious

but now it’s time for me to win #2026MMM

a mold’s gotta do what a mold’s gotta do

Fancy script saying “oh my god, they were roommates!”

#2026MMM

"And then the Lion said to Mold, 'YER IN MUD' GET IT?! URINE Mud!" #BaDumTisssss #2026MMM

TORN EAR LION SATURATES & SCOURS MOLD!!! #2026MMM

Head Rubbing and Licking Reinforce Social Bonds in a Group of Captive African Lions, Panthera leo Many social animals have a species-specific repertoire of affiliative behaviours that characterise individualised relationships within a group. To date, however, quantitative studies on intragroup aff...

Torn Ear Lion squats down to urinate onto the ground, saturating mold, and then immediately scratches his claws through the moldy urine mud on the ground (Matoba et al. 2013) #2026MMM journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

a group of lion cartoon characters are standing next to each other with the caption yaaaasssss Alt: a group of lion cartoon characters are standing next to each other with the caption yaaaasssss

THE LIONS ARE COALITIONARY BROTHERS!!! They've been traveling together since early adulthood when they were evicted from their natal pride #2026MMM

Torn Ear Lion drops his head toward Dark Mane's neck... rubbing his head under Dark Mane's chin in a friendly greeting (Matoba et al. 2013) #2026MMM

two men standing next to each other one wearing a black beanie and the other wearing a white hoodie Alt: A gif from Heated Rivalry where a man is dressed in all black, nodding and saying ok to a man with a white hoodie facing him.

THE LIONS ARE INCHES APART!!! #2026MMM

Mold exists on the ground. #2026MMM

The Lions walk toward each other, slow and steady... #2026MMM

Mold, being, you know, mold, is amongst the dirt clumps on the ground #2026MMM

The two male Lions "Torn Ear" and "Dark Mane" look intensely at each other, sizing each other up. Lean and muscular, these males are in their prime and each weigh in at nearly 1000 stoats (220kg/485 lbs) #StoatsAsMeasurement. Their manes are also appropriately fluffy. #2026MMM

Mold, currently deteriorating the page of a book in a sadly under-resourced library with limited climate control collection protection, is MMMagically transported to the ground between "Torn Ear" & "Dark Mane" #2026MMM

A male Lion, with a long-healed torn ear, stands surveying the scene when 50 feet away, another male Lion with a darker mane emerges from the tall grass (Trethowan et al 2017) #2026MMM

a man stands in front of a green virus that looks like a bacteria Alt: A gif of a man swinging something at some animated green microbes.

Tonight's battle of MIGHT VS MICROBE takes place on an arid savanna. #2026MMM

You can use your sniffer to detect this process of ~biodeterioration~ in a library or bookstore: the by-product volatile organic compounds have a particular musty smell. Don't sniff too long, though; mold growth can make health conditions like asthma much worse. #2026MMM

A photo of an old book simply decimated by a reddish mold: the open book shows the middle of both pages just completely eaten away from the middle out. Photo by Pemba.mpimaji and shared via Wikimedia.

A process diagram showing the mechanisms of fungal biodeterioration of paper. This is figure 1 from El Jaddaoui, I., Ghazal, H., & Bennett, J. W. (2023).

Our other combatant is the second most dangerous threat to libraries worldwide...MOLD! (Jaddaoui, Ghazal, and Bennett 2023) Molds are a type of structure certain fungi make and are *primo* at breaking down organic matter from plants and animals. #NotMyLeatherBoundBooks #BOOKCARNAGE #2026MMM

Male lions in most ecosystems need to work together to evict resident males in order to join a matrilineal pride... BUT are these #2026MMM male lions rivals ready to fight or lone males eager to form a coalition or an ALREADY EXISTING COALITION?!?!? (Packer 2026; Haas et al. 2005).

In #2026MMM the two male lion combatants are included in honor of Patience & Fortitude, the two Lions that Guard the NYC Public Library! (And these fists 👊) www.nypl.org/125/lions

An image of a petri dish with four three-day-old Aspergillus (mold) colonies. Taken by Adrian C Hunter and shared on Wikimedia.

Image of an adult male lion with a fluffy dark mane laying regally on a rock. Photo taken by Giles Laurent and shared via Wikimedia.

Last Up: #2 Lions (Panthera leo) vs. #15 Mold (Aspergillus sp.)! A #2026MMM collab between @mammalssuck.bsky.social and myself!

with choice language on both sides disputation seems more appropriate than a "debate" #2026MMM

It's how we bridge the ancient and the modern #2026MMM

And if you want to learn more Sumerian hymns--especially those about a wide variety of deities--you can see many transcribed and transliterated here! #2026MMM
I haven't found the word for the himri yet, but I'm working on it.
etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk

Seems more “eggshell” than white to me #2026MMM