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Manuela Casasoli

@manuelacasasoli.bsky.social

960 followers 280 following 260 posts

Maths and science teacher, keen on hiking. "Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth but supreme beauty." Bertrand Russell CV: http://bit.ly/3RpUdSF Website: https://www.manuelacasasoli.altervista.org/ X: https://x.com/manuelacasasoli

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · Feb 23

Who am I?🧪🌳🥾😉

- I am a proud teacher, loving my students.
- I have worked for 12 years as a molecular biologist and geneticist, mainly studying forest trees.
- I am vegetarian because I love Earth.
- I voraciously read about science.
- I spend all my spare time hiking. I like mountains and canyons.

Peek-A-Boo Slot Canyon - 2023
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Utah

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 20h

The #plants that have given up photosynthesis.

Mycoheterotrophs are symbiotic plants that entwine their roots with the threadlike hyphae of soil fungi. The beneficial exchange between fungi and plants allowed them to abandon photosynthesis.
#Science #Biology #Ecology
www.science.org/content/arti...

Image Source:
https://www.science.org/content/article/these-ghost-flowers-thrive-without-photosynthesis-one-scientist-learning-how

Monotropastrum kirishimense
With its pinkish petals, M. kirishimense was long thought to be a variant of the white M. humile that is common throughout Asia. But 2 decades ago, botanist Kenji Suetsugu noted that the two plants flowered at different times. Subsequent investigation determined that M. kirishimense is a new species found only in Japan.

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 1d

Be patient, and the peak will appear.

Dolomiti - 2021

🥾 #hiking #nature #landscapes #mountains

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 2d

A remote wind...

"Astronomers may have glimpsed a long-predicted wind of gas blowing out from Sagittarius A*", the Milky Way’s central black hole.
🧪 #Science #Astronomy #Space
Missing wind from Milky Way’s giant black hole finally found
1- www.science.org/content/arti...
2- arxiv.org/pdf/2509.10615

Image Source:
https://www.science.org/content/article/missing-wind-milky-way-s-giant-black-hole-finally-found

A cone-shaped cavity defined by an absence of cold gas points to a hot plasma wind blowing out from Sagittarius A*.

Credit
M. D. Gorski/E. Murchikova

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Reposted by Manuela Casasoli

Nature @nature.com · 2d

Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi, who developed a class of extremely porous materials known as metal-organic frameworks, have won this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry

go.nature.com/3VRBAv4

Chemistry Nobel for team who developed massively porous ‘super sponge’ materials

Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi pioneered the creation of metal-organic frameworks, which can capture and store molecules such as carbon dioxide.

go.nature.com

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 3d

Here is a part of the wonderful Cohab Canyon.

Capitol Reef National Park.

Utah - 2023

🥾 #hiking #nature #landscapes #desert

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Reposted by Manuela Casasoli

Nature @nature.com · 3d

John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis have been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for demonstrating quantum physics on the macroscopic scale

go.nature.com/3WnEUhE

Groundbreaking quantum-tunnelling experiments win physics Nobel

John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis discovered quantum physics on a macroscopic scale, paving the way for quantum computing.

go.nature.com

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 4d

Seven of nine "planetary boundaries" have been crossed: this is worrying.

"Earth has breached a critical boundary for ocean acidification, with potentially grim effects for ocean ecosystems and human livelihoods."

🧪 🌍 #Science #Climate #Ecology #Earth
www.scientificamerican.com/article/ocea...

Image Source:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ocean-acidification-threshold-pushes-earth-past-another-planetary-boundary/

Amanda Montañez; Source: “Planetary Health Check 2025: A Scientific Assessment of the State of the Planet,” Planetary Boundaries Science, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (data)

Reposted by Manuela Casasoli

Nature @nature.com · 4d

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to three scientists for discovering a class of immune cells that help to prevent the body from attacking its own tissues

go.nature.com/3VNrH1s

Medicine Nobel goes to scientists who revealed secrets of immune system ‘regulation’

Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi discovered cells that protect the body from autoimmune diseases.

go.nature.com

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 5d

Yesterday evening, in Perugia.

Never forget to look up at the sky; you will never be disappointed.

Umbria - 2025

🥾 #hiking #nature #sunset

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 5d

If you mean the "Big Crunch" hypothesis, I am sending you a link for updating... 😉 news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...

Physicist: After 33 billon years, universe ‘will end in a big crunch’ | Cornell Chronicle

After expanding to its peak size about 11 billion years from now, the universe will begin to contract – snapping back like a rubber band to a single point at the end, according to a Cornell physicist.

news.cornell.edu

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 6d

About DESI results.
"Dark energy has been a profound puzzle since its discovery 25 years ago. [...] Some physicists are now wondering if they may have gotten a new clue to dark energy’s true nature."
🧪 #Science #Astronomy #Physics
Could dark energy be changing over time?
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Image Source:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2524499122

DESI has made a large 3D map of our universe to study dark energy. These two “fans”—with Earth at the center—correspond to the primary areas DESI has observed, above and below the plane of our Milky Way. Bluer points indicate more distant objects. Image credit: DESI Collaboration/ Department of Energy (DOE)/Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO)/National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab)/National Science Foundation (NSF)/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)/R. Proctor.

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 7d

A beautiful path between impressive sandstone walls.

Syncline Loop Trail
Canyonlands National Park

Utah - 2024

🥾 #hiking #nature #landscapes #desert

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 9d

"We have the choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place."
Dr. Jane Goodall

Thank you, Jane.
#JaneGoodall
janegoodall.org

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 9d

The adaptive function and biological importance of social relationships.

Read here an interesting review about "how social and ecological pressures drive adaptive variation in the quality and quantity of social relationships".

🧪 #Science #Biology #Ecology
www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

Image Source:
https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(25)00250-2

Figure II Masai giraffes (Girafa camelopardalis). Credit: Susan Alberts.

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 9d

For hiking, I would say from June to August.

Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 10d

A beautiful, peaceful view.

Dolomiti - 2021

🥾 #hiking #nature #landscapes #mountains

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 11d

Mini placentas and ovaries could improve treatment for women’s health issues.

"Lab-made organoids that mimic reproductive tissues could point to treatments for common conditions such as pre-eclampsia and endometriosis."

🧪 #Science #Biology #Health #Biotechnology
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Image Source:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03029-0

Organoids made of placental cells can help reveal how the organ invades the uterine lining.

Credit: Turco lab, Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 12d

A breath of pure air.

Gran Sasso - 2020

🥾 #hiking #nature #landscapes #mountains

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 13d

You too! Thank you.

Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 13d

Do not miss it!
1st Place
2025 Small World in Motion Competition

"Self-pollination in a flower of thymeleaf speedwell (Veronica serpyllifolia)"

Credit
Jay McClellan

🧪 #Science #SciComm #Nature #Photography
1- www.nikonsmallworld.com
2- www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/20...

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 14d

A delicate touch.

Gran Sasso - 2020

🥾 #hiking #nature #landscapes #mountains

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 16d

A new study reveals “strong evidence” that Santorini shares its plumbing system with an undersea volcano 7 kilometers away.
🧪 #Science #Geology #Volcanoes #Earth
Volcanic crisis reveals coupled magma system at Santorini and Kolumbo
1- www.nature.com/articles/s41...
2- www.science.org/content/arti...

Image Source:
https://www.science.org/content/article/thousands-quakes-struck-major-greek-volcano-mapping-plumbing-beneath-it

The Greek island of Santorini, famed for its jagged cliffs, got its current shape from a cataclysmic volcanic eruption around 1600 B.C.E. New research uses seismic data from a recent swarm of earthquakes to map the volcanic plumbing beneath Santorini.

Credit
Gallo Images/Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentinel Data 2024 via Getty Images

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 17d

Colors of #autumn

Some years ago, walking into the woods, I noticed the trunk of a dead tree, hosting a lot of saprophytes. Not far from it, I saw this wonder.

Umbria - 2022

🥾 🍂 #hiking #nature #mushrooms #outdoors

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 18d

"Smoke from extreme #wildfires in Canada adversely affected air quality in many regions in 2023."

Read here about how important and worrying long-range PM2.5 pollution and the health burden due to large wildfires in a single year can be.

🧪 #Science #Ecology #Climate
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Image Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Canadian_wildfires

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Massive_fires_in_Qu%C3%A9bec,_Canada_(Lat-_53_33,_Lng-_-76_11)_-_28_June_2023_(53013814798)_(cropped).jpg

The image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2023], processed by Pierre Markuse
Massive fires in Québec, Canada (Lat: 53.33, Lng: -76.11) - 28 June 2023

Credit
Pierre Markuse

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Manuela Casasoli @manuelacasasoli.bsky.social · 20d

I love Colorado. I went to the Rocky Mountain National Park twice, in 2016 and 2017. Wonderful hikes!