Body Snatchers In Research

Claire Gay
Body Snatchers

1. Researchers have discovered that there are several microscopic organisms in the oceans that “steal” photosynthetic plant organisms’ bodies. These microscopic organisms either eat the plant cells or overtake them. Until recently, most researchers believed these organisms to be a type of plant when they are actually an animal.

2. Here is the link to the original article: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/content/284/1860/20170664 a. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
b. S. G. Leles, A. Mitra, K. J. Flynn, D. K. Stoecker, P. J. Hansen, A. Calbet, G. B. McManus, R. W. Sanders, D. A. Caron, F. Not, G. M. Hallegraeff, P. Pitta, J. A. Raven, M. D. Johnson, P. M. Glibert,

The author of the Press Release is Swansea University. From the way the article is written, it doesn’t appear to have been written by the original researchers. I believe this would be common because the researchers might have difficulty rewording the scientific information into layman’s terms.

4. I think the main audience for the press release are those who are interested in science or potential donors for the research program, but not experts in the field of microorganisms. Its main purpose is to intrigue the interest of the public in the research project, so that they can do more research into the topic themselves if they so desire. The main audience for the research article is scholarly peers and researchers. The main purpose is to inform their peers about a new scientific development and hopefully allow more research to be done on the subject.

5. Some of the information that was known about non-photosynthetic plankton is being brought into question. The researchers discovered that some of these plankton will use chloroplasts from other photosynthetic microorganisms for their own uses. It appears there are a large percent of oceanic microorganisms that fall into this category. According to the researchers, it is a topic that requires further research (Leles et al.,

The qualitative data is represented by the images of the protists. It suggests the differences in the qualities of the protists and where their usual habitat is. The quantitative data is that of the map. It demonstrates how many of the protists are found in certain areas.

9. Perhaps the researchers could delve deeper into where the protists are found, and why they seem to thrive in those environments. It would also be interesting to find out more about how much the changing of the seasons affects the protists and their functions.

10. The press release doesn’t fully represent the scientific article. It mentions very little about the methods and vaguely covers the results of the research. For its purpose of peaking interest, it does a good job, but it doesn’t provide any information as to how the researchers went through and discovered this information. It also mentions nothing about the different areas in the world that the protists were found and how varied they can be based on their functionality.

11.

Leles, S. G., Mitra, A., Flynn, K. J., Stoecker, D. K., Hansen, P. J., Calbet, A., . . . Våge, S. (2017, June 28). Ou have access Oceanic protists with different forms of acquired phototrophy display contrasting biogeographies and abundance. Retrieved February 07, 2018, from