A Cat Hung Around A High School So Much That They Made Him A Student

This is Bubba of San Jose, California. He was adopted by Amber Marienthal in 2009, and has always done things his own way.



Amber’s family tried their best to keep him as an indoor cat, but Bubba had different things in mind. After he made a ruckus indoors, the family decided it was best to let him roam free outdoors.

The Marienthals’ home is situated between Leland High School and Bret Harte Middle School, and Bubba being ever the explorer started to hang out at both campuses.

The schools welcomed him with open arms, and Bubba is now a hit with the staff and student bodies.

Marienthal told the San Jose Mercury News that it’s Bubba’s nature to be friendly. “He’s really social and he has no fear.”

He roams both campuses freely, and gets along great with everyone.

The students like him so much that they’ve created a Facebook page to document his exploits, and it has over 16,000 followers.

There is even a petition going around to erect a statue in his honor.

They’ve even gotten him a school ID complete with an actual picture.

Plant light sensors came from ancient algae

The light-sensing molecules that tell plants whether to germinate, when to flower and which direction to grow were inherited millions of years ago from ancient algae, finds a new study from Duke University.

The findings are some of the strongest evidence yet refuting the prevailing idea that the ancestors of early plants got the red light sensors that helped them move from water to land by engulfing light-sensing bacteria, the researchers say.
The results appear online in Nature Communications.

"Much like we see the world through our eyes, plants 'see' the world through light-sensitive proteins in their leaves called photoreceptors," said Duke postdoctoral researcher Fay-Wei Li.

Photoreceptors monitor changes in the direction, intensity, duration and wavelength of light shining on a plant, and send signals that tell plants when to sprout, when to blossom, and how to bend or stretch to avoid being shaded by their neighbors.

"Light is what gives plants the energy they need to survive," Li said. "But light is constantly changing with the time of day and the seasons and the surrounding vegetation. Photoreceptors help plants determine if it's summer or winter, or if they're under the canopy or out in the open."

Instead of digesting them, the theory goes, the plant ancestors supplied a safe home for the cyanobacteria to grow, and the cyanobacteria supplied their light-harvesting machinery to help capture energy from the sun, until the two grew dependent upon one another and eventually joined together to become permanent partners.

Plant phytochromes turned out to be more closely related to algae than cyanobacteria, consistent with suspicions that earlier ideas about their bacterial origins may not be right after all.


The researchers also found a surprisingly diverse array of phytochromes in green algae, which could help scientists better understand how plants transitioned from life in the water to life on land.