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Star Jelly (Pwdre Ser)

We have various posts about Star Jelly or Space Jelly or Jelly balls on the MB. (A thankless task for some mod, to tidy them up!) Anyhow, here's another:

RSPB Ham Wall 'slime' baffles experts

Scientists at a nature reserve in Somerset have been baffled by a jelly-like slime which has appeared in a number of locations at the site.
Experts are divided over the origin of the jelly which has been found on grass banks away from the water's edge at the RSPB's Ham Wall base.
Spokesman Tony Whitehead said although unknown, similar substances have been noted in historical records.
Visitors are being asked to report findings but warned not to touch it.

Scientific speculation as to the nature of the jelly is varied; one of the more favoured explanations that it is a form of cyanobacteria called Nostoc.

Others suggest that it is the remains of the regurgitated innards of amphibians such as frogs and toads and of their spawn.

"In records dating back to the 14th Century it's known variously as star jelly, astral jelly or astromyxin," Mr Whitehead said.

"In folklore it is said to be deposited in the wake of meteor showers."
[Anyone seen any meteors recently? ;) ]

Mr Whitehead added: "It's great that in this day and age that there are still mysteries out there.
"We've read a few articles now and much speculation.
"One suggested it was neither animal nor plant, and another that it didn't contain DNA, although it does give the appearance of something 'living'.
"Our reserve team will be looking out for the slime over the next few days, but if anyone can offer any explanations we'd be glad to hear."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-21498062
 
RSPB Ham Wall slime may be frog spawn, vet suggests

A Devon vet believes he has unravelled the mystery of slime spotted at a Somerset nature reserve.
Several mounds of a jelly-like substance found at the RSPB's Ham Wall base had baffled wildlife experts.

Vet Peter Green contacted the charity and suggested the four-inch (10cm) mounds were related to frog spawn.
He said the spawn was held in a "glycoprotein", and if attacked the female dropped the spawn and "jelly" surround.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-21511354

You'd have thought the RSPB would know about frogspawn and had considered that already...

I'm sticking with the Meteor theory! ;)
 
A fuller report from the Telegraph:

The jelly-like substance was found in piles of about 10cm (4in) in diameter around the RSPB reserve.
Scientific speculation as to the nature of the jelly was varied.
One of the more favoured explanations is that it is a form of cyanobacteria called Nostoc or a certain kind of algae.

Others pointed out the sighting of a strange meteor like object over the reserve last week.

However the mystery has now been solved as an ordinary part of the British spring.

The RSPB was contacted by Peter Green a Devonshire vet who works with wildlife, who gave a particularly logical and simple explanation following his own researches.

Tony Whitehead, spokesperson for the RSPB , explained: “At this time of year amphibians are spawning. The spawn is held in a substance known as glycoprotein which is stored in the female’s body.

“If the animal is attacked by a predator – herons for instance are fond of the occasional frog – it will quite naturally drop its spawn and the associated glycoprotein. This is designed to swell on contact with water, which gives the gelatinous mass we are all familiar with in frog spawn. However, if it’s unfertilized, it is just the empty glycoprotein that is dropped – which on contact with moist ground will swell and give a clear slime like substance.

“While this is our favoured explanation for this appearance of slime, it’s also worth remembering that other things can give a similar appearance. Certain slime moulds can. So can the wonderfully named crystal brain fungus, but this only appears on wood. And certain algae, and blue-green algae can also appear as a clear slime”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildli ... spawn.html
 
If it was frogspawn, would there be such large quantities? Huge frogs, if that is the explanation...
 
If it was, surely a simple test would prove it? Otherwise the response is simply a guess from someone who has never even seen the substance in question, a rationalisation as to what it might be.

In fact just the sort of pseudo-scientific rationalisation that is often trotted out - might just as well say 'nothing to see here, folks, move along'. Which actually makes me more interested, frankly :)

I'm not saying it isn't frog spawn, but according to the original reports there was quite a lot of it - ought to be no more than a couple of hours work to get a sample and prove its frog spawn and then we have a genuine explanation.

Clear slime is not the same as 'jelly', which implies something capable of a structure - a 3D blob as opposed to a flat smear.
 
Mythopoeika said:
If it was frogspawn, would there be such large quantities? Huge frogs, if that is the explanation...
Click to expand...
Alien Big Frogs. :shock:
 
I wish *someone* would friggin' test it and announce the results!
 
They did that once in Cumbria, that particular patch turned out to be deer jizz.
 
Fort had something of an aversion to nostoc. From The Book of the Damned:

" . . . we've arrived at one of the oldest of the exclusionists' conventions - or nostoc. We shall have many data of gelatinous substance said to have fallen from the sky: almost always the exclusionists argue that it was only nostoc, an Alga, or, in some respects, a fungous growth. The rival convention is "spawn of frogs or of fishes." These two conventions have made a strong combination. In instances where testimony was not convincing that gelatinous matter had been seen to fall, it was said that the gelatinous substance was nostoc, and had been upon the ground in the first place: when the testimony was too good that it had fallen, it was said to be spawn that had been carried from one place to another in a whirlwind.

"Now, I can't say that nostoc is always greenish, any more than I can say that blackbirds are always black, having seen a white one: we shall quote a scientist who knew of flesh-colored nostoc, when so to know was convenient. When we come to reported falls of gelatinous substances, I'd like it to be noticed how often they are described as whitish or grayish. In looking up the subject, myself, I have read only of greenish nostoc. Said to be greenish, in Webster's Dictionary - said to be "blue-green" in the New International Encyclopedia - "from bright green to olive-green" (_Science Gossip_, 10-114); "green" (_Science Gossip_, 7-260); "greenish" (_Notes and Queries_, 1-11-219). It would seem acceptable that, if many reports of white birds should occur, the birds are not blackbirds, even though there have been white blackbirds. Or that, if often reported, grayish or whitish gelatinous substance is not nostoc, and is not spawn if occurring in times unseasonable for spawn."

I'm not sure how helpful it is. I am rather keen on "The Rot of the Stars" myself.

That and deer-jizz. :spinning
 
This story was included in the FT Daily Roundup on 4 February 2013. I could have sworn it was mentioned on the FTMB, but I can't find any trace of it.

The story received a few mentions on Tucson's KGUN TV station site. At one point (on 1 February) the reporter keeping the story alive stated a local merchant had called to express confidence the beads were in fact water beads (hydro beads; Hydro Bubbles) his company sold locally:

Text article: http://www.kgun9.com/news/local/189445821.html

Video clip: http://www.kgun9.com/multimedia/videos/ ... 5278937001

The reporter claimed she was preparing to get the orbs / beads examined by someone from the University of Arizona Extension office. That seemed to be where she abandoned the story.
 
Yes, the youtube video is the KGUN report. I couldn't find anything further either.
 
Maybe it's something like this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23715031

Can 'powdered rain' make drought a thing of the past?

While the UN estimates that a large majority of the water we use goes on irrigation, researchers have been working on a range of ideas that make the water we use in agriculture last longer.

There has been a great deal of excitement and some dramatic headlines in recent weeks about a product that is said to have the potential to overcome the global challenge of growing crops in arid conditions.

"Solid Rain" is a powder that's capable of absorbing enormous amounts of water and releasing it slowly over a year so that plants can survive and thrive in the middle of a drought.
Click to expand...
 
Mystery blob on a yew (taxus) tree in the Kralingse Bos (Rotterdam). Above a footpath at a height of 1.80 meters. I didn't feel inclined to touch it, so I don't know the consistency. It looked like ice most of all. It was quite solidly attached to the branch and there were some small "thingies" inside it. It was not fluid, did not flow or fall from the branch.

10383472486_e92d8e92ef_z_d.jpg


10383472536_382e8abfd6_z_d.jpg


Higher resolution here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/uair01/10383472536/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/uair01/10383472486/
 
I have just found not one, but two patches of star jelly. The two patches consisted of scattered lumps, as if they had fallen from a height. Did I have a camera? Did I hell. :frust:
 
Min Bannister said:
I have just found not one, but two patches of star jelly. The two patches consisted of scattered lumps, as if they had fallen from a height. Did I have a camera? Did I hell. :frust:
Click to expand...


Jelly fish picked up by whirlwinds over shallow water and then ripped up and deposited over land?

Case closed.



picks up the Nobel prize for Oceanography, Marine Biology and Hydrometeorology
 
I thought it may be something to do with some thing spawning
but it's a bit on the cold side this time of year.
 
Min Bannister said:
In my case I think it must have been a snotty elephant judging by the quantity. Mind you, elephants are given as an explanation of the Loch Ness Monster so why not star jelly too? ;)
Click to expand...
The only problem is that the elephant would need to be invisible. This draws me to the folklore of the 1920s when the pink elephants were about, but you could only see them when you were drunk. Commonly believed to be Pooka.

Another unaddressed possibility is that it fell off a plane.
 
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