Daisy Flores 🌼

@daisyflores.bsky.social

1662 Followers 5461 Following

Budding coral biologist. Proud Chicana. Friendly dog mom. PhD Student @ UT Austin 🌎🤿🪸🧪🧬 Views are my own and subject to change when I’m wrong.🤷🏽‍♀️

“I have come to wonder whether these expressions of despair and surrender are really masking an irrational longing for a magical way out of this nightmare. A hope that some deus ex machina will swoop down and spare us what we are facing. But this moment we find ourselves in is the result of the reckless voting of our fellow Americans in 2024, the failures of our media over decades, the critical political mistakes of our leaders, the short-sighted greed of the corporate community, and the longstanding lack of urgency about repairing the gaping cracks in our democratic infrastructure over far too many years. There is no magical way out.We are reaping what has been sown by many, many years of inattention to the eroding foundations of our democracy and we must face it.”
Video through microscope of coral larvae swimming around in a clear container. There are about 20 coral larvae swimming around. They are a pinkish hue and shaped like small sausages. They are visible to naked eye, about ¼ the size of a grain of rice, and swim around with microscopic cilia on their bodies. Once they chose were to settle, they will metamorphose into coral polyps.
Underwater photograph of coral reef, behind a sea fan a sponge with a green sea turtle laying on top of it like a bed.
Tiny translucent coral polyp (Stephanocoenia intersepta) the blushing star coral
4 Little turtles (squirtle Pokémon) with Text above them that labels them as unfinished projects. a fifth turtle that is labeled new project joins the party.
Photograph of landscape. green hill on the right, glimpse of a lake on the left, a person walking on a dirt trail towards a large mountain in the background. Bright, sunny, green, and tranquil.
Photograph of a french angelfish now swimming sideways in front of the camera, its black eyes are encircled by yellow and gaping mouth look sassy.
Small round mound of a coral living on top of a rock. The polyps grow in maze-like ridges, making the coral look like a brain. It is not pink though, just a soft light yellow brown. The deep ridges and contours create dramatic shadows and makes the coral look like it’s popping out of the sea blue background. Its common name is grooved brain coral.
Close-up image of a tiny baby coral polyp under a microscope. Its translucent body has 12 tentacles with a little opening in the middle that is its mouth. It sits on white ceramic. The second half of the picture shows the same coral baby illuminated with blue light. The background is dark and the the coral baby stands out as a bright green asterisk. The green fluorescence creates a mesmerizing pattern making the coral polyp look like a bright star or exotic flower.
Large Dendrogyra cylindrus colony, also known as the pillar coral, living on a reef slope. Schools of fish swim by, navigating the pillars, a lively seascape