Microbes make barnacles weep solidifying tears

摘要

It's as if the rock is crying. Sandstone blocks near Lakes Entrance on the coast of Victoria, south-east Australia, are covered with barnacles that look like they are spilling tears. It now seems that these "tears of the Virgin", as they are known locally, result from the first known mutualism between these crustaceans and cyanobacteria. "It is important because it shows how organisms slowly modify their environment - even if the environment seems 'as solid as rock'," says John Buckeridge at RMIT University in Melbourne, Victoria. "What is cute here is the relationship between the barnacle and the cyanobacteria that allows this to happen."