Benjamin Franklin, after Jean Antoine Houdon, designed 1778
From 1776 to 1785, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) served as minister to France, representing the newly independent United States. To secure much-needed assistance from the French, Franklin framed the Revolution as a fight for shared values of liberty and independence. Jean-Antoine Houdon, a leading portrait sculptor in Paris, suggested Franklin’s personality through his facial expression, which evokes the statesman’s lively intellect, his benevolent warmth, and even a sparkle of sly wit. Houdon first sculpted Franklin in clay and then made many copies in plaster. This bust was likely first owned by a German prince who refused to send troops to fight for the British in North America.
Vest, possibly Tsistsistas / Suhtai (Cheyenne), c. 1880-1900
Tanned hide with glass beads Rows of red, white, and blue beads forms US flags on the back of this vest. Flags became particularly widespread motifs in Plains art in the late 19th century, when the US sought to ban Indigenous religious observances, including the Sun Dance. State-sanctioned Fourth of July celebrations occurred during Sun Dance season, providing Native peoples opportunities to gather communally and maintain some aspects of this worship. Here, crossed poles form a four-direction symbol and evoke Plains cosmologies. The flag holds a wide range of associations within Native nations. For some individuals, the flag may symbolize oppression; for others, it embodies patriotism, especially for Native American soldiers, who have fought for the US military in every war since 1776.
Germinating Mallow pollen being parasitized by a filamentous fungus, Igor Robert Siwanowicz, 2025
This image shows several pollen grains resting on the stigma of a mallow flower. The larger grains are from the mallow, the smaller – from an aster flower. The larger grains are germinating – releasing their pollen tubes carrying male gametes down to the ovules contained at the base of the flower. The process of fertilization was unlikely to have had occurred in this case – the thin, segmented strands wrapping around the pollen grains and branching inside of them are the hyphae of a filamentous parasitic fungus, possibly from the genus Cladosporium or Alternaria. Mallow pollen reaches up to 150 micrometers in diameter; daisy pollen is about 20 micrometers.
I was reading the New York Times this morning and found an article that described Nikon’s Small World video and photography competitions, which have just closed for 2026. The photography competition has been occurring for fifty years. However, the Times article focused on the newer video completion. Both contests are fascinating. I chose just one photo to highlight the quality of all this work. This picture placed eighth last year. It ably illustrates the titanic struggles occurring all the time in this lilliputian world right under our nose.
I just love the phrase “filamentous fungus”. Doesn’t it just make your skin crawl?
