This lovely pink bauble is better known as a:
A) gremlin
B) globulin
C) glomerulus
D) gomphosis
E) gomphus
(answer below the fold. . .)
The answer is C) glomerulus. And this illustration by Jim Stanis is the finest glomerulus I have ever seen – podocytes, pedicels and all!
Bonus point if you know what a glomerulus does – without looking it up on Wikipedia. Quadruple bonus points if you know what all the other answers actually are.
Illustration via Street Anatomy, of course.
I can tell you from personal experience that gremlins are evil fairy-like creatures that stick bubble gum in the hair of innocent children. I’ve also heard they like to mess with airplanes.
I did SO want it to be a gomphus. Damn.
It’s a remarkably fine glomerulus. But when I looked at it at first, I got a sense of parasitic wasp larvae in a cluster. (It’s my rotten eyesight, you understand.)