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How Toby Spribille Overturned 150 Years of Biology about Lichens

theatlantic.com

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Re: How Toby Spribille Overturned 150 Years of Biology about Lichens

#11

Post by alistairSH »

ctingom wrote: post #2

Why couldn't he go get a GED? Most colleges accept those, and lots of homeschoolers go to college.

It sounded like he got no support from his family and "ran away" as soon as he was able. But, he probably could have earned a GED. But, that takes time - perhaps it was faster/easier to move to Germany?

The home-schooled teens that go on to college may lack formal paperwork form a school, but they generally do have some test results, paperwork filed with the county/state, and other items they can put on a transcript in lieu of actual grades.

It sounded like the scientist didn't have the benefit of a structured home education.

Re: How Toby Spribille Overturned 150 Years of Biology about Lichens

#12

Post by lumberjack »

xkcd-sucks wrote: post #4

Could we change the title to something a little less clickbaity/classist? Even though it's the title of the actual article, trailer parks have nothing to do do with the actual content.

Not going to touch on whether it is relevant to the rest of the article but acknowledging classism is the opposite of being classist.

Re: How Toby Spribille Overturned 150 Years of Biology about Lichens

#14

Post by safeignorance »

whack wrote: post #8

The headline makes it seem as though some guy overturned a fundamental precept of modern biology, while living in a Trailer in Montana. None of the above is true. 1) He happened to grow up in a trailer in Montana, but eventually moved on to attend a good German university, and was no longer living in a "Montana trailer park" while making this discovery. 2) The guy corrected a misunderstanding that people had, regardi…

Of course, the guy's life story is still an inspirational tale of creating opportunities for yourself where none seem to exist. And his discovery -- although probably not rocking the foundation of the (sub)field -- is still impressive and pretty interesting. And the article is written well enough.

So you should still read the article. Just pretend the link-baity title doesn't exist and don't go in with pre-conceptions :-)

Re: How Toby Spribille Overturned 150 Years of Biology about Lichens

#15

Post by safeignorance »

alistairSH wrote: post #11
ctingom wrote: post #2

Why couldn't he go get a GED? Most colleges accept those, and lots of homeschoolers go to college.

It sounded like he got no support from his family and "ran away" as soon as he was able. But, he probably could have earned a GED. But, that takes time - perhaps it was faster/easier to move to Germany? The home-schooled teens that go on to college may lack formal paperwork form a school, but they generally do have some test results, paperwork filed with the county/state, and other items they can put on a transcript…

Exactly. It's not just that he was home-schooled. It's that he was apparently home-schooled by people who were apparently particularly incompetent at home-schooling.

Re: How Toby Spribille Overturned 150 Years of Biology about Lichens

#17

Post by [deleted] »

whack wrote: post #8

The headline makes it seem as though some guy overturned a fundamental precept of modern biology, while living in a Trailer in Montana. None of the above is true. 1) He happened to grow up in a trailer in Montana, but eventually moved on to attend a good German university, and was no longer living in a "Montana trailer park" while making this discovery. 2) The guy corrected a misunderstanding that people had, regardi…

[deleted]

Re: How Toby Spribille Overturned 150 Years of Biology about Lichens

#19

Post by Iv »

SeanDav wrote: post #9
xkcd-sucks wrote: post #4

Could we change the title to something a little less clickbaity/classist? Even though it's the title of the actual article, trailer parks have nothing to do do with the actual content.

I disagree. This is not only a scientific story, it is also an inspirational story. The title shows that.

One doesn't need to lie over stories to make them inspirational.

Re: How Toby Spribille Overturned 150 Years of Biology about Lichens

#20

Post by James001 »

whack wrote: post #8

The headline makes it seem as though some guy overturned a fundamental precept of modern biology, while living in a Trailer in Montana. None of the above is true. 1) He happened to grow up in a trailer in Montana, but eventually moved on to attend a good German university, and was no longer living in a "Montana trailer park" while making this discovery. 2) The guy corrected a misunderstanding that people had, regardi…

> The specific makeup of Lichens though, is an extremely niche field, that doesn't affect the broader field of Biology in any significant way.

Well you would be wrong. This guy almost single-handedly led the way to enabling the cultivation of lichen in laboratory conditions, something that has had very limited success up until now.

What are the benefits of cultivating lichen? It's another way to farm biological molecules. As it turns out, Lichen are actually composed of 2 fungi not just 1. Basidiomycetes and Ascomycete. So that's a huge crop of potential medicines, or manufacturing catalysts that can be economically produced now.

So give this guy a lil more credit. Just because you don't care about lichens, doesn't mean "most biologists don't care about it". He has literally, no hyperbole, overturned 150 years of biology. It is that significant.

Also, it's very arrogant of you to suggest that most biologists do not care about this discovery. At the very least, it is humbling to all biologists. And as such, most, if not all, biologists will care about this discovery precisely because it shows that we can be missing something so fundamental for so long.

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