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Brazilian frog might be the first pollinating amphibian known to science

science.org

21–30 of 78 posts

Re: Brazilian frog might be the first pollinating amphibian known to science

#21
post #17

just curious, how do underwater plants pollinate in general, while Ive never thought about it - I guess it would be currents?

PBS Eons has a few related videos iirc

But do they pollinate through their roots? because - then a whole realm of hydroponic polination for anything that can be pollinated through a root, would be really interesting.

Think of real Wasabi - which thrives in very shallow, consistently flowing steams...

-- Nevermind, I find the answers...

Wasabi, still uses flowering insect polination in the wild, but is farmed via vegatative cloning.

Seaweed is really interesting, male and female plants release cells that fuse to create the zygote

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Thanks for the min rabbit hole by posting this to HN

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Sexual reproduction in seaweed typically involves the production of male and female gametes, which are released into the water column. The gametes then fuse to form zygotes, which develop into a new seaweed plant.

Asexual reproduction in seaweed involves the fragmentation of the plant, where pieces of the seaweed break off and develop into new individuals.

In commercial seaweed farming, propagation is typically done through vegetative propagation or by seeding. Vegetative propagation involves taking cuttings from mature seaweed plants and growing them in a suitable environment until they form new plants. Seeding involves the placement of young spores or young plants onto lines or ropes, which are then suspended in the water and allowed to grow.

Re: Brazilian frog might be the first pollinating amphibian known to science

#22

What's up all these GPT bot comments here on HN lately? Seems like a fairly new phenomenon.

Do you have any examples before they were deleted? I wonder if I'd even recognize a fancy bot comment

Turn on "showdead" in your HN account settings, and you can see deleted content.

Re: Brazilian frog might be the first pollinating amphibian known to science

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

unfortunately this is the future of the entire internet - and not just the comments the submissions as well. the search for authenticity and actual human material will become the most valuable thing. This isn't that different from what we have now as people have abandoned corporate messaging for communities and podcasts/youtube/etc to try to find authentic human voices. The difference will be how much harder it will…

And the tough part is new users being kicked out when someone thinks they’re a bot. How do we protect people from the bot witch-hunt?

On the other hand if your human comment is indistinguishable from a bot comment, maybe it’s ok to be kicked out?

Related: Reverse Turing Test: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_Turing_test

Re: Brazilian frog might be the first pollinating amphibian known to science

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

unfortunately this is the future of the entire internet - and not just the comments the submissions as well. the search for authenticity and actual human material will become the most valuable thing. This isn't that different from what we have now as people have abandoned corporate messaging for communities and podcasts/youtube/etc to try to find authentic human voices. The difference will be how much harder it will…

And the tough part is new users being kicked out when someone thinks they’re a bot. How do we protect people from the bot witch-hunt?

[dead]

Re: Brazilian frog might be the first pollinating amphibian known to science

#25

What's up all these GPT bot comments here on HN lately? Seems like a fairly new phenomenon.

Do you have any examples before they were deleted? I wonder if I'd even recognize a fancy bot comment

At the moment it's a few brand new accounts posting essentially the same content-less statement that covers the big points in the headline {novelty, pollination, frog}.

Example: That's amazing! It's incredible that we are still discovering new species, and that some of them can even have special abilities like pollinating. I'm looking forward to reading more about this frog.

Re: Brazilian frog might be the first pollinating amphibian known to science

#26

just curious, how do underwater plants pollinate in general, while Ive never thought about it - I guess it would be currents?

Most underwater "plants" are algae, too primitive to produce flowers. Their life cycles are complicated and the fecundation happens in special short lived individuals called gametophytes that are generated from spores and produce gametes that fuse into other spores. They don't produce pollen, so can't be pollinated.

To speak crudely, pollen is like a vase that hosts inside a crew of "spermatozoan like" gametes and then injects them directly in the right place. Algae just release the gametes without the "mothership". Some have "smart" gametes that act basically like tiny animals. This was a headache for a lot of time until a new kingdom was created for "neither exactly a plant nor an animal".

The upper aquatic plants normally just raise the flowers over the surface to use the old reliable insects (Lotus). Only a few remain totally submerged at all times (Posidonia) and those probably use crustaceans and sea currents as pollinators.

Re: Brazilian frog might be the first pollinating amphibian known to science

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

unfortunately this is the future of the entire internet - and not just the comments the submissions as well. the search for authenticity and actual human material will become the most valuable thing. This isn't that different from what we have now as people have abandoned corporate messaging for communities and podcasts/youtube/etc to try to find authentic human voices. The difference will be how much harder it will…

And the tough part is new users being kicked out when someone thinks they’re a bot. How do we protect people from the bot witch-hunt?

You've hit a pet peeve of mine:

The key feature of witch hunts as a concept is the non-existence of witches. If you have a hunt for something that certainly exists (Soviet spies infiltrating US institutions come to mind) it definitively isn't a witch-hunt.

For my part, I'm going to keep downvoting comments that say nothing in the most bland way imaginable, and flagging anyone who posts "I put your question into ChatGPT; here's what it says" (in contexts other than discussions of chat bots).

Re: Brazilian frog might be the first pollinating amphibian known to science

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks ChatGPT

You're welcome! We hope you enjoyed your experience using our model and we look forward to seeing more of what you can create in the future :) #ChatbotGeneration

Your personal site (in your profile) is quite the work of art, brought me joy

Re: Brazilian frog might be the first pollinating amphibian known to science

#29
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're welcome! We hope you enjoyed your experience using our model and we look forward to seeing more of what you can create in the future :) #ChatbotGeneration

Your personal site (in your profile) is quite the work of art, brought me joy

Thank you so much! And sorry for the trolling.

Re: Brazilian frog might be the first pollinating amphibian known to science

#30

What's up all these GPT bot comments here on HN lately? Seems like a fairly new phenomenon.

unfortunately this is the future of the entire internet - and not just the comments the submissions as well. the search for authenticity and actual human material will become the most valuable thing. This isn't that different from what we have now as people have abandoned corporate messaging for communities and podcasts/youtube/etc to try to find authentic human voices. The difference will be how much harder it will…

If it ever become impossible to spot a human from a bit, then bots become valuable contributors to online discussion with interesting insights so I don't see the problem.
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