Wait... Flies sleep?!
Sleep all comes down to the mitochondria
321–325 of 325 posts
Re: Sleep all comes down to the mitochondria
#322Earlier quoted context omitted.
The question isn't the timing but why it happens at all. Even at night, being unaware of one's surroundings during sleep is a huge disadvantage that requires lots of effort and adaptation to work around. It needs to produce commensurate benefits, but we're not sure what they are.
Exactly! Going offline for hours every day in an adversarial world is positively nuts ! The reason can't be idiosyncratic. No gentle gradient of comparative advantage can rationalize it. It must be something severe and nigh impossible to do any other way. Furthermore, sleep is very specifically about the taking the brain offline: that's what deteriorates first in the absence of sleep and the tortured workarounds for…
> Furthermore, sleep is very specifically about the taking the brain offline
Animals that lack a nervous system, like sponges appear to sleep. It may be that becoming unconscious is a symptom of sleep, not a cause of it. Not much point being awake if your body is effectively shut down.
Re: Sleep all comes down to the mitochondria
#323Something I thought was just an internet tale: mitochondria are close descendants of bacteria, and so taking antibiotics will potentially harm them. But turns out this is actually rooted in science ...
It's specifically Quinolones which can harm mitochondria. There's no ongoing concern for something like Penicillin. We also shouldn't expect there to be mitochondrial risk from a fungi-derived chemical like Penicillin, since fungi also have mitochondria. In general you want the weakest and most targeted antibiotic for the job. Most people will never need a Quinolone, and you should be skeptical whenever sophisticated…
As someone who has been recently floxed by antibiotics, life has become miserable for me.
Re: Sleep all comes down to the mitochondria
#324Earlier quoted context omitted.
A seed?
If a seed doesn't stop being a seed, it has no descendants.
Sure, but probalistically some will! So if 99.9% don't lose their dormancy state, that small percent will carry the organism's lineage on. Obviously I'm generalizing, but I think my original point stands!
Re: Sleep all comes down to the mitochondria
#325Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly! Going offline for hours every day in an adversarial world is positively nuts ! The reason can't be idiosyncratic. No gentle gradient of comparative advantage can rationalize it. It must be something severe and nigh impossible to do any other way. Furthermore, sleep is very specifically about the taking the brain offline: that's what deteriorates first in the absence of sleep and the tortured workarounds for…
> Furthermore, sleep is very specifically about the taking the brain offline Animals that lack a nervous system, like sponges appear to sleep. It may be that becoming unconscious is a symptom of sleep, not a cause of it. Not much point being awake if your body is effectively shut down.