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Scientists finally figure out why the water bear is nearly indestructible (2017)

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Re: Scientists finally figure out why the water bear is nearly indestructible (2017)

#61

Post by giantg2 »

wcrossbow wrote: post #36

Intersting, however, there is something about this format of headline that always makes me twitch a bit inside. There should be a law of scientific headlines, something along the lines: Whenever a reporter writes, "Scientists finally discover why...." you can be sure to interpret as "Scientists have even more questions about why...". The phrasing confuses the understanding of the general public about how sciences and…

Yep, it's the same pattern of thinking generally in the media and populous. Some law or politician 'solved' some problem. Then you dig deeper and see they changed how they count the stats to hide it, or just shifted the problem to some other part of the system that isn't really any better. Or eating eggs will kill. Next they're healthy so eat as many as you want. No, let's go back to them being unhealthy.

Re: Scientists finally figure out why the water bear is nearly indestructible (2017)

#62

Post by nunobrito »

circuit10 wrote: post #45
nunobrito wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Climate has been changing since the planet exists and you benefit from everything that a modern society has to offer. Better if you become the example of change in society and go live inside a cave to reduce your own carbon footprint.

https://xkcd.com/1732/

Instead of comics, better understand that climate has always changed and will continue to change.

Not that long ago that parts of the globe were for centuries warmer up to 5 degree celsius and then fallen into a mini ice-age: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Warm_Period

Reality is quite cold, literally.

Re: Scientists finally figure out why the water bear is nearly indestructible (2017)

#63

Post by circuit10 »

nunobrito wrote: post #62
circuit10 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://xkcd.com/1732/

Instead of comics, better understand that climate has always changed and will continue to change. Not that long ago that parts of the globe were for centuries warmer up to 5 degree celsius and then fallen into a mini ice-age: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Warm_Period Reality is quite cold, literally.

Did you even look at what I posted? It addresses what you're saying, and it shows the Medieval Warm Period on the graph. In fact, even the article you posted has a similar graph as the first image on the page.

Re: Scientists finally figure out why the water bear is nearly indestructible (2017)

#65

Post by AwaAwa »

justinclift wrote: post #20
zwkrt wrote: post #4

> If you take those genes and put them into organisms like bacteria and yeast, which normally do not have these proteins, they actually become much more desiccation-tolerant Well I have a newfound fear of humans creating a bacteria as hard to kill as a tardigrade…

The real question is, if these genes are spliced into a human do they awaken post-dessication craving human blood? :)

This is the purpose of Marketing. Feature, not a bug.

Re: Scientists finally figure out why the water bear is nearly indestructible (2017)

#67

Post by crazygringo »

cshimmin wrote: post #12
folkrav wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one in my quote, that's used in multiple places in the very article...?

I think it's a pedantic attempt to bring up the whole "initialism vs acronym" thing. You know, kinda thing that makes you real fun at parties.

Oh yikes. I've never even heard of the term "initialism" before.

I guess that's because it's barely used:

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=acronym%2Cinit...

Maybe some people have tried to push it as a new word in common usage but they don't appear to have succeeded.

Re: Scientists finally figure out why the water bear is nearly indestructible (2017)

#69

Post by lm28469 »

zwkrt wrote: post #4

> If you take those genes and put them into organisms like bacteria and yeast, which normally do not have these proteins, they actually become much more desiccation-tolerant Well I have a newfound fear of humans creating a bacteria as hard to kill as a tardigrade…

We don't need humans for that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudomonas_aeruginosa

Eventually we'll get to a point where nothing will work against these

Re: Scientists finally figure out why the water bear is nearly indestructible (2017)

#70

Post by lm28469 »

nunobrito wrote: post #62
circuit10 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://xkcd.com/1732/

Instead of comics, better understand that climate has always changed and will continue to change. Not that long ago that parts of the globe were for centuries warmer up to 5 degree celsius and then fallen into a mini ice-age: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Warm_Period Reality is quite cold, literally.

The medieval warm period and following "little ice age" are not even visible on the xkcd graph, that's how small they are compared to massive recent changes. You're looking at micro trend with a magnifying glass and macro trend with a distorting lens if you think the medieval events are anywhere close to what's happening. No recorded climate change happened as fast as the current one, there have been wilder changes but they happened over centuries, not decades

Saying climate always changed so it's ok is like saying you'll die eventually so it's ok if you die tomorrow

> better understand that climate has always changed and will continue to change.

I think virtually no one ever argued against that: https://skepticalscience.com/print.php?r=48

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