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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)

#71

Post by shagie »

GuB-42 wrote: post #44
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…

One analogy I like is to imagine our scientific knowledge as on a land map. We have a large sheet of all there is to know. There is a small area in the middle that is mapped, that's what we know, it is surrounded by blank space, that's what we don't know. As we explore further, the small area expands, but by doing so, its border also expands, meaning that the more we know, the more unknown we are exposed to. We expan…

The illustrated guide to a Ph.D. - https://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/

> Every fall, I explain to a fresh batch of Ph.D. students what a Ph.D. is.

> It's hard to describe it in words.

> So, I use pictures.

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

#72

Post by COGlory »

lm28469 wrote: post #69
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

P. aeruginosa is an incredible organism. Not only is it antibiotic resistant, but it also is starvation resistant. So even when you have antibotics that work, it's often to difficult to get them to all the cells, since cells at the bottom of a biofilm just shut down completely for weeks on end. End the course of antibiotics, and they pop back up and start growing again.

Thankfully, there are major tradeoffs associated with those traits, which makes them not particularly virulent to healthy people.

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

#74

Post by xenophonf »

amelius wrote: post #51
noduerme wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is such a sad exemplar of where we've gone as a technological society. Thirty years ago, you could have suggested releasing a virus that destroyed cancer, and people would have cheered.

There is even a worse example: imagine a protein that locks onto pieces of DNA that are only present in people of a certain race, etc. The worst part is, we can stop building the foundations of this type of technology, but our geopolitical opponents will not.

> imagine a protein that locks onto pieces of DNA that are only present in people of a certain race

The good news is that "race" is a social construct, not a genetic one. Very little genetic variation differentiates between groups of people, and the differences that exist do not map onto socially recognized categories of race.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ajpa.23882

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1078311

https://www.nature.com/articles/ng1438

I can help you access the full text of all cited research if you can't get it through your library or employer.

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

#75

Post by ianburrell »

lm28469 wrote: post #70
nunobrito wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 b…

Little Ice Age is on graph and is labeled. Medieval warm period is mentioned but too regional to show up in global temps.

But Little Ice Age lasted centuries and was only .5C. I hadn’t realized it was still happening until global warming erased it in 150 years. Then we added another 1C in less than 50 years. We are on track to warm another 3C by 2100, the amount of warming from real ice age in century instead of millennium.

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

#76

Post by stronglikedan »

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…

I think it's a fair headline, since they did find out why. It's just that, in science at least, every answer opens up a new set of questions, indefinitely IMHO.

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

#77

Post by stametseater »

amelius wrote: post #51
noduerme wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is such a sad exemplar of where we've gone as a technological society. Thirty years ago, you could have suggested releasing a virus that destroyed cancer, and people would have cheered.

There is even a worse example: imagine a protein that locks onto pieces of DNA that are only present in people of a certain race, etc. The worst part is, we can stop building the foundations of this type of technology, but our geopolitical opponents will not.

Naomi: FoxDie is a type of retrovirus that targets and kills only specific people. First, it infects the macrophages in the victim's body. FoxDie contains smart enzymes, created through protein engineering. They're programmed to respond to specific genetic patterns in the cells.

Snake: Those enzymes recognize the target's DNA?

Naomi: Right. They respond by becoming active, and using the macrophages, they begin creating TNF epsilon. It's a type of cytokine, a peptide which causes cells to die. The TNF epsilon is carried along the bloodstream to the heart, where they attach to the TNF receptors in the heart cells.

Snake: And then...they cause a heart attack?

Naomi: The heart cells suffer a shock and undergo an extreme apoptosis. Then... the victim dies.

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

#78

Post by isk517 »

AwaAwa wrote: post #65
justinclift wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In the future you will eat the flesh of your fellow man and you will like it.

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

#79

Post by lm28469 »

ianburrell wrote: post #75
lm28469 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 b…

Little Ice Age is on graph and is labeled. Medieval warm period is mentioned but too regional to show up in global temps. But Little Ice Age lasted centuries and was only .5C. I hadn’t realized it was still happening until global warming erased it in 150 years. Then we added another 1C in less than 50 years. We are on track to warm another 3C by 2100, the amount of warming from real ice age in century instead of mill…

> Little Ice Age is on graph and is labeled.

Yes, then look 3 cm down and see a massive fucking swing with 20 times more amplitude than both of the mentioned events...

I stand by what I said, without the labels you wouldn't see these two events, meanwhile even without the label you can see the current trend is absolutely nowhere close to any other past changes

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

#80

Post by endymi0n »

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…

Interestingly, that's my main gripe about scientists. Rarely does any of them actually dare to find anything out and settle a case. You can bet your aunt that the conclusion ends with "further research is warranted"... how better to secure your job!
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