Post AitKzFQMwtPhPNmcDo by Frances_Larina@sfba.social
(DIR) More posts by Frances_Larina@sfba.social
(DIR) Post #AislgeCp5hAiMwqHhI by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-13T10:43:52Z
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How bad off would you be if you had just one genome? An alien sends you through a transport device— on arrival every fungus, bacteria, mite, virus and plant has been eliminated from your body. You are now at the alien spaceport which is sterile, you can acquire earth faunetta and floretta here. How sick would you be? Are you gonna die from this?
(DIR) Post #Aism3e9FTHcIqo8Z6W by drakenblackknight@mastodon.online
2024-06-13T10:47:59Z
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@futurebird Just a question on the difficulty level: Would this also affect antibodies in the bloodstream? Or any food consumed just before transport?
(DIR) Post #Aism52cdxkEJ2sYFrU by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-13T10:48:13Z
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You may have read that bacteria cells vastly outnumber the animal cells in your body. Bacteria are tiny: that is how this numeric disparity is possible the animal cells in our bodies are rather huge— so the mass loss won’t be as dramatic as you might think. Digestion seems like it would get wrecked. And who knows what happens to our skinThere are several species of carpenter ants that cannot survive without particular gut bacteria— how common is this for animals? Is every one of us a lichen?
(DIR) Post #Aism7EfW95KyzAwTDs by SehrLesbisch@chaos.social
2024-06-13T10:48:24Z
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@futurebird this is a fun variant of a question I've asked myself a few times, I never thought about "you body right now minus the flora"...does the same process zap the food out of you too? I bet there's stuff you couldn't digest without bacteria that would make you sick without em
(DIR) Post #Aism8qFltMA3qHfJya by martin_piper@mastodon.social
2024-06-13T10:48:28Z
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@futurebird digestion would be rather uncomfortable. Eat yogurt. :)
(DIR) Post #AismGtZtPnkmTBuw7M by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-13T10:50:25Z
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@drakenblackknight The food in your gut would not be transported. IMO
(DIR) Post #AismNBrQLxVYuV7Raa by drakenblackknight@mastodon.online
2024-06-13T10:51:34Z
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@futurebird Then very likely "royally fucked" because the aliens aren't even factoring in water.
(DIR) Post #AismPyBvdE6pNu2FQe by CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social
2024-06-13T10:52:05Z
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@futurebird Yes, we are all symbiotes. In 10% Human, author Alanna Collen discusses all the various types of microbes we co-exist with and where they reside. Fascinating stuff. Rather than a single microbiome, we have many, some very specific (like our navels) with unique bacteria populations.
(DIR) Post #AismRzc9JQM8NQGS9Y by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-13T10:52:07Z
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@michaelgemar I think if they are integrated into your genome you get to keep them.
(DIR) Post #AismTpZxauLFpe7JZI by PeterLG@theblower.au
2024-06-13T10:52:11Z
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@futurebird You would die.Your body would not be able to digest food, and as soon as you left the sterlile environment you would be signing your death warrant. I takes time—serious ti e—for the body to build up effective internal defences and effective, 𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 faunetta and floretta.
(DIR) Post #AismY2ferQytatn3BY by RogerBW@emacs.ch
2024-06-13T10:53:24Z
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@futurebird One example: radiotherapy for cancer can kill off gut flora—which leads to diarrhoea as many things aren't getting digested. The usual advice back in the day was to eat live dairy products like yoghurt.
(DIR) Post #AisnxL8rQI3Y4h4n4q by Nicovel0@mastodon.social
2024-06-13T11:09:17Z
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@futurebird for starters I hope the aliens have got toilets compatible with human physiology because it’s going to get very messy very quickly.
(DIR) Post #Aisq3ru8j203KdQoDo by SiR_GameZaloT@paktodon.asia
2024-06-13T11:30:23Z
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@futurebird yupDead in a few days unless artificially sustained. But even that can only go so long
(DIR) Post #Aisq6Z3TGPgzjw57S4 by gdupont@framapiaf.org
2024-06-13T11:32:48Z
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@futurebird I read a series of sci-fi stories (sorry don't remember the title nor the author...) where the solar system was colonized with thousands of habitable stations/bases. Each one of them had very delicate bacteria (and bioenhanced insects btw) to balance their inner ecosystem and every traveller had to gettheir own sterilised and replaced but the local fauna upon arrival. It was exhausting and disgusting for few days before getting accustomed to the new environment ;-)
(DIR) Post #Aisq9omRFo5pNbfMwq by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-13T11:33:23Z
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@alex Well that is one way to describe it LAMO
(DIR) Post #Aiss5dAMh0os6pzMVU by semitones@tiny.tilde.website
2024-06-13T11:55:34Z
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@futurebird do you get to keep your mitochondria? They have their own DNA
(DIR) Post #Ait5bZq9tPDgSt6JOa by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-13T14:27:02Z
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@semitones yes, though it’s a fair question given the premise. I wonder exactly how fast and of exactly what one would die if all the mitochondria in your body vanished at once?Would your brain just shut down having no power to fire— thus the heart stops? So maybe a few min?
(DIR) Post #AitKzFQMwtPhPNmcDo by Frances_Larina@sfba.social
2024-06-13T17:19:23Z
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@futurebird Well, there goes serotonin, since 95% of it is made by gut bacteria. It's our most basic hormone as mammals and regulates or co-regulates sleep, immune/autoimmune, mood, sensory, pain, thirst, appetite, wound healing, libido, bone maintenance, and probably a dozen more things I'm forgetting.
(DIR) Post #AitLWJyd2ktN5HZvEW by stevegis_ssg@mas.to
2024-06-13T17:25:20Z
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@futurebird @semitones Heart doesn't need the brain to keep beating, but it does need the mitochondria. I'd be very surprised if it lasted a minute. The brain, too.
(DIR) Post #AitLzpWCqrVjJ4M400 by robz@toot.robzazueta.com
2024-06-13T17:30:42Z
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@futurebird We're still discovering the full range of what's happening int he gut biome, but I suspect it's very similar to garden soil. Our bodies can produce some of the enzymes and acids necessary to break down foods, but it;s clear the flora we carry in our guts contributes significantly - perhaps even to the point where they do the majority of the work. It makes sense - complex molecules like starches and proteins are more easily broken down by microflora into gut digestible molecules.
(DIR) Post #AitMcjXL1daI33R1dI by llewelly@sauropods.win
2024-06-13T17:37:41Z
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@futurebird hm, since it's still extremely rare to to do genome sequencing from multiple different regions of people, we still don't know how common or rare chimeras, or people with cells that have different nuclear and/or mitochondrial DNA are, I'm wondering what happens to such a person who goes through this terribly flawed transport. Probably death, I suppose.
(DIR) Post #AitN3o8a1oPe8TlSe8 by llewelly@sauropods.win
2024-06-13T17:42:38Z
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@futurebird it is generally thought that most or large all large herbivores require their gut biota to eat their usual diet. Without said biota, they on a carefully designed diet that didn't have any of the things they rely on their gut biota to break down, but for how long, and at what cost?(by the way - this whole issue is one of the reasons re-creating extinct animals from ancient DNA is much, much harder than "well we've got mammoth DNA!" )
(DIR) Post #AitTbG3Rqwrq06hJg0 by barrygoldman1@sauropods.win
2024-06-13T18:55:54Z
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@futurebird just ONE genome? my mom's or my dad's? it would DEFINITELY fuck me up.
(DIR) Post #AitW1qAKPpetQzidYu by CliftonR@wandering.shop
2024-06-13T19:23:03Z
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@futurebird I haven’t double-checked this, but if I recall correctly, after a while you would probably die of unchecked bleeding due to hemophilia (unless you can get vitamin K supplements on an alien planet.)Humans require vitamin K to make blood clotting factor, and we can’t make it ourselves. It comes from some of our gut bacteria.
(DIR) Post #AitbBbuCmx1XsGehyC by Ariock@xoxo.zone
2024-06-13T20:20:54Z
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@futurebird Hopefully the alien keeper is aware of the need for our bodies to use bacteria to assist us in digestion. So if they refuse to provide me with a gut microbiome, they won't expect me to eat things that require it. I'm assuming this is a lab-style facility rather than a zoo. In which case, I probably have more pressing concerns than how fully my next meal is going to fully digest.
(DIR) Post #AitfiYIDdnhg2hqpcm by nazokiyoubinbou@mastodon.social
2024-06-13T21:11:41Z
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@futurebird @semitones A reverse Parasite Eve. 😁Yeah, pretty sure you'd die almost immediately. At least you wouldn't become a weird mutant zombie thing though.
(DIR) Post #Aitl7pzXTScvwczRbc by nazokiyoubinbou@mastodon.social
2024-06-13T22:12:15Z
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@futurebird This reminds me of some of Asimov's stories. Particularly the Caves of Steel series which explores the earliest times of *SOME* humans going out into other worlds. The ones that left adapted to being completely sterilized of bacteria/etc living in worlds with no chance of infection and became ultra-paranoid about any contact with normal humans. They lived insanely long lives, but had to do so in isolation.Though the humans stuck on Earth didn't fare a lot better.
(DIR) Post #AitoMJE9sAPoXCQ7TE by alloydflanagan@me.dm
2024-06-13T22:48:30Z
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@futurebird IIRC from college chemistry, cyanide kills by halting the process to produce ATP, so my guess is “very quickly”.
(DIR) Post #AiuAesAQu5AJ6Qw0wa by sewblue@sfba.social
2024-06-14T02:58:19Z
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@futurebird @semitones my bout with long covid might bring insights.You'd get tired. They type of tired where you are just done - not exhaustion, but that combo where you just mentally and physically can't do anything. Like when you are sick and push too hard. My LC basically turned off thee ability for my body to process sugar. If I struck to no carbs and what in ketosis, I had energy. But as soon as I snuck a cookie or two, I was bed or couch ridden for a bit. Until I got into ketosis. They boom energy again because my body would use fat, not sugar, for energy. You'd basically feel you had the flu but without the fever and aches. Need to sit down then poof, energy gone and done.