Post B5u6CCgk1pAsBzvNMe by futurebird@sauropods.win
(DIR) More posts by futurebird@sauropods.win
(DIR) Post #B5u6CCgk1pAsBzvNMe by futurebird@sauropods.win
2026-05-03T01:06:45Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
@BenjaminHCCarr This is wild. I think I'd heard of it before, but the fact that it can arise so quickly suggests that it might have played a role in other parts of earth's history. Now if this could be an organelle in a cell and you looked at some of the animal and plant cells that deal better with vacuum you might have a template for space life. (Well it couldn't live in vacuum, but maybe in an air or fluid pocket of a space rock?)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiosynthesis_(metabolism)
(DIR) Post #B5uY60EyC5qQZ5lYpc by utf_7@mastodon.social
2026-05-03T06:19:20Z
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@futurebird @BenjaminHCCarr dafuq? how is the formula? same as in photosynthesis but instead of light, take a nuke
(DIR) Post #B5umQrt9q7nK6NPJ1E by futurebird@sauropods.win
2026-05-03T09:00:00Z
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@BenjaminHCCarr The space ants need a food source.
(DIR) Post #B5umzxfaKzsYAPnBy4 by bradr@infosec.exchange
2026-05-03T09:06:15Z
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@futurebird @BenjaminHCCarr That would bed the space picnic next to the storage pocket.
(DIR) Post #B5uvb0mMXVRC9s8lNo by JeanieBurrell@mstdn.social
2026-05-03T10:42:39Z
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@futurebird @BenjaminHCCarr Perhaps this is not a new process, only a new discovery. If the precursors for life which have been discovered on Bennu and Ryugu endured their space travel even in dormancy by this method, then we're finding spontaneous reactivation of long-dormant genes. The radiation levels of Chornobyl replicated the conditions needed.
(DIR) Post #B5v3pFBeZE2MWzGdhg by MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social
2026-05-03T12:14:52Z
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@futurebird @BenjaminHCCarr Sorry, I don’t trust this news report. I read the original paper.Basically, they find a black fungus that is resistant to ionozing radiation, not surprising.They link this to its color, maybe, but maybe the genetic mutation has off target consequences. (More)https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0000457
(DIR) Post #B5v3zTUMFTi7matWsa by futurebird@sauropods.win
2026-05-03T12:16:45Z
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@MCDuncanLab @BenjaminHCCarr That's why I went to the wikipedia and it didn't seem to totally dismiss it. But this may still be more scifi than science?
(DIR) Post #B5v7tTZRQktK7GfRse by MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social
2026-05-03T12:23:14Z
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@futurebird @BenjaminHCCarr The most sensational finding is that when you irradiate the fungus with gamma rays, the normal black fungus, but not the mutant fungus consumes more carbon and seems to grow more.This is actually not all that surprising, if you stress fungi, they respond. They start expressing stress responsive genes, this takes carbon. (More)
(DIR) Post #B5v7tUj38WAfhMAdUm by MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social
2026-05-03T12:27:55Z
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@futurebird @BenjaminHCCarr Moreover, stressing cells makes them more stress resistant, so they survive other stresses better than nonstressed cells. This probably explains why the cells grow better after irradiation. They ares surviving the stress of inoculation better than non irradiated cells.It’s in a journal that publishes scientifically sound science. This means the findings appear accurate, and they do. It’s just the interpretation is sensational.
(DIR) Post #B5v7tVUCJDsw3aEHz6 by varx@cybersecurity.theater
2026-05-03T12:45:44Z
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@MCDuncanLab @futurebird @BenjaminHCCarr They also describe this occurring in near-starvation circumstances (no sucrose), but I suppose they could be incorrectly discounting the fungus' ability to break down the agar for energy.I'm curious, what would you need to see to find such an experiment compelling? (Absent the discovery of specific biochemical pathways for harvesting the energy.)
(DIR) Post #B5v7tWVIWcMLDHkgL2 by MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social
2026-05-03T12:55:09Z
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@varx @futurebird @BenjaminHCCarr Yeah I found the materials and methods underwhelming for such a sensational interpretation.It’s not clear what is in minimal media and if any of that could be digested.They monitor growth by CFUs, aka colony forming units. This is a problem. Fungi tend to hang out in a quiescent (metabolically inactive) state where they aren’t dead but aren’t dividing. Attacking them with something like radiation can shock them out of it and get them to start dividing.
(DIR) Post #B5v7tXLlNYKJq0Ia7E by MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social
2026-05-03T12:59:47Z
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@varx @futurebird @BenjaminHCCarr I’ll have to think about what would be convincing experiments. It’s not trivial to think of how I would disprove that radiation is being used for energy-which is how to design a good experiment.I’ll get back to you after my Sunday chores etc.
(DIR) Post #B5v7tYCwBqrSUvB2zw by futurebird@sauropods.win
2026-05-03T13:00:22Z
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@MCDuncanLab @varx @BenjaminHCCarr 💗
(DIR) Post #B5v7tbtaTjl9w49eOO by MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social
2026-05-03T12:39:20Z
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@futurebird @BenjaminHCCarr So I wouldn’t say it’s sci-fi entirely. I think it’s highly unlikely that melanin is working to harvest energy given everything we know about energy and melaninSo yeah maaaybe this is a new form of energy harvesting, but the data are consistent with several more conventional interpretations..
(DIR) Post #B5vBWRDOQEubxzcmyu by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
2026-05-03T13:41:06Z
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@futurebird @BenjaminHCCarr @MCDuncanLab You would not need radiosynthesis for hypothetical life in space - just radiotolerance and some other source of energy.As is probable for the fungus.
(DIR) Post #B5vceKQgEU6q04pJT6 by Laberpferd@sueden.social
2026-05-03T18:45:03Z
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@futurebirdI am less surprised that it happened that quicklyThink about there have been billions of spores floating naturally around the buildings. All of them irradiated in paralell. Only one of billions was needed to have by chance the right combinations of mutations, and could after that spread everywhere. @BenjaminHCCarr @MCDuncanLab
(DIR) Post #B5wBAaZf8ew3mTaBI8 by MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social
2026-05-04T00:57:24Z
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@varx @futurebird @BenjaminHCCarr So I’ve been thinking about this off and on all day, and I don’t have the answers for you.That doesn’t mean they aren’t there, it’s just my lack of familiarity and long thoughts on the matter,And I’ll point out this is how science goes, it’s easy to poke holes in an argument and hard to rebut them.From my own science…(more)
(DIR) Post #B5wBAc6fRQvkX823NI by MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social
2026-05-04T01:01:12Z
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@varx @futurebird @BenjaminHCCarr I’ve been struggling for years to figure out how to test whether two proteins I study stay bound all the time or swap partners sometimes,Probably at least three years, it’s just this nagging question how do I test, it how do I test it???I was at a student presentation a few weeks ago and I think they’ve figured out a general approach on how to test it.It’ll be a couple of months of work to do the experiment, but it should be pretty informative…
(DIR) Post #B5wBAd9BZYXTlEDZwG by MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social
2026-05-04T01:05:54Z
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@varx @futurebird @BenjaminHCCarr It’s not a perfect experiment because a negative result is uninformative.But this is how we do science, informative/uninformative experiments building on prior knowledge is somewhat easier to accept as moving the field closer to ground truth.It’s much harder to come up with the disproving experiment, which is of course the gold standard.But when the interpretation is so far from prior understanding, we expect the gold standard.
(DIR) Post #B5wBAe89urJOoKkGye by MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social
2026-05-04T01:09:29Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@varx @futurebird @BenjaminHCCarr We can certainly argue about whether all science whether or not it matches current expectations should meet the same bar. I’ll just submit that our current practice has served us very well with amazing discoveries about the nature of life, and of physics, and amazing technological and biomedical advances.I think there’s a cost-benefit for asking revolutionary ideas to have more rigorous proof than incremental advances,