[HN Gopher] Mystery 'golden egg' found on ocean floor
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Mystery 'golden egg' found on ocean floor
Author : scapecast
Score : 109 points
Date : 2023-09-09 07:32 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (phys.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (phys.org)
| Gys wrote:
| > " While we were able to collect the 'golden orb' and bring it
| onto the ship, we still are not able to identify it beyond the
| fact that it is biological in origin," NOAA said.
|
| I assume biological as in 'made by' someone or something.
|
| Edit: the original NOAA article is better as it shows a clearer
| photo. It seems an organic object with a gold like color.
| sandGorgon wrote:
| Harry Potter's golden egg of the merpeople!
| ftxbro wrote:
| there are all kinds of golden colored blobs in the ocean probably
| its a golden colored sea cucumber or sea squirt
| cout wrote:
| Sounds like an episode from Seaquest DSV. The glowing orbs turned
| out to be phosphorescent feces.
| apomekhanes wrote:
| This shouldn't have been downvoted, even if only for the phrase
| "phosphorescent feces" ... on its own merits.
|
| Fun phrases forfend fatigue phenomenally.
|
| _Edit: wow, I 'm realizing that "phosphorescent feces" is at
| more like "Eminem" levels of phoneme repetition / assonance /
| etc. My much more basic largely merely alliterative response
| pales in comparison._
| SoftTalker wrote:
| Shiny shit?
| adolph wrote:
| Chrome coprolite
|
| "A coprolite (also known as a coprolith) is _fossilized
| feces_."
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprolite
| passwordoops wrote:
| My money's on egg case... my Unsolved Mysteries obsessed inner
| child is on a relic from the Deep Ones
| Loughla wrote:
| That's an interesting question: which would have a greater
| impact on the world; that a God doesn't exist, or that it does
| and it's an eldric sort of beyond the stars horror?
| nickdothutton wrote:
| Always apply Arthur C. Clark's classification system for
| mysteries.
| Loughla wrote:
| A friend of mine described Rama as the worst case of blue balls
| for your brain.
|
| It was the first sci-fi book she had read. She kept talking
| about how excited she was to find out more about the ship and
| the aliens, because sci-fi. I didn't have the heart to tell
| her.
| 15457345234 wrote:
| [dead]
| sschueller wrote:
| Someone's trash is someone else's treasure. Probably what it will
| turn out to be.
| amelius wrote:
| Probably some item that can be found somewhere on AliExpress.
| flyers_research wrote:
| Viral marketing for the new alien movie
| napierzaza wrote:
| [dead]
| [deleted]
| joshuaheard wrote:
| My money is on discarded egg casing.
| whynotmaybe wrote:
| Am I the only to think that it's kinda sad that the standard
| reaction when we find something new is to remove it from where it
| was and dissect it?
|
| If it was some creature that's evolving we surely stopped it in
| its track.
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| "Wir mussen wissen, wir werden wissen." - Hilbert
| tiffanyg wrote:
| Nein. - Godel
|
| _" Ignoramus et ignorabimus." Turtles all the way down..._
| op00to wrote:
| Maybe it shouldn't evolve to be so shiny and gold so land
| monkeys won't try to steal it. This is literally natural
| selection at work.
| catlifeonmars wrote:
| > If it was some creature that's evolving we surely stopped it
| in its track.
|
| Not quite how evolution works in that (1) organisms are never
| in a state of evolving (or not evolving), and (2) evolution
| (i.e by random mutation and natural selection) operates over a
| gene pool or population, not at the level of individual
| organisms.
|
| I do however echo your sadness, that we can't easily study
| things without killing a few of them first.
| [deleted]
| Mistletoe wrote:
| It seems pretty certain to me it is an egg casing and the
| inhabitant already left through that ripped part.
| bsza wrote:
| From the photo it looks like it either has already hatched or
| something ate it, as the article also seems to suggest:
|
| > It is over 10 centimeters (4 inches) in diameter and had a
| small tear near its base.
| jlund-molfese wrote:
| Reminds me of Prometheus, which was the oldest known living
| tree in the world--before it was cut down (although its age
| wasn't known at the time) [0]
|
| 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_(tree)
| nobodyandproud wrote:
| Reaction: Even for the 1960s, that was incredibly callous.
|
| Hence why scientists and doctors shouldn't and mustn't get a
| free pass.
| refulgentis wrote:
| Sorry, this went over my head: could you expand on it a
| bit?
|
| * things that have unclear significance to me and might be
| the part I'm missing: "reaction:" label, doctors, free
| pass, and finally callous (I know the word meaning, but it
| seems there was sensitivity and regard?)
| nobodyandproud wrote:
| > Here, stories diverge. It is not clear whether Currey
| requested, or Forest Service personnel suggested, that he
| cut down and section the tree in lieu of coring it. There
| is also some uncertainty as to why a core sample could
| not be obtained. One version has is that he broke or
| lodged his only long increment borer and could not obtain
| another before the end of the field season;[7] another
| claims he broke two of them, while another implies that a
| core sample was too difficult to obtain and also would
| not provide as much definitive information as a full
| cross-section of the tree. Currey said that the tree
| cores were too small and difficult to read so he used a
| chain saw and cut the tree down.
|
| Why was Currey so obsessed with sampling this particular
| tree and not any of the other, given the difficulties?
| More importantly, why was Currey so keen on cutting this
| tree down when it was so difficult?
|
| It's all he-said/she-said, but what's clear is that even
| for those times the decision was held into question and
| very strongly disliked. Cox was pinned as the decision
| maker, but it's not clear how (if at all) Currey was held
| accountable.
|
| References:
|
| - https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Staying-Alive-High-
| in-Ca...
|
| - http://www.sonic.net/bristlecone/Martyr.html
| refulgentis wrote:
| > Why was Currey so obsessed with sampling this
| particular tree and not any of the other, given the
| difficulties? > More importantly, why was Currey so keen
| on cutting this tree down when it was so difficult?
|
| From Wikipedia [7], above [1]: "In 1964, Currey was
| zeroing in on trees that seemed to be nearly as old as
| their California relatives. One in particular, which he
| called WPN-114, seemed to be very old indeed." "he
| asked...Forest Service ranger [for the park] from
| 1959-67, for permission to cut [it] down. Permission was
| granted..."this tree was like many others and was not the
| type that the public would visit," Cox wrote in his
| [1996] memo. "I felt that this tree's best purpose would
| be to serve scientific and educational programs."
|
| Unclear to me what this has to do with doctors/scientists
| in general in your first contribution. Keeping it to the
| personal focus on Currey in the second, is personal
| animus deserved? IMHO no, given the sources you provided
| from the Wikipedia article: if I had read just the
| Wikipedia article, I'd agree with ya, the short version
| can be read as indicting Currey if so desired.
| [deleted]
| nobodyandproud wrote:
| > Unclear to me what this has to do with
| doctors/scientists in general in your first contribution
| > ... Cox wrote in his [1996] memo. "I felt that this
| tree's best purpose would be to serve scientific and
| educational programs."
|
| Yes, your quote points out that Cox made the decision.
| But this is where you and I disagree deeply:
|
| > Intensive study of the bristlecone was begun in the
| 1950s by scientist Edmund Schulman. In 1958, he announced
| in National Geographic the discovery of Methuselah
| Walk...the oldest of Schulman's trees had been alive at
| least 4,600 years, he reckoned.
|
| Then of course later:
|
| > In 1964, Currey was zeroing in on trees that seemed to
| be nearly as old as their California relatives. One in
| particular, which he called WPN-114, seemed to be very
| old indeed.
|
| A thorough reading would show that Currey knew that this
| tree was extremely ancient; and likely why he was keen to
| get readings from it.
|
| Which is of course also why this tree would serve a
| scientific purpose; but it's not at all clear that even
| for that time, cutting down the tree was necessary nor
| desirable to achieve this goal.
|
| > When this student and his associate came upon the
| bristlecones at the timberline, they began to take core
| samples from several trees, discovering one to be over
| 4,000 years old! Needless to say they were excited, and
| at some point, their only coring tool broke. The end of
| the field season was nearing.
|
| In other words, our geologist is being given a free pass
| for chopping down what he certainly knew was a very
| ancient and long-lived organism; simply for his PhD and
| because they didn't want to wait another year.
| jauco wrote:
| IIRC: In "a short history of nearly everything" there is a
| story of a species of bird being thought extinct and then,
| mere miles apart, two people stumble upon a last surviving
| member. One stumbles upon a male, the other upon a female.
|
| They both shoot their finding thinking "this is the last one,
| what a prize!"
| pvaldes wrote:
| Leading to the protection to all the pine population in the
| area.
| Obscurity4340 wrote:
| Should have setup some cameras and mics and waited to see what
| would happen or interact with it
| furyofantares wrote:
| > If it was some creature that's evolving we surely stopped it
| in its track.
|
| Pokemon style evolution?
| night-rider wrote:
| > If it was some creature that's evolving we surely stopped it
| in its track.
|
| Unless there's many of these things floating about. A small
| sample to dissect isn't going to slow down the march of
| evolution.
| anigbrowl wrote:
| True, but considering it's the only one we've found and we
| have no idea what it is it doesn't seem a good idea to assume
| that.
| saaaaaam wrote:
| This is a little like examining a very small public park,
| poisoning a pigeon[^1] and worrying that you've wiped out
| an entire species. I think we should have a certain amount
| of trust in actual scientists that when conducting a very
| small scale survey of a bit of the ocean floor the cost
| benefit analysis of taking an unrecognised thing is carried
| out in a way that means they are not causing an extinction.
|
| [^1] Whether you use peanuts coated with cyanide is
| entirely up to you.
| petesergeant wrote:
| Being conspicuous to predators sounds like something that's
| liable to get weeded out by evolutionary pressure anyway
| pvaldes wrote:
| Individuals don't matter [With a few exceptions]. Only
| populations matter.
| twic wrote:
| Indeed. We ought to be eating them:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37297360
| bandyaboot wrote:
| Researchers win tour of fanciful, under-ocean chocolate factory.
| the_gipsy wrote:
| It's the golden orb that makes your innermost wishes come true!
| dvh wrote:
| Could be broken/decomposing "adult massage toy", similar to the
| story of 80 year old Chinese man finding weird mushroom like
| plant while digging well: https://youtu.be/4CBaTBCSUUI
| mdekkers wrote:
| That can be many things, but I doubt it is an adult toy. You've
| not read tfa
| r721 wrote:
| NOAA post: https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/news/oer-
| updates/2023/golden-...
|
| Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R0FqypOsiY
| [deleted]
| DoctorOetker wrote:
| Does their on-ship wet lab not include genome sequencing
| equipment? If not, why not?
|
| It feels very weird when both phys.org and NOAA pump up the
| mystery by for now temporarily pretending they never heard of
| genome sequencing.
| DoctorOetker wrote:
| It's strange my comment gets downvoted without explanation.
|
| Similarly for a sibling comment by dunefox:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37457062
|
| After reading his comment I checked the comments below the
| youtube video, they fall in different categories:
|
| 1. insinuation of evidence of aliens
|
| 2. unoriginal repetitive movie references to alien
|
| 3. bemoaning mankind for "destroying" anything it discovers
| to be out of the ordinary (and not being able to show a
| result for it)
|
| All of this could have been avoided if the genome were simply
| sequenced on-ship.
|
| If there actually is a funding issue, and the researchers
| requests for on-ship sequencing equipment was denied time
| after time, this would have been a great opportunity to
| lament it, instead they leave the audience hanging.
|
| Sure bad publicity may be better than no publicity, but good
| publicity would have been better and is perfectly feasible.
| And if they really wanted to engage the audience, they could
| have explicitly said sequencing results are on the way, or
| temporarily withheld intentionally for the purpouse of
| engaging the public and people could provide guess as to the
| objects nature, what genetic branch of the kingdom of life it
| resides on etc. with visualizations of the guesses of others,
| with a clear date when they will release the results...
| Sunhold wrote:
| I don't know why you are assuming it is standard, expected
| or necessary to have genome sequencing equipment on the
| ship. There's no doubt that they've brought it back to land
| and are working to identify it now.
| DoctorOetker wrote:
| Do you accept or deny the desirability of on-ship genome
| sequencing equipment?
|
| Nobody knows the sum total of all observations made by
| mankind. If one can effectively sequence immediately, one
| can quickly how novel the genome is, and if its not
| novel, if its a novel lifestage.
|
| On the way to land the specimen (if alive) may die, or
| (if dead) be consumed and rot on the way to land.
|
| If the species or closest known artificially sustainable
| life-form can be identified on-ship, probability to keep
| it alive can be increased.
|
| I don't doubt they are working to identify it, and I
| wouldn't be surprised if they already did (perhaps on-
| ship). What disturbs me is major popular science
| platforms are pro-actively feeding mysticism and trolls
| by staying mute on the most obvious next logical step.
|
| I do not at all assume it is standard: I assume the
| number of nation-state actors investing resources in
| exploring the deep sea ecology (to this depth)
| constitutes a very small list. So by no means can any of
| this research be taken for granted and assumed standard.
| The mere activity of this type of research is already
| non-standard.
|
| Genome sequencing equipment has been highly miniaturized
| and become a lot more affordable. So yes, I do expect a
| wet-lab on this vessel to actually have genome sequencing
| equipment. If not, I think the researchers have a right
| to lament it publically.
| dlor wrote:
| Have you ever been on a boat? It's not safe to assume the
| existence of anything, including a toilet, on them.
| aydyn wrote:
| Even if you were able to start sequencing immediately,
| standard sequencing alone takes on the order of a day.
| And then depending on your computational methods, could
| take another few hours.
|
| Remember that it's not just the sequencer, you also need
| extraction, so you need to add a centrifuge, a vortex, a
| pipetting station, a PCR machine, a -20 C freezer, a
| spectrophotometer and a whole lot of reagents, additional
| personnel, and probably tons of other things I'm
| forgetting.
|
| Also I doubt most instruments are specced to be able to
| handle ship sway on the open sea.
|
| It really just isn't practical.
| gopher_space wrote:
| https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/collaboration-
| tools/E...
|
| I'm still reading but it looks like they're sailor/pilot
| oriented thanks to their telepresence capabilities. Land
| lubbers get to stay ashore.
| DoctorOetker wrote:
| thanks for the link, it mentions the wet lab but not the
| equipment it entails.
| webmobdev wrote:
| Cut them some slack please - even they need the occasional PR
| hype to ensure funding.
| dunefox wrote:
| [flagged]
| pvaldes wrote:
| Looks like silk. Chitinous feel. no idea about what is this thing
|
| Some flatworms and molluscs produce eggs encapsulated in ribbons.
| maybe a brown algae or a fungus. Very fungal in the preserved
| last photo.
|
| There were three objects like this it seems.
| pvaldes wrote:
| Hum, and there are the Chrysophyceae. Some colonies can develop
| a wall and even some kind of a false tissue also. They are
| mostly freshwater but some are marine.
|
| Chrysophyceae are a kind of microscopic "brown algae" named the
| golden algae.
| nobodyandproud wrote:
| This comment will age badly, but it looks like a gold colored
| office chair wheel swallowed/encased by a jelly or sponge.
| tiffanyg wrote:
| Haha, interesting take.
|
| My wager (3 cents): a slime mold that adopted "potato chip bag
| camouflage" so that it could secret itself to the safety of the
| ocean via a shipping container - all part of a desperate bid to
| escape land and the impending calamities of climate change,
| including those already seen in its rates on home insurance!
| Obscurity4340 wrote:
| Was gonna ask for your 3C/ ;)
| melindajb wrote:
| It's like no one's seen "Alien."
|
| (Humor!)
| teeray wrote:
| Or Sphere :)
| grubbs wrote:
| That movie always creeped me the hell out when I was younger.
|
| I should rewatch.
| night-rider wrote:
| > As theories swirled on social media, including that of it
| being an alien egg, scientists extracted their August 30
| discovery from the ocean floor to analyze it in a laboratory
| setting
|
| The 'it is just aliens' razor only works none of the time,
| until it does work.
| tiffanyg wrote:
| 'it is just aliens' is no 'razor'...
|
| Possibly a _' spork'_, but certainly no 'razor' ....
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