[HN Gopher] A middle schooler found a new compound in a piece of...
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A middle schooler found a new compound in a piece of goose poop
Author : dxs
Score : 102 points
Date : 2024-12-03 02:47 UTC (9 days ago)
(HTM) web link (phys.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (phys.org)
| hahahacorn wrote:
| Can't help but read "it's a nothing burger" in between each
| paragraph, but I love this story all the same.
|
| Props to Murphy and his team for developing an awesome program.
| ronald_raygun wrote:
| Kids these days are still getting all the shit jobs in the cool
| science labs.
| gus_massa wrote:
| I hate when the press article exagerate the participation of
| the students, but in this case the press article is fine.
|
| We have(had?) a similar project in our university. Students of
| high school (17yo?) go once per week for a semenster and help
| with some project. In some topics is possible to isolate the
| work and make an interesting task that can be teached and tried
| in one semester. Nobody expect a groundbreaking result, but
| it's an interesting aproach to encourage students.
| djoldman wrote:
| Published journal article:
| https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.4c07459
|
| From the abstract:
|
| > ...one student isolated a Pseudomonas idahonensis bacterium
| from a goose feces sample that produced a new cyclic
| lipodepsipeptide, which .... was cytotoxic against human melanoma
| and human ovarian cancer cells with IC50 values of 11.06 and
| 10.50 mM, respectively.
| gilleain wrote:
| Huh, so a lipid tail and a mixed R/L cyclic peptide head which
| is cytotoxic? At a wild guess, perhaps it forms a pore in cell
| membranes?
| mmiyer wrote:
| https://xkcd.com/1217/
| thunderbong wrote:
| Mobile version
|
| https://m.xkcd.com/1217/
| thih9 wrote:
| Explained:
| https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1217:_Cells
| bombcar wrote:
| _[citation needed]_ that a handgun harms cells.
| dekhn wrote:
| nah, it's routine to use a "gene gun"
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_gun
| Dylan16807 wrote:
| Do you really think it needs explanation? Especially with
| the alt text pointing out the contrast between "kills"
| and "selectively kills"?
| sophacles wrote:
| There's an xkcd that adresses this better than i can.
|
| https://xkcd.com/1053/
|
| And in case it helps: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/in
| dex.php/1053:_Ten_Thousan...
| Dylan16807 wrote:
| That's about showing something to someone in the first
| place, not about [over]explaining the thing you just
| showed them.
|
| If I was criticizing mmiyer's comment that xkcd might be
| appropriate, but that's not what I'm doing.
| sophacles wrote:
| It's the same thing. A brief explanation that assumes you
| know some term or have all the priors to deduce some
| meaning just creates a situation where we may have to
| apply the 10000 rule again. A thorough explanation on the
| other hand is more likely to help the reader be part of
| not only the 10k that get the commic today, but also the
| 10k that get some other fact (or several!) today.
|
| Or to paraphrase the 10k alt text: saying "what idiot
| doesnt know the difference between kills and selectively
| kills" is so much more boring than telling them about it.
| Dylan16807 wrote:
| Telling them about it is great... which you can do by
| showing them the comic and the alt text. The wiki link is
| unnecessary. You _could_ add an extra explanation onto
| almost anything, and do so recursively, but that quickly
| becomes a waste of time. When something has already been
| explained, explaining it again helps a lot fewer people
| than the 10000 rule would suggest. The returns diminish
| very fast, and you should wait for them to ask before
| piling on extra explanations. And the actual 10000 comic
| waits for them to ask before even showing the first, most
| basic version.
| pfdietz wrote:
| That's a high concentration. Drugs are often effective in nM
| concentrations.
| dudeinjapan wrote:
| And to think, all these years I used to get mad at geese for
| pooping all over my yard. Little did I know they were trying to
| save me from melanoma.
| ronald_raygun wrote:
| geese are excellent gaurdian animals
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_goose
| jkestner wrote:
| "Geese are intelligent enough to discern unusual people" And
| intelligent enough to hold a grudge against familiar people.
| But I don't think we've lost any hens under his watch.
| silisili wrote:
| I think they have a weird inflated sense of how large they
| are. We had some who nested outside the office years back.
| It seemed to have a cutoff of around 5'6. Anyone taller
| would get the raised wings and hissing. Anyone shorter
| would get chased and 'attacked.' Gotta admire the bravery,
| really.
| jkestner wrote:
| "Inflated sense" of something for sure. When mine
| attacks, he doesn't know when to stop no matter how many
| times I grab his neck.
|
| I raised this one from the egg. Once they reached sexual
| maturity he became an asshole, but clearly has
| conflicting processes -- he follows me around outside,
| pulls weeds off the tiller with me, etc. But inevitably
| eating corn from my hand turns to biting my fingers. If
| he didn't have a female to protect (she's chill), we
| could probably be friends again.
| nyc_data_geek1 wrote:
| (goose)Shit like this is exactly why failing to account for the
| negative externalities associated with anthropogenic biosphere
| collapse is so utterly shortsighted and will ultimately be the
| death of us all. Every extinction is potentially a loss of
| knowledge we can't even conceive of yet, and how many medical
| advancements come from the flora and fauna of the Earth?
| kevindamm wrote:
| If we're taking that view, it's only fair to account for the #
| unique deaths as well.
| card_zero wrote:
| That doesn't add up, we're not dependent on medical innovations
| for human survival. They're just nice to have. But we got this
| far as a species and expanded into the billions even while
| enduring all kinds of cancer and leprosy and cholera and
| syphilis and measles and whatever.
| m3kw9 wrote:
| Goose poop as cream for your sun spots gonna be on sale soon at
| your natralpathic store?
| kikokikokiko wrote:
| Ain't that where Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP name came from? I'm
| pretty sure it is.
| benjijay wrote:
| It's that old adage once again... throw enough goose shit at the
| wall and eventually you'll treat cancer.
| bitwize wrote:
| It's just my little goose poop... you don't know what I got!
| butlike wrote:
| > One unique sample, goose poop collected at a local park, had a
| bacterium that showed antibiotic activity and contained a novel
| compound that slowed the growth of human melanoma and ovarian
| cancer cells in lab tests.
|
| The goose that laid the golden egg.
| stuff4ben wrote:
| I'm so glad companies and in this case a university are reaching
| out to youth to get them excited in these fields. Just wish it
| was more widespread. Can you imagine being credited on a
| scientific paper while you're in middle school? I know they
| probably didn't do a lot of the hard work, but when you're that
| age, working with adults and being encouraged like that, I'm sure
| it's an amazing feeling.
| tetris11 wrote:
| there are many citizen science projects out there
| jstanley wrote:
| "Citizen science" is kind of a demeaning term, as if the only
| way to do "Real science" is to work for a university.
| whythre wrote:
| Well, yeah. Everyone knows you aren't pulling in millions
| in grant money or making millions off of patentable
| discoveries, you aren't a _real_ scientist.
| evan_ wrote:
| do you think that grad students doing research at a
| university are pulling in millions in grant money
| hundchenkatze wrote:
| I think they were being facetious
| ziddoap wrote:
| I don't think many citizen science projects credit the
| citizen contributors on the resulting paper(s), do they? The
| only few that I have contributed to did not, but I'm not
| super familiar with what the norm is.
|
| I think being a student and seeing your name on the resulting
| paper is a big part of the encouragement and excitement.
| tetris11 wrote:
| the few that I've been part of have, but I guess it depends
| on the PIs ultimately
| ericmcer wrote:
| It would be weird to find such success at such a young age.
| Same thing with young athletes/musicians. It must be bizarre to
| be so celebrated when you have so little autonomy and your
| consciousness is barely online.
| csa wrote:
| > It must be bizarre to be so celebrated when you have so
| little autonomy and your consciousness is barely online.
|
| I think you're right that it's "weird" for most folks that
| age.
|
| That said, folks with good parents/mentors/coaches will be
| properly humble, realizing that they basically achieved table
| stakes for "playing the game" (literal or figurative) at the
| next level.
|
| In sports, I think the Mannings in general and Arch Manning
| in particular have been kept properly grounded despite a
| great deal of fanfare over anything they did.
|
| In academics, I have seen quite a few professor's kids who
| are keenly aware that early achievements that are sometimes
| celebrated by a wide audience will eventually be just one
| brick in the wall of their career.
| echelon wrote:
| Another Google Gemini gaffe for "depsipeptide" [1].
|
| > A depsipeptide is a cyclic peptide where one or more amide
| groups are replaced by ester groups.
|
| Depsipeptides are not necessarily cyclic, and I'd prefer to use
| "bond" instead of "group", though both are fine.
|
| I am hitting so many of these every day. They're crazy.
| Hallucinations that companies are headquartered in the wrong
| states, incorrect math and statistics, and even outright wrong
| health advice.
|
| [1] https://imgur.com/a/YslvJO2
| erikerikson wrote:
| "De-pepsi-cide"
|
| Advocating for removing the platform from people who are
| advocating puncturing of sodas. Ideally from atop a bicycle.
|
| /misreading-for-the-fun
| otterley wrote:
| Little goose poop You don't know what I got (you don't
| know what I got) Little goose poop You don't know
| what I got Well I'm not bragging babe, so don't put
| me down (goose poop) But I've got the strongest antibiotic
| in town (goose poop) When superbugs come up to me, they
| don't even try (goose poop) 'Cause once they meet my
| compound, man, they're gonna die
|
| (Apologies to the Beach Boys)
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