4 ms·

"Eat" is used very inappropriately here. As far as I know the cells aren't burning the nanowires for fuel. A more correct term would be that silicon nanowires

"Eat" is used very inappropriately here. As far as I know the cells aren't burning the nanowires for fuel. A more correct term would be that silicon nanowires can cross a cell membrane through phagocytosis, which I don't find that surprising.

dekhn 10y ago
Eating is the process of mechanical consumption, not metabolism.
- jessriedel 10y ago
  No, if that were true then using a suppository would be "eating". Dictionary definition definitely implies food/nutrition. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/eat http://www.dictionary.com/browse/eat There are non-nutrition definitions, but those concern wear/destruction of a large object by a small object, not engulfment of small object by large object.
  - rz2k 10y ago
    That explains why my dog doesn't understand me when I tell her not to eat the furniture, or rocks. I should just tell her, "don't take in any more rocks!"
    - eveningcoffee 10y ago
      You should explain simply that this is not food. Poor dog does not know any difference. Also check if doggy gets enough minerals. :)
      - rz2k 10y ago
        That should work, once she understands that she is embarrassing herself and showing a poor command of language by eating non-food, she'll stop! (It's something she grew out of, like eating logs if they were rotten enough. I don't know if she had pica or was just an even more enthusiastic chewer than the usual puppy) William S. Burroughs did a piece where a suppository might be construed as eating. [warning crude]: https://www.google.com/webhp#q=William+S+Burroughs+the+man+who+taught+his+to+talk&tbm=vid https://www.google.com/webhp#q=William+S+Burroughs+the+man+w...
  - dekhn 10y ago
    [ define eat ] -> put (food) into the mouth and chew and swallow it. We say, for example, "the child ate the book" even if the book wasn't nourishment. Obviously using a suppository isn't eating, because you don't eat with your butt. Unless you're Cartman.
    - task_queue 10y ago
      Does someone with a feeding tube eat?
      - morganvachon 10y ago
        I was on a feeding tube at 17 years old, and the doctor referred to it as "a way to absorb nutrients without eating".
    - schiffern 10y ago
      The nanowire isn't food. So by that definition, it still isn't "eating." "Ingestion" would be a more apt term imo, as it unambiguously applies to more than just food. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingestion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingestion

dekhn 10y ago

Eating is the process of mechanical consumption, not metabolism.

jessriedel 10y ago
No, if that were true then using a suppository would be "eating". Dictionary definition definitely implies food/nutrition. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/eat http://www.dictionary.com/browse/eat There are non-nutrition definitions, but those concern wear/destruction of a large object by a small object, not engulfment of small object by large object.
- rz2k 10y ago
  That explains why my dog doesn't understand me when I tell her not to eat the furniture, or rocks. I should just tell her, "don't take in any more rocks!"
  - eveningcoffee 10y ago
    You should explain simply that this is not food. Poor dog does not know any difference. Also check if doggy gets enough minerals. :)
    - rz2k 10y ago
      That should work, once she understands that she is embarrassing herself and showing a poor command of language by eating non-food, she'll stop! (It's something she grew out of, like eating logs if they were rotten enough. I don't know if she had pica or was just an even more enthusiastic chewer than the usual puppy) William S. Burroughs did a piece where a suppository might be construed as eating. [warning crude]: https://www.google.com/webhp#q=William+S+Burroughs+the+man+who+taught+his+to+talk&tbm=vid https://www.google.com/webhp#q=William+S+Burroughs+the+man+w...
- dekhn 10y ago
  [ define eat ] -> put (food) into the mouth and chew and swallow it. We say, for example, "the child ate the book" even if the book wasn't nourishment. Obviously using a suppository isn't eating, because you don't eat with your butt. Unless you're Cartman.
  - task_queue 10y ago
    Does someone with a feeding tube eat?
    - morganvachon 10y ago
      I was on a feeding tube at 17 years old, and the doctor referred to it as "a way to absorb nutrients without eating".
  - schiffern 10y ago
    The nanowire isn't food. So by that definition, it still isn't "eating." "Ingestion" would be a more apt term imo, as it unambiguously applies to more than just food. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingestion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingestion