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Mouse found atop a 22,000-foot volcano, breaking world record
- pandler 6y ago> The work has received funding from the National Geographic Society and the U.S. National Institutes of Health, as better understanding adaptations to high altitude life is “potentially relevant in treating a number of human diseases that relate to... problems with oxygen delivery and oxygen utilization,” he says. I often wonder how discoveries like this ultimately manifest into actionable technology. Are they studying cell structure? DNA? What does that process look like? > The results could also aid doctors in treating altitude sickness and coping with life at high altitude or elsewhere where there are low levels of oxygen. That makes me wonder if the end goal is some kind of pharmaceutical drug. Very interesting nonetheless!
- ponker 6y agoIt’s almost impossible to predict how any knowledge will be used in the future. What is certain is that if you look at almost anything that exists in modern society, its existence depends on thousands of knowledge morsels, few of which were created with such eventual application in mind. That’s why successful civilizations must invest in knowledge regardless of its apparent practical relevance.
- maxbond 6y agoI think the reality is that researchers justify themselves to grant writing organizations in whatever way they can but are often just doing science for it's own sake. Anecdotally, I watched a talk about how the structure of the ribosome was solved, and the researcher mentioned that they justified themselves to grant writing organizations by saying it would help develop antibiotics - which did turn out to be the case, but they described themselves as feeling amused rather than vindicated. I believe it was this talk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRIDCQM3d7I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRIDCQM3d7I
- kaonwarb 6y agoBingo. While understandable, I fear the need to justify nearly all research by potential foreseeable gain limits our ability to invest in truly fundamental science.
- bonoboTP 6y agoWell, researchers have learned to play the game and with enough creativity you can make up potential applications for grant writing purposes.
- redis_mlc 6y agoThat's already a reality today. Try to get a follow-on grant after your previous grant didn't produce positive results. Science is both successful and failed experiments, but the latter isn't grant-worthy.
- wongarsu 6y agoYes, grant-style funding is really bad for basic research. For where larger institutes have the advantage: a few prestigious findings can bring the funding to do a lot of less glamorous stuff on the side.
- MaxBarraclough 6y ago> often just doing science for its own sake Or trying to advance their careers, which isn't the same thing, as it's self-interest without regard for whether science is being meaningfully advanced.
- nicoburns 6y agoI mean sure, but people don't generally go into a career in science unless they're genuinely interested in it.
- MaxBarraclough 6y agoI've read horror stories about toxic careerism in science where real scientific progress is only ever a by-product.
- zwarag 6y ago22000 foot are 6705.6 meters.
- neilsense 6y agoGood bot
- Tempest1981 6y agoAlthough beware excessive precision: https://blog.plover.com/physics/precision.html https://blog.plover.com/physics/precision.html Maybe 6700 meters, to match the 2 digits of precision. Although from the article: "he encountered another yellow-rumped mouse even higher than previously sighted, atop the very summit of Llullaillaco, at 22,110 feet" -> 6739 meters
- 4cao 6y ago> "[...] atop the very summit of Llullaillaco, at 22,110 feet" -> 6739 meters That's exactly the elevation listed in the Wikipedia article too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llullaillaco https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llullaillaco
- nxpnsv 6y agoAs a former physics teacher this reply gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.
- CydeWeys 6y agoI feel like this is still an unsolved notational problem. Let's say I want to give you the elevation of Mt Everest in feet to 3 sig figs. I could say 29,000 ft, but that'd be misread as 2 sig figs. So I have to say something like 29010^2 , or 2.9010^4 , to convey the correct information. Or just 2.90e4. Maybe there's nothing better? Famously, the original surveyor of Mt Everest calculated 29,000 exactly but lied and added 2 feet to make it 29,002 so that people would understand he meant 5 sig figs, not just 2. That's one way of solving the problem ...
- BurningFrog 6y ago
- lnyng 6y agoNo joke my first thought reading the title was that some researcher left his laptop equipment over there.
- hathym 6y agoSame here, I guess I need to disconnect a little bit..
- ooobit2 6y agoI'm just sad it wasn't a trackpad. I'd have kicked it into the volcano.
- moron4hire 6y agoI assumed the animal, but expected the record to be in the category of "size of testicles".
- wilfredk 6y agoI think reading the title on HN made me think it was the computer peripheal and not the animal...
- amelius 6y agoThis made me think of this article: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/may/17/arts.artsnews1 https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/may/17/arts.artsnews1
- ekrebs 6y agoFor others interested, this was solved the next day. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/may/19/martinwainwright.uknews2 https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/may/19/martinwainwright....
- Someone 6y agoThat’s a variation on extreme ironing, “an extreme sport in which people take ironing boards to remote locations and iron items of clothing. According to the Extreme Ironing Bureau, extreme ironing is "the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_ironing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_ironing)
- compressedgas 6y agoHow long was the mouse's tail?
- codeafin 6y agoIt was wireless
- ooobit2 6y agoBluetooth or USB? I'm hoping they finally installed some USB ports in volcanoes. It's 2020. Should be able to charge my phone everywhere.
- jfengel 6y agoI am unreasonably amused the the existence of camp stoves with USB ports: https://andrewskurka.com/biolite-campstove-review/ https://andrewskurka.com/biolite-campstove-review/ They're pricey ($150) and heavy (2 pounds, heavy if you're carrying it around all day), making them less than entirely practical. But it tickles me that you can plug your phone into your campfire. I don't know if you could pull off the charger and plunk it down on the crust of a lava flow, but it would be worth trying out. Assuming you had $150 to burn (literally).
- sradman 6y agoFrom the paper Discovery of the world’s highest-dwelling mammal [1] > Upper altitudinal limits of wild mammals in the Himalayas and Andes are generally thought to fall in the range 5200-5800 m above sea level. Such limits are surely dictated by food availability in addition to physiological capacities for tolerating hypoxia and extreme cold. Which explains the significance of: > we captured a specimen of the yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse (Phyllotis xanthopygus rupestris) on the very summit of Llullaillaco at 6739 m [1] https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.13.989822v1 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.13.989822v1
- gibsonhouse 6y agoMaybe it was just an adventurous mouse?
- vertis 6y agoDanger mouse
- pandemic_region 6y agoMighty mouse i'ld say.
- swebs 6y ago>It’s incredible that anything could live that high, at 20,340 feet—there is no vegetation, and seemingly nothing to eat. There's clearly vegetation in the background of the photo.
- 4cao 6y agoSeems like the photo was taken at a lower altitude. What the summit actually looks like can be seen in the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGUDXs8Z31A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGUDXs8Z31A
- cko 6y ago“These creatures you call mice you see are not quite as they appear, they are merely the protrusions into our dimension of vast, hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings.” ~ Slartibartfast, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- HenryKissinger 6y agoIt's all a conspiracy by the Walt Disney Company.
- zidad 6y agoI think he was just trying to hitch a ride from a high point before the impending destruction of Earth
- JdeBP 6y agoIt's an experiment upon humans of course. Be found where no mouse should be; see how humans react on Hacker News. (-:
- sg47 6y agoWhat world record was he breaking?
- social_quotient 6y agoWho moved my cheese? Good book
- spodek 6y agoNature's resilience, adaptability, and resourcefulness underscores how much we have to pollute it to cause so many extinctions, deserts, and wastelands. How much beauty do we have to see or lose to change our values from growth at all costs and externalizing costs to enjoying what we have and taking responsibility for how our behavior affects others?
- ilamont 6y agoThere's a spider in the Himalayas that lives at even higher altitudes, living on rocks warmed by the sun and surviving on gnats and flies that get blown up the mountain from temperate climates.
- tumblerz 6y ago"Insectopedia," by Hugh Raffles contains a chapter on high-altitude, silk-gliding spiders, as well as enthralling musings on other subjects. This book is not an encyclopedic take on insects, but is an eccentric, ambagious collection of good writing. My favorite airline book experience.
- lioeters 6y agoCuriosity led me to the Himalayan jumping spider: > Euophrys omnisuperstes (the species name means "standing above everything"), the Himalayan jumping spider, is a small jumping spider that lives at elevations of up to 6,700 m (22,000 ft) in the Himalayas, including Mount Everest, making it a candidate for the highest known permanent resident on Earth. They are found among rocky debris, feeding on tiny, stray springtails and flies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euophrys_omnisuperstes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euophrys_omnisuperstes
- ketamine__ 6y agoThey should give the mouse an MRI. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brain-cells-into-thin-air/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brain-cells-into-...
- karaterobot 6y agoIf you give a mouse an MRI, he'll ask for a PET scan.
- DoofusOfDeath 6y agoAnd when you give him an ultrasound, he'll ask for sound-conducting jelly.
- dragon96 6y agoBut if you give him a PET scan, he won't ask you for a CAT scan.
- mrfusion 6y agoHow does this altitude compare with ground level on mars? Air pressure wise.
- _Microft 6y agoAir pressure on Earth at 6700m is around 430mBar. [0] Pressure on Mars (at the artificially defined zero-level) is 6 mBar [1] and twice as much at the lowest point of Mars' surface [2], Hellas Planitia, which is a huge crater in the southern hemisphere with its lowest point around 9000m below zero. [0] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=air+pressure+6700m https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=air+pressure+6700m [1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_(Planet) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_(Planet) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellas_Planitia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellas_Planitia
- mrfusion 6y agoAh thanks! So the mouse couldn’t live there ...
- stjohnswarts 6y agothe lack of oxygen would get it first i think :)
- fortran77 6y agoNot just any mouse, a "yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse". And he's adorable!
- carapace 6y ago(Aw, I read "Moose" and was so disappointed when I clicked through.) As a random tidbit there's also a bizarre tiny pink armadillo that lives up there. It lives in holes and has a plug-shaped rear end. It's one of those critters that, when you see it, makes you go "C'mon Nature, you're putting me on, eh?"
- ComputerGuru 6y agoSurely not? The point of the find is that this is the first time a mammal has been found at such an elevation.
- carapace 6y agoSorry, I meant the high mountain desert, not all the way up there where the mouse is.
- spsrich2 6y agoIn 1927 col walter snetterton disappeared while trying to cross the Andes by frog. Maybe someone tried with mice?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- burtonator 6y agoI read it as MOOSE and I was like HOLY CRAP!
- sam0x17 6y agoOh, an actual mouse, not a computer mouse.
- chrispeel 6y agoIt seems convenient that the scientists who arranged an expedition to look for mice at high altitude find one higher than any mouse seen before. My skeptical side wonders if the guy who was obviously at the peak before Jay Storz in the video, brought the mouse up, and let it go so that it could be found. Hopefully unrelated researchers who don't use the same guides, etc... are able to also find mice at similarly high altitudes.
- wtallis 6y agoThat's not skepticism, that's conspiracy theory. The previous record elevation for finding a mouse was on the same mountain. It would be more surprising if the first expedition actually found the elevation limit of these mice, rather than the follow-up expedition that was specifically investigating whether they ranged any higher.