4 ms·

Not the longest, but my favorite long-running experiment is the E. coli LTEE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._coli_long-term_evolution_experiment https://en.wi

Not the longest, but my favorite long-running experiment is the E. coli LTEE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._coli_long-term_evolution_experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._coli_long-term_evolution_ex... EDIT: I just realized that the LTEE and Beal’s experiment are being conducted at the same place, Michigan State University!

koolba 5y ago
That is a very cool experiment and a fantastic read! It reminds me of my own adventures making yogurt, each generation carried forward to the next batch. Being able to freeze the samples (for the ecoli, not the yogurt!) is really neat. At anytime they rewind the clock to test an ancestor.
- flobosg 5y ago
  Or, as Stephen Jay Gould said, replaying life’s tape.
  - Ericson2314 5y ago
    The Wikipedia rabbit hole did lead to me Stephen Jay Gould too, who I wasn't acquainted with (except for possibility a similar Wikipedia rabbit hole a decade prior whenever I first read about the experiment). Having recently read about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergodicity_economics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergodicity_economics, the parallels with the things Stephen Jay Gould argued about are fascinating.
swimfar 5y ago
A pitch drop experiment started in 1927 is what I thought of when I read the title: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_drop_experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_drop_experiment
puzzledobserver 5y ago
It's amazing how such long experiments are organized. My first thought when I read "longest-running experiment" was the Rothamstead Park Grass Experiment. I'm accustomed to thinking of Big Science as the LHCs and the Human Genome Project and the Human Brain Projects of the world, but there might be a category of experiments that are instances of Long-Term Science.
- ibizaman 5y ago
  Link: http://www.era.rothamsted.ac.uk/Park http://www.era.rothamsted.ac.uk/Park
- weinzierl 5y ago
  > It's amazing how such long experiments are organized. .. and how they are financed. Sometimes I wonder what humanity missed because experiments that only yield after more than one generation are rare.

koolba 5y ago

That is a very cool experiment and a fantastic read! It reminds me of my own adventures making yogurt, each generation carried forward to the next batch. Being able to freeze the samples (for the ecoli, not the yogurt!) is really neat. At anytime they rewind the clock to test an ancestor.

flobosg 5y ago
Or, as Stephen Jay Gould said, replaying life’s tape.
- Ericson2314 5y ago
  The Wikipedia rabbit hole did lead to me Stephen Jay Gould too, who I wasn't acquainted with (except for possibility a similar Wikipedia rabbit hole a decade prior whenever I first read about the experiment). Having recently read about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergodicity_economics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergodicity_economics, the parallels with the things Stephen Jay Gould argued about are fascinating.

swimfar 5y ago

A pitch drop experiment started in 1927 is what I thought of when I read the title: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_drop_experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_drop_experiment

puzzledobserver 5y ago

It's amazing how such long experiments are organized. My first thought when I read "longest-running experiment" was the Rothamstead Park Grass Experiment. I'm accustomed to thinking of Big Science as the LHCs and the Human Genome Project and the Human Brain Projects of the world, but there might be a category of experiments that are instances of Long-Term Science.

ibizaman 5y ago
Link: http://www.era.rothamsted.ac.uk/Park http://www.era.rothamsted.ac.uk/Park
weinzierl 5y ago
> It's amazing how such long experiments are organized. .. and how they are financed. Sometimes I wonder what humanity missed because experiments that only yield after more than one generation are rare.