6 ms·

Scientists Find a Single Protein Can Switch Some Ants from a Worker into a Queen

39 points by wombatmobile 5y ago

hirundo 5y ago
This makes Larry Niven's Pak Protectors more plausible. In his universe, when an adult human eats a certain food (not available on Earth), it triggers their transformation into a larger, stronger, more intelligent being, evolved to protect us "breeders", along the lines of the transformation of a worker ant into a queen. But one would think that an occasional rare mutation would trigger at least a partial transformation, so I'll guess this one will remain scifi.
- swayvil 5y ago
  That was the first thing on my mind too. We need to find that protein in a human and switch it. See what happens. He'll turn into Donald Trump or something.
- rsynnott 5y ago
  In the stories, being old _was_ the partial transformation (Protectors become sterile - older people become less reproductively able, Protectors get an extra heart where the genitals were - older people have heart problems because they only have one, Protectors are monomaniacally fixated on family, and so on). The original stories were written in an era when there was an absence of direct proof that humanity was related to other life on earth (that would be the default assumption, and there was tons of evidence, but it was theoretically semi-plausible that we weren't); molecular biology more or less killed that off, ruining the stories :)
  - rsynnott 5y ago
    Incidentally, this has to have been one of the earliest manifestations of gene-centric evolution in sci-fi; the first story was written in 1967!
- 0aj7 5y ago
  You dont have to look at sci fi. Look at what happens to dad and mom brains and hormones after a kid arrives.
  - mrfox321 5y ago
    Mind sharing some references to some explicit changes that occur?
HenryKissinger 5y ago
Queens hate this one weird trick.
sigzero 5y ago
That's Xenomorphs right there. lol
geuis 5y ago
NO. > While the results certainly suggest there are two main social hormones controlling caste behavior in Jerdon's jumping ants and that this is done via a single protein factor, we will need further research to actually prove this is so.
vincnetas 5y ago
Off topic, but i hope it's not only me who gets confused by random use of capital letters. Whats up with capitalizing (almost) all first letters in words? Is this some regional thing? Why "Can" is capitalized but "from" is not for example?
- tomc1985 5y ago
  It's 'title case'. Conjunctions (the/and/or/etc...), articles (a/an), and prepositions (in/on/by/with/of/etc...) don't get capitalized https://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/title_case.htm https://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/title_case.htm

39 points by wombatmobile 5y ago

This makes Larry Niven's Pak Protectors more plausible. In his universe, when an adult human eats a certain food (not available on Earth), it triggers their transformation into a larger, stronger, more intelligent being, evolved to protect us "breeders", along the lines of the transformation of a worker ant into a queen. But one would think that an occasional rare mutation would trigger at least a partial transformation, so I'll guess this one will remain scifi.

swayvil 5y ago
That was the first thing on my mind too. We need to find that protein in a human and switch it. See what happens. He'll turn into Donald Trump or something.
rsynnott 5y ago
In the stories, being old _was_ the partial transformation (Protectors become sterile - older people become less reproductively able, Protectors get an extra heart where the genitals were - older people have heart problems because they only have one, Protectors are monomaniacally fixated on family, and so on). The original stories were written in an era when there was an absence of direct proof that humanity was related to other life on earth (that would be the default assumption, and there was tons of evidence, but it was theoretically semi-plausible that we weren't); molecular biology more or less killed that off, ruining the stories :)
- rsynnott 5y ago
  Incidentally, this has to have been one of the earliest manifestations of gene-centric evolution in sci-fi; the first story was written in 1967!
0aj7 5y ago
You dont have to look at sci fi. Look at what happens to dad and mom brains and hormones after a kid arrives.
- mrfox321 5y ago
  Mind sharing some references to some explicit changes that occur?

HenryKissinger 5y ago

Queens hate this one weird trick.

sigzero 5y ago

That's Xenomorphs right there. lol

geuis 5y ago

NO. > While the results certainly suggest there are two main social hormones controlling caste behavior in Jerdon's jumping ants and that this is done via a single protein factor, we will need further research to actually prove this is so.

vincnetas 5y ago

Off topic, but i hope it's not only me who gets confused by random use of capital letters. Whats up with capitalizing (almost) all first letters in words? Is this some regional thing? Why "Can" is capitalized but "from" is not for example?

tomc1985 5y ago
It's 'title case'. Conjunctions (the/and/or/etc...), articles (a/an), and prepositions (in/on/by/with/of/etc...) don't get capitalized https://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/title_case.htm https://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/title_case.htm