6 ms·

In Test Tubes, RNA Molecules Evolve into a Tiny Ecosystem

117 points by nsoonhui 5y ago

alimov 5y ago
> “By round 190, the researchers had hit on a new surprise: The huge dynamic swings in the population of each lineage had started giving way to smaller waves. This stabilization suggested that the lineages were no longer competing to replicate. Instead, they had started to interact as a network and cooperate in a state of quasi-stable coexistence.” A very interesting experiment. I know this is reaching, but I wonder what round human being would be on right now if we were in a “test tube” of sorts.
- hnlmorg 5y ago
  It is a less reaching idea than you first suggest: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_hypothesis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_hypothesis
  - swalsh 5y ago
    Maybe those UAP's are just the species that started the experiment checking in on it's progress.
    - meowface 5y ago
      Why would they not make themselves undetectable when doing so? Also, if they were actually actually simulators, they would presumably be able to observe everything in the simulation in arbitrary detail without disturbing it or injecting themselves into it.
      - hnlmorg 5y ago
        Unless their stimulus is an intended part of the experiment.
pimpampum 5y ago
At a little bigger scale, animal cells collect into tiny multicellular "xenobots" in test tubes that run around and collect other cells. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bwq1oOST7w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bwq1oOST7w
innomatics 5y ago
I read thinking it is was just RNA molecules in the test tubes, but they added ribosomes (protein-based enzyme translation machinery) to the mix. You could think of ribosomes and other cellular proteins as the system hardware and DNA/RNA the software. Whilst this experiment is nonetheless interesting, even more so the 'RNA world' theory of how life evolved from just RNA molecules, functioning as both enzymes (ribozymes) and genetic material - code that _is_ the hardware, and built itself!
- bitwize 5y ago
  I was explaining the mRNA vaccines to my dad who has... a tough time getting them, and the analogy I used was that ribosomes are like tiny 3D printers which print whatever is encoded in mRNA. Normally these are proteins and structures for your own body whose specs are copied over from DNA, but when the mRNA vaccine enters the cell the ribosomes 3D-print a single COVID spike, which then triggers an immune response.
  - innomatics 5y ago
    That's a nice explanation. If I were him I'd ask why not just print the spikes at the vaccine factory and inject them? TBH I'm not sure if it's easier/cheaper to use the 3D-printers in our cells, or its more about accurate delivery to the right places, or something else.
    - civilized 5y ago
      Some educated guesses: 1. We don't have "ribosomes at scale" 2. We don't have a way to separate the ribosome product from the factory 3. Keeping the product stable is hard
      - mrguyorama 5y ago
        Another interesting reason is that if you do it the mRNA way, you will continue to internally produce those spike proteins to train your immune system for a week or two
alexk307 5y ago
Does this give more support for the theory that all life on Earth started from a few strands of RNA that hitched rides on some asteroids? I wonder what would happen after thousands, or millions of rounds of their experiment?
- ttyprintk 5y ago
  That’s a question of protein synthesis. This experiment included E. coli material so it leapt over that assumedly-long phase.
- pimpampum 5y ago
  That and the Alien movies
- chriswarbo 5y ago
  Adding asteroids to that hypothesis only makes it (far) less likely; and also raises more questions (how did that RNA arise; and why didn't it happen on Earth?)
vok 5y ago
The emergence of host-parasite coevolution parallels what happened among the programs that inhabited the original Tierra artificial life experiment: http://tomray.me/pubs/alife2/Ray1991AnApproachToTheSynthesisOfLife.pdf http://tomray.me/pubs/alife2/Ray1991AnApproachToTheSynthesis...

117 points by nsoonhui 5y ago

> “By round 190, the researchers had hit on a new surprise: The huge dynamic swings in the population of each lineage had started giving way to smaller waves. This stabilization suggested that the lineages were no longer competing to replicate. Instead, they had started to interact as a network and cooperate in a state of quasi-stable coexistence.” A very interesting experiment. I know this is reaching, but I wonder what round human being would be on right now if we were in a “test tube” of sorts.

hnlmorg 5y ago
It is a less reaching idea than you first suggest: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_hypothesis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_hypothesis
- swalsh 5y ago
  Maybe those UAP's are just the species that started the experiment checking in on it's progress.
  - meowface 5y ago
    Why would they not make themselves undetectable when doing so? Also, if they were actually actually simulators, they would presumably be able to observe everything in the simulation in arbitrary detail without disturbing it or injecting themselves into it.
    - hnlmorg 5y ago
      Unless their stimulus is an intended part of the experiment.

pimpampum 5y ago

At a little bigger scale, animal cells collect into tiny multicellular "xenobots" in test tubes that run around and collect other cells. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bwq1oOST7w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bwq1oOST7w

innomatics 5y ago

I read thinking it is was just RNA molecules in the test tubes, but they added ribosomes (protein-based enzyme translation machinery) to the mix. You could think of ribosomes and other cellular proteins as the system hardware and DNA/RNA the software. Whilst this experiment is nonetheless interesting, even more so the 'RNA world' theory of how life evolved from just RNA molecules, functioning as both enzymes (ribozymes) and genetic material - code that _is_ the hardware, and built itself!

bitwize 5y ago
I was explaining the mRNA vaccines to my dad who has... a tough time getting them, and the analogy I used was that ribosomes are like tiny 3D printers which print whatever is encoded in mRNA. Normally these are proteins and structures for your own body whose specs are copied over from DNA, but when the mRNA vaccine enters the cell the ribosomes 3D-print a single COVID spike, which then triggers an immune response.
- innomatics 5y ago
  That's a nice explanation. If I were him I'd ask why not just print the spikes at the vaccine factory and inject them? TBH I'm not sure if it's easier/cheaper to use the 3D-printers in our cells, or its more about accurate delivery to the right places, or something else.
  - civilized 5y ago
    Some educated guesses: 1. We don't have "ribosomes at scale" 2. We don't have a way to separate the ribosome product from the factory 3. Keeping the product stable is hard
    - mrguyorama 5y ago
      Another interesting reason is that if you do it the mRNA way, you will continue to internally produce those spike proteins to train your immune system for a week or two

alexk307 5y ago

Does this give more support for the theory that all life on Earth started from a few strands of RNA that hitched rides on some asteroids? I wonder what would happen after thousands, or millions of rounds of their experiment?

ttyprintk 5y ago
That’s a question of protein synthesis. This experiment included E. coli material so it leapt over that assumedly-long phase.
pimpampum 5y ago
That and the Alien movies
chriswarbo 5y ago
Adding asteroids to that hypothesis only makes it (far) less likely; and also raises more questions (how did that RNA arise; and why didn't it happen on Earth?)

vok 5y ago

The emergence of host-parasite coevolution parallels what happened among the programs that inhabited the original Tierra artificial life experiment: http://tomray.me/pubs/alife2/Ray1991AnApproachToTheSynthesisOfLife.pdf http://tomray.me/pubs/alife2/Ray1991AnApproachToTheSynthesis...