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One centimeter long bacterium discovered
- Metacelsus 4y agoInteresting. It seems like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiomargarita_namibiensis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiomargarita_namibiensis only much larger. (Previous coverage discussing the preprint: https://www.science.org/content/article/largest-bacterium-ever-discovered-has-unexpectedly-complex-cells https://www.science.org/content/article/largest-bacterium-ev... )
- baltimore 4y agoHere is what I want to see when I click that link: a picture. Of a bacterium. Next to a ruler. Thank you. UPDATE: My bad, there are plenty of pictures in the supplemental materials downloadable further down the page
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- AnimalMuppet 4y agoHmm. I could swear that, when I first clicked on it, there was a picture of several of them, next to a dime. (Also, left-right reversed - you could tell by the writing on the dime.)
- lxe 4y agoStill annoying... have to download them and such.
- xnx 4y agoDime for scale: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/science/giant-bacterium.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/science/giant-bacterium.h...
- ravenstine 4y ago[removed]
- samatman 4y agoIt clearly states that each filament is one cell: a bacterium, not bacteria.
- shagie 4y agoUnlocked link for any who hit a paywall - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/science/giant-bacterium.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iWka3DLDmwZiP8eAoWG8EqKaqtqYcd21T2QWNJbMaIqAvxuy-sVd2pcdz6VmLrW0pIUP3dy7oupQmI925-KDOlg-jazMzL8cr4jnfjitRvZdWjsXfHA131yIF41oZthfVn8ymVIkvmeapN93dV73v4kBJtoF3xXNGTR4a6eW1gpM86Gbxrc9gAyR-pfPDjRltSa4L4KGx5AXROEFDgspDZht64PfY8fL639LBU_ecThgrh3C2VgLoqhA5xZVJGF24ForB6FglpIdh7OrNZW&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/science/giant-bacterium.h...
- O__________O 4y agoHere’s a GIF of the NYT video: https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/d2a49c29f981d0a8741a513d8c54e077 https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/d2a49c29f981d0a8... Image description: Filaments of a bacteria named Thiomargarita magnifica, placed next to a dime for scale. It is the largest bacteria ever observed, and each filament seen here is a single cell.
- kwhitefoot 4y agoDespite having visited the US many times, I have not the slightest idea of how big a dime is (or what it is worth), so it isn't a useful indicator of scale to me and, I suspect, much of the rest of the world.
- O__________O 4y agoDime’s diameter is 17.91 mm (0.705 in) per Wikipedia; bacterium is one centimeter (cm) or 10 millimeters (mm). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dime_(United_States_coin) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dime_(United_States_coin)
- euroderf 4y agoWould it kill them to put a 0.10€ coin in the picture too ?
- turing_complete 4y agoAnd a banana, please.
- mensetmanusman 4y agoBuild the software to make this possible: The trouble is that when writers are discussing scientific research, they could be sued if they use the images in the article without permission. There needs to be an easy way to revenue share with publishers when these copyrighted images are used. It would definitely be a win-win scenario.
- Mirioron 4y agoI see this being downvoted, but images are copyrighted. Using an image for illustrative purposes is not fair use, is it? Therefore the articles can't just share the same images.
- thaumasiotes 4y ago> Using an image for illustrative purposes is not fair use, is it? Often it is; the paradigm would be commentary. If you're going to talk about the image, to some extent it's necessary to let people see what you're talking about. Reproducing the Mohammed cartoons ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_carto... ) in a discussion of them would obviously be fair use. As with most aspects of the legal system, there is no standard for what is or isn't fair use.
- anigbrowl 4y agoOf course it's fair use, it meets the educational criterion. Might you have to defend it? Maybe. Would you win? Assuredly.
- cykros 4y agoWould it be worth the legal costs? Probably not. Our courts don't operate based on who is on the right side of the law. They operate based on who has more cash to burn.
- taneq 4y agoIs this not precisely what fair use is about?
- threads2 4y agoDid they leave in MS Word tracked changes at the end of that supplemental materials pdf? Lots of weird highlighting.
- heavyset_go 4y agoHere's a preprint from biorxiv, not sure if it's the same study, but there are plenty of pictures: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.16.480423v1.full.pdf https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.16.480423v1....
- tonnydourado 4y agoI am curious, but really not sure whether I wanna actually click on any of the links in this thread.
- chrisbrandow 4y agoAmazing that cell walls are strong enough to maintain integrity at that size!
- nonsapreiche 4y agonot to mention the cell that is a chicken egg
- stjohnswarts 4y agoostrich egg?
- randoglando 4y agoOstrich yolk technically
- sedatk 4y agoBiologically, an eggshell isn't a cell wall.
- samatman 4y agoIt is the yolk of an egg which is the single cell / ovum in birds. And yes, if there's a larger cell than an ostrich yolk I'm not aware what it is.
- 6equj5 4y agoCheck out this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valonia_ventricosa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valonia_ventricosa
- Teknoman117 4y agoThe cytoplasm of those are very interesting. It has multiple partitions, and the cytoplasm is very viscous. They don't "pop" if there is damage or leak all their contents into the water. They can repair some amount of damage.
- 4y ago
- im3w1l 4y agoReally neat bacterium. Sounds like it's on the verge of becoming an eukaryote. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2325909-largest-known-bacteria-in-the-world-are-visible-to-the-naked-eye/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2325909-largest-known-b...
- beefman 4y agoHuman neurons can be a meter long.
- Symmetry 4y agoThose have got glial cells to help support the parts far from the nucleus. Plus they're in a cooperative multicellar environment, not off by their lonesome.
- atmb4u 4y agowent down the rabbit hole and found this: Largest single cell organism (1.6 inches) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valonia_ventricosa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valonia_ventricosa
- sigmoid10 4y ago>The entire cell contains several cytoplasmic domains with each domain having a nucleus and a few chloroplasts. This somehow feels like a multicellular organism that didn't quite make the jump that other eukaryotes did.
- mcv 4y agoReminds me of slime molds. If I'm not mistaken, they can switch between multicellular and unicellular forms, where their separate cells merge into a single giant one, though still with multiple nuclei.
- Byamarro 4y agoThese are even bigger (20cm/8in): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophyophorea https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophyophorea
- 41b696ef1113 4y agoIf you want to go with the biggest cell, an ostrich egg is some 15cm diameter and 1-2 kgs.
- FreeFull 4y agoAFAIK, the egg isn't a single cell. The actual embryo connected to the yolk inside is significantly smaller
- hashmymustache 4y agoEvery saltwater tank owner knows the frustration of bubble algae.
- 4y ago
- JoeAltmaier 4y agohttps://backoffice.sciencesetavenir.fr/sites/sea/files/2022-06/xbv-202206-069-014.jpg https://backoffice.sciencesetavenir.fr/sites/sea/files/2022-...
- pvaldes 4y agoHum... I'm unsure and my sea spider sense is tingling. My first impression would be an egg sack like those from Opisthobranchia that could explain the DNA in pouches, or maybe a small bryozoa. If is covered in bacteria it could explain the genetic analysis. Another possibility would be some kind of crystals growing from sulfur and covered in bacteria. We need and electronic microscope image here and hystological cuts stained with gram.
- stubish 4y ago"That turned out not to be the case. When the researchers peered inside the bacterial noodles with electron microscopes, they realized each one was its own gigantic cell. The average cell measured about 9,000 microns long, and the biggest was 20,000 microns — long enough to span the diameter of a penny." (from NYT, https://archive.ph/ET2tc https://archive.ph/ET2tc )
- jasonhansel 4y agoNot the only unicellular organism visible to the naked eye. For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valonia_ventricosa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valonia_ventricosa
- progman32 4y agoAside: Searching for "Valonia ventricosa" in YouTube gives me absolutely atrocious results. A bunch of clickbait medical things and random gross-out stuff. Bleh. Anyone else?
- deanmen 4y agoAn egg is a single cell.
- cmrdporcupine 4y agoThat's a eukaryote though, whole different kettle of fish. This is bacteria, far simpler and smaller.
- the-mitr 4y agoalso https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetabularia_acetabulum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetabularia_acetabulum
- Symmetry 4y agoI guess being long and thin they don't violate the square/cube laws that normally keep bacteria from getting too big given that they have to use their outer walls rather than mitochondria to respirate. Still very impressive.
- JoeAltmaier 4y agoSome larger bacteria use a water sac inside to push all the living components close to the surface. So osmosis can feed them oxygen. I wonder if this one does that?
- efavdb 4y agoI happened to write a paper on just this issue (shameless plug)! You're right: With a sphere, the metabolic consumption grows like R^3 but nutrient capture goes like the surface area, which scales like R^2. The result is a max radius R where nutrient in can support the consumption. However, for long thin object, both the volume and area grow like L, the length. The result is that -- rather than plateauing to a finite limit -- a long thin bacterium can actually maintain exponential growth indefinitely! and that is what is actually seen in the lab. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1312.0674.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/1312.0674.pdf
- ogogmad 4y agoGiven that they're so thin, can they be seen by the naked eye? I'm thinking of a spider's web.
- heavyset_go 4y agoThis study says that the organelles are bound to the cell membrane: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.16.480423v1.full.pdf https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.16.480423v1....
- sydthrowaway 4y agoVery bad news
- mah4k4l 4y agoA perfect hangover lizard story, 10/10
- joshuahaglund 4y agoIn San Pedro CA there's a beach called White Point Park, named for the mats of white sulfur oxidizing bacteria that grow in geothermal spring water. A Japanese family ran a bath house with the water from a geothermal spring but an earthquake damaged the flow and then being sent to internment camps ended it. I was gazing in the tide pools there when I got a whiff of sulfur, like at a hot spring, and followed my nose to a tide pool full of white fuzzy sulfur oxidizing bacteria (I think). My pic: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1SfckUMzt4Qp5Ymy5 https://photos.app.goo.gl/1SfckUMzt4Qp5Ymy5 divers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06bvGXtmcMI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06bvGXtmcMI https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27512390/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27512390/ history: http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history/2010/06/02/white-point-hot-spring-hotel/ http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history/2010/06/02/white-point-...
- thirtyfivecent 4y agoThe imprisonment and terrorization of thousands of innocent civilians just because of their skin color and race... please dont go along with the attempt at calling these things just "internment camps"
- cto_of_antifa 4y ago
- fshbbdssbbgdd 4y agoThis is the only case I ever hear anyone use the word “internment” so to me “internment camp” is just a synonym for “the place America put Japanese people.” And “concentration camp” similarly means “the place the Germans put Jewish people (and other groups).” I don’t think one word is inherently more intense than the other. The difference in how I think about the two is mainly down to what happened in the camps. Both were evil places where the government imprisoned innocent people. Only the Nazis were killing everyone.
- ivan_gammel 4y agoConcentration camps were used by Britain before Nazi.
- Jiro 4y agoBlech. This is one of those cases where the genetic material is repeated multiple times inside the same "organism". It would be considered to be a filament made up of multiple cells, except that there isn't anything separating the individual cells, so it's technically "one cell". It's like roping together 200 boats and claiming that you've created a mile long boat. You sort of did, but it's not really the first thing people think of when they see that phrase.
- Rerarom 4y ago> boat comparison This made my day, thanks.
- bendbro 4y agoYeah, that Candidatus Thiomargarita magnifica is a real piece of shit.
- undersuit 4y agoIt's a multiprocessor. The multiple available genes allow more expressiveness. Three genomes reacting to environmental changes exposes its resources 3 times as fast. Or maybe the chromosomes are spatially optimal in a centimeter long rod. Or maybe it's evolved to suppress the genes/proteins that would be excessive if it had 3 working copies being transcripted repeatedly.
- grapeskin 4y agoBut rope together 200 cars on a track and people will readily accept that it’s a mile long train.
- polycaster 4y agoTrue, but I guess for most people "a mile long train" sounds way less interesting than "a mile long car".
- antifa 4y agoThe equivalent claim would be a "mile long locomotive".
- ogogmad 4y agoI guess it's not thick enough to see with the naked eye.
- fnordpiglet 4y agoI for one welcome our enormous bacteria overlords.
- causi 4y agoI need to find a good youtube video on the physics of cell membranes and cytoskeletons. It's completely wild that a lipid bilayer can be strong enough for an ostrich egg or flexible enough for an amoeba.