4 ms·

Every cell in your body is running a full blown OS fully capable of doing things that each individual cell has no need for. It sounds like this is a perfectly n

Every cell in your body is running a full blown OS fully capable of doing things that each individual cell has no need for. It sounds like this is a perfectly natural way to go about things.

Retric 4y ago
Mature mammalian red blood cells ditch their DNA, which is one reason they don’t live very long.
- ralfd 4y ago
  Did dinosaur / do reptilian blood cells live longer?
  - robbiep 4y ago
    Those from birds which are nucleated last about 30-40 days compared to 120 in us so no
  - Retric 4y ago
    No idea about dinosaurs but some reptilian red blood cells live much longer as in 500+ days for turtles vs 120 for humans. However, it varies widely with mice and chickens having much faster turnover. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006497120300185?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000649712... Five species of salamanders have similar enucleated red blood cells, but I can’t find out how long they last in comparison. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18328681/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18328681/ One theory is it’s an adaption to having unusually large genomes which would otherwise be an issue, but biology is odd so who knows.
    - lazide 4y ago
      For one, it makes them much harder to be used as viral vectors.
      - glitchc 4y ago
        I think that's the reason why mammals evolved in this way. Red blood cells go everywhere, and I mean everywhere, in your body. Most other cells can't get close enough.
  - speed_spread 4y ago
    Not with that attitude
- helf 4y ago
  I didn’t know this. That is fascinating!
koheripbal 4y ago
Organic units should not be admired for their design. DNA is the worst spaghetti code imaginable. The design is such a hack, that it's easier to let the unit die and just create new ones every few years.
- btown 4y ago
  "The creatures outside looked from DNA to k8s YAML, and from k8s YAML to DNA, and from DNA to k8s YAML again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
- borissk 4y ago
  "Let the unit die and just create new ones every few years" is a brilliant solution to many issues in complex systems. Practically all software created by humans behaves the same way - want a new version of your browser or a new major version of your OS kernel or whatever else - you have to restart them.
  - rswail 4y ago
    it's almost like Erlang supervisors all the way down :)
- andrekandre 4y ago
  its a pretty amazing hack though the human body can scale from 1 cell to several trillion without going down for maintenance even once all while differentiating to different functions it can take a high level of damage and heal without needing a shutdown as well, most software crashes completely at the first exception cells give you that highly scalable and fault tolerant system that we all want
  - ska 4y ago
    > without going down for maintenance even once doesn't it go down for maintenance approximately once a day?
    - 4y ago

Every cell in your body is running a full blown OS fully capable of doing things that each individual cell has no need for. It sounds like this is a perfectly natural way to go about things.

Retric 4y ago

Mature mammalian red blood cells ditch their DNA, which is one reason they don’t live very long.

ralfd 4y ago
Did dinosaur / do reptilian blood cells live longer?
- robbiep 4y ago
  Those from birds which are nucleated last about 30-40 days compared to 120 in us so no
- Retric 4y ago
  No idea about dinosaurs but some reptilian red blood cells live much longer as in 500+ days for turtles vs 120 for humans. However, it varies widely with mice and chickens having much faster turnover. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006497120300185?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000649712... Five species of salamanders have similar enucleated red blood cells, but I can’t find out how long they last in comparison. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18328681/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18328681/ One theory is it’s an adaption to having unusually large genomes which would otherwise be an issue, but biology is odd so who knows.
  - lazide 4y ago
    For one, it makes them much harder to be used as viral vectors.
    - glitchc 4y ago
      I think that's the reason why mammals evolved in this way. Red blood cells go everywhere, and I mean everywhere, in your body. Most other cells can't get close enough.
- speed_spread 4y ago
  Not with that attitude
helf 4y ago
I didn’t know this. That is fascinating!

koheripbal 4y ago

Organic units should not be admired for their design. DNA is the worst spaghetti code imaginable. The design is such a hack, that it's easier to let the unit die and just create new ones every few years.

btown 4y ago
"The creatures outside looked from DNA to k8s YAML, and from k8s YAML to DNA, and from DNA to k8s YAML again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
borissk 4y ago
"Let the unit die and just create new ones every few years" is a brilliant solution to many issues in complex systems. Practically all software created by humans behaves the same way - want a new version of your browser or a new major version of your OS kernel or whatever else - you have to restart them.
- rswail 4y ago
  it's almost like Erlang supervisors all the way down :)
andrekandre 4y ago
its a pretty amazing hack though the human body can scale from 1 cell to several trillion without going down for maintenance even once all while differentiating to different functions it can take a high level of damage and heal without needing a shutdown as well, most software crashes completely at the first exception cells give you that highly scalable and fault tolerant system that we all want
- ska 4y ago
  > without going down for maintenance even once doesn't it go down for maintenance approximately once a day?
  - 4y ago