7 ms·

Does anyone care that it's 3-octanone? Would someone read this article with a burning desire to know specifically which toxin it is? I thought it was interest

Does anyone care that it's 3-octanone? Would someone read this article with a burning desire to know specifically which toxin it is? I thought it was interesting because (a) I didn't know fungi were (or intentionally) carnivorous and (b) it's interesting that something I've encountered in lavender etc is so toxic to these creatures. I get where you're coming from, but I thought there was plenty of other interesting material in the piece. It was NOT, IMHO, the usual "12 paragraphs of nothing then the answer at the end" that I think we both have come to expect?

Oxidation 4y ago
Well not particularly, but the title promises to tell you. In order to delay that, they have, to me, forsaken a lot of clarity of expression (they've had to come up with at least two circumlocutions to keep the secret) for the sake of a trite "payoff". Describing the toxocysts without naming them as "globes they compare to lollipops" is very clumsy too. Compare how? Favourably? And why not just use the word "toxocyst" right there so that when they refer to it later the reference[1] is explicit? Additionally, anyone who knows the words toxo- and -cyst will also have an immediate clear understanding of what it is. It's also argubly adding vagueness because it's missed out that it's specifically the shape, and not any other lollipop-like quality that's been referenced. Look at how it was written in the original paper: > In this study, we show through genetic screens that P. ostreatus relies on a specialized structure, toxocysts, to paralyze the nematode C. elegans. A volatile compound, 3-octanone, stored inside toxocysts... See how they don't tease it, and just get on with saying it and just make it clear first time round? I'd have been marked down for the writing in my English lessons, and I wasn't even being paid to write this stuff. Then again, I wasn't bring marked based on website analytics. [1] "small globes called toxocysts that hang like fruit from the hyphae"
Symmetry 4y ago
Not as common as viral or bacterial disease, but fungal infections kill over a million people every year.
- red-iron-pine 4y ago
  Usually only the old or immunocompromised. not a sign of how dangerous fungi are, but rather how weak the individual is.
  - astrange 4y ago
    One of the reasons mammals are warm-blooded is to stop fungi from growing inside them, so it must've been a problem at some point.
    - sitkack 4y ago
      I wonder if kids body temperature being higher than adults is an evolutionary adaption as well? Off to the sauna!

Oxidation 4y ago

Well not particularly, but the title promises to tell you. In order to delay that, they have, to me, forsaken a lot of clarity of expression (they've had to come up with at least two circumlocutions to keep the secret) for the sake of a trite "payoff". Describing the toxocysts without naming them as "globes they compare to lollipops" is very clumsy too. Compare how? Favourably? And why not just use the word "toxocyst" right there so that when they refer to it later the reference[1] is explicit? Additionally, anyone who knows the words toxo- and -cyst will also have an immediate clear understanding of what it is. It's also argubly adding vagueness because it's missed out that it's specifically the shape, and not any other lollipop-like quality that's been referenced. Look at how it was written in the original paper: > In this study, we show through genetic screens that P. ostreatus relies on a specialized structure, toxocysts, to paralyze the nematode C. elegans. A volatile compound, 3-octanone, stored inside toxocysts... See how they don't tease it, and just get on with saying it and just make it clear first time round? I'd have been marked down for the writing in my English lessons, and I wasn't even being paid to write this stuff. Then again, I wasn't bring marked based on website analytics. [1] "small globes called toxocysts that hang like fruit from the hyphae"

Symmetry 4y ago

Not as common as viral or bacterial disease, but fungal infections kill over a million people every year.

red-iron-pine 4y ago
Usually only the old or immunocompromised. not a sign of how dangerous fungi are, but rather how weak the individual is.
- astrange 4y ago
  One of the reasons mammals are warm-blooded is to stop fungi from growing inside them, so it must've been a problem at some point.
  - sitkack 4y ago
    I wonder if kids body temperature being higher than adults is an evolutionary adaption as well? Off to the sauna!