3 ms·
Probably. There’s a whole category of organisms that can’t cultured in a lab or effectively studied called microbial dark matter: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik
by throwup238 2y ago
Probably. There’s a whole category of organisms that can’t cultured in a lab or effectively studied called microbial dark matter: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbial_dark_matter https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbial_dark_matter
These kinds of DNA and RNA studies are the only ones that can realistically pick up evidence of these organisms outside of an extraordinarily lucky electron microscope slide.
- ababaian 2y agoIf you want the real mind-trip, try to think about how little we know about detecting "life" that is not based on nucleic acids.
- hinkley 2y agoThere’s a biological detective story out there about someone figuring out how to culture the black soot near distilleries. This isn’t the version I read but it’s the same microbe: https://www.wanderingspiritsglobal.com/whisky-fungus-baudoinia-compniacensis/ https://www.wanderingspiritsglobal.com/whisky-fungus-baudoin... It doesn’t culture in agar. Unless you add alcohol to the Petri dish and then it does. Things like this are why I still have my fingers crossed that we will have one or more helicobacter pylori (the bacteria that causes 90% of ulcers) moments for intestinal ailments. These obelisks may turn out to be one of them, and understanding could lead to better treatments and prevention.