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Costasiella kuroshimae
- stavros 6mo agoLife is amazing.
- squigz 6mo agoStuff like this really makes you wonder what life might look like out in the universe.
- explodes 6mo agoSome things on Earth (especially in the ocean) you'd think were extraterrestrial... What a gift to still be able to find such amazing animals out there.
- squigz 6mo agoSome of those things down in the ocean are almost too extraterrestrial... they can stay undiscovered!
- pfdietz 6mo agoThey all, so far, share the same basic biochemistry, derived from the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA). What would be extraordinarily interesting would be if we could find life on Earth with a fundamentally different biochemstry. Very different genetic code, even. This would be sign that Origin of Life is not the Great Filter. And we don't even have to go to another planet to conduct this search for "alien" life.
- morphle 6mo agoIsn't life on this planet also life out in the universe? It depends on your point of view. [1] Pale blue dot - Carl Sagan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g
- squigz 6mo agoDo you consider things that are inside a house to also be outside a house?
- morphle 6mo agoAll things are moving in space and time and in relation to other objects so inside or outside are relative points of view. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity [2] Point of view is worth 80 IQ points - Alan Kay. He didn't specify the sign....
- squigz 6mo agoI wonder if life elsewhere in the universe is pedantic too.
- morphle 6mo agoQED. [1] Why people hate smart individuals: Studies reveal it's linked to your own intelligence level https://www.gq.com.au/health/wellness/studies-say-who-you-hate-depends-on-how-smart-you-are/news-story/ff577d26b313c82bdcbbad46ece85328 https://www.gq.com.au/health/wellness/studies-say-who-you-ha... [2] On the importance of being pedantic https://medium.com/@lfloridi/on-the-importance-of-being-pedantic-series-notes-to-myself-c232220722dc https://medium.com/@lfloridi/on-the-importance-of-being-peda... [3] Pedantic definition https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/pedantic https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/pedantic [4] Pedantic opinion https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/pedantic https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/pedantic
- parineum 6mo agoIf you were so smart, you'd probably find better sources than GQ and Medium to prove your point.
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- ljf 6mo agohttps://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/TheyMade.shtml https://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/TheyMade.s... - love this short story and its take on that question.
- squigz 6mo agoA classic, and regularly shared here on HN :) I really like this version of it personally: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6JFTmQCFHg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6JFTmQCFHg
- latexr 6mo agoSounds like you might be interested in “The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoologist%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoologist%27s_Guide_to_the...
- idiotsecant 6mo agoMakes you imagine a world with high solar power density and maybe lower gravity or something where larger land animals might be realistically supplemented by solar energy as well.
- tbrownaw 6mo agoCloser to the sun (high solar power density) and smaller (lower gravity)... I think we actually have one of those nearby?
- lukan 6mo agoSome infinite water supply would be probably helpful there.
- tbrownaw 6mo agoInfinite indeed, need to keep it topped off as it all boils away.
- lukan 6mo agoNow I think of a scifi setting, where rich people use massive ressources to feed their artificial gardens on Merkur with water from comets, so the genetically engineered solar powered green butterflies in their garden can keep flying. (But there might be more expensive adjustments needed, like rotation speed)
- idiotsecant 6mo agoI suppose also 'is capable of supporting life' might be an important factor when considering hypothetical life forms.
- iwd 6mo agoI just got to see a different species of kleptoplastic sea slugs in the wild last month, on a kayak tour of the mangroves around Key West. Our guide scooped some lettuce sea slugs up in a plastic container (and then returned them safely). They were bigger, about 3 inches long, with a wavy/frilly green border. It made my biologist heart very happy!
- throwup238 6mo agoThat was likely a sea slug from the Nudibranchia order (they resemble lettuce sea slugs sometimes) which are a bit different from Sacoglassa order slugs like the one in TFA in that they carry symbiotic algae colonies, rather than digesting them and keeping the chloroplasts like Sacoglassa.
- Ericson2314 6mo agoI remember as a kid wondering if we could give humans chlorolaplasts.
- rustyhancock 6mo agoI believe that mitochondria and chloroplast both were originally independent single celled organisms. So kind of funny that, chloroplast is being "stolen" again by this sea slug.
- morphle 6mo agoYes, it is funny that biological history repeats itself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiogenesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiogenesis
- chasil 6mo agoChloroplasts are but one variety of plastids. Assimilation has occurred multiple times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastid
- gus_massa 6mo agoSomewhat related https://what-if.xkcd.com/17/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/17/ The surface is too small and you only get like 4% of the energy you need (Assuming you like being naked under full sunlight all day long. The article is for cows, but I guess the number is similar for humans.) 4% of 2400 kcal is almost 100 kcal, that is the content of a small diet treat or 2 apples. These sea slugs can survive because they move very slowly. For a human, I think it's not enough energy to survive even if all the activity is to watch TV inside a hot swimming pool.
- eigenspace 6mo agoDietary need scales with volume, whereas incident sunlight would scale with surface area. Assuming a spherical cow and a spherical human, the calories needed would scale with the radius cubed, whereas the calories gained from sunlight would scale with the radius squared. So while I agree this wouldn't be very many calories, even if you sat under the sun all day, I think the 4% figure is probably quite pessimistic.
- makoai 6mo agoReal Life Bulbasaur
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- hackerbeat 6mo agoWe‘re all solar—powered animals.
- jimbokun 6mo agoYou know what they meant.
- infogulch 6mo agoWell it says "indirectly". How much indirect do they mean?
- morphle 6mo agoMany bacteria and animals are chemically-powered or electrically-powered. Just one group: https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/lost-city-pumps-life-essential-chemicals-at-rates-unseen-at-typical-black-smokers/ https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/lost-city-pumps-life-es...
- thinkingtoilet 6mo agoThis is one of those times evolution doesn't make sense to me. It's clear how a giraffe's neck evolves, the ones that could reach higher leaves in trees had an advantage. In examples like this, how does this evolve when there is no gradual change? An animal had to exist that had an offspring that somehow both absorbed the chloroplasts of the food it ate in a way that it could use (not just simple digestion), then have a place to store them, then have a mechanism to move the chloroplasts to the storage space, then have the mechanisms in their body to use the energy the stored chloroplasts create. How does that happen gradually when each step is totally useless without the others? (please note I am not challenging the scientific truth of evolution, I simply do not understand how something like this happens)
- largbae 6mo agoThey look kind of translucent to me, maybe the first of this kind of slug just had a digestive problem that didn't break down the chloroplasts, and the minimal energy through their bodies made those individuals more successful because they didn't need to eat as often as those who digested theirs. Yada yada other errors among the indegestible-chloroplast population showed further advantages when it's closer to the skin, they outcompeted their peers, etc.
- andy99 6mo ago> please note I am not challenging the scientific truth of evolution Evolution isn’t a matter of faith, you’re welcome to challenge it and try to poke holes in it.
- dekhn 6mo agoWhile true, the predominance of evidence for evolution has reached the point that anybody attempting to argue against it would have to produce absolutely enormous amounts of self-consistent evidence that explains our observations better than modern theories of evolution. It's sort of like the laws of thermodynamics, or relativity, or quantum physics- if you found convincing evidence that any one of those was not accurate, and came up with a better explanation, it would both completely transform science, and open up new avenues for discovery. And if you want to do that, you should probably get a deep set of experience; otherwise, it's not much different from a flat earther.
- redsocksfan45 6mo ago[dead]
- corygarms 6mo agoThis is exactly why pokemon devs are looking for biologists! (seriously) https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00960-8 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00960-8
- abhikul0 6mo agoReal Science video on the slug: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH_uv4h2xYM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH_uv4h2xYM