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San Francisco, 12:24 AM
Mon Nov 23
10 posts in the last 24 hours

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  • posts about #bacteria more →

    Synthetic Bacteria Can Reveal Landmines

    The Oldest Living Things in the World

    Nanoparticle Breakthroughs That Could Save Millions of Lives

    Scientists Play "Jurassic Park," Coax Ancient Glacial Bacteria Back To Life

    Could Metal-Excreting Bacteria Avert The Next World War?

    How Bacteria Cure Cancer and Fly Planes

    A Gonorrhea-Based Molecular Machine

    Nanopaper Can Identify Deadly Bacteria in the Water

    First Synthetic Genome Ready to "Boot Up"

    Flesh-Eating, Sexually-Transmitted Bacteria Hit San Francisco and Boston
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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of ♠ Final ♠ ♠ Final ♠
    11/19/09

    In reply to Synthetic Bacteria Can Reveal Landmines
    Sounds real damn expensive. The countries that have to deal with land mines are usually Third World and their leaders would probably opt for another mansion rather then spending their money on something like this.
     Reply
    ♠ Final ♠ was starred ♠ Final ♠ was unstarred
    Image of gorehound gorehound
    11/19/09

    In reply to Synthetic Bacteria Can Reveal Landmines
    those little bacties sure are cool and glow like a psychedelic trip
     Reply
    gorehound was starred gorehound was unstarred
    Image of goldfarb goldfarb
    11/19/09

    In reply to Synthetic Bacteria Can Reveal Landmines

    I've always wondered why people don't just use one of these things to 'look' for land mines...

    just drive around making a huge amount of noise and disturbing the ground should set all the mines off...and these this are indestructible!
     Reply
    goldfarb was starred goldfarb was unstarred
    Image of tetracycloide tetracycloide
    11/19/09

    In reply to Synthetic Bacteria Can Reveal Landmines
    well they can't be harmless to everything because they must eat something. also, what help would the be on minefields to new for enough chemicals to have leeched into the surrounding soil? what about land mines that leech nothing into the surrounding soil?
     Reply
    tetracycloide was starred tetracycloide was unstarred
    Image of fuchikoma fuchikoma
    11/19/09

    @tetracycloide: Yeah, I was thinking "this must react to some explosive compound or part thereof... what if someone makes a hermetically-sealed landmine?

    I'd think that wouldn't be so hard to do - nonmetallic ones were an easy enough leap.

    But still, there are countless old mines still buried all over the world, so I think this is great.
     Reply
    Edited by fuchikoma at 11/19/09 1:35 PM fuchikoma was starred fuchikoma was unstarred
    Image of tetracycloide tetracycloide
    11/19/09

    @fuchikoma: that still leaves the question of what do they eat. they have to sustain themselves with something and even if it's photosynthesis they would still require nutriants from the surrounding soil that, more than likely, some other indegenous plant species needs too. a plant that's probalby eaten by some local animal life that is in turn eaten by some other local animal life and oh my god the native apex predator just went extinct and we're knee deep in frogs or some shit.
     Reply
    tetracycloide was starred tetracycloide was unstarred
    Image of fuchikoma fuchikoma
    11/19/09

    @tetracycloide: It's a good question for sure, and one I wouldn't count on a military product necessarily answering. I'd imagine the most logical choice would be to mod some common soil bacteria, but... who knows?

    #speakup
     Reply
    fuchikoma was starred fuchikoma was unstarred
    Image of crashedpc - Haifisch crashedpc - Haifisch
    11/19/09

    In reply to Synthetic Bacteria Can Reveal Landmines
    That's fine and dandy until the bacteria animate said mines and thus creating the first sentient landmines. With a vengeance.
     Reply
    crashedpc - Haifisch was starred crashedpc - Haifisch was unstarred
    Image of ilves ilves
    11/19/09

    @crashedpc - Haifisch: Or combine to create the first explosive bacteria...
     Reply
    crashedpc - Haifisch promoted this comment ilves was starred ilves was unstarred
    Image of crashedpc - Haifisch crashedpc - Haifisch
    11/19/09

    @ilves: I'd just like to preemptively state that those kinds of bacteria already exist and that cheese only pisses them off.
     Reply
    crashedpc - Haifisch was starred crashedpc - Haifisch was unstarred
    Image of QuinbyFisher QuinbyFisher
    09/30/09

    In reply to The Oldest Living Things in the World
    Stromatolites are the oldest living things we can see or touch. (There are probably older subterranean and deep sea bacterial colonies and rock-based bacterial coloniesthat that are older but difficult to age.

    See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromatolite

    I have seen these at Jurien Bay and they have them at Hamelin Pool Shark Bay, Western Australia also.
    Some fossilised ones date back to 3,500 Million years ago. There are individuals estimated at hundreds of thousands of years old. Smaller ones are mere tens of thousands of years old.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamelin_Pool_Marine_Nature_Res...
    (GPS Coordinates supplied on Wikipedia for nathanst.)

    http://pilbara.mq.edu.au/wiki/Stromatolites

    Other exist in the Bahamas, Brazil and Turkey.

    Enjoy!
    PeterSW
     Reply
    The Curse of Millhaven promoted this comment QuinbyFisher was starred QuinbyFisher was unstarred
    Image of The Curse of Millhaven The Curse of Millhaven
    09/30/09

    @QuinbyFisher: I have love dStromatolites since my honors geology class, but they are colonies rather than single organisms.
     Reply
    Edited by The Curse of Millhaven at 09/30/09 10:31 PM The Curse of Millhaven was starred The Curse of Millhaven was unstarred
    Image of rachelsussman rachelsussman
    10/02/09

    @QuinbyFisher: Stromatolites are pretty darn interesting, and are on my list -- though I'm not actually convinced they are a single living organism. Nothing against clones (some of my best photos are of clones; ), but my understanding of Stromatolites is that they are comprised of many different types of microorganisms, as well as different types of sediment (rock, sand, etc.) While they are an absolutely fascinating record -- and a beautiful biological palimpsest -- I would be hard pressed to put them in the same category as the clonal aspen, for instance, which is a clear example of a single, self-propagating organism, or the clonal bacteria, which is a mass of genetically identical material.
     Reply
    The Curse of Millhaven promoted this comment YankBoffin approved this comment rachelsussman was starred rachelsussman was unstarred
    Image of The Curse of Millhaven The Curse of Millhaven
    09/30/09

    In reply to The Oldest Living Things in the World
    "and will still be around long after we're gone"

    Don't tempt me.
     Reply
    The Curse of Millhaven was starred The Curse of Millhaven was unstarred
    Image of nathanst nathanst
    09/30/09

    @The Curse of Millhaven: exactly

    Any GPS coordinates on these wonders of the ancient world?? It's for science, I promise!
     Reply
    nathanst was starred nathanst was unstarred
    Image of The Curse of Millhaven The Curse of Millhaven
    09/30/09

    @nathanst: Say, is that a bottle of "Roundup" in your bag?
     Reply
    The Curse of Millhaven was starred The Curse of Millhaven was unstarred
    Image of nathanst nathanst
    10/03/09

    @The Curse of Millhaven: HAHA, yeah gotta clear some trails to make the wonders accessible.
     Reply
    nathanst was starred nathanst was unstarred
    Image of gorehound gorehound
    09/30/09

    In reply to The Oldest Living Things in the World
    If I was a Siberian Actinobacteria I could live for 400,000 years doing well what bacteria does.

    Kill Me Now !!!
     Reply
    gorehound was starred gorehound was unstarred
    Image of The Curse of Millhaven The Curse of Millhaven
    09/30/09

    @gorehound: Out of kindness we should play them movies or something. Open books and turn a page a week maybe.
     Reply
    Edited by The Curse of Millhaven at 09/30/09 10:32 PM The Curse of Millhaven was starred The Curse of Millhaven was unstarred
    Image of ♥AntiSocialSocialite♥ ♥AntiSocialSocialite♥
    09/30/09

    In reply to The Oldest Living Things in the World
    I wish there was a person in each of these pictures so I could get some idea of relative size... still, VERY cool.
     Reply
    ♥AntiSocialSocialite♥ was starred ♥AntiSocialSocialite♥ was unstarred
    Image of OldDog1 OldDog1
    09/30/09

    In reply to The Oldest Living Things in the World
    On a related note. Did I read about a giant mushroom like thing that lived underground in several states in the Northeast? Or was I eating the wrong mushrooms, again?
     Reply
    Makidian promoted this comment OldDog1 was starred OldDog1 was unstarred
    Image of Makidian Makidian
    09/30/09

    @OldDog1: Were you reading Psylocybin Today? If so you maybe right, if not then you are lucky to be alive.

    Friend of mine ate not-shrooms thinking he was getting an easy trip. Explaining that to hospital staff was fun...
     Reply
    Makidian was starred Makidian was unstarred
    Image of SpammerOvTheGods SpammerOvTheGods
    09/30/09

    @OldDog1: there's one of those in Michigan's upper peninsula.

    #@!
     Reply
    Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. promoted this comment SpammerOvTheGods was starred SpammerOvTheGods was unstarred
    Image of ninjajazza ninjajazza
    09/30/09

    In reply to The Oldest Living Things in the World
    does a clonal population really count as old? i mean, the genes have been around for however many thousand years, but the individual plant may only be a couple of hundred.
     Reply
    Lauren Davis promoted this comment ninjajazza was starred ninjajazza was unstarred
    Image of The Curse of Millhaven The Curse of Millhaven
    09/30/09

    @ninjajazza: I am with you on this. If you clone me and then kill me, I am still dead and the clone is still young. If they are all still attached by rhizomes or something then I guess that would be a tough call, but if they stand completely on their own I would call that a single organism.
     Reply
    The Curse of Millhaven was starred The Curse of Millhaven was unstarred
    Image of Rasselas Rasselas
    09/30/09

    In reply to The Oldest Living Things in the World
    See also: Awesome Town, Mayor of.
     Reply
    Rasselas was starred Rasselas was unstarred
    Image of Paul_Is_Drunk Paul_Is_Drunk
    09/30/09

    In reply to The Oldest Living Things in the World
    No Redwoods, huh?
     Reply
    Paul_Is_Drunk was starred Paul_Is_Drunk was unstarred
    Image of EBone EBone
    09/30/09

    @Paul_Is_Drunk: Redwoods are comparative youngsters at 1,500-2,000 years old.

    Besides, everybody has a photo of redwoods.
     Reply
    EBone was starred EBone was unstarred
    Image of Hamslicer Hamslicer
    09/30/09

    In reply to The Oldest Living Things in the World
    I thought I saw her snooping around my fridge...
     Reply
    Hamslicer was starred Hamslicer was unstarred
    Image of Experiment626 Experiment626
    09/30/09

    In reply to The Oldest Living Things in the World
    I'm amazed we haven't destroyed them yet. Here to you, Nature. May you live long and prosper!
     Reply
    ampersandparade approved this comment Experiment626 was starred Experiment626 was unstarred
    Image of ampersandparade ampersandparade
    09/30/09

    @Experiment626: Well if they start contradicting our politicians by correcting their misappropriation of history then yes, we will bomb them to hell. But for now their silent majesty is safe.
     Reply
    ampersandparade was starred ampersandparade was unstarred
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