this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 6 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Why do the viruses look so tasty?

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 5 points 1 hour ago

Is it because you're a macrophage?

[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 hours ago
[–] umbraroze@slrpnk.net 4 points 3 hours ago

Witches and mysticists say "as above, so below".

So, according to this pic, in practical reality, it's actually "as in tiny, so in big"

[–] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago

Agent smith was right?

[–] rmuk@feddit.uk 39 points 10 hours ago
[–] TWeaK@lemmy.today 40 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Hey if it works in nature.

The winglets on the end of airplane wings were added after watching hawk wing feathers with slow motion cameras.

[–] nymnympseudonym@piefed.social 11 points 10 hours ago

One mark of a truly visionary designer is their ability to see in Nature what others did not, and turn it to human advantage

image

[–] gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org 14 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

yeah i just realized, this isn't even accurate. we can't leech off another's metabolism. there's no one out there (within reach) .

[–] terranoid@lemmy.cafe 11 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Nah we'll just go out there harvest the resources and make more of ourselves wait

[–] gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

actually, what if viruses (free-swimming RNA) were the original form of life and proteins only developed later? then viruses would be the simplest possible organisms.

[–] TheGoldenGod@lemmy.world 12 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

That idea resembles the RNA world hypothesis, which proposes that early life may have consisted of self-replicating RNA molecules before DNA and proteins became dominant. RNA is remarkable because it can both store genetic information and catalyze some chemical reactions.

The difficulty is with calling viruses the original life…

Modern viruses are not just “free-swimming RNA.” They depend completely on living cells to reproduce. Even the simplest RNA viruses require a host cell’s ribosomes, enzymes, energy, and raw materials. Outside a cell, a virus is essentially inert. That makes it hard to imagine viruses existing before cells did.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org 3 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

yeah i know about the RNA world hypothesis.

by the way, has anyone ever built an artificial organism that only uses RNA with no proteins that is actually able to live (reproduce) in an inorganic environment?

[–] TheGoldenGod@lemmy.world 5 points 9 hours ago

No, as far as I’m aware.

[–] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 9 hours ago

We're leeching knowledge.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 10 points 10 hours ago (2 children)
[–] espurr@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 hours ago

maybe we lose the ability to be profound and honest as we age into becoming productive employees

[–] jestho@lemmy.zip 16 points 8 hours ago

Hi 14 and deep! I'm jestho!

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 3 points 10 hours ago

Convergent evolution, baby!

[–] roguetrick@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

I'm imagining the lander just pooping out the humans from its thrusters onto the surface.