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dart board;; science bs
rule #1: be kind
A fossilized mosquito preserved for 46,000,000 years was discovered with blood still inside its abdomen a rare snapshot of ancient life frozen in time
Now we only need someone to tell Elon Musk to invest in a park and invite Trump for a private inauguration.
Hell yeah time to bring back the dinosaurs
Turns out it will be some 46M year old Karen and her clone will just complain.
Ah ah ah you didn't say the magic word!
46 000 000 years ago?
I’m pretty sure that dinosaurs didn’t exist in Eocene.
For those who feel the urge to correct me, yes birds are theropods
Maybe it had also found a 46 000 000 year old mosquito in amber and had just finished drinking that beautifully aged blood when the tree sap struck again.
It's from 2013, folks. Sadly no world-ending DNA.
Sadly no dinosaur
Imagine if a mosquito was found like this then they sequenced the DNA and it was yours! Sounds like a horror story
That is quite common actually. We call it contaminated sample
That just means they've had 13 years to work on it. 13 years to get it ready.
13 years to spare no expense.
Yet.....
LEAVE IT THE FUCK ALONE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD
Bring it to Wuhan you said? Inject it into some bats? Sure, if you want it!
seriously ... we already have about 100 different ways of destroying our planet and ourselves ... we don't need some new exotic way to turn our world into an even worse hell hole than it already is
Do mosquitos belong on the list with crabs, crocodiles, and sharks? Those little fucks don’t seem to have to evolve much.
You may not like it, but this is what peak evolution looks like.
Meme aside, crabs are slightly different, since they are a case of convergent evolution. The reason mosquitoes, crocodiles and sharks basically look entirely unchanged is because there has been little to no selective pressure for those species, since their survival and propagation strategy remains incredibly effective. If there's nothing random mutations could do to make individuals of a species (or a subgroup thereof) more likely to survive long enough to breed, then natural selection won't have anything to sink its teeth into. If no other competitor comes along to outcompete those species, nor some devastating plague or other disaster which makes their strategy unviable, they will remain unchanged, and we get the coelacanth, horseshoe crab or, yes, the mosquito.
I really like how the evolution of intelligence is phrased here: https://ma-lab-berkeley.github.io/deep-representation-learning-book/Ch1.html
A necessary condition for the emergence of life on Earth … is the environment is largely predictable. Life has developed mechanisms that allow it to learn what is predictable …, encode this information, and use it for survival. Generally speaking, we call this … intelligence. ... In early stages of life, intelligence is mainly developed through two types of learning mechanisms: phylogenetic and ontogenetic
Phylogenetic intelligence refers to learning through the evolution of species. Species inherit and survive mainly based on memory and knowledge encoded in the DNA or genes of their parents. ... Learning is carried out through a “trial-and-error” mechanism based on random mutation of genes, and species evolve based on natural selection—survival of the fittest. … However, such a “trial-and-error” process can be extremely slow, costly, and unpredictable.
Ontogenetic intelligence refers to the learning mechanisms that allow an individual to learn through its own senses, memories, and predictions within its specific environment, and to improve and adapt its behaviors. Ontogenetic learning became possible after the emergence of the nervous system about 550–600 million years ago (in worm-like organisms) ... With a sensory and nervous system, an individual can continuously form and improve its own memory about the world, in addition to what is inherited from DNA or genes. This capability significantly enhanced individual survival and contributed to the Cambrian explosion of life forms about 530 million years ago ... Compared to phylogenetic learning, ontogenetic learning is more efficient and predictable, and can be realized within an individual’s resource limits.
Both types of learning rely on feedback from the external environment—penalties (death) or rewards (food)—applied to a species’ or an individual’s actions. ... Furthermore, from plants to fish, birds, and mammals, more advanced species increasingly rely on ontogenetic learning: they remain with and learn from their parents for longer periods after birth, because individuals of the same species must survive in very diverse environments.
Since the emergence of Homo sapiens about 2.5 million years ago, a new, higher form of intelligence has emerged that evolves more efficiently and economically. Human societies developed languages—first spoken, later written. … Language enables individuals to communicate and share useful information, allowing a human community to behave as a single intelligent organism that learns faster and retains more knowledge than any individual. Written texts thus play a role analogous to DNA and genes, enabling societies to accumulate and transmit knowledge across generations. We may refer to this type of intelligence as societal intelligence, distinguishing it from the phylogenetic intelligence of species and the ontogenetic intelligence of individuals. This knowledge accumulation underpins (ancient) civilizations.
About two to three thousand years ago, human intelligence took another major leap, enabling philosophers and mathematicians to develop knowledge that goes far beyond organizing empirical observations. The development of abstract concepts and symbols, such as numbers, time, space, logic, and geometry, gave rise to an entirely new and rigorous language of mathematics. In addition, the development of the ability to generate hypotheses and verify their correctness through logical deduction or experimentation laid the foundation for modern science. For the first time, humans could proactively and systematically discover and develop new knowledge. This further significantly improved the efficiency of acquiring knowledge about the unknown. We will call this advanced form of intelligence “scientific intelligence” due to its necessity for deductive and scientific discovery.
This line of reasoning puts something rather interesting into perspective. If in the past life could develop (via evolution) new forms of intelligence, of which they could not have possibly perceived of before, then who’s to say it won’t happen again? Perhaps humans could evolve and obtain, yet another, higher form of intelligence which we cannot possibly perceive of now.
Our scientific method draws a blank when it comes to justifying phenomenology and consciousness. Perhaps a higher form of intelligence would more naturally yield insights on how different structures of information processing yield different macro behavioral characteristics which could justify the mind and why it feels anything at all. … or something.
I, too, find that perspective compelling, but I think it's worth pointing out that societal intelligence, as defined there, isn't unique to humans. Mycelial networks allow communication, learning and reactivity among entirely different species within a forest. Eusocial insects like the hymenopterans have their own unique languages. Whales communicate among their pods and across oceans to pass on information and teachings. I'm not saying that a tree knows what a beetle is, but there's something deeper than mere genetics at play when unrelated species communicate the presence of parasites through a mycelial network, and each tree begins to produce insecticide toxins, even those which have never been infested by a beetle. We too-often discount the many languages which are already spoken on this planet, simply because they are less intelligible to us, or seem more simplistic than Infinite Jest.
Yeah, really interesting point and I appreciate all the examples you included—I will have to read more on those. I’ve similarly been intrigued by the common belief that dogs “mark their territory.” It downplays the significance of using urine as a language. What seems more accurate, IMO, is that dogs use urine as a mode of asynchronous chemical communication. With the Jacobson’s organ, they can get all kinds of details by sniffing a lamppost. Is this a high traffic area, are the other dogs healthy, male or female, any potential mates, rough age, rough time (based on how old the urine smells), … it’s a spectrum of information.
Sometimes I wonder if my dog might recognize others, without ever having physically met them, because he’s been communicating with them via the fire hydrant for years. Not sure how likely that would be, but it’s certainly crossed my mind.
They belong to the list of things that need to be completely eradicated from the planet, the fucking bloodsucking, buzzing little bastards.
Dinasours with two butts?
Even under the best preservation conditions, there is an upper boundary of 0.4–1.5 million years for a sample to contain sufficient DNA for sequencing technologies.
Yea, but you can get partial DNA sequences and then fill the rest in with frogs or some shit.
Depending on the source DNA seems to have a half life of 500-1500 years. This source calculates with slightly over 500 years. Permafrost samples may be more on the upper end of the scale but the message would be similar:
A study of DNA extracted from the leg bones of extinct moa birds in New Zealand found that the half-life of DNA is 521 years. So every 1,000 years, 75 per cent of the genetic information is lost. After 6.8 million years, every single base pair is gone.
https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/how-long-does-dna-last
Knowing our current tech landscape, some startup CEO will convince a bunch of investors that he can get an AI to produce the genome sequence using existing sequencing data to predict what dinosaur DNA actually was.
And even though it's obviously a rugpull, any hypothetically successful AI would probably just get stuck outputing genomes that result in different types of bananas.
I've been told on good authority that life... uh... finds a way.
Well not with that attitude. Have fun being dinosaurless while we're out here jousting on velociraptors
If you say it like that, I'll happily abandon science to go velocitaptor jousting with you!
What if we used a time machine, go back in time, place a mosquito on a dinosaur, then when all full of blood place it into a cryogenic container that can last say 70+million years, go back to the present, find the container, and sequence the DNA?
Why not just bring the mosquito back? Or the actual dinosaur?
(That was the joke. Well, an attempt at a joke at least.)
It was too early in the morning for me to pick up on that.
My fault, not yours.
Science is supposed to be complicated, dammit! /s
Oh, you also attended Rube Goldberg University?
Good ol' RGU. The Fightin' Contraptions.
I think that was the joke
Probably
Bring that civilization-ending virus.
The world needs some alone time without humans.
Good news! No matter what we do the world is going to get some alone time without humans.
I recall the time they found some fossilized mosquitoes, and before long, they were cloning DNA
Fossilised?
Don’t want to sound rude but fossilised means turned into a rock…
I know because I love palaeontology and I‘m a fossil hunter.
Don’t ban me guys, I’m just an average paleo nerd
I was quoting Weird Al, don't shoot the messenger
