517
humans in space (thelemmy.club)
top 26 comments
sorted by: hot top new old
[-] rmuk@feddit.uk 70 points 2 weeks ago
[-] TWeaK@lemmy.today 65 points 2 weeks ago

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 30 points 2 weeks 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 25 points 2 weeks ago

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 17 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org 5 points 2 weeks ago

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 16 points 2 weeks ago

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 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

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 8 points 2 weeks ago

No, as far as I’m aware.

[-] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 weeks ago

We're leeching knowledge.

[-] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 21 points 2 weeks ago
[-] jestho@lemmy.zip 24 points 2 weeks ago

Hi 14 and deep! I'm jestho!

[-] espurr@sopuli.xyz 10 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

> profound

> "Wow, this lunar lander and this bacteriophage sure look vaguely alike. Also, have you seen how one is a sphere and we've built spherical probes before? And another is a cylinder and we have cylindrical rockets? Wow, fucking crazy, man. Humans are viruses; I'm soooo deep."

[-] espurr@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 weeks ago

Wish I could be 14 again

[-] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Why do the viruses look so tasty?

[-] Etterra@discuss.online 13 points 2 weeks ago

Is it because you're a macrophage?

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

hey don't call me that. i studied micro

[-] mig@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Butterscotch or chedder flavor.

[-] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 13 points 2 weeks ago
[-] umbraroze@slrpnk.net 12 points 2 weeks 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 6 points 2 weeks ago
[-] OpenStars@piefed.social 4 points 2 weeks ago

Convergent evolution, baby!

[-] roguetrick@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Life, uhh... Finds a way.

this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2026
517 points (98.0% liked)

Science Memes

20727 readers
346 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.


Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS