hi I have surgery in like 2 hours, can anyone send cool niche facts about something you really like so I have something to read while I wait? thanks you guys are the nicest salty internet guys around have a great day
Aww nonny, I hope it goes well and you recover quickly!
Some facts based on my special interests:
→Arenaviridae get their name from the grainy "sand" like appearance they have under a microscope, which comes from ribosomes that they steal from host cells. The ribosomes have no purpose in replication, so virologists still don't know WHY they do that.
→Arenaviridae are classified as "negative-sense" viruses, but they're ACTUALLY ambisense- this means the sections of their RNA go in a different direction from the majority of their genome, as opposed to going in the same direction.
Fun fact: I did my thesis on Arenaviridae, and during my microbiology class, my professor was sick and didn't feel like teaching, so he put on Osmosis Jones, and told us "The student who can give me the most well-thought out, well researched hypothesis on what kind of pathogen Thrax is, will get their next exam test rounded up to the nearest letter grade."
I did a three page paper on how I hypothesized that Thrax was an Arenaviridae, specifically the Lymphocytic choriomeningitis Arenaviridae (LCMV) due to the following points/evidence:
-Thrax took trophies from his hosts, and he didn't need them- for survival or replication. (Like an Arenaviridae)
-Symptoms started off as a common cold with sore throat, malaise, fever and headache, which got exponentially worse. (Similar to the prodromal phase of LCMV)
-He caused a major fever by infiltrating the brain and attacking/sabotaging the hypothalamus. (While LCMV doesn't target the hypothalamus, meningitis is an overall inflammation of the brain, which is only exacerbated by the fever of LCMV)
-Frank contracted Thrax by eating a hard boiled egg that had been handled by a chimp, and dropped on the floor of the chimp's enclosure. (LCMV can be contracted by primates, but the main reservoir is mice and their urine- which is common in zoos if they're not cleaned properly.)
-Thrax caused spontaneous rupture and hemorrhage of cells and membranes he attacked. (LCMV, as an Arenaviridae, is a hemorrhagic fever, similar to Lassa fever)
I presented this to my professor, and he picked my hypothesis- and encouraged me to pursue a thesis about Arenaviridae!
I did, but sadly, my laptop with all my research was stolen on Christmas Eve, and my external HDD was fried (this was LITERALLY 1-2 years before Google Drive/Docs came out so I was SOL.)
Two of the virologists I got interviews with disappeared- one back into the field, and one literally died from viral exposure during research so there were two interviews completely gone and unable to repeat.
I ended up becoming a medical lab tech instead. Maybe, once/if the student loan forgiveness happens, I'll go back to school to finish my degree, but I was SO crushed by the loss of my research, it was hard to continue.
I can definitely understand that. I'm sorry that took the wind out of your sails, but I'm glad it didn't kill your career plan and that you still have aspirations to return. we need more passionate researchers in the medical field.
viruses are cool stuff! i have a few friends in your field and microbiology that can go on for ages. people like you are gonna change the world and i hope you get to make the kinds of breakthroughs and learn new things that change our lives.
Honestly? Yes. Not in a traditional sense, but in a basic sense.
Living things seek to survive long enough to reproduce, which is exactly what viruses do- with rather terrifying success.
They don't react like say, fungi or bacterium do- which form protective cysts around themselves to avoid the immune system of hosts, or to weather out inhospitable environments,- but they DO mutate in order to survive, to continue on replicating.
Oh I am SO excited about the prospect of extra-terrestrial microbes it's UNREAL.
We already know that extremophiles/polyextremophiles prove that they can exist in the vacuum of space (looking at you specifically, tardigrades and Deinococcus radiodurans!!) so the possibility of microbes on other planets is so exciting and a bit scary!
YOOOOOO DEINOOCOCCUS RADIODURANS IS MY FAVORITE!!! HOW IT MANAGES TO SURVIVE RADIATION IS SO CLEVER AND COOL!!!! oh shit dude one of my quadrants of DNA copies is damaged by radiation that would normally fuck up any other living thing? No worries bro I got THREE MORE QUADRANTS OF BACK UP DNA FOR THE OCCASSION SO I CAN CONTINUE ON LIKE USUAL. NO SWEAT. And by the time those 3 back ups get damaged or whatever, the 1st one is already healed up and ready to go and the cycle renews. LET'S GOOOOOOOO!!!!!
(if I got anything wrong, my bad. Its all from memory from when I took microbiology)
i like plants. i don't know if you've heard of it, but a few years ago, more evidence was uncovered suggesting that plants, or at least certain types of them, can possibly "see" using some sort of plant-specific ocelli (eyes, basically. very simple eyes).
this was done by studying how boquila trifoliolata (a type of vine that grows in parts of argentina and chile) mimics other plants through mimetic polymorphism; essentially, it can change its own leaves to resemble those of whatever plant it's growing on. however, it's different from other plants with this quality in that it's not limited to mimicking only one type of plant (a single b. trifoliolata vine can mimic several surrounding plants' leaves, regardless of whether it's actually touching them), nor is it parasitic to the host plant. it was previously thought that this mimicry could either be due to horizontal gene transfer, or that organic compounds emitted from the host plants caused the change in b. trifoliolata's own leaves.
however, recently, it was discovered through experimentation that b. trifoliolata would mimic artificial house plants as well. thus the suggestion that the plant could in some way "see" what it was trying to mimic. it's not a new theory, it was first brought up over a century ago, but there wasn't as great of an opportunity to test it before this plant. but there's still no definitive answer as to what specific mechanism is used in the mimicry. it also opens the door to other suggestions of things like plants having similar structures to human/animal neurons and stuff like that but it's not a super common theory, i don't think? i just think it's cool. plants are a lot more complex than you might think.
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Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2023-07-21 09:56 am (UTC)(link)Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2023-07-21 12:40 pm (UTC)(link)Some facts based on my special interests:
→Arenaviridae get their name from the grainy "sand" like appearance they have under a microscope, which comes from ribosomes that they steal from host cells. The ribosomes have no purpose in replication, so virologists still don't know WHY they do that.
→Arenaviridae are classified as "negative-sense" viruses, but they're ACTUALLY ambisense- this means the sections of their RNA go in a different direction from the majority of their genome, as opposed to going in the same direction.
Fun fact: I did my thesis on Arenaviridae, and during my microbiology class, my professor was sick and didn't feel like teaching, so he put on Osmosis Jones, and told us "The student who can give me the most well-thought out, well researched hypothesis on what kind of pathogen Thrax is, will get their next exam test rounded up to the nearest letter grade."
I did a three page paper on how I hypothesized that Thrax was an Arenaviridae, specifically the Lymphocytic choriomeningitis Arenaviridae (LCMV) due to the following points/evidence:
-Thrax took trophies from his hosts, and he didn't need them- for survival or replication. (Like an Arenaviridae)
-Symptoms started off as a common cold with sore throat, malaise, fever and headache, which got exponentially worse. (Similar to the prodromal phase of LCMV)
-He caused a major fever by infiltrating the brain and attacking/sabotaging the hypothalamus. (While LCMV doesn't target the hypothalamus, meningitis is an overall inflammation of the brain, which is only exacerbated by the fever of LCMV)
-Frank contracted Thrax by eating a hard boiled egg that had been handled by a chimp, and dropped on the floor of the chimp's enclosure. (LCMV can be contracted by primates, but the main reservoir is mice and their urine- which is common in zoos if they're not cleaned properly.)
-Thrax caused spontaneous rupture and hemorrhage of cells and membranes he attacked. (LCMV, as an Arenaviridae, is a hemorrhagic fever, similar to Lassa fever)
I presented this to my professor, and he picked my hypothesis- and encouraged me to pursue a thesis about Arenaviridae!
Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2023-07-22 01:14 pm (UTC)(link)yoooo this is neat! did you go on to work on the thesis?
Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2023-07-22 01:22 pm (UTC)(link)I did, but sadly, my laptop with all my research was stolen on Christmas Eve, and my external HDD was fried (this was LITERALLY 1-2 years before Google Drive/Docs came out so I was SOL.)
Two of the virologists I got interviews with disappeared- one back into the field, and one literally died from viral exposure during research so there were two interviews completely gone and unable to repeat.
I ended up becoming a medical lab tech instead. Maybe, once/if the student loan forgiveness happens, I'll go back to school to finish my degree, but I was SO crushed by the loss of my research, it was hard to continue.
Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2023-07-22 01:30 pm (UTC)(link)Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2023-07-22 01:53 pm (UTC)(link)Thanks! I'm still VERY much obsessed with viruses, still have all my Springer Indexes, as well as my textbooks and notes ♥
My focus was going to be epidemiology, so there's definitely going to be an ongoing need for those!
Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2023-07-22 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2023-07-23 01:02 am (UTC)(link)Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2023-07-23 08:56 am (UTC)(link)Honestly? Yes. Not in a traditional sense, but in a basic sense.
Living things seek to survive long enough to reproduce, which is exactly what viruses do- with rather terrifying success.
They don't react like say, fungi or bacterium do- which form protective cysts around themselves to avoid the immune system of hosts, or to weather out inhospitable environments,- but they DO mutate in order to survive, to continue on replicating.
Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2023-07-23 09:29 am (UTC)(link)life has many doors ed boy
i look forward to seeing how weird it gets as we improve at space exploration
Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2023-07-23 01:19 pm (UTC)(link)Oh I am SO excited about the prospect of extra-terrestrial microbes it's UNREAL.
We already know that extremophiles/polyextremophiles prove that they can exist in the vacuum of space (looking at you specifically, tardigrades and Deinococcus radiodurans!!) so the possibility of microbes on other planets is so exciting and a bit scary!
Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2023-07-24 12:16 am (UTC)(link)(if I got anything wrong, my bad. Its all from memory from when I took microbiology)
Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2023-07-23 12:55 pm (UTC)(link)haha neat
Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2023-07-21 02:30 pm (UTC)(link)i like plants. i don't know if you've heard of it, but a few years ago, more evidence was uncovered suggesting that plants, or at least certain types of them, can possibly "see" using some sort of plant-specific ocelli (eyes, basically. very simple eyes).
this was done by studying how boquila trifoliolata (a type of vine that grows in parts of argentina and chile) mimics other plants through mimetic polymorphism; essentially, it can change its own leaves to resemble those of whatever plant it's growing on. however, it's different from other plants with this quality in that it's not limited to mimicking only one type of plant (a single b. trifoliolata vine can mimic several surrounding plants' leaves, regardless of whether it's actually touching them), nor is it parasitic to the host plant. it was previously thought that this mimicry could either be due to horizontal gene transfer, or that organic compounds emitted from the host plants caused the change in b. trifoliolata's own leaves.
however, recently, it was discovered through experimentation that b. trifoliolata would mimic artificial house plants as well. thus the suggestion that the plant could in some way "see" what it was trying to mimic. it's not a new theory, it was first brought up over a century ago, but there wasn't as great of an opportunity to test it before this plant. but there's still no definitive answer as to what specific mechanism is used in the mimicry. it also opens the door to other suggestions of things like plants having similar structures to human/animal neurons and stuff like that but it's not a super common theory, i don't think? i just think it's cool. plants are a lot more complex than you might think.
Re: OT Thread
(Anonymous) 2023-07-22 01:17 pm (UTC)(link)I knew of mimetic polymorphism but not that this specimen could copy FAKE plants. that's absolutely insane. I gotta read more about that