this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2026
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Science Memes

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top 31 comments
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[–] Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 40 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Dendrologists: [heavy breathing]

In all seriousness, isn't it pretty unlikely that alien life could interbreed with terran life even if they also used DNA with the same bases?

[–] ajmaxwell@lemmy.world 39 points 2 months ago (1 children)

We won't know until we try

[–] Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Scientist 1: "How are things coming along with our test subjects?"

Scientist 2: "I don't know, it's about time to check back in with them."

Scientist 2: "Hey, Mike? How's it going?"

Mike: "Not too bad. There have been some challenges, but I think we got a few things worked out."

Scientist 2: "Oh...my. was that it's--"

Mike: "No, I don't think so, but it seems like it was mutually enjoyable, though, so write that down."

[Trilling noises in the background]

[–] vrek@programming.dev 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

But think of the splinters... Oh god... Think of the splinters... Mike should get hazard pay

[–] Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Bold of you to assume Mike isn't paying for the privilege.

[–] vrek@programming.dev 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

True, all I'm going to say is if you look up videos on "cbt therapy" make sure to put therapy in the search and/or have safe search on, as a result I believe Mike may enjoy the splinters

[–] spankinspinach@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The upsetting part about this is the 't' already stands for therapy. And nothing else

[–] vrek@programming.dev 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I'll give you a more complete response after I go to the atm machine where I'll enter my pin number. 😜

[–] spankinspinach@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

sighs in overwhelming redundancy

Actually I loved that haha

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's extremely unlikely that their DNA has the same translation semantics into proteins.

[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not unless there is a common ancestor, which is theoretically possible. But yeah, extremely unlikely.

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Wow. So I went looking if people actually knew when our codon system appeared.

Turns out that there are 26 slightly different systems on Earth right now, and there are good reasons to expect random alien life to have a system that looks like ours, but is different enough to not be compatible.

[–] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Incredibly. Even very closely related organisms can have a hard time breeding

[–] Noodle07@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

I know I'm having a hard time breeding

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well it seems safe to say it's at least as unlikely as a terran species being able to breed with some randomly selected other terran species.

[–] Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Even when possible, it's often inadvisable as we learned from the monkapotamus in Drew Carey's famous documentary: https://youtu.be/BLbJC7LeC8E

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 39 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Some plant aliens land and discover the air itself gets them pregnant from all the pollen freely flying around from such numerous and primitive plant life. Terra is the plant equivalent of an unbridled sex planet.

[–] DeltaWingDragon@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago

I've got a relevant SMBC for that

[–] Psaldorn@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If you like the idea of alien plant based fiction check out Semiosis by Sue Burke. Recommend going in blind

[–] Barrymore@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Or the Infected trilogy by Scott Sigler

[–] Psaldorn@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Ooh, I'll add it to the list

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 months ago

Xenophytophilia is my favorite word in the English language

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What would happen if I crossbred with citrus? 🤔

[–] the_mighty_kracken@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I once had a short-lived romance with a Hanks Hard Lemonade

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 2 points 2 months ago

Doctors hate this one simple trick

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Serious question: I know many oaks can crossbreed with each other, but do oaks actually crossbreed with non-oaks?

[–] huf@hexbear.net 3 points 2 months ago

they can apparently even crossbreed with professors!

then they will try to domesticate us. I've read the literature

[–] Evilsandwichman@hexbear.net 5 points 2 months ago
[–] Fleur_@aussie.zone 4 points 2 months ago

Plants don't want to they just do. The human experience is wanting the freak, not being born into it.

[–] Phoenix3875@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

How do you know if this hasn't happened already?