this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2026
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Science Memes

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top 26 comments
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[–] rmuk@feddit.uk 70 points 1 week ago
[–] TWeaK@lemmy.today 65 points 1 week 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 30 points 1 week 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 1 week 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 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org 5 points 1 week 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 16 points 1 week 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 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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 8 points 1 week ago

No, as far as I’m aware.

[–] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 week ago

We're leeching knowledge.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] jestho@lemmy.zip 24 points 1 week ago

Hi 14 and deep! I'm jestho!

[–] espurr@sopuli.xyz 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

> 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 1 week ago

Wish I could be 14 again

[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Why do the viruses look so tasty?

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Is it because you're a macrophage?

hey don't call me that. i studied micro

[–] mig@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Butterscotch or chedder flavor.

[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 week ago
[–] umbraroze@slrpnk.net 12 points 1 week 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 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] roguetrick@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

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

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 4 points 1 week ago

Convergent evolution, baby!

[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Life, uhh... Finds a way.