Most of those should be bacteria, not a virus. I would speculate that they would be much easier to treat with common antibiotics. After all, they haven't had time to adapt and become drug resistant.... Yet.

Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 2y (2 replies)

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remotelove@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 2y (1 reply)

0.001% of bacteria your soap doesn't kill is basically the Superman of bacteria

I have jokingly said that for years about the marketing on soaps and nobody believed me. :)

Micro-evolution is absolutely crazy though. I started learning about that with fungi; mycelium specifically. Those little things can shift their genetics lightning fast. If they are exposed to different nutrient sources or growing conditions, life.. uh.. finds a way. There is a debate that is going on right now about the whole naming convention of fungi being broken since fruit characteristics aren't telling a complete enough picture. While most strains of, say, pink oyster mushrooms can produce the exact same fruit they might have wildly different genetic markers while still behaving like they are from the same strain.

I think this was discovered when mycologists tried to import some mycelium into New Zealand. Different batches of mycelium were comming from the same exact strain and lineage but when it was tested for import, the genetics were too far off to match to a "legally importable" strain.

Genetic "drift" is well known. After duplicating the same strain over a number of years from petri dish to petri dish, the mycelium just adapts to a cheap and easy agar food source and its fruiting tendencies may suffer as a result. What is new, is how fast it can actually happen in the wild without it going through the genetic lottery of spore combination.

(Disclaimer: I am horrendously tired right now and I tend to jumble factoids in this state. Slap me if I got something horribly wrong.)

Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 2y

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starman2112@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 2y

I ain't afraid of old plagues. A 100,000 year old bacterium infecting a human is the equivalent of someone bringing a spear to a gunfight

MrShankles@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y (2 replies)

You mean "ancient plagues". It's scarier that way, because of the 'implications'

RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y

Are these women in danger?

ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one · 1 pts · 2y

Want to make it scarier, say "Biblical plagues". Gotta get those evangelicals really riled up.

tsonfeir@lemm.ee · 11 pts · 2y

I’m pretty tired. I welcome the end of the world.

GreenMario@lemm.ee · 8 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Come on xenomorph nests!

remotelove@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 2y

I'd be down for that. I dunno why people hate on the xenomorph babies so much though. They just want a kiss.

chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de · 8 pts · 2y (1 reply)

I hope it releases the end of capitalism

quicklime@lemm.ee · 12 pts · 2y

It will, but something tells me it won't be the way we would hope.

thisisawayoflife@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 2y

Ennio Morricone soundtrack intensifies

CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world · 4 pts · 2y

Literal metric fucktons of ancient dog poop.

Crow@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2y

A bad stink.

nul@programming.dev · 4 pts · 2y

I hope the end of this post title is meant to be "good dogs who have been tied up too long."

spudwart@spudwart.com · 3 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Can't wait to all die out and leave behind an AI playing god to make another AI that plays human to get tetrominoes and stars.

CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world · 1 pts · 2y

I... what?

Cyberbatman@lemmings.world · 2 pts · 2y

... The Kraken

Osirus@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 2y

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RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y

Yugothians?

Chickenstalker@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 2y (2 replies)

Nah. Not worried about microorganisms. The way our immune system works is that it stores the "fingerprint" of pathogenic bacteria and viruses and this data is passed down to our progeny. So, we already have built in immunity to 1000 year old pathogens. In addition, vaccination has also "side loaded" many pathogen's fingerprints.

nonfuinoncuro@lemm.ee · 11 pts · 2y (1 reply)

That... doesn't make any sense. If what you said was true, every baby alive would magically have immunity to everything any human has faced ever and would never get sick. Kids are CONSTANTLY sick.

thedarkfly@feddit.nl · 5 pts · 2y

It's actually better than what OP said. We have a T cell for every antigen. Period. Even the ones that nobody has ever encountered. That's because T cell receptors are proteins, that is, combinations of amino acids. Random combinations of T cell receptors are produced by the immune system (if it does not harm the host).

The caveat is that it takes a while for the T cell of an unknown antigen to be activated, enough time for the sickness to appear and even become critical.