I climb a lot around the forests where I live in Switzerland. In one area there are a lot of yew trees - deadly to mammals. Just 30 grams of the needles will stop your heart. The bright red berry tastes very nice and isn't poisonous but the seed, if just one seed has a crack in it and you swallow it it will stop your heart in about thirty minutes. German kings have used it to kill themselves after being defeated by Roman armies so that they don't have to surrender.
Anyway, there's an animal here, I assume marmots, that swallows the berries whole and shits them out as a half-digested diarrhea onto the tops of rocks, logs, anywhere high enough to mark their territory. Probably better than shitting out a charcoal briquette that you hope won't roll over... but they seem to know not to chew and crack the seeds.
Most plants evolved to have their fruit eaten whole and seeds simply pooped out because of the fertilizing effects of animal feces and the fact that the seeds end up dropped far away from the parent plant. That includes large fruit with massive seeds like mangos.
I'm reminded of Professor Hermione Lee of the University of York English department facing a stuttering student explaining the contextual meaning of the word "quaint" in middle English poetry:
Spit it out man! It means CUNT.
Can we stop with this "poop" nonsense. Number #2 and other forms, it's shit English, it's stupid. It's feces. Or shit. Or that fine old English word Turd.
A bit of a tangent but I've read this phrase almost verbatim in another article[1] today:
> "This study is really good," says Sunghwan Jung, a biophysicist at Cornell University who studies the mechanics of animal movements and was not involved with the research. It shows, he says, that the guts of these animals "are very special."
The other article [1] quote:
> It’s “an impressive step,” said Jack Szostak (opens a new tab), who studies the origins of life at the University of Chicago and was not involved in the research. “I don’t know of any other effort to put together an artificial cell from biological components that has progressed so far.”
Are these editorial guidelines to get an independent read? Just coincidence? I don't think they are LLM bits because I expect better from these magazines, but it's too eerily similar.
Isn't the more parsimonious explanation that science journalists and writers have scientist friends or advisors who they consult when something interesting happens? I imagine their correspondence going something like:
"Hi, Jack, came across this thing where they claim to have created artificial life. Is it real?"
"It's an impressive step..."
"Hey, Jack, there's this new thing called LK-99 that everyone is excited about. Why?"
"It's not real"
Some amount of `site:www.quantamagazine.org "Jack Szostak"` querying on Google seems to indicate this might be the case. Though I have to say it's probably not everyone who has a Nobel laureate on their rolodex for a quick "hi, is this real?"
I had to read your comment several times, because the quotes seemed to have nothing in common, let alone be "almost verbatim". Then I realized you were probably commenting not about the quotes themselves, but about the formulaic construction "…said <person>, <description> <relation>". Yes it's a standard format common to all science journalism and journalism in general. Even searching for the specific phrase "and was not involved with the research" and looking for pre-2022 results (needs a bit of filtering as search engines are biased towards recent pages), we find for example:
> [2014-01] “Here you’re able to, in combination, use many, many selective antibodies and screen them in a very sensitive manner,” said Mark Rubin, who directs the Institute for Precision Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and New York Presbyterian Hospital, and was not involved in the research. https://csb.mgh.harvard.edu/data/wiki_pages/26/thescientist....
> [2018-12] “I think it’s beautiful stuff; I’m really excited,” says Eric J. Schelter of the University of Pennsylvania, who studies lanthanide-dependent enzymes and was not involved in the research. https://axial.acs.org/biological-chemistry-and-chemical-biol...
> [2020-06] The study “adds to the growing appreciation of cells’ responses to bioelectric aspects of their environment,” said Michael Levin, who directs the Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology at Tufts University and was not involved in the research. https://partnerships.princeton.edu/news/researchers-use-elec...
> [2018-11] Linda Bauld is Professor of Public Health at the University of Edinburgh and a member of the NCRI Cancer Conference Scientific Committee, and was not involved in the research. She said… https://ecancer.org/en/news/15060-doctors-and-nurses-relucta...
> [2019-03] The case provides “solid evidence for remission,”says Hans-Peter Kiem, a physician who studies cell and gene therapy at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and was not involved in the research. http://institute.wuhanvirology.org/Newsletter2016/201904/P02...
> [2021-08] ‘I would say there's a lot of potential … now that they have shown that these structures are feasible, they are stable, at least under these conditions,' said Professor Roman Fasel, who heads the nanotech@surfaces Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) and was not involved in the research. https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/hor...
> [2011-01] Dr. Kristine Scordo, who heads the Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Program at Wright State University-Miami Valley College of Nursing and Health in Dayton, Ohio, and was not involved in the research, said the results with rosuvastatin are consistent with what she sees in clinical practice. vlian2088↗
>Hu speculates that because the animals climb up on rocks and logs to mark their territory, the flat-sided feces aren't as likely to roll off from these high perches.
and those who of them who shit cubes ended up more likely to procreate...?
This is most amazing when you click into the study[0] and see the supporting materials linked to at the bottom like a .mov of a rotating 3d model of wombat poop[1]
> Distinctive intestines mold feces into sharp-cornered poop
...written directly above a photo of the subject matter that clearly does not have sharp corners (which is all for the best, I guess, poor wombats!), not even sharp edges, just flattened sides.
35 comments
[ 0.27 ms ] story [ 63.1 ms ] threadAnyway, there's an animal here, I assume marmots, that swallows the berries whole and shits them out as a half-digested diarrhea onto the tops of rocks, logs, anywhere high enough to mark their territory. Probably better than shitting out a charcoal briquette that you hope won't roll over... but they seem to know not to chew and crack the seeds.
Great to see someone having some fun writing an article.
We need to have a conversation about wombats
https://theoatmeal.com/comics/wombats
Possibly NSFW, depending on your W.
> "This study is really good," says Sunghwan Jung, a biophysicist at Cornell University who studies the mechanics of animal movements and was not involved with the research. It shows, he says, that the guts of these animals "are very special."
The other article [1] quote:
> It’s “an impressive step,” said Jack Szostak (opens a new tab), who studies the origins of life at the University of Chicago and was not involved in the research. “I don’t know of any other effort to put together an artificial cell from biological components that has progressed so far.”
Are these editorial guidelines to get an independent read? Just coincidence? I don't think they are LLM bits because I expect better from these magazines, but it's too eerily similar.
[1] https://www.quantamagazine.org/for-the-first-time-a-cell-bui...
"Hi, Jack, came across this thing where they claim to have created artificial life. Is it real?"
"It's an impressive step..."
"Hey, Jack, there's this new thing called LK-99 that everyone is excited about. Why?"
"It's not real"
Some amount of `site:www.quantamagazine.org "Jack Szostak"` querying on Google seems to indicate this might be the case. Though I have to say it's probably not everyone who has a Nobel laureate on their rolodex for a quick "hi, is this real?"
> [2014-01] “Here you’re able to, in combination, use many, many selective antibodies and screen them in a very sensitive manner,” said Mark Rubin, who directs the Institute for Precision Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and New York Presbyterian Hospital, and was not involved in the research. https://csb.mgh.harvard.edu/data/wiki_pages/26/thescientist....
> [2018-12] “I think it’s beautiful stuff; I’m really excited,” says Eric J. Schelter of the University of Pennsylvania, who studies lanthanide-dependent enzymes and was not involved in the research. https://axial.acs.org/biological-chemistry-and-chemical-biol...
> [2020-06] The study “adds to the growing appreciation of cells’ responses to bioelectric aspects of their environment,” said Michael Levin, who directs the Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology at Tufts University and was not involved in the research. https://partnerships.princeton.edu/news/researchers-use-elec...
> [2018-11] Linda Bauld is Professor of Public Health at the University of Edinburgh and a member of the NCRI Cancer Conference Scientific Committee, and was not involved in the research. She said… https://ecancer.org/en/news/15060-doctors-and-nurses-relucta...
> [2019-03] The case provides “solid evidence for remission,”says Hans-Peter Kiem, a physician who studies cell and gene therapy at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and was not involved in the research. http://institute.wuhanvirology.org/Newsletter2016/201904/P02...
> [2021-08] ‘I would say there's a lot of potential … now that they have shown that these structures are feasible, they are stable, at least under these conditions,' said Professor Roman Fasel, who heads the nanotech@surfaces Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) and was not involved in the research. https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/hor...
> [2011-01] Dr. Kristine Scordo, who heads the Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Program at Wright State University-Miami Valley College of Nursing and Health in Dayton, Ohio, and was not involved in the research, said the results with rosuvastatin are consistent with what she sees in clinical practice. vlian2088 ↗ >Hu speculates that because the animals climb up on rocks and logs to mark their territory, the flat-sided feces aren't as likely to roll off from these high perches. AussieWog93 ↗ Surely it has something to do with their square arseholes. thebigship ↗ This is most amazing when you click into the study[0] and see the supporting materials linked to at the bottom like a .mov of a rotating 3d model of wombat poop[1] srean ↗ Related: drilling square holes, not as much fun as a wombat though. nelox ↗ It’s hip to be square arkis22 ↗ Discipline soupspaces ↗ https://ciechanow.ski/wombat-poop-cube/ fuzzythinker ↗ https://soundcloud.com/noamhassenfeld/wombat-song nephihaha ↗ "God does not play dice with the wombats." – Einstein (maybe.) NoMoreNicksLeft ↗ Mojang should add them as a mob... and then have their poop be little spheres. ErigmolCt ↗ Nature keeps finding engineering solutions we would never arrive at from first principles rob74 ↗ > Distinctive intestines mold feces into sharp-cornered poop yilugurlu ↗ I was literally thinking this the other night ahahha, and forgot to ask ChatGPT in the morning; nice that I found the answer here. reassess_blind ↗ Interesting. I always thought stools had tapered ends to prevent the door from slamming shut. kevsim ↗ They eat six square meals a day!
and those who of them who shit cubes ended up more likely to procreate...?
[0]https://pubs.rsc.org/sm/article-abstract/17/3/475/708006/Int...
[1]https://pubs.rsc.org/sm/article-supplement/708006/mov/d0sm01...
My kids can't stop laughing
Wombat Song by Noam Hassenfeld
Ending of Vox Unexplainable Podcast on Wombat cube poops
...written directly above a photo of the subject matter that clearly does not have sharp corners (which is all for the best, I guess, poor wombats!), not even sharp edges, just flattened sides.
I'll leave now...