DailyDirt: Strange Forms Of Life...
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Nature has plenty of surprises left for us. Life exists in some extreme environments that you wouldn't think anything would survive, but somehow little creatures are still thriving in some of the coldest, darkest, most acidic, hottest and just unusual places. Life just needs to be able to feed on something -- light, sugar, electricity. Here are just a few bizarre discoveries in biology.- Mitochondria are commonly called the "powerhouses" of complex living cells, and biologists have been looking for years to see if there are any examples of eukaryotes that do not have mitochondria. They've finally found an example -- in the gut of a pet chinchilla -- but it is NOT the missing link of eukaryotic evolution. This microbe's ancestors are known to have mitochondria, so this particular organism somehow lost its mitochondria and managed to survive using other non-mitochondrial mechanisms. [url]
- There are a few photosynthetic animals in nature. And if you're really into transhumanism or biohacking, maybe humans can engineer a symbiotic way to metabolize sunlight and forget about eating or breathing. [url]
- Some "electric bacteria" can feed directly on electrons flowing from an electrode. These "electricity breathers" in sediment have been found in vastly different locations in California, and researchers have identified at least 8 different kinds of electric bacteria. [url]
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Filed Under: animals, bacteria, biohacking, biology, biotech, electric bacteria, extremophiles, life, microbes, mitochondria, photosynthesis
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Photosynthesis requires breathing
Hence, metabolising sunlight will still require some sort of breathing on the part of organisms.
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Re: Photosynthesis requires breathing
I think the suggestion here is for there to be some kind of way to avoid "traditional eating/breathing" by having algae in your skin to produce sugars and oxygen directly into your bloodstream. Not that any organism would be able to avoid any kind of respiration entirely.
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Sounds an awfully lot like trees. ALL HAIL THE ENTS!
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Before Then We Have Breatharians
When I first met my wife there was a time I didn't need to eat or sleep. Maybe it's like that.
I could never imagine living in such a euphoric state like that for too long, as it seems to have a significant impact on one's health. But maybe some have figured out how to leave The Matrix and so normal rules don't apply to them.
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