‘The first time it happened, it gave rise to all complex life,’ scientists say

‘The first time it happened, it gave rise to all complex life,’ scientists say

  • palordrolap
    10•7 months ago

    How sure are they that his hasn’t happened in the last billion years?

    Maybe it happens once every 1,000 years but they’ve all died out before humans were able to observe it. It’s not like things like this tend to leave much of a fossil.

    And if you don’t like 1,000, there’s a few orders of magnitude to reconsider between there and 10^9.

    • HeartyBeastOP
      2•7 months ago

      It’s certainly possible that it is happening constantly, and we’ve only started looking for it recently. I’ve had a tinker with writing a better headline and it’s not easy. What would your short, pithy, accurate and unambiguous headline be - suitable for a non-technical audience?

      • palordrolap
        1•7 months ago

        “New bacteria/plant cell symbiosis discovered”

        And if “symbiosis” is too much, “combination”. I also like “meld(ing)”, but that might be somewhere in the middle.

        I wouldn’t use “hybrid” because that word has definitely made it into common vernacular and implies they’ve bred which isn’t strictly accurate, and “chimera”, while more accurate, is probably the more terrifying-sounding, if not still technical alternative.

      • Ferk
        1•7 months ago

        “First evidence in a billion years of two lifeforms merging into one”

        It’s slightly shorter and more accurate… it does not state absolutely that it happened for the first time, but rather that it’s the first evidence we’ve found.

    • @Lightborne
      -7•7 months ago

      Some real fucking pedantic bitches on this site.

  • Live Your Lives
    3•7 months ago

    This is neat, but it would be a lot more impressive if the algae actually started reproducing offspring that innately have the bacteria as an organ.