Deep Frozen Arctic Microbes Are Waking Up

[sman]

Deep Frozen Arctic Microbes Are Waking Up

Deep Frozen Arctic Microbes Are Waking Up - Scientific American

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/deep-frozen-arctic-microbes-are-waking-up/

Quote

It is clear that the warmer we make the Arctic, the weirder it will get, as temperatures at the surface become more extreme and thawing deepens. With the coalescence of microbes reawakening from the deep and surface conditions unprecedented in human history, it is challenging to assess risks accurately without improved Arctic microbial datasets. We should pay attention to both known unknowns, such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and unknown unknowns, including the potential risks from the resurrection of ancient and poorly described viral genomes from Arctic ice by synthetic biologists.

3D bioprinted heart provides new tool for surgeons

3D bioprinted heart provides new tool for surgeons - College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (cmu.edu)

https://engineering.cmu.edu/news-events/news/2020/11/18-3d-printed-heart.html

Adam Feinberg and his team have created the first full-size 3D bioprinted human heart model using their Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) technique. The model, created from MRI data using a specially built 3D printer, realistically mimics the elasticity of cardiac tissue and sutures. This milestone represents the culmination of two years of research, holding both immediate promise for surgeons and clinicians, as well as long term implications for the future of bioengineered organ research.

 

Edited November 22, 2020 by AdvancedSetup
removed live hyperlinks

[nukecad]

Its interesting to note the first 10 words quoted there:

"It is clear that the warmer we make the Arctic".

That makes a basic presumption that climate change/global warming is 'all our fault'.

I worry that some are not seeing the wood for the trees.

Whilst not denying that our activities are making a contribution to climate change it is not the whole story.

Our planet's temperature and climate has varied widely over the ages, in small cycles (there is a recognised 60 year climate cycle due to variation of our orbit of the sun) and in much larger cycles leading up to ice ages and hothouse ages, and it's not just "the Ice Age" there have been several and several much warmer periods.

Dinosaur bones are found in the UK, Europe, North America and other Northern latitudes, Hippo fossils have been found in the UK - all indicating that it used to be a lot warmer away from the equator.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/jul/01/science.highereducation

This was all happening well before we even existed on the planet so statements like "unprecedented in human history" are meaningless in this context.
(As is the often used - 'since records began' - which sounds weighty until you realise that many of those records only began in the last 50 years or so, and most don't go back any more than 200 years, a second's tick of the clock in terms of human evolution and more meaningless for planetary timescales).

I worry that in concentrating solely on the human activity contribution to climate change we are ignoring the normal natural cycles of the planet.
(It won't affect me personally I'll be long dead).

We can't stop those natural cycles by changing our behaviour, it might help a little bit in the short term, but we have to adapt to the longer term natural cycles of the planet.

 

Edited November 23, 2020 by nukecad

[AdvancedSetup]

👏👏👏

I am in agreement with you @nukecad but as the forum tries to steer clear of political topics I try not to say much. Yes, we contribute but the conditions have signs of happening before (with our very little current education, man often thinks he's smarter than he really is) and there is only so much one can do to stop it. That's not a license to be a polluter of resources, one should still try to limit, reduce, or respect abuse where one can without being destructive to our own current lives as well.

 

 

[nukecad]

1 hour ago, AdvancedSetup said:

one should still try to limit, reduce, or respect abuse where one can without being destructive to our own current lives as well.

I totally agree. (and it's a shame that the issue is becoming seen as a political one).

I'm not a climate change denier, I know climate change happens.
I just think our innate human arrogance has led some to believe that it soley due to our actions and nothing else.
We still need to clean our act up, but that's not going to be a magic bullet.

I just think that a lot of the current (political) rhetoric is about sticking our finger in the dyke to plug a leak and ingnoring the fact that the water was very likely going to come over the top regardless.
Even without us messing with the atmosphere our planets climate can and often does change drastically.

We should be looking further ahead at what we should be doing to plan for when that does happen.
Of course humans have never been very good at planning for longer than their own lifetime.

[sman]

Climate change aside, it's abt the effect on the life threatening anti-biotic resistance or the so called super bugs threat fallout, what with already reeling from the pandemic.

[AdvancedSetup]

Okay, I'm sorry but I'm going to go ahead and close this topic down now as that is too much and is extremely political here in the USA with people taking sides over it with violence sometimes the result.

Please no more discussions about any pandemic.