The Biggest Questions in Science

[pantheory]

On 1/15/2023 at 4:53 PM, Weezer said:

That is what i was thinking.   Thanks!

The planet's temperature would also depend upon its rotation period, the faster it would rotate the more even the planet's temperature. The same would apply to the planet's atmosphere, the thicker its atmosphere the more even the planet's temperature. If the planets orbit went close to the sun like the planet Mercury, its temperature would be many hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit, and if its orbit goes out as far as Mars or further, its temperature could be minus  hundreds of degrees.

[pantheory]

On 1/14/2023 at 1:11 AM, Wertbag said:

...... Could it be the idea/model is wrong hence the maths doesn't work or are we sure on enough to know there is some other hidden gravity source? 

 

Concerning dark matter, it is now entrenched in the Big Bang theory now called the Lambda Cold Dark Matter model. The Big Bang theory is presently being contradicted by the James Webb Space Telescope IMHO. It's possible that the dark matter proposal will be replaced by background filed flow of the Zero Point Field, and its maths, in less than a decade. And it also could be realized that increased gravity also doesn't work concerning the math., and doesn't explain other velocity anomalies.

[Wertbag]

A biology question for you all.  I've heard talk of an extra layer of evolution, being microbial symbiosis.  We know that viruses leave permanently changed DNA behind and those changes can be passed between generations.  We also know that microbes throughout our body are a requirement for life.  There was a study positing that microbial symbiosis in various methods could account for genetic change in a more controlled way than just purely via mutation.  My question is has such study progressed where we can be confident that this is true to some degree, or is this idea still in the early stages where more data is required to reach a conclusion?  To my mind the idea sounds plausible, but as a biology layman I have no idea if this is a breakthrough or already discarded.

[pantheory]

On 4/11/2023 at 1:07 AM, Wertbag said:

A biology question for you all.  I've heard talk of an extra layer of evolution, being microbial symbiosis.  We know that viruses leave permanently changed DNA behind and those changes can be passed between generations.  We also know that microbes throughout our body are a requirement for life.  There was a study positing that microbial symbiosis in various methods could account for genetic change in a more controlled way than just purely via mutation.  My question is has such study progressed where we can be confident that this is true to some degree, or is this idea still in the early stages where more data is required to reach a conclusion?  To my mind the idea sounds plausible, but as a biology layman I have no idea if this is a breakthrough or already discarded.

 

Yes, this is a BIG question in science. As you have said, viruses have caused changes in our DNA, but these changes do not directly change us as other DNA can and have. These viral segments add to the length of our DNA and its folding, which means some genes we have can get turned off by these foldings, others turned on, and still other genes might behave in unseen ways; some maybe good for us and others bad. This process of genes turning off and on is called epigenetics. Most of the viral DNA segments we inherited came from our non-human ancestors, they are not specifically human changes. I expect it was only the changes that made the animal and us stronger and more prolific, were the ones that survived as part of the evolution process.

 

But microbial changes from bacteria to us and other animals seem to be much less common. We have a new technology called CRISPR. It started as a defense system by bacteria against viruses and other bacteria. In the last few years we have developed this gene splicing process for our own uses. By using this process we can change our own genes and those of other plants and animals. We are in the infancy of this technology. The Nobel Prize was granted to the two women biologists who discovered this practical use of CRISPR.

 

First, I expect they will try to help humans who have genetic diseases. Then they will look to change plants and animals for our own purposes, primarily for food consumption reasons, to enable trees and bees to better fight off diseases themselves, etc. This is not really a symbiotic relationship like our gut bacteria are -- but is a process that we have learned from bacteria and how to control it, which seems to have unlimited potential for the benefit of mankind. A big advantage for humans is that changes can be made to a single individual which can improve and lengthen their life. Some of these changes can be passed down to progeny and others cannot. All kinds of "craxy things" will be done with this technology for the benefit of mankind in both the near and distant future. The next 50 years will be filled with news of the advances that we will make with CRISPR technology, in my opinion. But anything good could also someday be used by the bad guys also for biologic weaponry. So lets root for the good guys with the white hats.

 

https://crisprtx.com/#welcome

 

https://www.newscientist.com/definition/what-is-crispr/

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR

 

As far as developing more symbiatic relationships for humans, plants, and animals, there are a great many good technologies on the horizon, but none with the potential of CRISPR, that I have ever studied or read about.