A Plant That 'Cannot Die' Reveals Its Genetic Secrets (nytimes.com) 58
Events in the genome of Welwitschia have given it the ability to survive in an unforgiving desert for thousands of years. From a report: The longest-lived leaves in the plant kingdom can be found only in the harsh, hyperarid desert that crosses the boundary between southern Angola and northern Namibia. A desert is not, of course, the most hospitable place for living things to grow anything, let alone leafy greens, but the Namib Desert -- the world's oldest with parts receiving less than two inches of precipitation a year -- is where Welwitschia calls home. In Afrikaans, the plant is named "tweeblaarkanniedood," which means "two leaves that cannot die." The naming is apt: Welwitschia grows only two leaves -- and continuously -- in a lifetime that can last millenniums. "Most plants develop a leaf, and that's it," said Andrew Leitch, a plant geneticist at Queen Mary University of London. "This plant can live thousands of years, and it never stops growing. When it does stop growing, it's dead."
Some of the largest plants are believed to be over 3,000 years old, with two leaves steadily growing since the beginning of the Iron Age, when the Phoenician alphabet was invented and David was crowned King of Israel. By some accounts, Welwitschia is not much to look at. Its two fibrous leaves, buffeted by dry desert winds and fed on by thirsty animals, become shredded and curled over time, giving Welwitschia a distinctly octopus-like look. One 19th-century director of Kew Gardens in London remarked, "it is out of the question the most wonderful plant ever brought to this country and one of the ugliest."
But since it was first discovered, Welwitschia has captivated biologists including Charles Darwin and the botanist Friedrich Welwitsch after whom the plant is named: It is said that when Welwitsch first came across the plant in 1859, "he could do nothing but kneel down on the burning soil and gaze at it, half in fear lest a touch should prove it a figment of the imagination." In a study published last month in Nature Communications, researchers report some of the genetic secrets behind Welwitschia's unique shape, extreme longevity and profound resilience.
Some of the largest plants are believed to be over 3,000 years old, with two leaves steadily growing since the beginning of the Iron Age, when the Phoenician alphabet was invented and David was crowned King of Israel. By some accounts, Welwitschia is not much to look at. Its two fibrous leaves, buffeted by dry desert winds and fed on by thirsty animals, become shredded and curled over time, giving Welwitschia a distinctly octopus-like look. One 19th-century director of Kew Gardens in London remarked, "it is out of the question the most wonderful plant ever brought to this country and one of the ugliest."
But since it was first discovered, Welwitschia has captivated biologists including Charles Darwin and the botanist Friedrich Welwitsch after whom the plant is named: It is said that when Welwitsch first came across the plant in 1859, "he could do nothing but kneel down on the burning soil and gaze at it, half in fear lest a touch should prove it a figment of the imagination." In a study published last month in Nature Communications, researchers report some of the genetic secrets behind Welwitschia's unique shape, extreme longevity and profound resilience.
Can we just outright ban links to NYT? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriosuly.. fuck this guy for submitting this...
Re: Can we just outright ban links to NYT? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know why this was modded down but I agree.
There is nothing like reading and article, and a window suddenly zooms up blocking the text. A real "go fuck yourself", more so than a static pay login page. Whoever designed that animation/window took pleasure in tormenting other kids on the playground.
You can disable Javashit to prevent this behavior, but I don't think sites that are not just paywalled but play mean, nasty, dirty little games like in elementary school should be rewarded with any patronage.
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They are correct since there are two plural forms of millennium in english: millennia or millenniums [merriam-webster.com].
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Re: Can we just outright ban links to NYT? (Score:2)
"Drama queen" - so just how far should we allow nasty and bad behavior go unchecked? Where do we draw the line?
On the surface "It's just a stupid animation" but look a little deeper, you can see the passive agressiveness behind it. And it's something that has become far too common, both internet and IRL.
I've already mentioned Javascript blocking, but that does not send a clear message that "la la la FUCK YOU! HAHA!" shinanigans are unacceptable. So if possible, I try not to use websites that practice such b
Re: Can we just outright ban links to NYT? (Score:5, Interesting)
There is nothing like reading and article, and a window suddenly zooms up blocking the text.
... You can disable Javashit to prevent this behavior, ...
The NYT site seems to use a specific Javascript host for this behavior and to dynamically load the main page content. As a workaround, load the main page, scroll to the bottom to get everything filled in, then disallow "samizdat-graphql.nytimes.com". via uBlockOrigin or uMatrix and sub-pages will load w/o the annoying bottom slide up. Be sure to either browse the site in Private Mode or clear your history afterward to cleanse any cookies and crap...
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In Safari, right-click on the link and then select "Download Linked File." Browse into the page in your Download folder (which is in the Dock, right?) and voila!
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How on earth do you disallow a domain in Ublock Origin? I see samizdat-graphql.nytimes.com but there is no way to disallow it.
You probably have to have "I am an advanced user" enabled on the uBO Settings page. Then, when you expand a domain with multiple sub-domains, like "... nytimes.com" by clicking on the "..." you can disallow the sub-domains one(s) you want by clicking on the right side of the right most column (and changing it to be red) to disallow it locally or the next column to the left to disable it globally...
I've been doing this for a while using uMatrix and just discovered that I can do it in uBO -- either expand
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There is nothing like reading and article, and a window suddenly zooms up blocking the text.
You think reporters should work for free, then? I don't have an NYT subscription, but I did stump up £0.50 per week for The Washington Post online. Very good value for money, I reckon. I can hardly keep up with the daily list of articles.
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mod up please
Re: Can we just outright ban links to NYT? (Score:3)
I'm more pissed about the nasty behavior of the site (the zooming up window) than it having a paywall.
I know it's "in" right now to be nasty to people, to tromp around like a hardass, to be the mean guy or girl, but this really needs to stop.
"Geez, it's just a stupid animation"- right, but all of the little passive agressiveness going on these days really adds up and makes the world a real crappy place to live.
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+1 to that.
the most important question (Score:2)
I want its DNA (Score:1)
Re:I want its DNA (Score:5, Funny)
The downside is you'll end up doing nothing but drooling and photosynthesizing. You can then run for Congress.
A plant that cannot die (Score:2)
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I know what you mean. I had a stone garden, but my stones died.
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Sounds like the plant will outlive you.
between southern Angola and northern Namibia (Score:1, Insightful)
"Some of the largest plants are believed to be over 3,000 years old, with two leaves steadily growing since the beginning of the Iron Age, when the Phoenician alphabet was invented and David was crowned King of Israel."
Why the Middle-Eastern Cults reference for an African plant?
How about Latins came to Italy from the Danube region? ...
Ancient Iranian peoples enter Persia?
Rice is cultivated in Ancient Japan?
Paracas culture starts in the Andes?
Re:between southern Angola and northern Namibia (Score:4, Insightful)
My guess is the NY Times audience isn't going to get the African references. References are supposed to help your audience place something. Giving them links to other stuff they don't know won't do it.
If this was written for a newspaper in Japan, Iran, or South America your reference might make more sense.
Re: between southern Angola and northern Namibia (Score:1)
If only there was some kind of book that had a record of human history, perhaps a whole set of books to cover a broad range of historical subjects. And imagine if the subject matter of these books could be found on the internet? Crazy idea, isn't it?
Re: between southern Angola and northern Namibia (Score:2)
Project your own self harm wishes much?
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Nope. The crazy idea is thinking the general population actually reads it and isn't distracted by celebrity gossip.
Re: between southern Angola and northern Namibia (Score:2)
It's a shame that the population is determined to stay "Huked on Fonix" but there is not much anyone can do about that.
If they can't be arsed to crack open an encyclopedia, they wouldn't understand the deeper biblical references much better either in regards to the timeline.
Re:between southern Angola and northern Namibia (Score:5, Funny)
How about Latins came to Italy from the Danube region? ...
Ancient Iranian peoples enter Persia?
Rice is cultivated in Ancient Japan?
Paracas culture starts in the Andes?
When Keith Richards was middle aged?
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so many questions ...
what's wrong with his/her legitimate question?
did it touch some sort of taboo?
what the fuck should atheists' reputation be?
who gets to say what it is to begin with?
by the way, religions are still a lie so why should we give a crap about anyone's reputation?
see, if i upset a bunch of religious zealots just by calling out their bull shit and they give me a "bad reputation" (whatever that should mean), then i am just exactly where i need to be! pissing off demagogues. so what is the fuckin
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"what the fuck should atheists' reputation be?"
Exactly! ...nothing.
We come together on Sundays in a big house and do
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Because those are cultural touch stones that an American audience will relate to better. Thus distances are given in miles, weight is described in pounds and tons, and ancient history refers to to stuff we learned in grammar school or in Judeo-Christian texts. In other words, these are not really mid-eastern references so much as instead American and Western European relatable references.
It's like when a long distance is described as driving back and forth between LA and New York 2000 times, when it might
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He posts this shit on ZeroHedge too. He doesn't seem to get that acting like a freakshow on the Internet drives people away from your positions, even if they're valid.
"People who don't get social cues" is the polite term this year, I think.
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This is why mimeographed newsletters were invented.
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... have the time to read your extremely lengthy post?
extremely lengthy, off-topic, non sequitur goat post composed by a defective AI or lame python script.
And no. No-one here has time to read it. Send it to Manhattan Institute.
The HeLa plant (Score:2)
We already can have that kinda stuff in our body (Score:2)
Stuff that can't die? And just continues growing? We can have that.
We call it "cancer".
No thanks (Score:2)
Not interested in a plant that can't count higher than two.
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Not interested in a plant that can't count higher than two.
Imagine a beowulf cluster of cacti, using these plants as storage.
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Not interested in a plant that can't count higher than two.
Not even b-trees?
Can I get the Welwitsch salad please? With feta? (Score:2)
Editors do some fucking editing (Score:2)
Fuck you for posting yet another NYT paywalled article. There are many other places on the internet where you can get a word for word copy of the story without having to deal with paywalled shit.
https://indianexpress.com/arti... [indianexpress.com]
And for those people who insist that they need to read an original source, then read TFA which says the original source is the NYT and go look at it yourself.
Let's not bring religion into scientific discourse (Score:1)
Tardigrades (Score:2)
The animal that does not die. They can hibernate and can stand hard vacuum with radiation in outer space. Just add water, and the little blighters come back to life.
Slight historical inaccuracy (Score:2)
While David was likely a real person who lived 3,000 years ago, there's been quite some doubts on him being King of a unified Israel.
About the best source we have for David is the bible, and the parts about David were likely written centuries later and prone to fit a particular narrative.