Martin Jambon 🌍🌎🌏 @mjambon@social.cleverlibre.org

8 months of OCaml after 8 years of Haskell in production

https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/8-months-of-ocaml-after-8-years-of-haskell-in-production/13729

Discussions: https://discu.eu/q/https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/8-months-of-ocaml-after-8-years-of-haskell-in-production/13729

#haskell #ocaml #programming

This paper describes the predatory bacterium Vampirococcus lugosii, which preys on members of the bacterial species of the genus Halochromatium [1].

This thing is incredible. For example: Vampirococcus lugosii has a severely reduced genome, something like 1.3 Mbp, and lacks the genes which code for many of the standard biosynthetic metabolic pathways (e.g. phospholipid synthesis, amino acid synthesis, and nucleotide synthesis). Yet it is somehow still alive.

How does this work?

One mechanism that Vampirococcus uses is to get these raw materials from its prey. An example of this are the nucleotides that Vampirococcus lugosii gets by chopping up the DNA that it sucks out of its prey. And amazingly, Vampirococcus lugosii uses a CRISPR-Cas system and various restriction enzymes to accomplish this. See the image for a cartoon of this system.

Predatory microbes.

Crazy.

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Description of “Candidatus Vampirococcus lugosii”]

Lugosii after Bela Lugosi (1882–1956), who played the role of the vampire in the iconic 1931’s film “Dracula”. Epibiotic bacterium that preys on anoxygenic photosynthetic gammaproteobacterial species of the genus Halochromatium. Non-flagellated, small flat rounded cells (500–600 nm diameter and 200–250 nm height) that form piles of up to 10 cells attached to the surface of the host. Gram-positive cell wall structure. Complete genome sequence, GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number PRJNA678638.
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#biology #vampirococcuslugosii

References
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[1] "Reductive evolution and unique infection and feeding mode in the CPR predatory bacterium Vampirococcus lugosii", https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22762-4

That's so interesting.
https://patreon.com/lowqualityfacts

@Vinz pizza sure, but burgers? There's a possibility that the presence of a fork and knife indicates that the place is a proper restaurant, in which case certain expectations exist that do not exist in fast-food places - which are not considered "restaurants". For example, drinking from a bottle in a restaurant is bad manners but Americans do it all the time. I find that eating a burger with knife and fork is a matter of convenience. I tend to do this in restaurants that provide silverware because their burgers are usually too large. I suppose Americans try harder to eat them with their bare hands, but it seems like more effort for them. I'm not sure about real restaurants that serve burgers in France because I haven't had much experience with those (I'm French but live in California). Also note that traditional French table manners forbid eating anything with hands except for bread, meat with bones, and certain raw or dry things that are more like appetizers or desserts. Burgers are widely understood to be a foreign thing that is super weird to serve on a plate like all sandwiches, so French people would generally not know what to do with it and improvise. Fast-food chain burgers are always eaten with hands with no hesitation.

@freemo I can assure from my 25 years of living in Paris that hearing a french dude yell "Bouge ta caisse de merde, connard" to the car in front of him is far from being sexy.

When eulogizing evil, take no fucking prisoners.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/henry-kissinger-war-criminal-dead-1234804748/

#Scientists have #filmed what appear to be the first known instances of #nonPenetrative #reproductiveSex in #mammals, in #bats living in a church attic in the #Netherlands and at a #Ukrainian bat-rehabilitation centre. They wrote about their discovery this week in Current Biology1.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03565-7

#Nature #Science #biology #evolutionary