#Absolute Bioscience

[xenesisbio]

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To know more, please visit @ Absolute

Email: futures@xenesis.bio

[mammoth-clangen]

In my opinion deextinction is a case by case tool. The northern white rhino cross species surrogacy problem? Hell yeah. The moa? Sure, bring em back - emu can be farmed relatively easily, and New Zealand has both a major interest in farming (we have domesticated deer, like not tamed, domesticated fully), and very large tracts of land that have not been disturbed. And off shore island sanctuaries to start with. But bringing back the haast's eagle? Nah fam, leave the Known Man Killer apex predator alone.

Disclaimer: my reply to this ask is a lot more opinion than hard science. So don't take it as The Truth™, because there isn't one.

To me, Aotearoa/NZ is actually a great example for my exact points from earlier. It has one of the most fascinating ecosystems; with incredible levels of endemism, very few native land mammals, and some amazingly unique birdlife. For those unfamiliar, see below!

Image source: theafterworkphotographer.com

But-

94% of reptile species, 82% of bird species, 80% of bat species, 76% of freshwater fish species, 22% of marine mammal species and 46% of Aotearoa's vascular plant species are facing extinction.

I cannot see any reason to dedicate time and money to resurrecting (one of nine) moa species that have been gone from the ecosystem for 500+ years. Not when so many extant species need desperate assistance, unless we want them to end up on an extinction list with the Moa, Haast's eagle, and huia.

This is how I feel about the Thylacine too.

I personally doubt there would be enough demand for Moa meat to make farming a viable reason to clone them. People barely eat emu in Australia, and they are right there as a perfectly viable ratite for captive-breeding and farming. Both Au and NZ export huge amounts of meat compared to the amount we consume. So unless they can find a huge international market for ratite meat, it's not really a worthwhile risk to most farmers.

Bird cloning/ genetic modification is also much harder to than in mammals. While mammal embryos can be implanted into a surrogate, it's much harder to implant a bird embryo into an egg and still have it hatch.

Extinction in Aotearoa is personal to me- -because my family are all Kiwis, even if I don't live there. I visit often and always lament how few native birds I actually see when I do.

---

It's worth noting the Northern White Rhinoceros isn't extinct quite yet; there are two individuals remaining, Fatu and Najin. However, as they are both infertile females, the species is functionally extinct.

Unfortunately, saving the Northern white rhino with cloning/GMO relatives or even cross species surrogacy will likely suffer nearly all the issues of true de extinction.

A company called BioRescue has 30 frozen Northern White Rhino embryos. Which looks great on paper! But every one was created using Fatu's eggs. Meaning all the potential rhinos would be full or half siblings. As I said in my Wrangel Island mammoth ask, sometimes species do strangely well as an entire population with extreme inbreeding depression. But most don't.

Side note, and this is purely my own speculation (and Polarwooly's), I wonder if the Wrangel Mammoths survived with inbreeding depression because elephants (and relatives) have extreme DNA repair 'machinery'. They also have extremely low cancer rates, so it could easily be linked!

I really don't want to sound like one of those "Useless animal! Let it go extinct!" people, because I don't think we shouldn't try. I just genuinely don't know how much anyone can do for them at this point. It all feels a bit 'too little, too late.'

And again, the Southern White Rhinoceros isn't extinct, functionally or actually. But they are threatened with the same things that drove their Northern cousins to the edge. That said, the Southern subspecies nearly went extinct in the late 1800s, being reduced to less than 50 individuals. Their numbers rebounded spectacularly when effort was put into habitat preservation and protection from poachers, but their numbers have been dropping again in recent years.

It just makes me wonder if the time and money being put into resurrection wouldn't be better spent fixing the underlying problems...

Also, can you please give a source for the "domestic deer"? I mean this genuinely, not as a dig! I couldn't find anything when I looked except that 'deer are farmed in NZ' (which I knew because I've seen deer farms there before lolol). But it takes more than "bred in captivity for x generations" to qualify as fully domestic!

Repeating my disclaimer: You, dear reader, are absolutely welcome to disagree with my opinions, and think having moa back would just be cool AF. Because logistics aside, it absolutely would be cool af!

[the-nerd-beast]

Well my night is ruined.

The dire wolf isn't back, it is still extinct.

They just used CRISPR to make the wolves look like the popular image of dire wolves from media like Lame of Groans, there isn't a single dire wolf gene in them.

Now I guess I should have known better, after all dire wolves and grey wolves are not at all closely related they are almost as far apart as two animals can be and still be considered "dogs" but I guess in my naivete and desperation for some sort of good news especially on what is essentially Black Monday 2 Orange Menace Boogaloo as America crashes and burns around us.

I guess it is for the better they are still extinct, they wouldn't deserve to be brought into this world.

[absolute-agritech]

An 'Absolute' Revolution In Bioscience Sector

[rebeccathenaturalist]

De-Extinction and Dire Wolves: Should We Clone Extinct Animals?

This article originally appeared on my website at https://rebeccalexa.com/de-extinction-and-dire-wolves-should-we-clone-extinct-animals/

My social media feeds this week have been full of headlines about how a trio of genetically engineered dire wolves are the newest advance in the quest to clone extinct animals. The short version is that researchers from Colossal Biosciences altered fourteen genes in the gray wolf (Canis lupus) genome to resemble genes taken from dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus) fossils. The DNA was then inserted into denucleated domestic dog (Canis familiaris) egg cells which were then implanted in domestic dog surrogates.

Romulus and Remus, two of Colossal Bioscience’s genetically engineered “dire” wolves.

Three of these eggs resulted in viable pups. Romulus and Remus are six months old, while Khaleesi is two months. The pups are white-furred, heavier-boned than gray wolves, and show wolf-like wariness of humans. But are they true dire wolves?

That’s the real question. You can add in genes from a dire wolf to an extant canid, but that doesn’t make them identical to the extinct species. Moreover, dire wolves are not as closely related to gray wolves as was previously thought; they were recently reassigned to a new genus that reflects their closer resemblance to modern-day jackals. There really isn’t a good analogue to them alive today, particularly when compared to the aurochs, another extinct species, and its domestic cattle descendants.

Is this really a good idea? Find out my thoughts on the matter under the cut!

There have been attempts to backbreed domestic cattle (Bos taurus) to aurochs (Bos primigenius), which went extinct a mere 400 years ago. Heck cattle and the Tauros programme are two examples of efforts to create cattle that more closely resemble their wild forebears. Aurochs backbreeding involves choosing animals that physically resemble the extinct animals, such as having longer faces and legs, curled horns, and dark coloration with a white muzzle. However, just as you can’t make a gray wolf by breeding wolf-like domestic dogs, you can’t make a true aurochs with domesticated cattle.

This gets us into phenotype (appearance and other physical characteristics) vs. genotype (genetic material). We don’t know exactly what dire wolves looked like, beyond their preserved bones, and possibly the genes that gave the three pups their thick, white pelage. We also don’t know how they behaved, and there are no living dire wolves to teach the pups the ways of their world. While we can make some educated guesses based on the behaviors of extant social canids like gray wolves and African painted dogs (Lycaon pictus), we can’t say with full certainty that dire wolves behaved the same way.

Let’s say we could clone extinct animals and somehow make a genotypically perfect dire wolf. The youngest reliably dated dire wolf remains are from about 10,000 years ago. This may seem like a relatively short time, and from a geological perspective it is. But a lot can happen in that time biologically and ecologically–for example, mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) only appeared as a distinct species 10,000 years ago from hybridization of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus). And while human overhunting likely contributed to the extinction of many species of megafauna at the end of the last ice age 11,000-12,000 years ago, climate change was almost certainly a major factor as well. Given that the planet is heating up even more rapidly due to anthropogenic climate change, would it even be ethical to bring these cold-weather animals back under current conditions?

And, finally, would they still fulfill the same ecological role that they did thousands of years ago? Plains bison (Bison bison bison) and domestic cattle may be related, and share some behaviors, but cattle absolutely are not good replacements for bison. Their grazing patterns and migratory tendencies vary significantly, as does the makeup of their manure, all of which have impacts on local ecology. Some people argue that feral domestic horses (Equus caballus) belong in North America because they may fill a niche left when the last native North American horse, Equus occidentalis, went extinct along with other ice age megafauna. However, once again the landscape has changed significantly in 12,000 years, and niches have shifted in intervening millennia, and so domesticated horses are not the perfect replacement for their extinct counterparts.

This isn’t even getting into the ethics of bringing back an extinct species when there’s no place set for them in the wild. The debate over de-extinction overshadows the grim reality that we are still chewing up wild habitat at unprecedented rates, putting an increasing number of species at risk of extinction–or driving them entirely over the edge. It’s easier to get excited about sexy headlines featuring Jurassic Park-style wild science than the ongoing fight to not only put the brakes on environmental destruction–no small feat–but repair the damage.

All of which is to say while it’s interesting to see the genetic engineering advances represented by the three “dire wolves” now revealed to the world, it doesn’t mean that we’ve brought back an entire extinct species. And really, is the best tactic right now to clone extinct animals? While we could potentially use this technology to clone critically endangered species and reinject preserved DNA from long-dead individuals into the active gene pool, it’s very resource-intensive. And none of this is as important as preserving the habitats that these rare species need to survive. Eye-catching headlines about dire wolves may help raise awareness and funding, but they are not a replacement for the ongoing hard work of conservation.

Did you enjoy this post? Consider preordering my book The Everyday Naturalist, taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes or hiring me for a guided nature tour, or checking out my other articles! You can even buy me a coffee here!

[angelofthemornings]

Seeing a lot of negativity lately and I gotta say: I don't have a problem with Colossal Biosciences (the dire wolf people). They know it's not a dire wolf. You and I know it's not a dire wolf.

However.

If you look at where their funding is coming from, it's mostly celebrity investors like Paris Hilton who think seeing a woolly mammoth would be cool. Meanwhile, "on the side", they're doing things like working with the state of North Carolina trying to introduce diversity back into the struggling red wolf gene pool and I think now they're working with quolls. They developed a vaccine for herpes in elephants. They're working with Zoos Victoria to save an uncharismatic reptile. This is a scam, sure, they're absolutely fleecing rich people...but they're doing it so they have a lordly amount of money to do conservation work involving genetics. This is the same con job that lets researchers study Loch Ness (one of the most well-understood bodies of water in the world) while promising that they're totally looking for a monster.

I mean, one of their daughter companies is entirely devoted to studying plastic degradation. I think they can tell a handful of interns to dick around with CRISPR and make a dog named Khaleesi for marketing purposes. You don't get to work with the Baylor School of Medicine or the University of Melbourne or the government of Mauritania if they genuinely believe you genuinely believe you can make an actual dodo bird.

They're laughing all the way to the bank and I am 100% for it.

Although if Paris Hilton is reading this: they're gonna make a woolly mammoth any day now, for real!

[forgetmenotsys]

Hey! Just warning, some of this is going to be a bit of a rant/vent because I had a pretty...draining day today but I do have some positive news at the end. I like to try to find something positive even when I'm having a bad day!

I'm....really noticing the effects of just AI, and being on the phone all the time has on people in my lab section of my class... It's demoralizing, and it's harming my enjoyment of the class as well.

For context, there's a rule that if there's only one student in the lab, the lab has to close for safety reasons (teacher needs multiple students around in case an emergency occurs, can't just have a student alone) and there's a major problem with the students in my class just typing all the lab questions, and things they need into ChatGPT and then leaving super early... I've been unable to get the data I need for 2 labs now because of it, the teacher calls it out but just nothing is done about it, and it's really...dystopian honestly.

It's just like no one is actually interested and wants to actually do work, they just want it done for them, and I just don't understand. Why has this become so incredibly normalized, why can't they find the joy in it, I'd think students taking a bioscience class would care a bit more about how much ai affects the environment AT LEAST, not to mention all the moral things wrong with it, and using it to cheat through class...

It drove me crazy, we were using microscopes today, and I was so excited and instead of doing the work and looking at the slides, they just typed the cells into chatgpt they were supposed to be looking at, told it to generate a drawing of it and label the parts they needed, and complained the whole class about how boring it was, and how was this relevant and useful?

Sorry for getting a bit annoyed but, how is this NOT relevant? We literally were examining a human sperm cell as one of the slides, I don't understand how that's not absolutely fascinating, and so cool, I mean that's part of what we all came from??? How is that not "relevant" or interesting... I feel like I'm the only one who finds this stuff interesting and super cool and I just feel really demoralized today. I hate how normalized this has become, just not caring about anything and wanting a robot to do it all for you, when you could be learning stuff that's genuinely fascinating, and just. Man.

Anyways!! On positive news!!

I made some signs yesterday because yard services come around our neighborhood on Wednesdays and I wanted them to be careful around my sprouts today and!! I came home!! And they were careful, none of them had been mowed over!!

I was so worried about it, because technicallyyyy I am kind of planting where I'm well, not supposed to be planting, but it seems they understood that the area could use some more greenery and seemed really careful not to run them over which was really, really sweet.

They did however get caterpillar munched.... I'm trying some vinegar and water to repel the caterpillars, because they seem to definitely have a taste for my sunflowers! I try not to use insecticide on caterpillars, because 1. they're adorable, and 2. they grow into butterflies which are really good for pollinating and just absolutely beautiful.

Hopefully repelling them works, because I don't want them to take too many munches and kill them, but I don't want to kill the caterpillars either...

I hope everyone has a nice day <3

- Basil 🌸

[nelyolofinwe]

10 people I'd like to get to know better

was tagged by @pussyeatersamwinchester. tysm <3

Last song: Low Place Like Home by Sneaker Pimps

Favourite colour: Honestly? No idea. I feel like it depends on what it's for, so it's completely context-dependent. I do adore dark blues though, both for painting and sewing. Shades like prussian blue, azure, ultramarine, phthalo blue. I also really love pastels.

Last book: Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. I simply adore Steinbeck's writing style. Ironically enough, I've read basically all of his works EXCEPT for the two "big" ones, Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden. East of Eden will be directly next, though!

Last movie: Raise the Red Lantern, which is a critically acclaimed Chinese period drama from the 90s. I'm trying to get better at Mandarin through exposure, so I've been watching a lot of movies and shows in Mandarin without trying to rely on the subtitles all that much. The movie is an absolute visual treat. If you care even slightly for pretty pictures, I can only recommend it. It's a beautiful work of art.

Last TV show: House MD. Been binge-watching that in the evenings because I've never seen it before. It's fun! I'm finding myself growing attached to House, lol. He's an unrepentant cunt with hidden depths, which I appreciate in a character.

Last thing I googled: "moose distribution in Europe" because I was talking about never having encountered a moose before with a bud on Discord, for some reason. I didn't know that moose occurred naturally in Poland. Much closer than I thought.

Looking forward to: My Akkadian class is starting up again next Wednesday, and I couldn't be more stoked! Probably forgot like a solid half of verb forms and vocab over the term break, but ehhhh, it will come to me again, I'm sure. If you've known me for longer, you may ask, Why are you learning Akkadian as a bioscience major?? Just because <3 Ancient languages are great :)

Current obsession: Welp. Fell headfirst into Supernatural like half a year ago. And it's looking like I'm gonna be here for the foreseeable future. Which I am not complaining about—I've got two decades of meta, gif sets, and art to catch up on.

Much like the lovely person who tagged me, I'm also gonna tag a mixture of folks I've known for a good while now, and some "people I'd like to get to know better": @quixoticanarchy @inwiste @fisk @effervescentdragon @horrorshow @rottenrottweiler @roadtripheartbreak @fortheloveofhulk @zmediaoutlet @majordemonblockpartyy

Obviously no stress to do this as well!

[gregorsamsareal]

"Dire wolves"

The guys at the Colossal Biosciences claim to have resurrected extinct dire wolves. Colossal is a biotech company whose mission is to use genetic engineering to help with wild life conservation. Their projects are to bring extinct species back to life.

They have announced that they have brought back the extinct dire wolf species with their genetic engineering. But while these three puppies do represent the technological breakthrough, independent experts have said they are not actually dire wolves.

Dire wolf, mostly known for their fictional role in the series Game of Thrones is a real extinct species that lived in the Americas during the ice age. They were large wolf like canines. They're known from lots of fossils and even from some ancient DNA.

How they made these puppies were by analysing the DNA of a dire wolf, identifying some of the genes that make them distinctive, took some modern day gray wolf embryos and made manual edits to 14 genes to make their genes more like the versions of the genes in the dire wolf. Then they implanted those embryos to surrogate dog parents which then gave birth to the "dire wolf" puppies through a C-section.

At least this is what's been explained to the press this research has not yet been published or peer reviewed. So it's still unknown to us what they actually did in details.

So what Colossal has really produced is a modified gray wolf that just has dire wolf characteristics like larger skulls and white fur. In theory the idea here is that the resurrected "dire wolves" could fit ecological roles that have been empty since their extinction. But exactly what traits do these "dire wolves" would have that make them better at doing this than the already loving wolves is questionable and hasn't really been talked about in any articles.

Colossal claims that these puppies have features in their appearance and even the sound they make of ancient dire wolves and are claiming in a video of these puppies howling that this is the first time these howls have been heard in 10,000 years. That does sound really exciting, but the problem is that we do not know what the ancient dire wolves looked or sounded like. We have absolutely no way of knowing if these howls are what the ancient dire wolves actually sounded like or if these are just weird sounds made by some hybrid puppies. Which again makes this claim that they have brought back a whole species from extinction feel a bit disingenuous.

This seems more like a sensation than science since the press around this story has felt a lot less like an announcement of new research for the promise that this would be the latest most advanced technology that is a step towards a future where we could restore damaged ecosystems and felt more like a new product to be sold.

[ashandantler]

From the Field #3: "Dire Wolves" and Colossal Bioscience's Whole Thing (that's not actually dire wolves)

hi. today we’re talking about colossal biosciences and their announcement that they’re bringing back the dire wolf. this is me letting you know they are absolutely not. not really. not in any way that matters to conservation, science, or actual wolves.

they’re not reviving Aenocyon dirus. they’re making a Frankenstein predator out of modern canid DNA and slapping the name dire wolf on it because that gets headlines. that’s not resurrection. that’s branding.

let’s be very clear. the real dire wolf is extinct. gone for over 10,000 years. it wasn’t even a “true wolf.” it was a separate genus from gray wolves that split off over 5 million years ago. no dog or wolf shares enough DNA to revive it. it didn’t interbreed with wolves. it didn’t evolve with them. it was its own weird jacked cousin that couldn’t keep up with climate change or prey collapse.

colossal is taking fragments of ancient DNA, mixing them with modern wolf and possibly dog genes, and saying they’ll recreate a “proxy species” that will fill the same ecological niche. they’re not even pretending this is a full de-extinction. they’re making a vibe match and hoping people are too dazzled to ask questions.

this wouldn’t piss me off as much if they weren’t pretending it’s a conservation win. it’s not. the idea that we can engineer our way out of extinction is a massive distraction from the fact that we are still actively destroying the ecosystems we have. we don’t need designer wolves. we need to stop wiping out the species that already exist. we need to protect gray wolves and red wolves and Ethiopian wolves and the 1,000 other species losing habitat every day. and colossal is out here playing Jurassic Park with corporate funding while we can’t even get enough legislation passed to keep wolves from being shot out of helicopters in Montana.

but olivia you’re a plant person. what do you know about conservation. ok first of all thank you for that attack. second of all I wanted to be a zookeeper for years and only switched to range when I realized I’d have to fight ten other interns for the right to scoop tiger poop for $14 an hour. I still love predators. I still care about balance and biodiversity. I just spend more time with grass now.

anyway. colossal is not bringing back dire wolves. they’re making a genetically weird dog with a prehistoric aesthetic. and pretending that’s a win for nature is not just misleading. it’s dangerous. extinction is real. it’s permanent. and this kind of science-flavored fantasy makes people think we don’t have to worry about it anymore. like we’ll just 3D print a new animal later. like there’s a backup plan. there isn’t.

that’s it. the dire wolf is still extinct. what we’re getting is a glorified science project with teeth. stop calling it conservation. and stop pretending extinction is reversible just because you want to make headlines.

love u bye.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

sources: – Perri, A. R., et al. (2021). Dire wolves were the last of an ancient New World canid lineage. Nature, 591(7848), 87–91. – Gopalakrishnan, S., et al. (2021). Genomic insights into the extinct dire wolf. Nature. – Colossal Biosciences. (2024). Dire Wolf De-Extinction Project. colossal.com – Gizmodo. (2024). Colossal claims next species to revive will be dire wolves – Sherkow, J. S., & Greely, H. T. (2013). What if extinction is not forever. Science, 340(6128), 32–33. – Jørgensen, D. (2013). Reintroduction and de-extinction in a changing climate. Environmental Humanities, 2(1), 29–44.

[rumpocky]

You know, in the art of being professionally offended, you people act like I'm speaking greek about gender wars vs original transexual community. Let me explain like you're five:

A Gender Political Science Theory was applied to the trans community, based on the premise that it theoretically integrated. This, quickly, became argued like a mandate, even- after all, the trans people would want to stand up for Gender.

However, you forget it was political science. Very much "smash the patriarchy, redefine gender" which, in your long term cognitive dissonance and desire to argue a place in the affair, was in fact innately hostile to the original form of transexual, before political causes mandated the other language.

Do I respect the divine androgyne? Absolutely. Are all of you suddenly wired the same way an Intersex person might be, because you can argue a fifth degree clause upward after ten years because you Feel Different Somehow?

That's not the same conversation and you know it, but long enough saturating the pool and you even chase out the dirty icky genital talk as autowhateverphilias to notfreakoutthechristians. Then you beat everybody into a homogenous paste of have to be different by being the same, completely oblivious, and then acting like you cannot detect that the actual trans rate remains under 2% while 50% of you are somehow trans online.

How? Why? Because Zionists and other bad faith actors knew your argumentative natures and white people pathology to rush the conversation with can't shut the fuck up noise until it's normalized, and at some point, gender went from being an internal experience being understood by biosciences, to external marketed expression. Complete population replacement.

Then, now that nothing means anything and there's ten thousand neogenders because you have been FIRMLY CONVINCED BY THE POWERS THAT BE that ALL EXPRESSION IS GENDER, now you're arguing circles about who can and can't have barbies again type of idiot plot, and nothing means anything, and kids start thinking sonic the hedgehog is a gender, and yes this is a real effect that's happening whether you want to talk over it or not.

In result, we're now a parody of ourselves, with either the most innocent and easily targeted, or most ridiculous parody that needs a mental health clinic, gets held up as a clown show. Now, you've literally CREATED the space for the trolls to make their troll bait insulting posts.

You guys did that. You literally created that environment by inserting yourselves.

Pathological.

The dissonance, the confusion, is entirely artificial, and frankly, it's heavily the left's fault.

[xenesisbio]

Xenesis Bio

Xenesis is pioneering solutions built with biology to address humanity’s grandest challenges, starting with access to clean and nutritious food through bio-abled agriculture.

Visit: https://www.xenesis.bio/

[frawggie]

A modern AU where our BG3 mains are uni students and they all meet up 2-3 times a week to get absolutely hammered at the on-campus bar and play struggle Olympics with how hard their major(s) are (they’re all at the Masters/PhD stages):

Astarion: Law - is like a 2L or 3L, basically almost done with law school but is fucking burnt outtt; his undergrad degree was something useless on its own so on to law school he went

Gale: Chemistry/BioChem or molecular bioscience - always trying to take classes with that one hot prof eventually becomes her TA before letting slip that they’ve been fucking but either than that a better teacher than the prof herself

Karlach: Kinesiology/Food Science - is genuinely the only one of the six who has zero complaints about what she does; her food science defense is about mince pies and their benefits or something

Lae’zel: kinesiology/communicology/conflict education - was in the military but was discharged mid-Masters, keeps her body and mind sharp and took conflict education once she realized she has a knack for mediation

Shadowheart: Philosophy/Religion - her primary major was religion until one philosophy course rocked her shit so she picked up philosophy as her new primary, booting religion to her secondary major

Wyll: PoliSci & Accounting - he was planning on going to law school like Astarion but decided against it once he realized he may be following in his father’s footsteps after all

[lesbianrustcohle]

i think the biggest thing i learned from treating my ocd is that you don't need to form a strong opinion about absolutely everything

unfortunately, other people don't know that, so i did get some weirdly personal insults from someone on reddit today for the crime of saying i didn't really care that much how people refer to colossal biosciences' so-called "dire wolves" (they're not dire wolves, but they do have 15 previously extinct dire wolf DNA sequences in their genomes)

i said i was fine with calling them "transgenic grey wolves" and that i care more about the actual scientific advances that led to their births than i care about what we call them

anyway, this just in: according to this guy on reddit, i don't really care about science*, only pop science, and also, i'm ignorant and naive**

*i have a science degree

**this one didn't bother me because there are much worse things than not knowing something, being hopeful, and waiting to pass judgment until i see a peer reviewed paper

[botanyone]

Climate Change Gives Grapes the Sweet Taste of Failing Photosynthesis

Climate Change Gives Grapes the Sweet Taste of Failing Photosynthesis https://ift.tt/y0WNjot Climate change is affecting how grapevines photosynthesise, according to a review of research by Somkuwar & Dhole in Theory in Biosciences. The unique flavours of wine grapes are a complicated interaction of chemical processes, driven by the plant’s ability to capture energy from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide. The authors note that as light intensity and ­carbon dioxide levels rise, the biosynthesis of anthocyanins and tannins, chemicals that give wine some of its distinctive characteristics, declines. Another problem is that grapes are ripening faster. When this happens, the sugar-to-acid ratio increases, and that’s a problem because the amount of sugar in the grape directly affects the alcohol concentration of the wine. The changes are significant. Compared to forty years ago, grape farmers are harvesting their crop two or three weeks earlier. The large-scale changes in climate are leaving their mark at a cellular level in grapes. Somkuwar & Dhole looked at photosynthesis rates, chlorophyll content, and grape berry composition under various temperature conditions. They found a positive correlation in photosynthesis between 15℃ and 30℃. Beyond this the photosynthetic machinery breaks down, and there’s a negative correlation. However, even before this peak is reached the grapes suffer water stress, and enzymes begin working less efficiently, so the optimal temperature range for grapes is 22℃ to 27℃. Not all grapes are equal in how they deal with this stress. Somkuwar & Dhole say that Cabernet Sauvignon are better equipped for stress compared to Syrah/Shiraz grapes. Bad news if you’re fond of an Aussie Shiraz. The vines’ responses to temperature stress highlight a larger challenge: as climate zones shift, the map of suitable growing regions is being redrawn. Like other plants, grapes are feeling the pressure to migrate, and that’s a major headache for the wine industry. Vineyards can’t simply migrate without causing some serious issues for viticulture. The problem is that wine isn’t purely about the grape. It’s also about the terroir, which encapsulates the topography, the biological community in the soil, farming practices and other factors. For some wines terroir is absolutely critical. Take Champagne, for example. If you want to have Champagne in the future, you need to find a way to grow Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier grapes in the Champagne region. Otherwise you’ll simply have a sparkling echo of a lost wine. Somkuwar, R.G., & Dhole, A.M. (2025). Understanding the photosynthesis in relation to climate change in grapevines. Theory in Biosciences. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-025-00435-w Cross-posted to Bluesky & Mastodon. Image: Canva. The post Climate Change Gives Grapes the Sweet Taste of Failing Photosynthesis appeared first on Botany One. via Botany One https://botany.one/ February 20, 2025 at 08:00PM

[musicismymoirail]

8&30 for Gamma? :]

Ah, thank you! :D <3

8. What topic are they most likely to know obscure facts about?

Ohhhh. A fair few. Gamma craves knowledge, and every morsel he managed to get his hands on, he devoured ravenously. Partly for the rebellion, and partly because he wanted to what he even was (answer, an abomination of science) and he wanted know why humans needed to bio-engineer an entire new species based out of themselves (answer, they just be that egotistical). Gamma sometimes just rage-vents in his head that he could’ve been an intelligent decked out deathclaw, but nooooooo! He got made from the genetics that if you sleep funny, you pinch a nerve and lose the feeling in half your arm. Beautiful! So fun!

I think biology/genetics is the one topic that trips people up the most though? Before the Institute went boom, his most frequent fuck-buddy was an oblivious BioScience scientist and Gamma loved stealing information from him, lol. He knows so damn about human biology and genetics, and when he gets comfortable with people, he'll just chat like their peers who also scrapped together a stolen Master's and PhD in genetics, and no. It's just raiders, mostly illiterate raiders. :')

30. What drink do they order when they go to a bar?

I can not stress how little Gamma cares for actual liquor (it tastes like rot to him) and how much Gamma would absolutely fist-fight a deathclaw for half-eaten Fancy Lads' Snack Cake, so anything absurdly sugary sweet is his to-go. Doubly so if it’s ridiculously named too.

However, there’s also a 50/50 chance Gamma will simply make-up a drink and spend an hour gaslighting the bartender for not knowing what’s in an xyz, you know, for fun~~~