If you mix up the grindings of multiple sponges, do they only recombine with their own cells?
spongebob big guy pants okay
Submitted 2 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/5af69327-b5c7-4d34-a242-f529dffff2a1.jpeg
Comments
s@piefed.world 2 months ago
ladicius@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Excellent question!
Now on to the grinder…
mech@feddit.org 2 months ago
Did I hear on to Grindr?
Hell yes, let’s do science!
hunkyburrito@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
Based on the link sent by fossilesque@mander.xyz above, it seems somewhat unlikely. The video mentions that the sponge recombines into multiple small sponges, meaning the cells don’t necessarily remember the original form.
I very well could be wrong in my interpretation though
WhyIHateTheInternet@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The real scientist here asking the real questions
danhab99@programming.dev 2 months ago
There seem to be many of these multicellular animals who don’t feel like a singular individual animal. I was commenting on a post a few months ago about the most genetically simple multicellular animal, this thing has less base pairs than most bacteria, and it can also do this trick where disassociated cells recombine into new individuals. This creature also reproduce sexually if and only if the concentration of fellow individuals is high enough, cells will just leave the body and join a new one like for fun. It really calls into question what an individual is.
very_well_lost@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I guess it makes sense that multicellularity would be more of a spectrum than a binary condition. If life evolved into it gradually, then it would make sense to find a lot of “intermediate” evolutionary states that don’t feel like they’re distinctly one or the other.
NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 2 months ago
How many animals have we ground up and put through a sieve into salt water to be this confident about it being the only animal that can do this? I need sources.
Lyrl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
I mean, enough that manufacturing of homgenizers is a thing. improbable.com/…/shakespeare-and-the-whole-mouse-…
The ad features the comforting headline: “Only the Polytron reduces an entire mouse to a soup-like homogenate in 30 seconds”
AppleTea@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
is this the biologist’s equivalent of “assume a flat, frictionless plane”
Assume A Perfectly Homogeneous Liquid Mouse
NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I shouldn’t have asked for sources…
greedytacothief@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
I think there’s nematodes that we’ve blended up before, but instead you get a bunch of nematodes instead of just one.
NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 2 months ago
“Hey, Bob, watcha getting up to?”
“I’m just chopping up these worms.”
“… Why?”
“… Science?”
“Holy shit, they’re all functioning individually!”
“Oh, thank fu- I mean, yeah, that’s what I was testing for. …Do we have any dogs?”
“…”
elbiter@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’m trying with a dog now, the hamster and the cat didn’t work…
MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
Ed… ward…
NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 2 months ago
No…
Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 months ago
My body still repairs itself while I dissociate. Does that count?
jol@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
Would have been better without the dumb AI image
SirSamuel@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Ah, yes, I too read The Bikini Bottom Horror
TachyonTele@piefed.social 2 months ago
Don’t caterpillars turn thier cells to mush when they turn into butterflys?
toynbee@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Yeah, but I don’t think it works with a grinder.
However, apparently caterpillars retain memories from their caterpillar form when in butterfly form! That’s pretty cool.
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Bro, the whole process of going from caterpillar-> goo->butterfly creeps me out.
I’m sure it is fascinating. But also, nope.
TachyonTele@piefed.social 2 months ago
My friends never seen a butterfly on grender yet, so u think your right.
Seriously though, the whole memory retention thing is amazing
zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
They don’t completely turn to goo, structures are already there in caterpillar form. youtu.be/4RaCURU6A2o
TachyonTele@piefed.social 2 months ago
Cool video
It cerities my lifelong belief that butterflies love ass to ass!
MissJinx@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Fact: Spongebob can teleport
masterspace@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Do they regrow their body or a new body made from the same parts?
rucksack@feddit.org 2 months ago
New ship of Theseus just dropped
killingspark@feddit.org 2 months ago
What the fuck is Theseus doing over there?
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
What if you cut it in half first, would the ground up halves restore to half a sponge?
Then what if you stir the sponge powder and remove half.
drolex@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
Give this person a grant and let them sciencify please
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
I have had new ideas too, what if you combine fractions of different sponges?
MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
So, my assumption is: separated cells with the same genetic code, or some other biomarker of “individuality” that might not technically be unique, will attach to each other given the chance.
Super quick research suggests they don’t have organs or a nervous system, but do have specialized bits like flagella to move water through their pores/tunnels. The majority of the cells just … are. Sounds more like a colony of genetically identical cells than a single multi-cellular creature (to me), but I assume biologists have much more information and reason to consider them the way they do.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
So could we clone them and then grow them larger again, then once they regrow combine them into a super sponge!
sirico@feddit.uk 2 months ago
Like Deadpool
Valmond@lemmy.world 2 months ago
How do they know other lifeforms do not do that?
Answer me! How do they know?!
SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world 2 months ago
So, when they reassemble does it start with the middle finger?
wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Without a nervous system, the only thing it can feel is ANGER.
GalacticGrapefruit@lemmy.world 2 months ago
TIL Deadpool is a sponge.
Speiser0@feddit.org 2 months ago
Forbidden cake.
huquad@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
So that’s how Boros did it
glimmer_twin@hexbear.net 2 months ago
TIL sponges can teleport
expatriado@lemmy.world 2 months ago
when they come back they grow 2 hands with the long fingers and fused palms
Friendlybirdseggs@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
coughs in hydra
IcedRaktajino@startrek.website 2 months ago
How many other animals did they put through a sieve to reach this conclusion? How many?!
aislopmukbang@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
IcedRaktajino@startrek.website 2 months ago
Image
MagicShel@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
Image
Gullible@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Many, many poor little creatures with simpler or more robust or segmented nervous systems. Mostly worms, cnidarians, starfish, metamorphosing insects, and more in that line of thought. It’s common in college bio to watch planarians unmangle themselves. Sucks for them, but they get food and relative safety, so I’ve always considered it an even trade