Tyrosine_Lannister

Tyrosine_Lannister t1_jbjcvyo wrote

I feel like this ignores the common ancestry of all life, though.

Like, sapiens-neanderthalensis "interbreeding" is a great example.

We diverged for a while, likely just due to geographic isolation, then re-crossed, and now a significant fraction of people are "hybrids", even if neanderthal proper aren't around anymore.

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Tyrosine_Lannister t1_j6omq8m wrote

Fun facts:

Snake oil actually works.

It's long been used in traditional Chinese medicine and gained popularity among miners and railroad workers back in the old West, where there were very few common dietary sources of essential fatty acids like EPA/DHA and vitamin E.

You need these nutrients for things like healing wounds, fighting infections, and making the body's natural anti-inflammatory and anticoagulant compounds.

The trouble—and the modern meaning of "snake oil"—arose when shysters came along selling mineral oil, which does nothing, as snake oil.

tl;dr: LADIES & GENTLEMEN, DON'T BE DECEIVED AND ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES, DOCTOR T.F. LANNISTER'S PATENTED NUTRI-OIL IS THE OOONLY INTERNAL LINIMENT guaranTEED TO CONTAIN 100% PURE COLD-PRESSED OIL OF THE CHINESE WATER SNAKE ENHYDRIS CHINENSIS.

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Tyrosine_Lannister OP t1_j6ljaoj wrote

The author basically makes the case that gut bacteria are "gene modules" or "programs" that can be installed on the OS that is a mammalian body—and that a number of useful traits can be acquired without messing around with CRISPR or anything, just by developing the right species as a probiotic. Too good to be true? There's a lot of depth to the biology of the microbiome...

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