• Malgas
        link
        fedilink
        English
        233 months ago

        There’s a bristlecone pine tree in the White Mountains of California that is nearly 5000 years old.

    • Karyoplasma
      link
      fedilink
      English
      35
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Depends how you look at it. If you keep raising off-shoots from cuttings, you are essentially producing extensions of the very same plant and you can do that indefinitely. Think about it like cloning: an individual plant will eventually die, but it’s clone will survive and can still propagate.

      Plants are not biologically immortal like some lobsters for example.

        • Karyoplasma
          link
          fedilink
          English
          38
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          Chromosomes are essentially packages of DNA and each end of a chromosome is extended by a protein called telomere, essentially sequences of “junk data” that protect the actual data (the DNA) from degradation or randomly fusing with other chromosomes. When cells split to renew, these telomeres are not fully copied to the new cell and thus shorten with each split. When they get too short, cells cannot split anymore, so there is a natural end to the renewal process (the so-called Hayflick limit).

          Lobsters possess an enzyme called telomerase which can repair telomeres and thus their cells can, in theory, divide indefinitely. They will still die naturally tho due to diseases or growing too large to sustain their body size and die of malnutrition, but they don’t age the way we do.

    • @thisbenzingring
      link
      English
      63 months ago

      wait until you get to the part about the Ginkgo tree

  • @weker01@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    503 months ago

    I love talking with kids in that phase. The raw curiosity and interest in the mundane is so refreshing.

    Sometimes I feel like many adults hate to learn new stuff and even get offended by the idea. It’s heartbreaking seeing those interact with inquisitive children, when they answer honest curiosity with indifference or worse anger.

    • @Amanduh@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      223 months ago

      Kids can be annoying sometimes, especially if you let them live in your house

      • @OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        33 months ago

        This is why I choose not to have kids. Actually because current state of affairs and their like a boat anchor to freedom.

    • @Agent641@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      103 months ago

      I like it when they are circling a question where the answer is "Nobody knows yet.’ And when they get there I can hit 'em with the finishing move, “Maybe you’ll be the first person to find out!”

      Hooks them every time.

    • @pyre@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      83 months ago

      my kid has been teaching me shit constantly. either by having facts about animals i didn’t know before (which i have checked and verified) or asking me questions where my answer was “i don’t know, let’s look it up”.

      i was always a curious person myself and constantly asked questions as a kid as well, but as you grow up you sometimes take things for granted and forget to ask why something is the way it is or how it came to be so. now my kid looks at the world with fresh eyes and asks questions i haven’t asked, so we can both learn. it’s awesome.

      reminds me of the monologue that woman delivers in Love Death and Robots episode Pop Squad.

  • @ByteJunk@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    383 months ago

    There’s a science article that investigated why the Brits discuss the weather? I’m now mildly curious to know their methodology and conclusions…

  • @umbrella@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    21
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    because you shook your neurons…

    there wouldnt be tides

    they lose a bit of energy every time they bounce

    some do some dont

    because their weather is awful go to sleep right now timmy im losing my patience.

      • @XTL@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        13 months ago

        But it’s the target audience (people who might subscribe to BBC notifications) as smart as a little 12 year old?

    • @AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      43 months ago

      That second one may do a lot more than just no tides. The planet may not be habitable without the moon. I don’t remember the specific details right now, but those tides have something to do with levelling out our weather patterns.

  • aramis87
    link
    fedilink
    183 months ago

    If BBC Science Magazine was texting me at 1.29am to ask “Why do the British talk about the weather so much?”, BBC Science Magazine and I would be having words - especially if they texted me six hours later to ask about plants!

    • Lad
      link
      fedilink
      English
      53 months ago

      No. Not this time. It’s fiction. We made it up. This one was invented by a writer. We got you. It never happened.

      • @BenReilly97@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        43 months ago

        You’re right. A similar event took place. Yes, it was. You were correct. It’s fact. This one took place. Right again. A similar story happened to a young man in the Pacific northwest about twenty years ago. Yes.