And we think humans are great at miniaturizing stuff.
These Insects are Smaller than a Single Cell...How?!
Hank Green: “Fairies do exist! Well, sort of…meet the fairyfly, the smallest insect on Earth that specializes in the magic of miniaturization!”
The more I learn about wasps, the more I’m wondering if they might be the ones to evolute into the new masters of the world, once we finish destroying our human life and society sustaining biosphere. I mean the range of their behaviors is amazing, especially when it comes to manipulating other creatures. Now this, tiny to a degree, most would have said was impossible.
Then the adaptations needed to make it happen, amazing. But nature can be stranger than any manmade fiction.
Have you checked out tardigrades?
… not for necessarily for size, but for durability.
and not to be pedantic but … ?
“Size of a cell” is rather ambiguous. An egg is a cell. There are plenty of creatures smaller than an ostrich egg.
But it is interesting how they don’t have so many different “parts” of normal sized insects. It’s a wonder they still classify as an insect, and more specifically a type of wasp.
Now the question is: Did evolution shed those parts to miniaturize? Or did evolution create those parts as they got bigger?
Oh yeah I know a little about tardigrades, fascinating little buggers.
Well yeah, on the size, yet, yet, look at that comparison pic, that is no ostrich egg. ;-p
I’ve only just heard of these wasps but it sounded like miniaturization was going on, as they say more study needed, well perhaps in my case it’s more like, more reading is necessary. 
Now the question is: Did evolution shed those parts to miniaturize? Or did evolution create those parts as they got bigger?
Both, there is no law that says efficiency needs to be more complicated. Man's tailbone is a leftover from having a ancestoral tail, which we don't need anymore ever since we left the trees.
Well yeah, on the size, yet, yet, look at that comparison pic, that is no ostrich egg. ;-p
The more I learn, the more I like Tegmark's conceptualization of "molecular pattern arrangement" being the difference between animate and inanimate objects.
“The difference between a human and a basket of vegetables is the pattern in which the biological molecules are arranged.” (Tegmark)
As a physicist, Max Tegmark sees people as “food, rearranged.” That makes his answer to complicated questions like “What is consciousness?” simple: It’s just math. Why? Because it’s the patterns, not the particles, that matter.
Sidebar: You guys have really scrambled my YouTube suggestions since I’ve joined ?
I recently caught something by Sean Carroll that I’ve wanted to find time to start a thread about …
Ok … Back to the show …
Sidebar: You guys have really scrambled my YouTube suggestions since I’ve joined ?
Like any library, there is a wealth of knowledge out there. It takes some considered selection what is usable and what is trash.
Usually links to scholarly lectures from Universities like Royal Institution: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Ri+lectures
or public science fora like TEDx Talks are worth perusing: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Tedx
Like any library, there is a wealth of knowledge out there. It takes some considered selection what is usable and what is trash.
Usually links to scholarly lectures from Universities like Royal Institution: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Ri+lectures
or public science fora like TEDx Talks are worth perusing: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Tedx
Wait … there’s more than just Fox News and Infowars!!! ??
Sean Carroll is excellent. It’s worth getting back to that one, which ever it was.
RI is wonderful!
TED often fun.
F . . . er.
wtf ? ?
you kidder you. ?
Oh. Walking Maddy this evening I remembered #342219 and started wondering about it again. if it’s fair to consider a bird’s egg a single cell?
Google to the rescue, Can an egg be considered a single cell?
Cheers,
One thing is clear all single cells are eggs.
But then there is the paramecium which is a single cell and can be virgin or fertilized.
Paramecia are single-celled protozoans that live in freshwater environments, move by use of cilia that cover the cell surface, and prey on other single-celled organisms such as bacteria and algae.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/paramecium#
And the slime mold is a single multi nucleic cell, which can live in multiple separated forms.
The so-called cellular slime mold, a unicellular organism that may transition into a multicellular organism under stress, has just been found to have a tissue structure that was previously thought to exist only in more sophisticated animals. What's more, two proteins that are needed by the slime mold to form this structure are similar to those that perform the same function in more sophistical animals.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110314172317.htm#
An interesting feature of each organism is that the paramecium swims via cilia driven by microtubular motors and the slime mold is a pseudopodia that walks by microtubular contraction.
Thus one interesting feature of all Eukaryotic organisms from single celled organisms to human is their common possession of microtubular driven motility as well as sensory abilities. IMO, this is an important “common denominator”, even in elves, if they existed… ; )
