this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2025
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Science Memes

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top 18 comments
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[–] shoulderoforion@fedia.io 37 points 1 month ago
[–] gianni@lemmy.ca 33 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I did not realize that tardigrades were so small. Previously I thought one would be able to see one with the naked eye.

[–] azi@mander.xyz 32 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Most species grow to half a millimetre. So they're just barely visible to the naked eye; like a small spec of dust.

[–] Sabre363@sh.itjust.works 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That would be mildly terrifying

[–] Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago

Being naked isn't that scary

[–] PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I'm not a biologist but there is no way in hell that a virus can be as big as a living organism right? That's probably not a bacteriophage

[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

Definitely not, a bacteriophage is like 500 nanometres. A tardigrade is 0.5 mm, or 500 000 nanometres, literally 1000x the size.

[–] SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I am a microbiologist, there's no way in hell that's a virus.

Edit: it's probably a radiolarian skeleton, maybe genus cornutella.

Edit 2: it's indeed a cornutella skeleton: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/comment/12782032

[–] IrritableOcelot@beehaw.org 2 points 1 month ago

Came here to say this...

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 32 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Is that really a virus? That would be huge for a virus.

[–] SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 month ago

It's a radiolarian skeleton, more info here: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/comment/12782032

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

how is that a bacteriophage?

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah looks like a diatom skeleton. And the scale is quite wrong

[–] azi@mander.xyz 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It looks nothing like either a centric or pennate diatom

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Nonetheless it is in no way a phage. What might it be, do you think?

I know it’s a joke meme, but I did not achieve my grand success in life by being ‘fun’. It’s just not my thing ;)

[–] SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Probably a radiolarian skeleton. Check out pictures of the cornutella genus. The morphology and relative size to the tardigrades match up.

Edit: score! Looking up tardigrade and cornutella together brought me to the source of the picture. I knew all that school was good for something. Here's a screenshot because fuck Xitter:

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 month ago

Now that’s what I call fun!

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 13 points 1 month ago

That bacteriophage looks awesome tho, I want one to scale