117 points | by dxs3 weeks ago
From the abstract:
> ...one student isolated a Pseudomonas idahonensis bacterium from a goose feces sample that produced a new cyclic lipodepsipeptide, which .... was cytotoxic against human melanoma and human ovarian cancer cells with IC50 values of 11.06 and 10.50 μM, respectively.
And in case it helps: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1053:_Ten_Thousan...
If I was criticizing mmiyer's comment that xkcd might be appropriate, but that's not what I'm doing.
Or to paraphrase the 10k alt text: saying "what idiot doesnt know the difference between kills and selectively kills" is so much more boring than telling them about it.
Actually it looks some work was done and made the wrong finding , but there was serepindity involved in finding a new thesis along the way:
> (student sample) contained a strain of bacteria called Pseudomonas idahonensis. The students interpreted the
> bacterium's bioassay data and concluded it had antibiotic activity and produced a never-before-seen compound.
> Then, the university researchers determined the compound's molecular structure using nuclear magnetic
> resonance and mass spectrometry, named it orfamide N after the family of molecules it belongs to, and investigated its biological activity. Although orfamide N was not responsible for the antibiotic activity that the team initially observed from P. idahonensis, the compound inhibited the growth of human melanoma and ovarian cancer cells in culture tests.
So if i read the above correctly, it seems like the students identified a new compound to do A, scientists took that new compound and tested for A, then after scientists realized it did B instead of A.
I think you’re right that it’s “weird” for most folks that age.
That said, folks with good parents/mentors/coaches will be properly humble, realizing that they basically achieved table stakes for “playing the game” (literal or figurative) at the next level.
In sports, I think the Mannings in general and Arch Manning in particular have been kept properly grounded despite a great deal of fanfare over anything they did.
In academics, I have seen quite a few professor’s kids who are keenly aware that early achievements that are sometimes celebrated by a wide audience will eventually be just one brick in the wall of their career.
I think being a student and seeing your name on the resulting paper is a big part of the encouragement and excitement.
I raised this one from the egg. Once they reached sexual maturity he became an asshole, but clearly has conflicting processes — he follows me around outside, pulls weeds off the tiller with me, etc. But inevitably eating corn from my hand turns to biting my fingers. If he didn't have a female to protect (she's chill), we could probably be friends again.
> A depsipeptide is a cyclic peptide where one or more amide groups are replaced by ester groups.
Depsipeptides are not necessarily cyclic, and I'd prefer to use "bond" instead of "group", though both are fine.
I am hitting so many of these every day. They're crazy. Hallucinations that companies are headquartered in the wrong states, incorrect math and statistics, and even outright wrong health advice.
Advocating for removing the platform from people who are advocating puncturing of sodas. Ideally from atop a bicycle.
/misreading-for-the-fun
I know about some of these technologies for analysing samples. But they're all expensive as far as I know. E.g. I think home labs still use things like reagents / color change tests to get an idea if a synthesis succeeded. I wonder if there are any ways to do chemical analysis that are cheap though?
Little goose poop
You don't know what I got (you don't know what I got)
Little goose poop
You don't know what I got
Well I'm not bragging babe, so don't put me down (goose poop)
But I've got the strongest antibiotic in town (goose poop)
When superbugs come up to me, they don't even try (goose poop)
'Cause once they meet my compound, man, they're gonna die
The goose that laid the golden egg.
Props to Murphy and his team for developing an awesome program.
We have(had?) a similar project in our university. Students of high school (17yo?) go once per week for a semenster and help with some project. In some topics is possible to isolate the work and make an interesting task that can be teached and tried in one semester. Nobody expect a groundbreaking result, but it's an interesting aproach to encourage students.