WRETCHEDSORCERESS

WRETCHEDSORCERESS OP wrote

Reply to comment by rain in Microbe Monday: Macroscopic Sulfur Pearls by WRETCHEDSORCERESS

For sure! Biology is wonderful in that it will counter any assumption we make about it. Every rule, somewhere, is broken.

For the reverse kreb cycle, I typoed and said energy when I meant carbon! While we use the krebs cycle to generate units of energy currency, it used the reverse to make carbon from CO². It is a similar mechanism to how photosynthetic organisms use ambient carbon dioxide to make all of their biomass, but it is effectively running breathing in reverse to make its body.

It extracts energy from sulfides and nitrate, which is still really cool to me because these are inorganic materials. We think that all life is dependent on the sun/photosynthesis but you get chemoautotrophic exceptions like this and I love them.

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WRETCHEDSORCERESS wrote

Reply to Hate people who disrespect tap water by neku

My current city has been voted best tasting tap water in the state three times in a row!!! I love it!!!

I used to live in PA's coal region and basically all water sources nearby were turbo polluted and the stuff was full of contaminants. It has made me really thankful and appreciative for water treatment and wastewater processing. Ours had lots of issues but we really were living in a wasteland of badly polluted water sources and of course rainwater is super unsafe to drink too. It was effctively desert if we didnt have that processing - made me feel bad for the other creatures living there having to drink it :(

But! Wastewater trearment is also accomplished by bacteria in many places and that makes me really happy! They can process so many dangerous chemicals, the little dears!

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