this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 60 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That is really cool!

Also chlorotica does not mean what I thought it did

[–] faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 43 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's not Plants vs Zombies fanfic?

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] humorlessrepost@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

I can take a four-peater.

[–] jimmux@programming.dev 37 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I recently saw a vid about these things. Another interesting thing they can do is voluntary decapitation. The head can survive and grow new organs, possibly because photosynthesis gives them the energy to keep going and growing.

[–] django@discuss.tchncs.de 27 points 1 month ago

I should steal some chloroplasts.

[–] AbsolutelyClawless@piefed.social 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

We might have seen the same video πŸ˜„

[–] adhocfungus@midwest.social 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Was it from the Octopus Lady ? She's always great.

Interestingly no! The video that was in my feed was from Real Science channel.Β 

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 25 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And yet when I give myself auto-brewery syndrome to keep myself permanently drunk people insist I have some kind of "serious medical problem".

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

You can live in a symbiotic relationship with your company's break-room policy, but you can't become a host for workers of your own. It's really unfair.

[–] ch00f@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think the creators of Bioshock were correct to base the plot on seaslugs.

[–] Klear@quokk.au 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Fucking got her

[–] mayorchid@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago (4 children)

β€œStealing”? Am I β€œstealing” fat from the food I eat? Since when is retaining some components of what you consume equivalent to theft?

[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I assume chloroplast is much more complex than fat and we do actually have fat within our body, while the slug doesn't naturally grow chloroplast.

[–] Windex007@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Am I stealing chloroplasts when I eat a salad?

[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Can you photosynthesis afterward?

[–] Chakravanti@monero.town 3 points 1 month ago

Can we learn how to steal the chloroplastic piracy of the algea?

[–] Windex007@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I imagine there is an incredibly short window in which I technically can.

[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Can't tell if joking or anti-science, but ok.

[–] Windex007@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Digestion begins before you swallow. I expect if I chewed up some salad, opened my mouth and aimed it at the sun, some percentage of what I'd just chewed on would have access to co2, h2o and 600nm EMR, and synthesize a glucose molecule two.

Since the genesis of this conversation was purely semantic ("why is eating a chrolorplast theft if eating anything else isn't?") I think it's pretty fair game to point out that yes, technically I also can reap the benefits of photosynthesis in a very limited way for something im actively digesting.

Not really a point in getting into a semantic argument if you're just gonna come out swinging about being anti-science.

[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

To put it simply, that slug basically absorb and keep the chloroplast in their own body and let it continue to photosynthesis, hence stealing the ability of the plant they feed, while in your example we basically digest it whole, leaving none of the chloroplast cell to photosynthesis.

That's a huge difference between this two organism, kinda silly to bring it up as an example, no? And technically, it's still the salad that does the photosynthesis in your example. You do know what's up, so not anti-science but trolling? Sealioning? Idk. But overall silly.

[–] Windex007@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (8 children)

You're the one who invented a definition of "theft" that for reasons beyond my understanding consider the consuming organisms specific mechanism of utilization that also specifically considers if the organism has the ability to synthesize the structures independent of consumption and now also demands that the process be sustainable for an arbitrary (but not indefinite) amount of time AND the structures must meet an arbitrary bar of complexity (which you've proclaimed unilaterally is greater than fat) etc etc etc

I'm going to drive directly to my point now that hopefully you can see how your ever-expanding definition of "stealing" (which I promise you, I'm not even getting STARTED on pushing issues that would force you to continually expand) is just bad.

Counter Definition: Eating isn't theft. The degree to which ingested materials must be broken down to be useful is interesting, but none of it is stealing. The article used a word that while amusing to read isn't technically accurate.

[–] mayorchid@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

It’s truly a gift to see my original comment, which boils down to β€œhuh, odd choice of words,” defended with such eloquence. The internet may not be paradise but I ask you, where else could this meeting of the minds have occurred?

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[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 points 1 month ago

your stomach acid would probably dissolve it before it becomes useful.

It uses the chloroplast as the algae uses them. It doesn’t really it them it uses them to photosynthesize. If you took the wing off the chicken and used it to fly you could say that was stealing its wing

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Am I β€œstealing” fat from the food I eat?

Yes you are and you need to be stopped.

[–] mayorchid@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

I would have gotten away with it, too, if not for you mean cows

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I'd say, yes, you are literally consuming your food to take anything of value that your body can extract from it, often at the cost of everything for the thing you're eating (but definitely at the cost of the parts you eat). Like I'm a bit baffled as to how you can consider it not a form of theft. Hell, I'd even argue it is the purest form of theft there is and quite likely the original theft that only scavengers, photosynthesizers, and other life forms that survive on non-biological sources of energy aren't thieves in that manner.

[–] WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is a pokemon if I’ve ever seen one

[–] BigDiction@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Water/Grass is pretty good defensive typing as well.

[–] Strawberry@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I was wondering why we didn't see any photosynthesizimg animals

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Bees (and relatives) do it too. If you need to deal with a wasp nest or something like that, do it at night and their defense will be much less enthusiastic.

When I last dealt with some, knocking down the (small) nests would have a guard harass me until I moved about 10m away from the nest during the day. At night, it would just buzz me a bit before settling back down to rest without me even moving.

Note that I'm not saying it's safe to harass a nest/hive at night, just safer than doing it during the day. The ones I dealt with were small enough that I only ever saw a single guard plus one worker, and even during the day, sometimes I'd just fight the one guard instead of running, since it's hard for a single wasp to sting you if you can track it decently and manage any fear. Trying to deal with a large nest could still be fatal at night.

[–] hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

I'll add to this, sufficient artificial light will wake them up too. So don't point a big light at it in preparation for taking them out, because they'll take you out

[–] stringere@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 month ago
[–] Enceladus@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Is this the next Stelaris DLC?

[–] RedAggroBest@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Next? Plantoids have been a thing for ages. And yea you can even be photosynthetic, makes your pops consume less food for more energy

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

this is sorta like how coral does it, and rare instance of jellyfish doing it too.

[–] xx3rawr@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

Cmiiw don't corals keep the algae alive instead of just keeping the chloroplast?

[–] Tiger666@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

So satisfactory is real life?

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Much like potatoes!

[–] EpicMuch@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

Just today watched a video about these little buggers :) https://youtu.be/IH_uv4h2xYM

I see these little guys in the mangrove swamps down in Florida. Very quick

[–] SourGumGum@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago
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