this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2026
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Science Memes

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top 29 comments
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[–] Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 40 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Dendrologists: [heavy breathing]

In all seriousness, isn't it pretty unlikely that alien life could interbreed with terran life even if they also used DNA with the same bases?

[–] ajmaxwell@lemmy.world 39 points 1 week ago (1 children)

We won't know until we try

[–] Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Scientist 1: "How are things coming along with our test subjects?"

Scientist 2: "I don't know, it's about time to check back in with them."

Scientist 2: "Hey, Mike? How's it going?"

Mike: "Not too bad. There have been some challenges, but I think we got a few things worked out."

Scientist 2: "Oh...my. was that it's--"

Mike: "No, I don't think so, but it seems like it was mutually enjoyable, though, so write that down."

[Trilling noises in the background]

[–] vrek@programming.dev 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

But think of the splinters... Oh god... Think of the splinters... Mike should get hazard pay

[–] Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Bold of you to assume Mike isn't paying for the privilege.

[–] vrek@programming.dev 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

True, all I'm going to say is if you look up videos on "cbt therapy" make sure to put therapy in the search and/or have safe search on, as a result I believe Mike may enjoy the splinters

[–] spankinspinach@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The upsetting part about this is the 't' already stands for therapy. And nothing else

[–] vrek@programming.dev 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, I'll give you a more complete response after I go to the atm machine where I'll enter my pin number. 😜

sighs in overwhelming redundancy

Actually I loved that haha

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's extremely unlikely that their DNA has the same translation semantics into proteins.

[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not unless there is a common ancestor, which is theoretically possible. But yeah, extremely unlikely.

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Wow. So I went looking if people actually knew when our codon system appeared.

Turns out that there are 26 slightly different systems on Earth right now, and there are good reasons to expect random alien life to have a system that looks like ours, but is different enough to not be compatible.

[–] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Incredibly. Even very closely related organisms can have a hard time breeding

[–] Noodle07@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

I know I'm having a hard time breeding

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Well it seems safe to say it's at least as unlikely as a terran species being able to breed with some randomly selected other terran species.

Even when possible, it's often inadvisable as we learned from the monkapotamus in Drew Carey's famous documentary: https://youtu.be/BLbJC7LeC8E

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Some plant aliens land and discover the air itself gets them pregnant from all the pollen freely flying around from such numerous and primitive plant life. Terra is the plant equivalent of an unbridled sex planet.

[–] Psaldorn@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If you like the idea of alien plant based fiction check out Semiosis by Sue Burke. Recommend going in blind

[–] Barrymore@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Or the Infected trilogy by Scott Sigler

[–] Psaldorn@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Ooh, I'll add it to the list

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago

Xenophytophilia is my favorite word in the English language

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What would happen if I crossbred with citrus? 🤔

[–] the_mighty_kracken@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I once had a short-lived romance with a Hanks Hard Lemonade

Doctors hate this one simple trick

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 7 points 1 week ago

Serious question: I know many oaks can crossbreed with each other, but do oaks actually crossbreed with non-oaks?

then they will try to domesticate us. I've read the literature

[–] Fleur_@aussie.zone 4 points 1 week ago

Plants don't want to they just do. The human experience is wanting the freak, not being born into it.

[–] Phoenix3875@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

How do you know if this hasn't happened already?