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"In 8th grade I read [double helix]. From that I had a vision; I was like: I wanna genetically engineer lizards to turn into dragons." — @The_Lagrangianhttps://t.co/xVdTNO9Xi0 https://t.co/DD5kSadXPq
"[...] lizards with wings would be sufficient. I would consider that sufficiently dragon-y to have made a dragon."https://t.co/u2HxWX2lwj
"Limestone is high in calcium. Calcium when mixed with stomach acids, would form hydrogen. Hydrogen is lighter than air thus giving the lift you talk about. Something like a blimp.What? You got fire inside you and you go up! that's all you need to know." https://t.co/wUkri3fuHf
TL;DR: Dragons belch fire because they float like a manatee in the air. The wings are for steering. They're basically bird balloons.https://t.co/1ppPd4YK1x
Get on my level.https://t.co/7jZGOrgo5F
The harder problem with growing wings is that you tend to get wyverns - like how bat & bird forelimbs are their wings.Would need to do something interesting to promote a second set for arms.https://t.co/mSfRS1peYF
I think a lot about trying to activate ancestral genes in the chicken to turn it into a dinosauresque "Chickenosaurus": https://t.co/1v97tcsMxTAnd would be possible to create an alternate evolutionary timeline like discussed in this slice-of-life anime?:https://t.co/mH1RdsoH4s
Given that birds already have lightweight structural elements and an acceptable digestive tract (+ gastrolith mechanism) conducive to flight, it seems more likely to get a dragon-like creature by modifying a chicken vs a lizard.https://t.co/HU2kCGEOei
A yoshi that spits fire, has wings, and can inflate to float is literally cannon in the Mario universe.https://t.co/1cGvDBY67g
Yoshi's having shells on their back, and koopas with bird-beaks?Phylogenetically speaking, this may even make sense!https://t.co/DXIRwjxeZWhttps://t.co/M6UmW843JY https://t.co/nGXrxlmIak
It is amazing how a book or a game from childhood can influence. I was smitten with the Maxis games:SimEarthSimParkSimLife: The Genetic PlaygroundUnnatural SelectionWill Wright knows a lot about genetics & artificial life.https://t.co/4FYTiyoNrN
Tired: Elon Musk creating Jurassic park.Wired: Elon Musk making a fart flying Yoshi to advertise his blimp industry.Bunch of options for blimps. My vote is methane.https://t.co/0sgQ0SivMyhttps://t.co/BUCVjhygny
What frequency of laser will heat up and melt thru a reflective Mylar layer used to hold in lifting gasses?Or is the dust on the surface enough to cause problems?https://t.co/x9jyqu4Mf6
Oh hey, I should investigate if self cleaning plastics repel dust https://t.co/ZKXnQeiTBR
If I figure out how to become a dinosaur, do you think the scales will make people think I'm one of them lizard men from the center of the earth?https://t.co/IUlqVmt8N8 https://t.co/o09jWuGZAG
"This is a flammable gas that smells like rotten eggs. It is found in crude oil. When hydrogen sulfide and iron get together [...] the result is iron sulfide. Combine it with air and you’ve got an explosive mix."https://t.co/EOrtobSM8K
https://t.co/xGFf1pC0re https://t.co/dLuDWi50jp
In playfully exploring the space of Sonic Hedgehog regulatory gene (and associated developmental pathways), my friend @nsreed helped me figure out a plausible way to trigger human germline cloacal mutations. Next I gotta figure out the platypus.https://t.co/uB6tyeVv0D
@nsreed For my next magic trick, I'll be investigating how Knuckles, an ant-eating mammal (Echidnas), can lay eggs.https://t.co/ZJSwFjDWQMDo you know dae way my brothas? https://t.co/jAKxz67VC0
"What if the impact of that meteor created a parallel dimension where the dinosaurs continued to thrive and evolve into intelligent, vicious, and aggressive beings... just like us? And hey, what if they found a way back?"https://t.co/P8gVU8M9W6
You ever wanna figure out how to genetically engineer a bacterial probiotic to boost the development of a bird's intelligence by helping it better process bile acids?https://t.co/tyokpxlkx5
"police detective […] is paired with an anthropomorphic Tyrannosaurus […] to find the killer of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals leading them to a ruthless billionaire bent on killing off mankind by creating a new ice age."https://t.co/HuSBT6rAqThttps://t.co/USJgownmp9
Watching this now.https://t.co/LFyPS4wq41
¿Por qué no los dos?https://t.co/vM414117dE https://t.co/OrGkfwmUw6
GF walks in. I ask if she wants to watch people review Dinosaur movies from the 90s.She asks if I'd ever seen Denver.https://t.co/LjKDVp5rKl https://t.co/HE4tuohVpA
Can you imagine being influenced by memes stemming from the fancies of the deluge of rich middle class museum goers all flocking to see The Hadrosaurus Foulkii in the 1850s?https://t.co/5bIq9AyTZv
I mean, its not like our species has been mining stuff out of the ground for centuries. Do you think the coal miners estimated to be about 20,000 years old ever found giant dragon fossils? https://t.co/T6TAWNxnEj
Can you imagine if dinosaurs thought they were from another place besides earth, then find human remains and it seeds great doubt about their trajectory thru the cosmos?https://t.co/UF5QLAHW6K
"Certainly the building blocks are there.Bipedal. Grasping Hands."https://t.co/BwOJcxMoxPhttps://t.co/wKEGqtH6Et
Oh hey neat. Mary Anning was apparently one of the driving forces behind paleontology trends in France. Makes sense!On literally trying to find flying dragons. https://t.co/M767Upm0RPhttps://t.co/quicQ9MCmL
There is apparently a movie made about Mary Anning."Like palaeontologists struggling to reconstruct entire vanished worlds from stony scraps, sketching Anning’s life relies on historical fragments."https://t.co/Ebzsg9AeMgGreat review thread:https://t.co/zHNPLrcxec
There's a bacteria shitting out acids in some iron mines. Its fascinating."co-author of the study said the microbe gives off sulfuric acid, a chemical that eats into heavy metals and causes deadly concentrations of acid-metal pollution in mine runoff."https://t.co/L7ykcPkEa0
One that eats steel"One of the specialist engineers tackling the problem said he was "horrified" by what he had seen. "The bacteria can go through sheet piling like a knife through butter," said Craig Donald, director of CorrOcean, in Aberdeen."https://t.co/zuLeoxo0Tz
Gut bacteria?"When they take in heavy metals like lead and cadmium, they crystallize these ions in their guts. [...] With this special cleanup capability, pill bugs survive in the most contaminated sites where most creatures can’t."https://t.co/zH3gAvQWVe
"While this may seem like a great way to clean up contaminated land, the heavy metals do not actually leave the area. Instead they are just concentrated in the pill and sow bugs. Once the bugs die, those toxins would likely go back into the soil." https://t.co/5Xmwsfc23F
"reviewing the use of isopods as test organisms in soil ecotoxicology. It provides an overview of the use of isopods in laboratory toxicity tests, with special focus on comparing different exposure methods, test durations, and ecotoxicological endpoints."https://t.co/tjHhOZQl96
Lots of animals eat metal. We don't think about it that way, but calcium is a metal.https://t.co/DtygmBx7HQ
Isopods apparently really like limestone.https://t.co/IO7ZJzez6o
Thinking about dragons again.https://t.co/AYJuKU89oR
In particular, how to get a 3rd pair of limbs that I can mutate into wings? https://t.co/tLu4p80fb4
So that bit where I learned about echidnas actually paid off. And thanks to some interesting findings on royal jelly induction of pluripotent states (thanks @mmmalign ) I might even have a bead on how to induce it with microbiota. https://t.co/9ig1NnPxBhhttps://t.co/4wanmDeCES
Medical Machine, lol. https://t.co/fAIspDutW3
Gonna talk to my mom about what she thinks about transhumanism, and what would she think if I become a lizard person. (scalie)https://t.co/wzLvbFlVAI
Why would a mammalian species, who've been mining out of the ground for easily 20k years, have stories about dragons in their history?https://t.co/NBv7bUHUum https://t.co/WDuhzcffTv
"remains of a non-pterodactyloid pterosaur from [...] the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. [...] a left humerus, a possible dorsal vertebra, and the shaft of a wing phalanx, all preserved in three dimensions and likely belonging to a single individual."https://t.co/wMUi6waXJB
Some of our languages even has echos of giant birds.https://t.co/RPwtgm9G9L
Figuring out how pesticides make the freaking frogs gay might help me to engineer a mammalian cloaca.https://t.co/C4LSpLPlaS
We easily have about 10k years of history of Americans mining native copper. https://t.co/kVgbZf3qik
"The time range of 40,000–16,500 years ago is debatable and probably will remain so for years to come." https://t.co/XXfxOSJb6u
"look closely and you'll see the same dynamic at work in every system, and at every scale. Whether the name of the game is microbiology or geopolitics, it all boils down to the delicate balance between competition and cooperation." https://t.co/cejruLTXdFhttps://t.co/rFonkkaC91
Someone who knows a lot about space and rockets?The next step.https://t.co/ZABlrP4yQ9
Code, or be (en)coded.https://t.co/2fqMz6ep4W
Will Wright et. al. making a Weavr."This is in some sense a game of self-discovery, a game where we actually uncover the hidden you - your subconscious, your inner ID, and bring it to the surface, bring it to life [...]"https://t.co/aqSvlJVMX9https://t.co/zffuu2jV6a
Lobsters are just sea ants.https://t.co/6i5uhfSrdA
Calcium is fucking metal.https://t.co/XFTtjjGFEV
"Fire-breathing is unknown in the animal kingdom, but is theoretically possible."https://t.co/eUFEa5yMRihttps://t.co/5KfH4Rc2xc
