A tiny cell that broke a big rule of biology

(grist.org)

34 points | by gumby 5 days ago

6 comments

  • HarHarVeryFunny 0 minutes ago
    Fantastic - the nitroplast joining a pretty exclusive club there.

    Bigelowii itself seems very interesting, even without this nitrogen fixing organelle, having two completely different phases to it's life - one in this weird dodecahedral calcareous shell and one without as a mobile flagellate. Apparently it can exist and reproduce in either form, and occasionally switch forms. It took scientists a long while to realize the two forms are actually the same species.

  • imzadi 2 minutes ago
    This is a nicely written article, which feels like a rarity lately.
  • ninju 54 minutes ago
    Kudos to the scientists everywhere that continue to explore the mysteries of nature
  • chasil 26 minutes ago
    The plastid wiki might be germane.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastid

  • ahazred8ta 5 days ago
    A 20 year search leads to the discovery of the nitroplast, a nitrogen-fixing organelle hiding inside algae.
  • whitten 52 minutes ago
    Since computational biology is all about simulation, do the chloroplast, the mitochondria, and now the nitro-last, have definitions that could be actively simulated ?
    • dekhn 7 minutes ago
      Practically speaking, while we could simulate them at a fairly approximate level, it wouldn't really tell us anything useful.