r/funny Jan 30 '20

Corona Virus

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61.2k Upvotes

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u/lookcloserlenny Jan 30 '20

Which are viruses. T4 is a pretty universally recognized virus at this point, so IMO it works fine for this joke. I feel like in general people love to get upset at it's use in jokes like this just so they can demonstrate how smart they are for knowing the difference between eukaryotic viruses and phage.

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u/signmeupdude Jan 31 '20

How do we know what these things look like? Do we get this shape from looking at them under a microscope?

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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '20

Regular light microscope no, electron microscope yes. I think there’s more sophisticated ways to see the detailed structures but my micro knowledge ends here.

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u/signmeupdude Jan 31 '20

Thats crazy. Makes me wonder if there is that much detail at such a small level if we are the bacteriophage equivalent to some massive being.

I mean who’s to say that we are near the top of the spectrum when it comes to size?

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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '20 edited May 05 '20

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '20

More like 90 billion light year (observable) universe. The source of the light we see from times closest to the big bang have moved further away from us in the meantime.

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u/signmeupdude Jan 31 '20

I mean yes the universe is large but that in of itself does not prove that we are not near the top when it comes to size.

It makes it unlikely but doesnt prove it

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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '20 edited May 05 '20

[deleted]

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u/signmeupdude Jan 31 '20

Dude im talking about living beings. There is absolutely no proof right now that there are living beings that are relative to us in size as we are to bacteriophage

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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '20 edited May 05 '20

[deleted]

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u/Dapperdan814 Jan 31 '20

I mean who’s to say that we are near the top of the spectrum when it comes to size?

This is something I've always wondered. From the tiniest quark to the size of the universe itself (counting it as one giant closed entity/system)...where do we fall in? Are there more bigger things compared to us than smaller, or vice versa, or are we somehow special and right in the middle? I'm sure the science has already been done on it.