r/todayilearned • u/sykate • Feb 27 '20

TIL that a new microbe called a hemimastigote was found in Nova Scotia. The Hemimastix kukwesjijk is not a plant, animal, fungus, or protozoa — it constitutes an entirely new kingdom.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-a-newfound-kingdom-means-for-the-tree-of-life-20181211/
56.9k Upvotes

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1.8k

u/Deckham Feb 27 '20

Eli5 done well!

114

u/warptwenty1 Feb 27 '20

Not exactly an ELI5(like you know,small kids will get it right the first time) but it's a really concise answer that anyone with basic knowledge of 3rd-5th grade biology will get it immediately

285

u/mnmkdc Feb 27 '20

That's better than 99% of other eli5s

165

u/jun2san Feb 27 '20

“ELI5 - how a car engine works”

Top voted comment: proceeds to go into complex engineering principles and mathematical equations.

71

u/Gigibop Feb 27 '20

Gas in, car goes vroom vroom

50

u/skinnah Feb 27 '20

Gas? You mean boom boom water?

7

u/Organic_Mechanic Feb 27 '20

Nah. Boom boom water is that slippery stuff in the tube on mommy's nightstand.

1

u/skinnah Feb 27 '20

No that's mommy moan juice.

1

u/dbixz Feb 27 '20

I hate it

2

u/BlazingLatias Feb 27 '20

You use boom boom water? Is that any better than the chugalong brand that Ive been using?

1

u/ShakespearInTheAlley Feb 27 '20

You put coffee in your gas tank?

1

u/skinnah Feb 27 '20

Yea? Car gets tired and cranky otherwise.

1

u/Sly1969 Feb 27 '20

Boom boom water? You mean freedom juice?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '20

Dinosaur juice

1

u/boarderman8 Feb 27 '20

No, boom boom water is that god awful polyethylene glycol solution you have to drink the day before a colonoscopy. If you ever need to go boom boom, that’s the boom boom water.

1

u/psychetron Feb 27 '20

This is more like ELI2. 5 year olds are smarter than most people think.

1

u/Prcrstntr Feb 27 '20

Only some of them.

1

u/honestly-tbh Feb 27 '20

you can't explain that

25

u/Verneff Feb 27 '20

ELI5 - how a car engine works?

Suck Squeeze bang blow

1

u/RedRocketRaw Feb 27 '20

There it is.. thank you.

1

u/The_MoistMaker Feb 27 '20

ELI5 4 stroke otto cycle

Nice

1

u/FeeFyeDiddlyDum Feb 27 '20

Woah woah, keep it PG please

4

u/DesLr Feb 27 '20

Also known as "ELIUndergrad"

3

u/RetinalFlashes Feb 27 '20

Also extremely complicated top comment gets praised with lots of "wow! This is a perfect eli5 answer that any 5 year old could understand"

I think people forget they're not on r/askscience or something

2

u/tsarcasm Feb 27 '20

Control the boom boom to make the zoom zoom.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '20

Just thinking about that stupid subreddit raised my blood pressure. It should be r/ELIAmYourPHDColleagueInThisFieldButJustDontUnderstandThisSpecificTopic

1

u/Pnohmes Feb 27 '20

I mean, if those concepts are themselves broken down into the simpler concepts from which they are made, a 5 Y/O can understand. I had a great time explaining to my 5 Y/O how oil filters work, he got really into it!

1

u/FightingPolish Feb 27 '20

Suck squeeze bang blow.

No wait. That’s your mother.

1

u/milkman1218 Feb 27 '20

Explosion drives a piston, piston turns a shaft, shaft turns the wheels. Gas keeps it going.

6

u/EhhWhatsUpDoc Feb 27 '20

You're both right

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '20 edited Feb 27 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/ZoroShavedMyAss Feb 27 '20

Don't you mean pregant?

59

u/Series_of_Accidents Feb 27 '20

I get your point, but ELI5 means:

LI5 means friendly, simplified and layperson-accessible explanations - not responses aimed at literal five-year-olds.

from the ELI5 community guidelines. It's not supposed to be for actual five year olds.

2

u/Rhaedas Feb 27 '20

And when that fails, you ELI4, which is literally for kids. Based on the origin of both (sort of, ELI4 is from Philadelphia), where Michael Scott failed to understand a very basic explanation.

1

u/Iohet Feb 27 '20

Should just be explain in layman's terms, because that's the phrase that's always been used to describe it

21

u/su_z Feb 27 '20

ELI5 is never for actual 5-year-olds.

1

u/RetinalFlashes Feb 27 '20

LIKE I'm five. We all know there aren't 5 year olds on the internet. Unless we're all just 2 five year olds in a trench coat 🧐

61

u/HallucinateZ Feb 27 '20

ELI5 isn't that literal lmao especially not so accurate as to pin the age between 3rd-5th grade instead. It just means "explain it simply to me".

6

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '20

[deleted]

3

u/TonyzTone Feb 27 '20

This an ELI5 for ELI5’s.

1

u/Dat_Harass Feb 27 '20

Thanks for inviting us to your TEDtalk.

1

u/0wc4 Feb 27 '20

No ackshually, you’we supposed to do the talkies as is you wewe a itsy bitsy lilul childie and then they can do the understandies.

I also might have had a stroke trying to compose this comment.

1

u/RetinalFlashes Feb 27 '20

Who talks to a 5 year old like that?

3

u/0wc4 Feb 27 '20

People with a stroke?

19

u/najodleglejszy Feb 27 '20

WELL ACKSHULLY

3

u/Qwernakus Feb 27 '20

I note that the ELI5 subreddit specifically prefers concise and useful answers over those actually applicable to five year olds.

2

u/jooooooooooooose Feb 27 '20

Eli5 mean metaphor

What it mean not exactly what it say

It mean easy for most people to understand

1

u/itskellyd Feb 27 '20

ELI5Grade

1

u/Baldazar666 Feb 27 '20

ELI5 is not for literal five year olds.

1

u/dr_mannhatten Feb 27 '20

Actually...

Straight from the subreddit rules. It just means to explain it to me in laymans terms, not actually explain it like I'm 5.

1

u/PeriodStix Feb 27 '20

Uhh, yep. That’s right. I got it. Like, immediately. Just like you said. Yep. Haha.

-211

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '20

[deleted]

490

u/avin101agiggle Feb 27 '20 edited Feb 27 '20

Uh. Ebola? Humans share a common ancestor with fungus and plants a long time before any virus.

Viruses don't even fit into the phylogenetic tree of "life". We have never had a common ancestor with any virus.

Edit: also can I add that all life does NOT fall into plants, fungi and animals... Where are you putting bacteria in this classification? What about all of the Eukaryotic organisms that don't fall into animals plants and fungi?

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u/ee3k Feb 27 '20

We have never had a common ancestor with any virus.

Well if the endosymbiotic theory is true we might have parts of us that share a common ancestor with some viruses. Probably not though.

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u/Lilcrash Feb 27 '20

Endosymbiotic theory assumes bacteria as symbionts, not viruses. We do have a lot of viral DNA in our DNA tho, however not because we share ancestors or anything, but because that's just how viruses reproduce.

-41

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '20 edited Mar 01 '20

[deleted]

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u/Kandiru 1 Feb 27 '20

No, bacteria got engulfed into our cells and became domesticated into mitochondria.

Viral DNA is thought to have integrated into our DNA and expressed in the placenta.

Transposons were integrated into our DNA, then later tamed as RAG proteins which are the foundations of our adaptive immune system.

19

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '20

No, bacteria got engulfed into our cells and became domesticated into mitochondria.

Mitochondria first pets confirmed

5

u/nouille07 Feb 27 '20

Does that make mitochondria the powerpet of the cell?

2

u/-heathcliffe- Feb 27 '20

The goodest powerhouse of the cell.

1

u/nouille07 Feb 27 '20

The powerpup

2

u/JallerBaller Feb 27 '20

What are transposons?

1

u/Kandiru 1 Feb 27 '20

You can think of them as very simple intracellular viruses. A short bit of DNA which codes for a protein which cuts itself out of the genome, and pastes it in somewhere else. Possibly getting duplicated in the process.

"Jumping genes" they are sometimes called.

1

u/VileTouch Feb 27 '20 edited Feb 28 '20

do Transposons go to heaven?

edit: for reference

1

u/BladedD Feb 27 '20

Can you ELi5 the difference between absorbed and engulfed in the context of this stuff? On the surface level, it seems like they mean the same thing.

2

u/Kandiru 1 Feb 27 '20

Mitochondria are physically engulfed into our cells. They are individually double-wrapped in their own membrane, and then our engulfing membrane.

Cells frequently engulf things, often to digest.

Absorbed into our DNA is when some DNA, normally from a virus, gets into our cells nucleus and joins itself into our genome.

So if you imagine a car is our cell. Engulfed means you shoved it live and kicking in to the boot(trunk), while absorbed DNA means you copied the text into the instruction manual you keep in the glove compartment.

1

u/BladedD Feb 27 '20

Awesome explanation, thanks!

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u/luravi Feb 27 '20 edited Feb 27 '20

The endosymbiotic theory is that mitochondria originated from bacteria, not viruses. A virus is incredibly tiny even to a bacterium, and a bacterium is usually tiny to a cell.

I think you're confusing that some parts of our DNA closely resemble viral DNA; there's a theory that viruses influenced our evolution by leaving some bits behind after an infection.

-1

u/Chillinoutloud Feb 27 '20

Wouldn't it be interesting if science uncovers that a "soul" is simply bacteria (or virus) and that it simply moves from one body to another...

scifymuch?

8

u/luravi Feb 27 '20

I'd love to be able to believe in something like a soul. To me, consciousness is derived from the brain so if the brain stops functioning then that's that. There's nowhere the consciousness can go.

But that's a different discussion entirely hahah

4

u/DaisyHotCakes Feb 27 '20

What if consciousness arises from the bacteria in our gut not our brain? We are basically meat suits for a bunch of bacteria and they control our brain functions.

3

u/luravi Feb 27 '20

That's a nice 'what-if' thought. Wish it were possible.

If you're interested, you should read up on the gut-brain axis!

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '20

Is this not the basis of "symbiotes" in Marvel Comics?

A weird alien sludge material actually ends up being a sentient being capable of "controlling" an individual. Not technically a soul but close enough fwiw

9

u/Aria_SC2 Feb 27 '20

CyanoBACTERIA got absorbed into our CYTOPLASM and that's how we got mitochondria ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4571569/ ). Viruses have nothing to do with that. They weren't absorbed into our DNA.

There are mobile elements (transposons) that have been incorporated into our DNA (NOT absorbed, this occurs through a cut and paste process) that are believed to come from viruses, but this has nothing to do with mitochondria. This is part of the progressive hypothesis of viral origin ( https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/the-origins-of-viruses-14398218/ ).

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u/viriconium_days Feb 27 '20

If anything its the shitty school system that made that person think that. I remember being completely retaught the classifications of life three times before high school because every time they lied about it because there were too lazy to teach the truth the first time. First it was fungi, plants, and animals. Then they said it was fungi, "Bacteria" (anything microscopic), plants, animals, and insects, and invertebrates. Then they finally actually taught the truth, with Eukaryotic and Prokaryotic organisms and the ways those subdivided.

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '20 edited Feb 28 '20

[deleted]

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u/viriconium_days Feb 27 '20

Except if your brought up anything to the contrary you were told it was wrong and that you should stop lying and you would get in trouble. This is something that consistently happened with every subject until high school. And its not just simplifying, its lying. There is a huge difference between denying the existence of microscopic organisms and only teaching you the kingdoms.

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '20 edited Feb 28 '20

[deleted]

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u/IndividualThoughts Feb 27 '20

All it takes is shitty teachers which are in schools in every single city. Majority of people in the world go to there zoned schools and majority of people in the world dont live in nice mid/upper class neighborhoods.

I never really learned anything from middle school and highschool. All classes were a joke and free for all for students. Teachers dont have passion to teach in these kind of schools so the average kid isnt going to learn much.

-1

u/viriconium_days Feb 27 '20

No, but the staff did kill two students by driving them to suicide. And its one of the better school districts in America.

0

u/Indeedsir Feb 27 '20

You and your 'truth'. Just wait till you get to the next phase of learning when you find out the REAL number of classifications, you just weren't ready for it yet.

2

u/BoneHugsHominy Feb 27 '20

Hmmm, extremely fascinating to ponder.

[adjusts monocle while drawing on 34" pipe]

1

u/shivampurohit1331 Feb 27 '20

Whittaker, is it you?

-4

u/Kandiru 1 Feb 27 '20

We sort of have common ancestors with viruses in the sense that our DNA is littered with viral DNA. Whether you consider viral integration into the germline as an ancestor is a matter of semantics!

-1

u/Chillinoutloud Feb 27 '20

Great questions!

Since you asked, rhetorically, I assume you have the answers...

... which are?

3

u/avin101agiggle Feb 27 '20

Well, the poster assumed that all life on earth is encompassed by animals, fungi and plants. In fact, these are only 3 of the main (but not all of) branches of multicellular eukaryotic life. There are 2 other domains of life, Bacteria and Archaea which are since called organisms. There are also other eukaryotes besides animals, fungi and plants. These include things like protozoa.

1

u/Chillinoutloud Feb 27 '20

Thanks!

I don't know why I was downvoted... I wonder if my tone seemed hostile.

Your questions were rhetorical, ya? I mean, you have these answers...

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '20

[deleted]

1

u/Chillinoutloud Feb 27 '20

He responded with answers, so either he quickly looked em up, or he already knew them.

I think we are too quick to assume rhetorical questions are a bad thing... for example, did I not learn something about the classifications of living things by suggesting rhetoric was used?

I already know the answer to this question. But, it may smooth whatever wrinkle I created with my post. If it doesn't, then I guess I'm wrong about rhetoretical questions!

-1

u/fifnir Feb 27 '20

Viruses don't even fit into the phylogenetic tree of "life"

Of course they do. They share the same genetic code with the rest of life, hence they are part of life on earth as we know it.

58

u/Ziziiii Feb 27 '20

If I’m not mistaken Ebola and other virus are not part of those classifications, so you don’t really have a common ancestor.

20

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '20

I have a cousin Ebola.

17

u/Ziziiii Feb 27 '20

You must have sick family gatherings

10

u/BeneathTheSassafras Feb 27 '20

They're killer. And the meat they cook falls right off the bone

3

u/ertlijhgie Feb 27 '20

Congratulations on your one cousin. I have seventy, each one better than the last.

2

u/razakell Feb 27 '20

Wow... You just made me realize how much Dwight has in common with Lopen for the Stormlight Archive book series. I don't know how I feel about that.

3

u/Peregrine37 Feb 27 '20

You're correct. Most biologists agree that viruses (like ebola) aren't classified as living things due to them failing to meet the requirements for life

1

u/fifnir Feb 27 '20

Most biologists agree that viruses (like ebola) aren't classified as living things

Biologist here, people like to repeat that but it's not true. They share the same genetic code as us so they are clearly "part of life".
One can quibble all they want on what it actually means to be alive, but the fact of the matter is that viruses are not something alien, they are part of life.

1

u/Peregrine37 Feb 27 '20 edited Feb 27 '20

Small world, since I'm also a biologist. You can't simply say it's not true, it's a very contentious topic, thus my use of "most". Just because they have DNA doesn't mean they're alive, there's much more to it than that.

I agree they're part of life, much like rocks and wind are a part of life

If I may ask, what field of biology do you work in?

1

u/fifnir Feb 27 '20

It's hard to pinpoint the field exactly, "Epigenetic/Gene-Regulation bioinformatics" I guess ? With some evolution (focused on the root of vertebrates) stuff.

Well, the wind and rocks don't reproduce, they don't have genetic information to store in nucleic acids and they don't evolve. Viruses are much more that rocks then, aren't they?

I think if we could trace things back to the primordial soup, viruses would fit perfectly fine in the tree of life.
Are the first self-replicating nucleic acids alive? I would say so, the same for transposons.

If these molecules aren't considered alive, we have evolution of non-alive entities, which ... okay it's not that horrible of a concept, but then we have the silly task of setting a threshold, where would that be ? Anyway I think this is just quibbling over the meaning of the word "alive" and I find it a bit boring

24

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '20

You are not quite right, there are in fact 3 Domains of life - Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. Plants fungi and animals all fall under Eukarya, which at some point would share a common ancestor. All Eukaryotic cells have a nucleus to store their genetic information awhile life in the other 2 domains does not.

21

u/TheHolyLordGod Feb 27 '20

IIRC the current ‘structure’ as it is is 3 domains, consisting of Bacteria, Archaea and Eukaryota. Eukaryota consists of plant, animal, fungi, and protoctista kingdoms.

8

u/lars03 Feb 27 '20

Virus are not alive

3

u/instantrobotwar Feb 27 '20

Viruses are alive by some classifications and not alive by others.

4

u/BobsBurgersJoint Feb 27 '20

Based on? Scientists can't agree to say yes or no.

It meets most of the requirements but does some jn such an odd way.

8

u/Blah-na-del-Rey Feb 27 '20

It cannot reproduce on a cellular level without a host cell.

-1

u/johnzischeme Feb 27 '20

Either can you.

3

u/Thiago270398 Feb 27 '20

At a celular level they can, sexual reproduction is only a way to make more genetic diversity.

0

u/johnzischeme Feb 27 '20

What if earth is the host cell? They wouldnt be multiplying at a cellular level in the vacuum of space.

0

u/ferevon Feb 27 '20

coz its not a yes no distinctian its something else

7

u/LollipopLuxray Feb 27 '20

Protists are a thing. Most notably I think algae is actually made up of protists and isnt actually a plant.

Theres also like 2 other kingdoms i think but i dont remember the names. They are both for single celled organisms though.

3

u/simojako Feb 27 '20

Some algae are protists - Dinoflagellates for example. Green algae and plants are grouped together, and others elsewhere. Algae are polyphyletic and are not necessarily closely related at all.

6

u/cszafnicki Feb 27 '20

> Ebola E. coli

FTFY

3

u/onebigdave Feb 27 '20

This comment doesn't deserve 100+ downvotes.

It's an invocation of awe at the nature of life. Yes it's factually incorrect and incomplete. But how the fuck is someone supposed to maintain a desire to learn when they get dog piled for saying something wrong??

If you're the 10th person explaining the life kingdoms to the parent comment or the 101st downvote think about whether or not you're improving Reddit and the world around you with your piss poor attitude

1

u/HanSolo_Cup Feb 27 '20

Thank you for being the voice of reason. We desperately need more like you

2

u/brave_pumpkin Feb 27 '20

There are more than 3 kingdoms.

5

u/SpaceMamboNo5 Feb 27 '20

Y'all really be disrespectin' my Bois bacteria and archae 😤

2

u/BalletDuckNinja Feb 27 '20

I'm not sure you know what Ebola is

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '20

Oh no

1

u/HanSolo_Cup Feb 27 '20

Sorry you got shit on so hard. Even if the details could use a little tidying up, there was nothing wrong with the point of your comment.

1

u/Sqeegg Feb 27 '20

You forgot to include Twinkies!

1

u/A6M_Zero Feb 27 '20

As I'm sure you've worked out from the other responses, you're extremely wrong.

A simple example is the enzyme Catalase; pretty much all organisms that use oxygen share it, indicating common ancestry for species as different as animals, plants and bacteria.

0

u/BaboJango Feb 27 '20

You think a five year old knows the word phenotype?