Mitochondria as you've never seen them
23 comments
·February 1, 2025LinguaBrowse
epicureanideal
> You could chuck an endless supply of PhD students at every constituent domain for generations and still feel like you've scarcely scratched the surface of the many things there are to question.
Sounds like a much better use of tax dollars than some other uses!
admissionsguy
> the more you realise we'll never reach a satisfactory understanding in our lifetime
Depends on how long you intend to live, really
mananaysiempre
> Depends on how long you intend to live, really
https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/11/09/ars-longa-vita-brevis/
siva7
So beautiful and so sad to think about how much more interesting biology is than what we can teach from textbooks.
b3lvedere
Ain't that the truth.
For instance: Before following Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell and purchasing Mr. Philipp Dettmer's amazing book called Immune, i had never even heard of the complement system.
8-prime
Mitochondria are so absurdly more complex and interesting than what is mostly taught in schools. Awesome video!
kgc
So each of our cells is a habitat for a network of wiggly energy-producing worms...
xarope
more like wiggly other cells, which are essential as one of our main energy systems. It's funny when you dig into these, the terms are things like fermentation[0]... say what? My body is producing beer for energy?
justinator
Well mitochondria are important for cellular respiration where oxygen IS available, yeah?
krige
So it's fair to say that I'm pretty much worms that walk.
HP would be absolutely thrilled to know that. Or maybe terrified out of his mind. One of the two for sure.
justinator
It's wormy things all the way down.
justinator
To think I've spent hours upon hours each week for years and year with the express goal of producing more of these in the muscle cells of my legs, and I call this novel goal "exercise".
yieldcrv
Without this symbiotic relationship in cellular life on other planets, would it prevent complex cellular life?
kylebenzle
Wow! Really shows how mitochondria are actually just bacterial cells living inside us!
ofrzeta
It's called symbiogenesis, for the record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiogenesis
chasil
This photograph was of a bone cancer cell.
I had heard that cancer (in general) suppressed mitochondria in preference for anaerobic respiration, and that apoptosis commonly involves these organelles.
Not this cancer cell, it would seem.
JumpCrisscross
This might be a sign of different schools of thought on the matter, but I'd alwys seen it referred to as endosymbiosis (as your article also notes).
jbotz
Mitochondria are in endosymbiosis with eucaryotic cells. The idea that eucaryotes came into being ("genesis") because some prior lifeforms joined in endosymbiosis is the theory of symbiogenesis.
adzm
Madeline L'Engle was right all along
papercace
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barkerxavierr
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pikzel
Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.
I studied an BSc in genetics and none of our lectures or textbooks presented mitochondria any differently from the classic bean shape they introduce in school. This is surely old news to folks who specialise in mitochondria, but it's easy to miss out on these fundamentals even if you've studied in a relevant area at degree level, because there's just so much to know in biology.
In fact, it's one of those fields where the more you learn, the more you realise we'll never reach a satisfactory understanding in our lifetime. You could chuck an endless supply of PhD students at every constituent domain for generations and still feel like you've scarcely scratched the surface of the many things there are to question.