23 comments

  • vincekerrazzi 15 hours ago

    I love seeing this kind of thing posted but it’s not surprising in the slightest. We’re forever discovering brew bacteria in our guts that are apparently unique. When I had my gut bacteria tested a full 20% of what I had hadn’t been named yet, and some possibly hadn’t been seen before.

    • mmooss 10 hours ago

      Archaea are not bacteria; that's why this discovery is so significant.

    • rbanffy 14 hours ago

      I find it shocking and disturbing that we know so little about our own biology we are still discovering such things.

      It’s like doctors didn’t have centuries to examine human bodies to learn from them.

      • PaulHoule 14 hours ago

        It is not just the human body. Mysterious bacteria that people don't know how to cultivate in isolation are everywhere. Part of the story is that many bacteria don't really live alone but they depend on a plant or an animal or even other bacteria such as one species of large rod bacteria that has a different species of little rod bacteria that live on it, biofilms, etc.

      • parasti 11 hours ago

        Why do you find it shocking and disturbing? If you go to the doctor, the average process of diagnosis and treatment is much like printf debugging - just sprinkle some based on instinct and run it again. We're surrounded by technological advancement that is making us feel like we're far in the future, but there's still so much we don't know.

      • olau 12 hours ago

        Biology is so complex that extremely little is known about details. Grab a college textbook on introduction to zoology, and prepare to be blown away.

      • pfdietz 13 hours ago

        One disturbing recent discovery is that a strain of E. coli produces a genotoxin, colibactin, that could be the cause of the doubling in colon cancer among those under age 55 in the last 20 years.

        https://www.opb.org/article/2025/05/01/gut-bacteria-may-play...

        • m3047 6 hours ago

          How many people took Zantac (ranitidine) the highly spammed H2 blocker? https://www.nfcr.org/blog/3-common-heartburn-drugs-are-assoc...

          Doctors don't ask about this. People still take Prilosec, and it's acknowledged that it causes cancer. You get what you give: confirmation bias.

          Edit: The essential problem is that ranitidine isn't shelf-stable. This could explain some problems with other theraputics which we won't name to avoid downvoting / politics.

          • pfdietz 5 hours ago

            > and it's acknowledged that it causes cancer.

            This is not acknowledged as demonstrated, the studies are contradictory and observational.

            • m3047 5 hours ago

              It is acknowledged that nitrosamines cause cancer. It is acknowledged that ranitidine breaks down on the shelf to nitrosamines: this wasn't discovered by the FDA or another government agency, it was discovered by a mail-order, compounding pharmacy which also tests ingredients. Their discovery led to ranitidine being recalled.

              As for prilosec: the cancer risk is acknowledged in the packaging.

              • pfdietz 5 hours ago

                I wasn't talking about ranitidine, so I don't know why you brought that up.

                I don't see anything about cancer in the product information for Prilosec.

                https://www.amazon.com/Prilosec-OTC-Heartburn-Medicine-Versi...

                Perhaps you mean in California, where everything + dog has a cancer warning by law?

                • m3047 4 hours ago

                  Hey. I brought up ranitidine because it is specifically associated with nitrosamines, and nitrosamines cause colon cancer. No redirect: colon cancer. You take issue with prilosec being admitted to this debate, then that would be because ion pump moderators cause stomach cancer. My bad: stomach cancer irrelevant to you.

                  You can't see ranitidine when it farts in your face: nitrosamines cause colon cancer. Why is that not relevant? Why is that not potentially more relevant than foo foo microbes? (By the way, I eat sour cream or yogurt when I eat meat or take e.g. glucosamine. YMMV.)

                • m3047 5 hours ago

                  Squeeze this lemon till the juice come out: https://www.verywellhealth.com/does-omeprazole-cause-cancer-...

                  ddg:prilosec cancer

                  Buy some. Read the packaging. Fuck Amazon.

                  • pfdietz 4 hours ago

                    I have a package of generic omeprazole right in front of me. There is no cancer warning.

                    • m3047 4 hours ago

                      Fix it, so somebody doesn't have to die like you.

                      • pfdietz 2 hours ago

                        Your effort to fabricate evidence having failed, we see you didn't actually need evidence to reach your conclusion anyway.

  • kayo_20211030 13 hours ago

    > The discovery of Methanobrevibacter intestini and GRAZ-2 opens up a new chapter in archaea research as well as new perspectives for personalized microbiome medicine in the future.

    It advances research, but personalized microbiome research seems a stretch goal. At least, it doesn't sound like it's likely to happen soon.

  • leephillips 12 hours ago

    You can blame the dog if you want to. I’m blaming Methanobrevibacter intestini sp. nov. (strain WWM1085).

  • johnea 7 hours ago

    The original source article:

    https://microbiologysociety.org/news/press-releases/new-spec...

    Which also works without javascript or cookies, unlike phys.org

  • wonderwonder 11 hours ago

    we are not even individuals, we are just walking cities of cells. We are Chimera.

    • ChuckMcM 10 hours ago

      This is perhaps what amazes me the most. We're each a Borg, we are a collective that has adapted the biological distinctiveness of bacteria that we've assimilated into a collective that "thinks." Pretty wild. That we gather in groups and act collectively just adds another layer of recursion to life.

      • wonderwonder 3 hours ago

        It does make one reconsider the brain as the center of consciousness. Can we really upload our mind if the mind is actually the entirety of our collective being.