Tuesday, 20 August 2019

Karen Lloyd on More Weird Microorganisms

Bacteria that run on low power (1x10^-21 Watts) and do weird stuff. For example, one that breathes in Uranium and another that excretes rocket fuel!


What this video is really about is how disastrous the public funding models are for fundamental scientific research. See also 40 Billion Tons of Living Organisms Thousands of Years Old.

One way to deal with this problem is to allow scientists to use on-line tools to design complementary research programs. This would work by seeking out vertical dependency loops in the scientific deductions that could be made in different fields, as well as practical or experimental horizontal dependencies which link fields of research by their common requirements for experimental conditions. One example might be geologists exploring sub-sea rock formations, and biologists like Lloyd studying subterranean marine microorganisms. Both would be linked horizontally by the need to have access to undersea drilling apparatus. An example of vertical integration would be people looking for ways to treat nuclear waste, who would be interested in results about bacteria that consume radiation. If funding were decided by a process of optimising the global development of science as a whole, and if funding bodies all cooperated, then much better decisions could be made from the global perspective. See On Connecting People for some ideas about how we could construct systems to help with this optimization process.

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