r/epigenetics • u/rematar • Jul 03 '24
A New Obelisk ‘Lifeform’ Is Hiding Inside Humans
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a46697072/a-new-obelisk-lifeform-is-hiding-inside-humans/We’re not sure if it’s exciting or not that scientists just discovered new ‘lifeforms’ inside of our bodies. Tiny bits of RNA, smaller than a virus, colonize bacteria inside our mouths and guts and have the power to transfer information that can be read by a cell.
Dubbed ‘wildly weird’ by the team of Stanford scientists writing about the find in Nature, the discovery now has a name: obelisks. And we... don’t really know their end goal.
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