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Science Lab - Unicellular fun

Posted Sept. 23, 2020, 6:27 a.m. by Cadet William A. Blakely (Scientist) (Emil Petecki)

William Blakely finished his assignments early and volunteered to inspect some recent samples of primitive lifeforms from the barely charted RS 8496-928-7 738583-183 system. According to the inventory, they were stored on the ship a while ago and remained buried under more pressing work to do.

Blakely decided to review the system report first. It was very unremarkable. A spectrum K2 V orange dwarf, two gas giants, an arid terra too hot for anything to survive there, a superaquaria with the same problem, and a bunch of frigid aquarias. Abundance of water and ice didn’t result in much - most planets were either too close to the hot sun, with water boiling away, or too far, with water turning into ice.

One moon, however, caught someone’s attention. Moon 7.1, a frigid airless miniaquaria. 43.6% of mass were classed as water/icy envelope. With an effective temperature of just 73.43 K, it could appear entirely uninteresting. A thorough scan, however, and a well-placed probe, revealed some unicellular subglacial lifeforms, living comfortably around deep geysers. Still, the scenario was typical enough not to warrant a careful study. To someone like Blakely, fascinated with primitive lifeforms, this was a perfect side-project. Even if he can’t do well enough and damages some samples, no one should really mind - there are more than enough in storage.

He decided to take a closer look at this lifeform. At first glance, it was fairly standard - organelles, though a bit different from Terran in shape, had the same roles. Interestingly, though, lysosome’s were vastly more abundant and vacuole’s were much more sizeable than they usuall are. A fascinating example of evolution. Of course, there must be an abundance of cells around the geysers - limited by the ice and physical space, with more than enough dead matter at all times. Looks like these lifeforms wouldn’t be able to survive for long in a less-cramped environment - lysosome’s would promptly start consuming organelles for nutrients.

Blakely decided to conduct some experiments of his own. He turned the recorder on and proceeded.

“Sample A removed from storage. Temperature 298 K.”

He observed the sample.

“Sample appears to be too small for the cell to have enough food. Temperature seems to be affecting it negatively as well. Changing to 310 K… yes, it appears to be more lively.”

Predictably, however, the sample eventually ran out of food and organisms started devouring themselves. They were also spread too thin to consume dead matter in time.

“Sample lost. It appears that lysosomes digested vital organelles in each case.”

He decided to test another sample.

“Sample B removed from storage. Temperature 310 K. Added some standard unicellular lifeforms, which it should be able to devour… It appears to be a success. Instead of devouring dead cells, like in its natural habitat, it is thriving on weaker organism with utter viciousness. It looks like it’s capable of storing a lot in its vacuole’s as well. Fascinating, utterly fascinating…”

Blakely smiled and looked around the room, he truly hoped he did not annoy other scientists working in the lab. He tried to be quiet, but the “fascinating” part might have been too cheerful.

-Cadet William Blakely - Science

OOC: Feel free to join! There are more than enough samples to test and have fun with.

Hopefully there’s nothing too horrendously bad with my biology! If there is, point that out to Blakely, please. He won’t mind.


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