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Yes, you’re right

Rare earth elements (REEs), including scandium, yttrium and lanthanides, are strategic resources with unique electric, luminescent and magnetic properties. However, owing to their highly similar physiochemical properties, the identification and separation of all REEs are challenging. Here a Mycobacterium smegmatis porin A nanopore is engineered….

That bacteria is indeed from there.

It was first reported in November 1884, who found a bacillus with the staining appearance of tubercle bacilli in syphilitic chancres. Subsequent to this, Alvarez and Tavel found organisms similar to that described by Lustgarten also in normal genital secretions (smegma). This organism was later named M. smegmatis.

The net result of this work repoted today is that you should be able to deterine the rare earths content of rock by wiping it against a suitably prepared and dirty-ish willy.

Which is interesting science, no?

11 thoughts on “Yes, you’re right”

  1. The study of genital secretions was done by Lustgarten? Nominative determinism, or was this analysis by a sex toy manufacturer?

  2. ” a suitably prepared and dirty-ish willy”

    Ah! Sexism! Scientists and their wives, eh? What’s sauce for the goose is also sauce around the clitoris.

  3. Tim – I know a few geology jokes, but they’re all schist.

    OT – remember Trump’s foreign policy was never going to work, foolish Orange Man was just going to lose American allies, other world leaders were laughing at the USA, yadda yadda?

    Labour has backed down from ‘Online Safety Act’ after Trump’s team threatened tariffs and loss of secure U.S trade deal, reports claim

    Trump is now dictating UK policy

    LOOL.

    Ah, Keir! Ah, Keir! thou’ll get thy fairin! Trump will roast thee like a herrin!

  4. Suitably prepared and dirty-ish willy.

    Replace willy with fanny.

    Consider how many CoVid tests, negative or positive, went to landfill.

    Eeeek!

    Whacking it against a rock is looking suspiciously risk-lite. Not that sure about my socks.

  5. I was rather taken by the final sentence of the Wiki article

    This discovery offers significant potential for green energy.
    M. smegmatis is known to use the trace levels of hydrogen in the atmosphere as an energy source. In 2023, researchers reported extracting from M. smegmatis a hydrogenase called Huc, which is highly efficient at oxidizing hydrogen gas—and thus creating an electric current…

    Dirty dicks save the planet

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