The wolves are exposed to cancer-causing radiation as they roam the wastelands of the abandoned city - with researchers finding part of their genetic information seems resilient to increased risk of the disease.
  • aubeynarf@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
    1381·
    9 months ago

    From an evolutionary point of view, the ones that didn’t have a resistance to cancer, died.

    • reddig33@lemmy.worldEnglish
      42·
      9 months ago

      Yep. This isn’t really oniony. It’s just evolution at work. Something that happens every day.

      • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        161·
        9 months ago

        Yeah !nottheonion is supposed to be absurdist news that sounds completely made up but is real.

        This post should have been moderated out.

        • Ech@lemm.eeEnglish
          52·
          9 months ago

          “Radiation wolves evolved resistance to cancer” doesn’t sound made up to you?

        • metaStatic@kbin.social
          2·
          9 months ago

          The vast majority of people are totally clueless

          let me introduce you to the inclusive or community …

        • grayman@lemmy.worldEnglish
          21·
          9 months ago

          Dr Love found the wolves have altered immune systems similar to cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment, but more significantly she also identified specific parts of the animals’ genetic information that seemed resilient to increased cancer risk.

          Two trait variations exist. The environment changes. One variation dies off. The other lives on to procreate. That’s the definition of evolution.

    • smooth_tea@lemmy.worldEnglish
      33·
      9 months ago

      It’s quite absurd to suggest this is the reason as if the scientists involved in the study would completely overlook the most basic of ideas. It’s a bit of a Dunning Kruger and hubris love child.

      Not to mention that the—very short—article even explains the mechanism which refutes your idea.

      • grayman@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        9 months ago

        But that’s what did happen.

        Dr Love found the wolves have altered immune systems similar to cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment, but more significantly she also identified specific parts of the animals’ genetic information that seemed resilient to increased cancer risk.

        The wolves with the trait are the ones that live on to procreate. The ones without the trait died off.

      • Meowoem@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3·
        9 months ago

        There is nothing in the article that refutes this, what are you talking about? They explain how they track them, that they get too much radiation and that genetic study shows they have genes to resist damage from this radiation - exactly what would be expected with evolution and of course the process by which this happens is that the non cancer resistant wolves got cancer and died young, it’s not even slightly controversial (unless you’re a creationist)

  • Vilian@lemmy.caEnglish
    281·
    9 months ago

    so to make humans develope cancer resistence is just nuke enough people?, noted

    • agent_flounder@lemmy.worldEnglish
      41·
      9 months ago

      Solve climate change with global winter plus we evolve to be cancer resistant? What’s not to love? Fire them bad boys, let’s gooooo chanting WW3 WW3 WW3

  • randomaside@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    22·
    9 months ago

    In an effort to extend his life, I can’t wait for Bezos to splice nuclear wolf DNA and then get in front of a camera with a wet nose, fangs, and weird Nicholas Cage style long hair from the movie Next (2007) looking like we got “Teen Wolf” at home.

  • volvoxvsmarla @lemm.eeEnglish
    91·
    9 months ago

    Somehow this article is non-existent. It just tells you that a team of researchers put collars on the wolves to measure the radiation levels they are exposed to. They found they are pretty high. 6 times the allowed maximum level for humans. But so far they only want to look into how this affects their cancer rates, and how they protect themselves against cancer. There is nothing yet to assume they have developed a resistance, let alone a biological, cellular or genetic mechanism. So… I mean I guess, but so far it is just plans to look into something.

    • sirdorius@programming.devEnglish
      2·
      9 months ago

      Dr Love found the wolves have altered immune systems similar to cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment, but more significantly she also identified specific parts of the animals’ genetic information that seemed resilient to increased cancer risk.

      Sounds like more than just started monitoring them

      • volvoxvsmarla @lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        9 months ago

        I tried to find a publication that would at least show a heatmap (but maybe that’s why these articles are pushed now, maybe the new paper will come.out soon?) of relative gene expression changes. I haven’t found any papers by Love mentioning anything other than radiation measurement (which is also an important field of study and is in no way less of an impressive work). “Altered immune systems” is very, very vague, and specific parts of the genome being modified reads like “oncogenes have mutated”, which wouldn’t be a surprise or shocker.

        I want to be clear that I couldn’t find the paper that the article seems to talk about (I couldn’t find any that would mention genetics), that Covid and the war in Ukraine (mandatory Fuck Putin) have obviously slowed down research, and that any kind of doubt I have is absolutely not about the group of scientists doing important and valuable work - just the article’s presentation is very empty and saying little to nothing.

        “They got a lot of radiation exposure” “genes that are connected with cancer mutated”, “Wolves don’t get cancer” is not too shocking of a finding and almost to be expected. The devil must be in the details. I’m just disappointed in the article.