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Comment by whack | Hacker News Reader

The headline makes it seem as though some guy overturned a fundamental precept of modern biology, while living in a Trailer in Montana.

None of the above is true.

1) He happened to grow up in a trailer in Montana, but eventually moved on to attend a good German university, and was no longer living in a "Montana trailer park" while making this discovery.

2) The guy corrected a misunderstanding that people had, regarding one very specific phenomenon found in nature; something that most biologists don't work with, depend on, or care about. The replication crisis around Ego Depletion, for example, can credibly be claimed to have overturned decades of psychological thought. The specific makeup of Lichens though, is an extremely niche field, that doesn't affect the broader field of Biology in any significant way.

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> The specific makeup of Lichens though, is an extremely niche field, that doesn't affect the broader field of Biology in any significant way.

Well you would be wrong. This guy almost single-handedly led the way to enabling the cultivation of lichen in laboratory conditions, something that has had very limited success up until now.

What are the benefits of cultivating lichen? It's another way to farm biological molecules. As it turns out, Lichen are actually composed of 2 fungi not just 1. Basidiomycetes and Ascomycete. So that's a huge crop of potential medicines, or manufacturing catalysts that can be economically produced now.

So give this guy a lil more credit. Just because you don't care about lichens, doesn't mean "most biologists don't care about it". He has literally, no hyperbole, overturned 150 years of biology. It is that significant.

Also, it's very arrogant of you to suggest that most biologists do not care about this discovery. At the very least, it is humbling to all biologists. And as such, most, if not all, biologists will care about this discovery precisely because it shows that we can be missing something so fundamental for so long.

Lichen may be a good next step for manufacturing more complex energy-intensive chemicals than yeast can.

There is a good chance that this discovery will be invaluable in 30 years time.

Of course, the guy's life story is still an inspirational tale of creating opportunities for yourself where none seem to exist. And his discovery -- although probably not rocking the foundation of the (sub)field -- is still impressive and pretty interesting. And the article is written well enough.

So you should still read the article. Just pretend the link-baity title doesn't exist and don't go in with pre-conceptions :-)

I agree. The article was a cool read and props to the guy for successfully building a career in science, despite his shitty upbringing. I just wish the headline didn't wildly exaggerate his admirable accomplishments.

> The specific makeup of Lichens though, is an extremely niche field, that doesn't affect the broader field of Biology in any significant way.

The article mentions how the symbiotic relationship discovered in 1868 cleared the way to our better, broader understanding of other ecological systems. I can see how the current discovery could lead to some deeper knowledge. Maybe it hints at how complex living things appear. Maybe we understimated this processess and they deserve more eyes on it.

I agree with the trailer thing on the title, no need.

I did not read this article, but I read a different one a couple of days ago. The headline should be "Researcher from University of Montana overturns 150 years of understanding of lichens" or some such. It is still a (really) big deal, but that title is so link-baity it is absolutely disgusting.

EDIT:

Lichens aren't quite what we thought, shocked scientists discover

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/technology/lichen-yeast-1.368946...

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