A new human organ has been classified | Hacker News Reader

A new human organ has been classified

sciencealert.com

120 pointstilt33 comments

It has to be interpreted as the reclassification of Pluto.

It is known for a while as well as other parts of the peritoneum.

My uncle is an oncologist and has been using omentoplasty for many years now. He always tells me that there is way more to these structures then they are given credit for. In practice he sees much better recovery if he wraps the injured tissue with the omentum.

This breathlessly overstates the meaning of this work and dismisses the knowledge that was already present.

Every doctor knows what the mesentery is because they have dissected it. It was already named. Diseases are already named in relation to it. The importance of this incremental work beyond what was known must be quite subtle.

Found the article to be somewhat confusing, since the misentery has been known for quite some time:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesentery

I originally thought this was going to be on the same level as the mind-blowing discovery of an entirely new (as in, never before known) lymphatic system for the brain/CNS, which has the potential to explain alzheimer's and more [0], discovered just last year. But alas, no.

0: https://news.virginia.edu/illimitable/discovery/theyll-have-...

This was a hugely exciting development, I'm not up to date on current plans to investigate further, now reminded I will certainly be looking.

For someone with no medical training, the reference to Gray's Anatomy was confusing and interesting.

Yep, a well-regarded reference resource for 150 years prior to the show's conception. I always assumed the show was named after the book(never watched the show), I wonder if the one-off spelling 'Gray/Grey' shielded the creators from copyright infringement, as revisions of the book are still being released.[0]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grays_anatomy

The title is a double entendre. It's a show about doctors with the lead doctor being "Meredith Grey". So it refers to both the protagonist and the book, since it's a famous book in medicine.

"pun" - wordplay with double meanings or similar sounding words

"Double entendre" - double meanings, one of which is risque or indecent

I think the only way the title would be a double entendre is if it referred to the physical anatomy of Meredith Grey, which, as a non-viewer of the show, I suppose it could...

It must really confused conspiracy theorists too[1]. ;)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greys

I've never watched it either, but assumed there's someone called Grey, and it to be a pun on the text.

It would be a trademark issue, not a copyright issue, and a mere spelling change would not be sufficient; but the title is an obvious pun and no one would ever accidentally try to use the dramatic television show to replace their usage of the reference manual, nor would they confuse in a commercial setting a review of the television show for a review of the manual, so there is no issue.

"I believe the reasons for your crazy voting record, young chap, is because of humors of the mesentery. Myes."

Fucked up that they've classified it. I expect they give clearance to enough doctors so it won't be a problem in practice, but it still sucks.

does everything have to have a purpose, i.e function. maybe not anymore.

All of these words and nothing tells me what is the functionality of the new organ !!

It's amazing that after hundreds of years of dissecting people we can still make discoveries life this. Shows how little we really know.

"We"? I don't remember dissecting any bodies or making any discoveries in the field of anatomy. Do you?

I use "we" in similar contexts too. We invented our scientific methods. We learned about our anatomy, caused the extinction of many species, etc.

You have never thrust a spear at a mammoth either, yet "we" did.

Work on that reading comprehension. "We" is referring to something much broader.

> "We" is referring to something much broader.

Yes, it's all very poetic. Can you define it though?

What else did "we" do? Were "we" the nazis? Or were we the allies? Were we the indians or the europeans? Did we write "All along the Watchtower"? Did we invent the first digital computer?

Yes nazis, allies, indians (both kinds, but one of those terms is pretty racist, so be careful with your terminology) and europeans. We wrote all along the watchtower and invented the first digital computer. There might be a few prickly edges around carthaginians, aztecs and other civilizations we eradicated. We hung on to trigonometry in spite of eradicating the babylonians.

In this case we means humans who are able to benefit from, or perhaps simply learn of, the discoveries of other humans.

> indians (both kinds, but one of those terms is pretty racist

I'm pretty sure it isn't.

There's a number of reasons to use "we" in this context.

There's the inclusive we, and the exclusive we. For example, "We defeated the Nazis in WWII" clearly means that the person talking considers himself part of the Allies, and excludes the Nazis from the group. "We fought in WWII", however, is inclusive, and includes all sides in the conflict.

So yes, "we wrote All along the Watchtower", as in, we as a human species brought ourselves to the point of being able to write that (or, one of the bazillion different ways of interpreting that sentence). And yes, "we invented the first digital computer," could mean that you refer to the assumed implication that (some of) the people reading this board are software engineers, and "we" refers to that professional group.

But it gets a lot more fun than what you imply: there's the editorial we ("We have always fought for free speech"), the author's we ("by combining the ingredients, we obtain a compound called..."), the dictatorial we (used by managers/team leads, quite often, "We have to finish feature X by Thursday").

Edit: Removed <em> tags.

>What else did "we" do? Were "we" the nazis? Or were we the allies? Were we the indians or the europeans? Did we write "All along the Watchtower"? Did we invent the first digital computer?

We should cut the BS, and stop bike-shedding on the use of "we", whose use has been accepted for millennia when one speaks of the collective whole that is humanity and its achievements.

Your comment-history doesn't seem to indicate a pattern of reading difficulties, so I'm going to assume you're either just trolling or way way too emotionally-invested in your original snarky reply.

Either way, that's up to you to solve on your own.

It's called social responsibility. We, as a human race, human society.

Obviously "We" as in society / the human race.

Or how much there is to know.. to put it another way.

Well, it is actually more a matter of classification than discovery. Scientists knew it was there for a long time, just they studied the functions better and made the case that we can define it as an organ.

From the article it appears it was not understood to be one structure until recently (Continuous vs fragmented), yes we knew it existed, but obviously didn't understand it as well as we may have thought

>This only makes it more disturbing, the fact that researchers knew of its existence and DISMISSED it is absurd and embarrassing

"Absurd and embarrassing" compared to what? What non-researchers did? It's the actual practitioners of science that set its baseline.

We still discovered that it is in fact one organ though didn't we?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com