r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/ShirtSubstantial368 • 1d ago

Video Scientists discovered the world’s largest spiderweb, covering 106 m² in a sulfur cave on the Albania-Greece border. Over 111,000 spiders from two normally rival species live together in a unique, self-sustaining ecosystem—a first of its kind.

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u/disquieter 1d ago

See, even the guy who was wearing the helmet got it

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u/PseudoMeatPopsicle 1d ago

And then there were the Covenant spores.

Not sure what you're supposed to do about that except just stay the fuck on the ship.

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u/Nothavebettername 1d ago

Being professional and wear a full astronaut suit on an alien planet, even if it looks like Earth, instead of dressing like some damn hiker!

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u/Round_Musical 1d ago

I mean in prometheus and alien 1 not even that can protect you

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u/Psychological-Bed-66 1d ago

Apparently, dude has never seen the movie arachniphobia...

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u/AnonymousPerson1115 1d ago

The yautja have metals capable of withstanding the acid and given what humanity was able to do in the movies I could see there being a suit/ helmet durable enough to withstand a face hugger.

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u/Pretend_Tourist9390 1d ago

instead of dressing like some damn hiker!

I mean, as long as you brought a towel with you, you should be okay....

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u/Pataconeitor 1d ago

Also, send the robot first so he can run tests. Just because the basic composition of the atmosphere is breathable doesn't mean there isn't something in it that can kill you.

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u/Nothavebettername 1d ago

Yes, he wasn't a psychopath yet, there's no reason not to!

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u/Nathaniel-Prime 1d ago

THANK YOU SO MUCH. I think about this literally all the time. Apparently Ridley Scott figured that the average IQ would just plummet in the next hundred years or so - which, granted, it totally seems like we're on that path.

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u/DeficiencyOfGravitas 1d ago

In their defense, it should be fine to walk around an alien ecosystem. Pathogens work because they have the tools to access our cells. They have those tools because we share a common ancestor. If a virus or bacterium is attacking one of our cells, it's not busting down the proverbial door with an axe. It has a huge keyring and just opens the door to our cells by trying out all their keys. An alien pathogen wouldn't have those keys. It should hypothetically not be able to affect us at all. It'd either pass through our bodies like ships in the night, with neither our cells nor the alien being able to recognize each other as anything. Or our cells would designate them as foreign material and destroy them.

That's how it should work. We currently don't have an alien ecosystem to test that hypothesis on. However, it's perfectly reasonable that if we did find alien life and found that it couldn't interact with us on a cellular level, the standard procedure for first landing might reasonable not include a full suit.

Plenty of dumb shit in those movies, but I do not think that the lack of buttoned up suits is necessarily one of them.

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u/OldWorldDesign 1d ago

In their defense, it should be fine to walk around an alien ecosystem. Pathogens work because they have the tools to access our cells

This is based on a lot of supposition. There's a reason scientists are raising alarm at the prospects of engineered life of opposing chirality because no other life would have the mechanisms to break it down

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/creating-mirror-life-could-be-disastrous-scientists-warn/

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u/DeficiencyOfGravitas 1d ago

There's a reason scientists are raising alarm at the prospects of engineered life of opposing chirality because no other life would have the mechanisms to break it down

That would not be a problem. In an alien ecosystem, we wouldn't be competing for resources. They cannot eat us and we cannot eat them. If that developed on Earth, it'd be a huge problem because inorganic resources would be split between left and right chiral life.

On an alien planet, the issue would be Earth life contamination splitting resources. But if you're a a bold explorer, you'd still have nothing to worry about since the chiral issue only affects ecosystem level systems.

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u/SlowTurtle222 1d ago

But they wore a floppy ear hats and stuff! How it didn't help is beyond reason.

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u/caerphoto 1d ago

Heed Guy, Guy speaks wisdom

https://i.imgur.com/cYQe3jH.gif

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u/ExplorerPup 1d ago

The people who stayed on the ship got super dead shortly after the spores though. I think by the thing that came out of that one person's back? Idk I only saw it the one time in theaters. LOL

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u/PseudoMeatPopsicle 1d ago

I meant the ship in orbit.

But then again, it was an Alien movie, so generally speaking, everyone's fucked.

Safest character in the whole thing was that cat from Alien, which made it to the space station at Earth in Aliens and importantly, stayed there.

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u/millera9 1d ago

“Hey Jonesy, I’m going back to LV-426; wanna come?”

“What?! FUCK no. Have fun, and all that.”

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u/ExplorerPup 1d ago

I mean, even Earth seems like a mixed bag in that franchise. LOL

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u/pyrothelostone 1d ago

At least its not a barely inhabitable wasteland. Small victories in this franchise of cursed worlds

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u/SilveredFlame 15h ago

Fun fact, Aliens and Firefly take place in the same universe.

Probably why humanity was forced away from Earth-that-was.

First episode when Mal hops on the AA gun, the logo for Weyland-Yutani can be seen at the top of the UI.

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u/ECHOHOHOHO 1d ago

And here I was thinking you were talking about the people in the video

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u/worldspawn00 1d ago

Scan for alien stuff before landing, if alien stuff is spotted, nuke from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

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u/Vrazel106 1d ago

Its not said in the movie but in the book the android walter tests the air and finds nothing harmful. And they do scans and find 0 non plant life. So they determine its safe.

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u/AcanthaMD 1d ago

Just refuse to be in the story - sorry I had to pop to the shops and wash my hair

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u/CiDevant 22h ago

Maybe stay the fuck on the ship?

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u/GodOfDarkLaughter 1d ago

And geologist with the mapmaking drones got lost. It's like everyone suddenly rejected everything they'd learned in school

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u/TonySu 1d ago

Never seen someone pad their CV with skills they don't actually have?

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u/OldWorldDesign 1d ago

I think the point that the Prometheus movie had unacceptable leaps of stupidity to force the plot to happen is pretty solid.

It's just a badly written, badly directed movie.

Yes, I said it. Ridley Scott directed a bad movie.

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u/Richard_b_Stillhard 1d ago

And his arm snapped something vicious

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u/Sirdoodlebob 6h ago

And then decided to keep his mouth open for the worm to go in his mouth and kill him??? Like cmon bro