this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
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    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
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AFAIK it all boils down to the fact that during embryonal development our cells, which at that point were just a blob of undifferentiated autonomous chemical machines, somehow managed to unanimously agree upon the cardinal directions (up-down, left-right, front-back) for future development - and thanks to this, we don't have toes growing out of our ears.

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[–] [email protected] 62 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 49 points 2 years ago (4 children)

It's not that incredible, considering we can get cysts full of teeth and hair inside the body

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 years ago

How do I unread this

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago

Oh yes, teratomes are not fun. But thankfully they are comparably rare.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Wonder if we could use that phenomena to regenerate teeth in a lab for replacements and dentures.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Probably no different than stem cell stuff

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I mean, that's what dna is for. These machines aren't operating blindly (or even "cooperating" or agreeing on anything, really). They're following the code that makes up who we are.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Those who don't usually don't make it far.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah but it's crazy how any given cell knows where in the body it is, somehow.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

They don't so much know where they are as much as they're just interacting with what's there in the way they were made to, which was all put there due to the DNA to function as a whole.

And to be clear, it's all still amazing, just in a different way. Here's Kurzgesagt video that helps explain how these cells "communicate" to do things like put a body together in the right order.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Someone was probably born with toes on their head in the past and life didn't go so well that they could have children that also survived. This is why our DNA doesn't have instructions for growing toes on our head.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Sure, but every cell has the same DNA. Yet some "decide" to "agree" on making toenails, while others differentiate into eyes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

If an embryo decides to split in two, and then sends out the marker that "this is the right side" and it's too close to the other embro, there will be a set of identical twins, but one will have the heart on the right side, appendix on the opposite side etc. This needs to be known if the "mirrored" person has a colonoscopy, since the colon is folded the opposite direction.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 years ago

The toes are the powerhouse of the foot

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That's the core of evolution: Beings with unfavorable features simply don't make it.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

Too bad evolution is blind, and now our windpipes and digestive tracts cross over. It works, but it would have been nice if choking wasn't a thing.

Other examples of interesting (sometimes called 'unintelligent') evolution might be how we walk upright, leading to complications with childbirth and back pain, blindspots because of our optical nerve, and or that recurrent nerve that does a random U-turn.

Evolution is basically millions of years of patches without ever getting a rebuild form the ground up. It's mostly ok, but some bugs stick around

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

Interestingly, the recurrent laryngeal nerve is looped around that way because the structure of the nerve grows in before the structures of the aorta and other large vessels fully grow in and orient into their correct position, so the nerve ends up looping around them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This is just based on an offhand comment from a lecturer during a practical session during my time studying animal management in college, not directly from a biology lecturer so citation needed, but apparently rabbits don't have a combined windpipe/digestive tract and it means that a blocked nose can kill them. So even if choking wasn't a thing we'd have to worry about something blocking our noses and suffocating us.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago

Oh that's actually a good point, so there are upsides as well.

Movies would also look really silly when someone would get killed by having their nose pinched closed

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

I always thought that was a poor design. Aliens likely would find that disgusting.

What interests me is that I believe all warm blooded animals also share this trait. Not certain that is true but if so, wouldn't that mean it evolved in a very early period?

Also what I find interesting is that the layout of humans to most animals is the same. A head with eyes then nose then mouth among with the brain behind it. Most of the organs are in similar locations. It seems strange that there would not be more variety.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago

In science that is called symmetry breaking (going from a homogeneous blob to left right something) and a very active topic of Research.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago

I can't comment on anyone with toes out of their ears, but I've seen a lot people with their butt where their face is. Or at least it would appear so, as a lot of shit seems to come out of the hole in their face.

All jokes aside, nice shower thought though!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Gravity is what makes this happen. Guess what probably is a concern in space?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You know that we've gestated various animals in weightless conditions on the ISS, yes? They look normal.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

We have? Do you have a source for that? That would be amazing. :)

[–] [email protected] -4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

You JUST realized that. 🙄

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

That's why there is an entire community for shower thoughts: because people sometimes get these sudden realizations. But honestly, you got me - I realized it a few days ago and only got around to post it "now".