Like Humans, Every Tree Has Its Own Microbiome, a New Study Has Found

This surely seems like a game changer and won’t need much of deforestation at some point.

tada

Soil bacteria around plant roots are very different from all other soil.

But in very large scale (e.g., km), geology is main factor of microbiom composition.

So the previous studies usually focus on topics like:

1. how plant <-> enviroment <-> microbiome interactions work in small range(meter/cm/even mm length).

2. how bacteria diversity change in large scale, and how it influce plant and enviroment.

The first type is more common (cheaper), but comparing of bacteria diversity is difficult, usually we nee more than ten plants in each experimental group. So focusing on single plant require very different methods, and it is more difficult check whether it is not caused by random effects.

Simple Multicellularity is estimated to have evolved at least 20 and probably more than 50 times for independent events of simple multicellularity.

Complex multicellurarity at least six times (animals, plants, fungi, brown and red algae).

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

If that's the case, then the relevant Wikipedia article [1] will need a major correction. They reference multiple sources which are more likely to interest you.

Multiple independent emergence of multicellular life didn't really surprise me, considering how often unicellular life mutates. I'm actually surprised by the suggestion that the opposite is the current scientific consensus. Do you have any sources for that? (Not a challenge. Just want to understand the situation and misconceptions if any.)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multicellular_organism#Occurre...

All multicellular life is eukaryotic, but not all eukaryotes are multicellular, e.g. amoebae.

There are a lot of other kinds of multicellular living beings, which have achieved multicellularity independently, plants and fungi being the most obvious on dry land, but most of these other multicellular life forms had to lose mobility when becoming multicellular.

Only a few have retained some limited mobility when multicellular, e.g. the slime molds, but they are much simpler than those which have lost completely mobility, by having rigid cellular walls, like plants, fungi and several distinct kinds of marine algae.

There are even several kinds of (very simple) multicellular bacteria, among Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), Myxobacteria (resembling slime molds) and Actinobacteria a.k.a. Actinomycetes (resembling fungi).

Was boring for me, compared to the original. Just more of the not so same, with maybe better FX, sometimes.

edit: To expand on that, from memory, the original had for me fucked up cyperpunkish earth, somewhat realistic spaceships/travel, heayv mining industry, cynical execs and military, nerdy techs and scientists.

Compared to most of what else streams over the screens nowadays, it was almost HARD-SF. I like that.

The Way of Water had much less of that, instead more tribalism, maybe some wokery. I don't give a shit about that.

(While I'm at it, the pre-prequel to the Alien-franchise "Alien Earth" with six episodes out ATM has much of that cyberpunkish flair, and is at least slightly more than just 'so-so'.)