Editing Talk:2171: Shadow Biosphere

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Just spit-balling here, but here goes:  This comic seems to be making a joke between the meaning of "shadow biosphere" and the more common meaning behind "shadow" being something unseen. I think "shadow biosphere" is currently pretty loosely defined and not widely accepted by academics, and it seems to refer simply to organisms that might exist but are not currently being studied widely. In fact to me, the use of the term "shadow" in the name is relatively misleading and simply refers to a possible case of something not understood and/or studied at length, not that it's invisible. Randall appears to be making fun of the name by suggesting it means invisible to normal life as we know it. The title text further pushes this pun by suggesting that a coating of "desert varnish" makes normally visible objects become invisible, as with the buildings where shadow biologists carry out their work. Desert varnish is in fact visible when it is found in appropriate locations on normal objects like rocks - it does not make the rocks invisible! Somehow, I think these ideas need to be incorporated into the explanation. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 17:00, 3 July 2019 (UTC)
 
Just spit-balling here, but here goes:  This comic seems to be making a joke between the meaning of "shadow biosphere" and the more common meaning behind "shadow" being something unseen. I think "shadow biosphere" is currently pretty loosely defined and not widely accepted by academics, and it seems to refer simply to organisms that might exist but are not currently being studied widely. In fact to me, the use of the term "shadow" in the name is relatively misleading and simply refers to a possible case of something not understood and/or studied at length, not that it's invisible. Randall appears to be making fun of the name by suggesting it means invisible to normal life as we know it. The title text further pushes this pun by suggesting that a coating of "desert varnish" makes normally visible objects become invisible, as with the buildings where shadow biologists carry out their work. Desert varnish is in fact visible when it is found in appropriate locations on normal objects like rocks - it does not make the rocks invisible! Somehow, I think these ideas need to be incorporated into the explanation. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 17:00, 3 July 2019 (UTC)
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: "it seems to refer simply to organisms that might exist but are not currently being studied widely" - not that's not correct. It refers to hypothetical organisms that have a different biochemistry and as a result are not detectable using the techniques developed for studying organisms with 'normal' biochemistries. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.254.114|172.68.254.114]] 05:29, 11 July 2019 (UTC)
 
  
 
The joke is that someone who studies the shadow biosphere would be called a 'shadow' biologist in the same way that a biologist who studies microbes is called a micro-biologist.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.146.224|172.68.146.224]] 11:25, 4 July 2019 (UTC)
 
The joke is that someone who studies the shadow biosphere would be called a 'shadow' biologist in the same way that a biologist who studies microbes is called a micro-biologist.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.146.224|172.68.146.224]] 11:25, 4 July 2019 (UTC)

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