Lets Give it Cancer!

[Firoth]

Ok, before we begin, I'd like for it to be known that this comes from a near complete lack of understanding as to how cancer works, and a limited understanding of algae. Ready? Too bad, lets go!

So, from what I do understand, algae is very important. It creates somewhere around 75% of the Oxygen in the atmosphere, and is the basis of the food chain for most of our watery ecosystems (like grass is on land). Now, supposedly, there's some type of algae shortage in the world. Caused by I have no clue, and by how much I don't know, but, that's not the important thing here (my idea would still stand, regardless). And, it might be playing a part in the vast drops in marine life population across the world, in addition to all our overfishing and pollution/destruction of habitats.

Now that we've gotten all the "things" that I "know" out of the way, lets dive into my ignorance...What if we found a way to give algae cancer, as a means of creating a huge bloom in quantity? As far as I'm aware, cancer (or, maybe just some types of it) causes cells to constantly reproduce, instead of only reproducing some set amount of times, or with disregard to resources or something. As far as I am also aware, algae, or at least most forms of it, are single cell plants or plant-like things. Wouldn't this result in a huge bloom of algae? And wouldn't that, in turn, cause a huge explosion in marine life populations, starting all the way at the bottom of the chains, and a huge boost to the amount of Oxygen in the atmosphere?

So, what do you think?
Can algae even get cancer?
If it could, do you think we'd be able to find a way to do so on a grand enough scale that it would matter?
If we did, would the algae even continue to serve it's purpose?
Would the animals that feed off of it get cancer as a result, and so on, up the food chain?

I'd like to reiterate that I am not a biologist, I am not a doctor, I am not a botanist, and I am not an ecologist.

 

[Wadders]

Sorry, I'm just as clueless as you are on this subject.

I just wanted to say that the concept of giving algae cancer is just... awesome. I dont even know why, it just is.

 

[mad825]

cancer is basically a mutation gone out of control.

the lack of control effectively creates abnormal growths thus effectively kills the host by compression, squeezing the life out of them or altering the chemistry to an unknown degree (mostly death) to the point where the compression kills it.

 

[hittite]

I'm not sure, but I'd be afraid to find out.

 

[The Procrastinated End]

So your genetically mutating algae not giving it cancer. Cancer does not cause humans to rapidly expand in size (at least not healthily) so I doubt it would help very much.

 

[Firoth]

So your genetically mutating algae not giving it cancer. Cancer does not cause humans to rapidly expand in size (at least not healthily) so I doubt it would help very much.

Tumors

 

[Monkfish Acc.]

It... sounds solid. Theoretically. To me, anyway.
But I don't really know a damn thing about the subject, either.

I like the sound of giving cancer to algae FOR SCIENCE, though. For some reason.
There is just something strangely wonderful about it.

 

[Infinatex]

Uhooooh, sounds like a bad idea! We would become overrun with algae.. not good!

 

[The Austin]

How about we just stop dumping shit into the ocean and let it build up naturally?

 

[Sevre]

Wait why would we want to do that? Algae would kill all the marine life by depriving them of oxygen...I don't want to live in a world without eel pie and it's comical effects.

 

[Kpt._Rob]

Even if you could give the algae cancer, and the cancer didn't mutate the algae out of the form we need it in, there could be problems. Any organism, in order to grow, needs resources. If there isn't as much algae as there used to be, then that's probably related more to some sort of lack of necessary resources than it is to the algae's growth rate. If that's true, then causing it to reproduce out of control could actually make the situation much worse, as a group of algae too large consumes so many of the necessary resources that the population can't stabilize itself. A better way to deal with the situation is to 1) identify why there isn't as much algae as there used to be, and 2) attempt a targeted solution to the problem. Making big changes to the delicate eco system all willy nilly is more likely to do harm than good.

 

[Plurralbles]

Um... they'd be a lot less functional even ifit could be possible. Oh, and some algae is VERY VERY harmfl to the environment and all algae is harmful in large quantities. So no, I think this idea doesn't help anyone and might just destroy the planet.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Well, you could always try this...

 

[Firoth]

How about we just stop dumping shit into the ocean and let it build up naturally?

Whoa, whoa, whoa! I'm trying to keep things rational in here. Your crazy hippie talk wont get us anywhere.

 

[Frontastic]

Ok from what I learnt in Biology, that would be a bad idea. The Algae also uses oxygen. The result of pollution is often the growth of TOO MUCH Algae which then uses up all the oxygen and causes all the fish etc to die. I think...

 

[Firoth]

the problem is algal blooms rock the ecosystem they're in, fuck up the water & kill off a lot of other life.

Algae would kill all the marine life by depriving them of oxygen.

all algae is harmful in large quantities. So no, I think this idea doesn't help anyone and might just destroy the planet.

Well, there's a lot of empty ocean out there, we could (attempt to) isolate it to those areas of vastness, then only the things that normally thrive in those conditions would be effected.

 

[Firoth]

1) identify why there isn't as much algae as there used to be, and 2) attempt a targeted solution to the problem. Making big changes to the delicate eco system all willy nilly is more likely to do harm than good.

I think it's climate changes (which is something WE did), but, I'm not sure. And, if it is, more algae would mean more atmosphere, which would bring our climate back around...Wouldn't it?

 

[Eumersian]

I've studied cancer, and shadowed an oncologist at a hospital for 7 months of my high school senior year.

Basically, what happens in cancer is that the enzyme telomerase goes out of control. Telomerase is an enzyme that produces a constantly repeating DNA sequence (I forget what it is) whose purpose is to do nothing. Evey time this cell multiplies, a bit of the telomere (the repeating sequence) on the end of the sequence in the nucleus breaks off. When the telomere depletes after multiple multiplications, the original cell dies. It's like an alarm clock. After enough mitoses, the cell, noticing it's lack of telomere dies, because the more multiplications a cell goes through, the more likely something will go wrong.

What may contribute to things going wrong is out-of-control telomerase. It usually only functions to create the initial telomere in the cell. But it may by chance, keep going, and the telomere will never deplete. This gives the cell more multiplications in which things may go wrong. If things go wrong, the result could be cancer. Cancerous cells are unspecialized, fast multiplying, and usually interfere with surrounding cells' functions. The cancerous algae might work, if only for a while before they get out of control (at least, that's how I remember it from all those months ago).

Sorry if this sounds condescending, but the last thing I want to root for to save the planet is cancer.

 

[FeetOfClay]

One problem with this is that alot of algae is single celled, and as such, the closest thing they can get to a tumor is, well, alot of algae. Other than that, as mentioned, the overabundance of algae actually is (or could be, I forget) a major problem, for reasons that I cant quite remember.

 

[Firoth]

Well, there's a lot of empty ocean out there, we could (attempt to) isolate it to those areas of vastness, then only the things that normally thrive in those conditions would be effected.

Really? Where?
To my knowledge, most of the ocean is filled with life & even if you found any empty section, water moves.

Ok, it's not exactly EMPTY, but, there's a lot of it. Meaning to say, that the area could be avoided by that which it would harm. And, I realize it moves, that's why I said 'attempt.' maybe make...algae farms or something that could be moved back into place.