# Evidently there's another kind of little critter inside of us

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evidently-theres-another-kind-of-little-critter-inside-of-us/997651>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 16, 2024, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evidently-theres-another-kind-of-little-critter-inside-of-us/997651 "2024-02-16T10:35:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evidently-theres-another-kind-of-little-critter-inside-of-us/997651/1 "2024-02-16T10:35:32Z")

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> [**A New Obelisk ‘Lifeform’ Is Hiding Inside Humans**](https://www.aol.com/lifestyle/obelisk-lifeform-hiding-inside-humans-130000167.html)
> 
> We’re not sure if it’s exciting or not that scientists just discovered new ‘lifeforms’ inside of our bodies. Tiny bits of [RNA](https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a35084871/rna-world-hypothesis-origins-of-life-new-research/), smaller than a virus, colonize bacteria inside our mouths and guts and have the power to transfer information that can be read by a cell.
> 
> Dubbed ‘wildly [weird](https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a22676728/weird-prehistoric-plant-animal/)’ by the team of Stanford scientists [writing about the find](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00266-7) in _Nature_, the discovery now has a name: obelisks. And we… don’t really know their end goal.
> 
> “It’s insane,” said Mark Peifer, a cell and developmental biologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, [according](https://www.science.org/content/article/it-s-insane-new-viruslike-entities-found-human-gut-microbes) to _Science_. “The more we look, the more crazy things we see.”
> 
> Named obelisks because of their rod-shaped structures, they are even smaller than viruses, but they can still transmit instructions to [cells](https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a46057404/anthrobots-biobots/). What they’re saying, however, we just don’t know. The microscopic entities, according to an explanation [written](https://theconversation.com/a-new-virus-like-entity-has-just-been-discovered-obelisks-explained-222296) in _The Conversation_ by University of Bath microbial evolution professor Ed Feil, calls the obelisks “circular bits of genetic material that contain one or two genes and self-organize into a rod-like shape.”

Fascinating.

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**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evidently-theres-another-kind-of-little-critter-inside-of-us/997651/2 "2024-02-16T11:02:32Z")

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Fascinating indeed!

…although I thought this would be about homunculi.