# ­xkcd thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-strips\ **Created:** [May 28, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574 "2020-05-28T00:57:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 218
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2025, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4343 "2025-05-29T23:18:53Z")
Some are also halophiles. But it is interesting indeed that though no archaea are known to be pathogens or parasites of humans, many are mutualists or commensals, so they do interact with us. They are part of every microbiota we know of. Not all are extremophiles at all. There is a metaphor there for humankind somewhere. Another way of living different from ours is possible. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4344 "2025-05-30T00:11:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Why aren’t there any Archaean pathogens, anyway? Unsubstantiated guess: their proteins are so different from ours that our immune system has no difficulty eliminating pathogenic Archaeans. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4345 "2025-05-30T09:24:45Z")
If we’re that different at the protein level (and I don’t know either way) I’d sort of expect their life processes and ours would simply not interact. They’d pass through us, or us through them, sorta like ghosts. IOW, fully alive but as biologically inert to us as is equally microscopic rock dust. If one of them did something ugly like concentrate and excrete arsenic compounds that would be impolite to humans. But it seems there are not such beasts. And thank goodness for that; the fungi are already trouble enough. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4346 "2025-05-30T09:30:04Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > If we’re that different at the protein level (and I don’t know either way) I’d sort of expect their life processes and ours would simply not interact. But there are mutualists and commensals among the archea, according to wikipedia, so they do interact. Just not in parasitic or pathogenic ways. Or we have not detected those ways yet. Not so long ago we did not even know archeans were a thing. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4347 "2025-05-30T12:22:06Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Or we have not detected those ways yet. Not so long ago we did not even know archeans were a thing. Exactly so. > **[Contributions of Human-Associated Archaeal Metabolites to Tumor...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35225671/)** > > There is increasing awareness that archaea are interrelated with human diseases (including cancer). Archaea utilize unique metabolic pathways to produce a variety of metabolites that serve as a direct link to host-microbe interactions. However,... > More evidence suggests that archaea are associated with human disease, including cancer. Here, we present the first framework of the diversity and distribution of human-associated archaea across human body sites, such as gut and oral cavity, using long contigs. Furthermore, we unveiled the potential archaeal metabolites linking to different lineages that might influence the tumor microenvironment and carcinogenesis. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4348 "2025-05-30T13:30:56Z")
So we are slowly becoming pod people. All hail our Archaealian overlords. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4349 "2025-05-30T17:00:14Z")
Why do they keep spelling out “resistance is futile” on our microscope slides? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4350 "2025-05-30T19:56:22Z")
No, it’s that they’re showing pre-cancerous cells that they can go back to living “a natural lifestyle” and abandon the corrupt trappings of “civilization” such as differentiation and obeying the immune system. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4351 "2025-05-30T20:46:48Z")
> Multicellularity is tyranny! > Stay separate and free! - Archaean Liberation Front ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4352 "2025-05-30T22:08:17Z")
If I may get back on the bathroom scale strip, the one before the archeans, I would like to ask the Dope how you would weigh your head. Without cutting it off and putting it on a scale, you want to be alive after the procedure. It’s _your_ head, after all! I would aim at a precision of at least 1%. If this develops into a hijack I don’t mind opening a new thread. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4353 "2025-05-30T22:17:25Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Without cutting it off and putting it on a scale, you want to be alive after the procedure. It’s _your_ head, after all! Seems safer to cut it off and fry it in garlic, like Samuel Johnson’s father… ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4354 "2025-05-30T22:21:16Z")
You need a seesaw, a level, and some weights. Lie on the seesaw with your neck over the pivot. Put weights on the seat above your head until the seesaw is perfectly parallel with the ground. Then do the math. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4355 "2025-05-30T22:24:15Z")
Are you sure your neck muscles are not messing up the measument? And I mean your head, not your cervical bones or your double chin. We can discuss whether the hair counts as part of the head or not. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4356 "2025-05-30T22:48:11Z")
I’m going to need some help here, but shouldn’t there be a way with dunking your head in a bucket of water on a scale? We can measure the displaced water and the change in weight on the scale should allow us to figure out the buoyancy force? Alternatively just with volume and a reasonable knowledge of average density of the human body might get to the 1% range. But I’d love it if some can help me with the other method! ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4357 "2025-05-30T22:49:10Z")
Hmm. Maybe you should place the pivot under the base of your skull, instead, while bending your neck as far as you can. Alternate idea: place a scale on the bottom of a 4-foot deep swimming pool. Stand on it and crouch until only your head is above water. Read the scale and do the math. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4358 "2025-05-30T22:49:47Z")
Great minds… ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4359 "2025-05-30T22:56:32Z")
I thought of Archimedes too, but I fear my sinus cavities and my ear ducts make out more than 1% of the volume of my head. And to be clear: this is a honest question, not a gotcha. I don’t know the answer. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4360 "2025-05-30T23:57:23Z")
When I get my cybernetic full body replacement installed, I’ll let you know. No, I’m not cutting off my head. I’m cutting off my _body_. (In reality I’d just get an MRI of my head and count up the volume occupied by bone/muscle/fat/cavities/etc. But no way it’s going to be within 1%. Day to day variation will be more than that.) ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4361 "2025-05-31T03:01:42Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > And I mean your head, not your cervical bones or your double chin. Where is my double chin if not on my head? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4362 "2025-05-31T03:31:11Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > I’d just get an MRI of my head and count up the volume occupied by bone/muscle/fat/cavities/etc. But no way it’s going to be within 1%. Day to day variation will be more than that I would question the level of precision of an MRI for volumetric analysis, but why would there be much day to day variation? The skull itself is extremely consistent dat to day. The brain is not changing in mass much daily. Muscles of the head are not either and not huge head fat mass. But you do need to already know density of the different tissues. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=217) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=219)