
Arborists are bringing the “dinosaur of trees” back to life - pseudolus
https://qz.com/1519250/arborists-are-bringing-the-dinosaur-of-trees-back-to-life/
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kevinventullo
For those skipping straight to the comments, these are not "Jurassic" trees as
the headline may suggest, but rather a species wiped out due to being "felled
for timber more than a century ago."

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vanderZwan
Not even wiped out: redwoods still exist. But the biggest trees were
destroyed.

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superTree
In a weird way, I hope this goes horribly wrong, and the super trees become an
invasive species that results in an apocolypse of unstoppable forests that
dominate the globe.

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frutiger
Would you feel the same way about an ancient bacteria or similar that wipes
out all life from the past 500 million years?

I assume not (at least for the majority of readers); it's instructive to
consider why one feels trees are more in tune with nature than some lowly
bacteria, or as the original implication made, more in tune than humans too.

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klyrs
One must consider the possibility of such idle speculation before passing such
judgement.

Can trees destroy humanity? No, they move pretty slowly and we can defeat them
with axes and fire. And we've been doing just that and show no signs of
stopping. If trees take over the world again, that can only happen in a world
already devoid of humans. With climate change upon us, this is a "good" future
for our planet -- intelligent life may arise again in a planet full of tall
trees. It's a much better future to picture, than a planet like venus or mars.

Can bacteria destroy humanity? Yes, we've bred them to be immune to
antibacterials -- imagine some ancient bacterium which wiped itself out by
being too lethal, gaining antibacterial resistance through cross-contamination
in a lab. But it wiped itself out before the invention of airplanes, and
suddenly it's capable of spreading faster and further than before. It's a
stretch, but almost plausible. CRISPR might help somebody make it a reality.

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chess_buster
I have thought about this regarding viruses. But bacteria make it some how
more frightening

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bloaf
See also: the drive to return the American Chestnut to the forests of
Appalachia.

[https://www.acf.org/the-american-chestnut/history-
american-c...](https://www.acf.org/the-american-chestnut/history-american-
chestnut/)

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MeteorMarc
Read Richard Power's novel the Over Story [[https://www.amazon.com/Overstory-
Novel-Richard-Powers/dp/039...](https://www.amazon.com/Overstory-Novel-
Richard-Powers/dp/039363552X)] to read much and much more about the
fascinating life cycle of redwood giants.

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pseudolus
I'll second the recommendation. Richard Powers is an incredibly talented
author. It's somewhat off topic but many years ago he also authored a great
book on AI (Galatea 2.2) that wasn't alarmist but focused more on the human
element.

[https://www.amazon.com/Galatea-2-2-Richard-
Powers/dp/0312423...](https://www.amazon.com/Galatea-2-2-Richard-
Powers/dp/0312423136/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1547300313&sr=8-1&keywords=galatea+2.2)

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mrfusion
There’s high humidity and lots of morning dew in Florida. Would that be
sufficient to grow one of these?

Also how hard would it be to genetically engineer these to be c4
photosynthesizers?

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diggernet
Why is mykowebhn dead? It is true, redwoods would be destroyed by hurricanes.

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andrewflnr
I've seen a lot of insta-dead comments lately. I'm wondering if there's an
automated moderation system getting out of hand, or if they really are (for
instance) attempts at ban evasion.

If you go direct to the comment (click on the posting time), you can "vouch"
for comments you think should be un-killed.

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dqpb
> _A mature redwood can sequester up to 250 tons or more of carbon dioxide
> during the photosynthesis process._

What is the time scale of "the photosynthesis process"?

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semi-extrinsic
IIRC for a field of wheat growing on a summer day with blue skies and no wind,
the photosynthesis process takes just 30 minutes to deplete the CO2 in the air
above the wheat. After that the process becomes diffusion limited.

