
A Contagious Cancer That Jumped Between Species - katiey
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/06/the-contagious-cancer-that-jumps-between-species/487841/?single_page=true
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ItsMe000001
When we developed antibiotics we thought we solved the problem. Now we are
looking at more and more strains of bacteria resistant to all we got. We have
to keep going, turns out we are not done developing antibiotics, forever.

So, as I see it, this might show that once we "cured cancer" (I know, there is
not "one cancer", and that there won't be that one drug, it's more a dynamic
equilibrium), when we think we made it we might find out that the threat
develops too and cancerous cells may come up with completely new ideas. Red
Queen hypothesis, in a way. I know the article says they have not seen any
such thing in humans, but when we developed antibiotics the ones we see now
weren't there either.

A little OT:

The new public release version of that new cancer like thing will be open
source, as always, and also as always that is of little use because the code
is a mess and deciphering it takes as much time as writing it new from
scratch... on the other hand, whenever I looked at source code of major
projects it reminded me a lot of what biological processes would come up with,
just as messy, you can only patch the immediate problem, probably introducing
10 new ones in the process. Especially when they rely on automated testing _to
replace understanding_ \- patches that pass the tests are accepted (keep
fiddling until they do), until nobody understands the code any more a hundred
developers and years later.

Sometimes software developers ask what new programming language to learn for
self-improvement. Inevitably a lot of languages from Haskell to Python to
whatever are mentioned. I think that's all aiming way too close to what those
people already know. I would recommend - biology and neuroscience! It's easy
and free these days, e.g. "Introduction to Biology" on edX, "Medical
Neuroscience" on Coursera after the fundamentals from Harvard at
[https://www.mcb80x.org/](https://www.mcb80x.org/) \- plus probability and
statistics (edX, Coursera - many very good courses).

Only some random musings triggered by reading that article.

~~~
whatshisface
Unlike bacteria, cancer must evolve "fresh" in each new host that it develops
in. As a result, a cancer treatment that works today will work about as well
in the future.

~~~
platz
Is cancer just an inevitable threshold one must reach on long enough timeline,
due to entropy?

~~~
tbrownaw
Given sufficient time, _everything_ becomes inevitable.

~~~
gnulinux
What does "everything" mean in this sentence? Even things that are not allowed
by the "model" of the universe?

~~~
whatshisface
Everything can tunnel, so on the scale of "truly silly times," the particles
in your body might someday get back together for a reunion.

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bazillionTumors
One of only eight (known) transmissible cancers?

I have to figure this isn't the eighth time cancer has managed to transmit
itself as a contagion, granted that multicellular life has been interoperating
for billions of years.

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andrelaszlo
From the article: "these selfish shellfish cells"

------
IAmEveryone
dupe:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16859064](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16859064)

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Taniwha
best subeditor ever!

