AWKWARD ZOMBIE

What about instead of a whole comic, you could always put a lot of small ideas into one, Katie, if you are too busy with college.

Hey, I'm new here, and I thought I'd just add in an idea.

Has anyone ever wondered why the Pokerus in Diamond/Pearl/Platinum actually makes a Pokemon grow faster? I thought it was an illness of some kind.

Maybe Katie could make a comic (after getting used to college, of course) of a trainer bringing his/her Poke to the center to get it healed, and Nurse Joy explains that the Poke has a sickness called the Pokerus that somehow makes it grow faster. The trainer thinks that's cool. The Pokemon gets mad at the trainer for liking the fact that it's sick and inflicts some damage on the trainer with a tackle or something to get back at them.

I think that could be expanded, but I don't like the way it is now.

I like the idea of doing a comic based on the Pokerus.

One of the things I always thought strange was how the Pokerus is described as "Tiny lifeforms that attach to a Pokemon's body"

That sorta sounds like leeches, ticks, or fleas to me <.<;

I'm thinking the nanobots from "The Day the Earth Stood Still", except not programmed to destroy all human life.

Shockey wrote:Maybe Katie could make a comic (after getting used to college, of course) of a trainer bringing his/her Poke to the center to get it healed, and Nurse Joy explains that the Poke has a sickness called the Pokerus that somehow makes it grow faster. The trainer thinks that's cool. The Pokemon gets mad at the trainer for liking the fact that it's sick and inflicts some damage on the trainer with a tackle or something to get back at them.

The Pokerus thing doesn't seem that odd to me.

Human beings have beneficial bacteria in their bodies - these bacteria manufacture vitamins and nutrients from undigested food in our intestines.

It is a common speculation that the mitochondria in every single one of our cells were once, millions of years ago, completely separate organisms.

At some point in our evolutionary process, perhaps before multicellular organisms even existed, mitochondria were absorbed into what we know as animal cells - because the two distinct organisms functioned better symbiotically as a combined pair, and so mitochondria became a permanent addition to animal cell structure.

Plants go one better than this, they have both mitochondria and chloroplasts - it is speculated that chloroplasts were at one stage also a separate organism to what we understand as plant cells.


I think the Pokerus thing is supposed to work on a similar level to mitochondria, because it sounds as though the Pokerus are not actually viruses, but microscopic organisms that become a permanent part of a Pokemon's cellular structure.

Man, I love biology.


I can't think of a comic idea to go with it though - it's not like the Pokemon actually suffer any adverse effects from the Pokerus - at all.

Except that they're contagious for a time - maybe the Pokemon trainer could try rubbing the Pokemon against each other to try to transfer the Pokerus (because it's a good thing for them all to be infected). This disturbs the Pokemon obviously.

I recall a number of occasions where some of the Pokemon in my party just wouldn't become infected, no matter how hard I tried to make it happen (like the other five Pokemon were infected, but the sixth just wouldn't get infected and I don't know why).

DnD, we have those bacteria from birth, something far different from a symbiotic microscopic organism.

Here's a question.

If it's symbiotic, where does the virus go after the 48 hours or so?

It sounds like the Pokemon's immune defense system killed it off, just like any species kill off viruses and bacteria that don't belong in their bodies.

...

Maybe the Pokemon are the parasites, and the Pokerus is the host? They infect themselves with the Pokerus, then they brutalize it and use it for their own advantage.

Something that doesn't belong in your body is something that wasn't made with your body. If you're dying of a heart disease then a new heart would belong in your body, no? And yet when a heart is transplanted, the patient has to take pills for the rest of their lives because the body is always fighting against it. It fights because that heart is alien.

Fooflyer wrote:DnD, we have those bacteria from birth, something far different from a symbiotic microscopic organism.

The symbiosis has reached full integration, mitochondria and chloroplasts are considered part of the same cell, even thought they have their own DNA, separate to the host cell (this DNA being in plasmid form - identical to DNA plasmids bacteria carry).

It's actually categorised as 'endosymbiosis', and it's quite interesting really:

Wikipedia wrote:The endosymbiotic relationship of mitochondria with their host cells was popularized by Lynn Margulis. The endosymbiotic hypothesis suggests that mitochondria descended from bacteria that somehow survived endocytosis by another cell, and became incorporated into the cytoplasm. The ability of these bacteria to conduct respiration in host cells that had relied on glycolysis and fermentation would have provided a considerable evolutionary advantage. In a similar manner, host cells with symbiotic bacteria capable of photosynthesis would have had an advantage. The incorporation of symbiotes would have increased the number of environments in which the cells could survive. This symbiotic relationship probably developed 1.7-2 billion years ago.

Karilyn wrote:Here's a question.

If it's symbiotic, where does the virus go after the 48 hours or so?

It sounds like the Pokemon's immune defense system killed it off, just like any species kill off viruses and bacteria that don't belong in their bodies.

I thought we established that the Pokerus were microscopic organisms, not viruses.

I guess they cease to be infectious after a given period of time - perhaps once they are fully integrated into the Pokemon's cells.

I think they are still there after the infectious period ends, because the stat gains etc. are still there.


Woooo! I'm starting to sound like a real life Team Rocket scientist! Hurrdurr.

My 8 years of education trembles before the use of such jargon.

Fooflyer wrote:My 8 years of education trembles before the use of such jargon.

I'll simplify it as much as I'm able.

DoNotDelete wrote:

Fooflyer wrote:DnD, we have those bacteria from birth, something far different from a symbiotic microscopic organism.

The current relationship goes beyond symbiosis, mitochondria and chloroplasts are now considered part of the same cell, even thought they have their own DNA loop, separate to the host cell.

It's actually categorised as 'endosymbiosis', and it's quite interesting really:

Wikipedia wrote:The endosymbiotic hypothesis suggests that mitochondria descended from bacteria that survived being ingested by another cell, and in turn became a functioning part of that cell.

The ability of these bacteria (mitochondria) to assist in the release of energy (respiration) in host cells that had relied on less productive energy-release mechanisms (glycolysis and fermentation) would have provided a considerable evolutionary advantage.

In a similar manner, host cells with symbiotic bacteria capable of photosynthesis (see 'chloroplasts' - algae/plant cells) would have had an advantage. The incorporation of symbiotes would have increased the number of environments in which the cells could survive.

This symbiotic relationship probably developed 1.7-2 billion years ago.

Wait, did you just imply that you're using words you cannot comprehend the meaning of? ssvsdf

Fooflyer wrote:Wait, did you just imply that you're using words you cannot comprehend the meaning of? ssvsdf

I understood everything as it was written originally, but that's because I'm familiar with a lot of those terms.

I said I would simplify it as much as I'm able, because I don't want to simplify it so much that it loses its meaning, or ends up saying something different...

...and I can't read your mind so don't know what kind of words I need to be using to communicate to you.

You do understand that 'engulf' more or less means to 'eat' right? This definition at least applies to the use of this word in a cellular context.

I'm not a delinquent, I assure you that. Although just how common do you think that the majority of the biological vocabulary is?