Comment by embedding-shape

Comment by embedding-shape an hour ago

HN title at the moment is: Researchers Find Microbe Capable of Producing Oxygen from Martian Soil

Article title at the moment is: Microbe That Could Turn Martian Dust into Oxygen

Neither of those are particularly misleading, but requires you to read it carefully I suppose, otherwise it can misleading I suppose. I guess "Martian Dust" is the most misleading part of the quote, as the soil isn't actually Martian of origin, but actually "materials that are similar to Martian soil".

adrian_b 41 minutes ago

Both titles are very misleading, because neither "oxygen is produced from Martian soil" nor "Martian dust is turned into oxygen".

As I have said, the oxygen comes only from water, which is missing on Mars, unlike the abundant Martian soil or Martian dust.

So the "microbe" does not solve the problem of oxygen production, which is obtaining water. With water, making oxygen by electrolysis is trivial and a problem solved long ago.

The cyanobacterium can make various useful organic substances, like proteins and vitamins. The fact that it also makes some oxygen is a minor additional advantage.

Even if such cyanobacteria will be grown on Mars, most of the oxygen will be made by electrolysis anyway, because the efficiency from solar light to free oxygen is much better and the photovoltaic cells continue to function in a much wider range of temperatures.

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embedding-shape 36 minutes ago

> As I have said, the oxygen comes only from water, which is missing on Mars
The title nor the article itself doesn't claim otherwise, unless I'm missing something?
It's also not claiming that the microbe somehow solve the problem of obtaining water, or anything else.
The only thing they claim is that this specific microbe, under the right circumstances, can produce oxygen while it grows in Martian-like soil. That's what the article claims, and the titles.

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- adrian_b 23 minutes ago
  
  You have reproduced yourself the 2 titles, which contain:
  "Microbe Capable of Producing Oxygen from Martian Soil"
  "Microbe That Could Turn Martian Dust into Oxygen"
  The words "producing X from Y" and "turn Y into X" are extremely clear and they do not admit alternative interpretations. They both claim that X=oxygen comes from Y=soil|dust, contrary to what you say, that the titles do not contain such claims.
  I normally avoid to follow the fashion of accusing posters of being AI bots, but such a failure of comprehension could be explained only for an AI bot, or perhaps for someone who understands very little English, but the latter explanation does not match the correct English of the message.
  Perhaps you have used an English translation service that has confused you?
  
  Reply View | 0 replies
- dale_glass 26 minutes ago
  
  "Producing Oxygen from Martian Soil" to me implies that martian soil is the thing being turned into oxygen.
  
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