Happy Thought for 25 October 2024

 

Have a Happy Thought:   

 

Some months ago, I was stumped trying to remember / discover a word. I was pretty sure this word existed, I just couldn’t find it anywhere, and my google skills were failing me... as was everyone I asked.  

 

 You may be then happy to know that I randomly stumbled across the answer, thanks to a “mutual” on social media. (For those that don’t know: a “mutual” is someone that you follow, that also follows you – i.e., you are mutually following each other).  

 

This is relevant because the thing I kept googling was: "what’s the word for when two species that are symbiotic, but only one of them benefits – and the other one isn’t hurt?” 

 

Because you see I knew the word “symbiosis”, which I thought meant two species that rely on each other to reproduce / get food / generally survive – in other words, both benefit. 

 

And I knew the word “parasite”, which is when one species benefits but only by harming the other species. 

 

The answer to my question, which my social-media-mutual brought to me, is: “Commensalism”, which is when one species benefits, and the other... basically doesn’t notice. 

 

Image: https://www.sciencefacts.net/symbiosis.html  

 

It turns out that what I thought was “symbiosis” is actually “mutualism” (both benefit), and the word “symbiosis” is a broader term that means any sort of long-term species-to-species interaction. 

 

The best part about this all is that this person on social media posts way more than I do, and (at least in my opinion) posts about way more interesting things (she’s a scientist doing some pretty cool research). So it’s likely that even though we are "mutuals”, what we really have is a “commensal” relationship. 

 

 

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Also posted to:   

cymittw.blogspot.com