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Thinking a lot about ratchets lately. Internal and external. Ratchets are more fundamental than clocks. Things that can only grow in one direction, and reversed only via destruction.
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There's surprisingly few literal ratchet mechanisms in biology. The hayflick limit (cell reproduction) is one I can think of. There's also some enzymes that work kinda like mechanical ratchets. The body is bad at "counting" itself. Lots of tick tocks, few odometers.
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hormonal regulation of growth? hence trans activists focus on puberty blockers... harder to transition if you have to rewind first insect life cycle... egg --> caterpillar --> pupa --> adult? Not sure how that's regulated.
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Just thought of a good one: ear wax. There's some sort of mechanism in inner ear that produces and moves ear wax outwards. Also more trivially, digestive tract. Throwing up is a sign of illness (ratchet reverse), pooping is normal.
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Despite popular belief, people very rarely lose and maintain a lower body weight. One explanation for this is the so-called set point theory that argues that the body contains regulatory mechanisms that try to maintain a certain set weight - approximately the historical max
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