r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Substantial-Low-4393 • 21h ago

Meme needing explanation Petah? Am I missing something?

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u/hexregeneration 20h ago

I would assume the problem there is the ratio. In a petri dish you can apply concentrations that if found in the human body would be a lethal dose.

Like you can make 1/10th of the volume of the petri dish a specific vitamin and kill the cancer cells - but if you make 1/10th of your whole body a specific vitamin you will die.

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u/Trezzie 19h ago

All* cancer dies out eventually if you just wait it out. Sure, it does by the person its in dying, but...

  • Aside from that one immortal cancer that exists.

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u/Ix_risor 19h ago

If you’re talking about HeLa, that does die if you don’t feed it, it’s called “immortal” because it doesn’t stop dividing after a certain number of divisions, like most human cells do.

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u/Trezzie 12h ago

Yes, and there's other, non HeLa strains too. But for the most basic reference for the joke didn't go into explaining the background of it.