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Posted by eatonphil 12/10/2025

Size of Life(neal.fun)
2619 points | 277 commentspage 7
dsign 12/11/2025|
Amazing!

I always thought that the best we could do for targeted drug delivery was an adenovirus. But after seeing that parasite being only slightly bigger than a red blood cell, I think we can do better...

Zak 12/11/2025||
Never before have I seen the message "Firefox has been terminated by the Linux kernel because the system is low on memory". Thanks for a new experience!

I do like the visualization.

greg7mdp 12/11/2025|
The OOM killer strikes again.
Helmut10001 12/11/2025||
Great visualization! It would have been nice to zoom out to a view of the world from space at the end, since this is really the max size of life as we know it (n=1 so far).
worldsayshi 12/10/2025||
I didn't know tardigrades can be big enough to be seen with the naked eye. Apparently big enough to be seen but not big enough to be recognised without magnification.
yunwal 12/10/2025||
I don't understand how the location of a 377 foot tall tree could be kept secret. Wouldn't that type of thing be visible in satellite imagery at the very least?
1970-01-01 12/10/2025||
It's not sticking straight up from the ground in Kansas. Hyperion has many siblings nearby and is on rocky terrain which conceals its overall height.
housecarpenter 12/11/2025|||
From Wikipedia:

"The exact location of Hyperion is nominally secret but is available via internet search.[12] However, in July 2022, the Redwood Park superintendent closed the entire area around the tree, citing "devastation of the habitat surrounding Hyperion" caused by visitors. Its base was trampled by the overuse and as a result ferns no longer grow around the tree.[13]

Measures to protect the Hyperion tree were officially implemented in 2022 when the National Park Service (NPS) closed public access to its location in Redwood National Park.[14][15] Anyone who gets too close could face up to six months in jail and a $5,000 maximum fine.[13][16][17]"

Petersipoi 12/10/2025|||
It isn't a secret. The location can easily be found if you Google it.
efilife 12/10/2025|||
were you able to? I wasn't

http://famousredwoods.com/hyperion/

Nevermind!

1970-01-01 12/10/2025|||
It is literally a secret. The location cannot easily be found with Google. Go ahead, try and find it.
hermitcrab 12/10/2025||
And if you do, don't post it.
micromacrofoot 12/10/2025||
There are a lot of 300 foot trees in the general vicinity, so you'd need to actually measure to be precisely sure
8-prime 12/11/2025||
My main takeaway was that I had no clue how large Krill can get. To think that Antarctic Krill is as long as the Bee Hummingbird is tall is absurd to me.
almog 12/11/2025||
One error I think I spotted: Wooly Mammoth atill lived 4000 years ago in Wrangel Island but the the website says it got extinct 10,000 years ago.
js2 12/10/2025||
Nit: the tool-tips on the action icons in the top-right aren't consistent.

When music is playing the tool tip is "unmute" which is a verb. It should either be "mute" (to indicate what clicking will do) or "unmuted" (adjective) indicating the current state. Similarly, when the music is muted the tool-tip should either be "muted" or "unmute".

I'm not sure _which_ is wanted (verb or adjective) because the ruler tool-tip uses "Hide Ruler" and "Show Ruler" (verb), while the units tool-tip uses "Units: imperial" and "Units: Metric" (adjective). The info tool-tip ("Info") is also an adjective.

For consistency, I'd use a verb-phrase in all the tool tips:

- "Show info"

- "Switch units to metric/imperial"

- "Hide/show ruler"

- "Mute/unmute music"

I mean, I know this is pedantic nit-picking, but the site is so perfect, what else am I going to do?

phkahler 12/10/2025||
EDIT: Nevermind. Perhaps it was an ad that I clicked on. Lots of comments here indicating they don't see it, and some that did.

My Original comment here (too late to delete):

Beware. When you reach the end there is a "more projects" button. In there is a cute IQ test (possibly appealing to the HN crowd). When you reach the end of the test it asks for email, and then ultimately wants $1 to get your results. If you pay by credit card due note that there is an auto-checked box for some $29.99 per month subscription for... something.

waxpancake 12/10/2025||
This is definitely not something Neal would ever do. Can you share the URL you're talking about? There's no IQ test in his projects list at all. https://neal.fun/
pxndx 12/10/2025|||
Are you sure about that? for me it just leads to neal.fun, which is a well loved by HN list of projects, but no IQ test nor begging for money.
varenc 12/10/2025|||
Link? couldn't find the IQ test in more projects. And super skeptical neal.fun is trying to trick people into $30/month subscriptions

edit: I turned off my ad blocker and discovered the site is showing some ads. Guessing you clicked on an ad?

also it's pretty ironic because one of his projects is showcasing dark patterns: https://neal.fun/dark-patterns/

beejiu 12/10/2025|||
For what it's worth, there are AdSense interstitial ads on the site, so you probably got duped by one of those ads.
krosaen 12/10/2025|||
Saw this too on mobile - I think it's an ad - I requested a paid ad-free version elsewhere in the comments
abustamam 12/10/2025|||
I can't seem to find the IQ test. I see captcha and other "games"
WD-42 12/10/2025||
Ironically this sounds like a piece of satire Neal would make.
njarboe 12/10/2025|
Fun to see the Jerboa. I recently read a family history written by my uncle and he believes this is the source of our family name.
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