30 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Mitochondria and Chloroplasts
Margulis believes that mitochondria were originally parasites (or
predators - the distinction is not important at this level) which attacked
the larger bacteria that were destined to provide the shell of the
eucaryotic cell. There are still some bacterial parasites that do a similar
trick, burrowing through the prey's cell wall, then, when safely inside,
sealing up the wall and eating the cell from within. The mitochondrial
ancestors, according to the theory, evolved from parasites that kill ... 1 
notes
notes24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Astrochicken
The basic idea of Astrochicken is that the spacecraft will be small and quick. I do not believe that a fruitful future for space science lies along the path we are now following, with space missions growing larger and larger and fewer and fewer and slower and slower as the decades go by. I propose a radical step in the direction of smallness and quickness. Astrochicken will weigh a kilogram instead of Voyager's ton, and it will travel from Earth into orbit around Uranus in two years instead ...Folksonomies: artificial intelligence space exploration
Folksonomies: artificial intelligence space exploration
1 notes
notes30 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Trees are Made of Air
By blending water and minerals from below with sunlight and CO2 from above, green plants link the earth to the sky. We tend to believe that plants grow out of the soil, but in fact most of their substance comes from the air. The bulk of the cellulose and the other organic compounds produced through photosynthesis consists of heavy carbon and oxygen atoms, which plants take directly from the air in the form of CO2. Thus the weight of a wooden log comes almost entirely from the air. When we bur... 1 notes
notesSounds much like the Richard Feynman quote.
28 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Eucalyptus Forests as Solar Energy
Sir Edward has calculated that quick-growing Indian eucalyptus trees have a yield of nine and one-quarter tons of wood an acre a year. As the wood contains 0.8 per cent of the solar energy reaching the ground in the tropics in the form of heat, Sir Edward has suggested that in theory eucalyptus forests could provide a perpetual source of fuel. He has said that by rotational tree planting and felling, a forest of twenty kilometers square would enable a wood consuming power station to provide 1...Folksonomies: energy solar power
Folksonomies: energy solar power
1 notes
notesBurning them to release the heat they have stored in chemical energy from the sun.
28 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
Evidence of Global Warming in Just the Past 12 Months
Is the climate crisis real? Yes, of course it is. Pause for a moment to consider these events of just the past 12 months:
• Heat. According to NASA, 2010 was tied with 2005 as the hottest year measured since instruments were first used systematically in the 1880s. Nineteen countries set all-time high temperature records. One city in Pakistan, Mohenjo-Daro, reached 128.3 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest temperature ever measured in an Asian city. Nine of the 10 hottest years in history have ...
1 Al Gore summarizes extreme weather events and other natural phenomena as a result of Global Warming from just the past year.
09 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Geese Flying in Vee Formation
One, two, three ragged files of Canada geese skim the treetops, preceded and followed by their honking chorus. I freeze in my tracks to watch them pass, heading south, feathers ruffled by the last warm breezes of the season. When their honks have faded into silence, I notice a chill in the air. The spinning planet has leaned into its winter curve, away from the Sun. And then, just when I think the racket has passed, I hear another barely audible chorus of honks, high in the air. I look up to ... 1 notes
notesEvolutionay benefits explain the pattern, which is an example of order forged out of an even greater disordering process occurring in our sun.
08 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
How Photosynthesis Builds Energy Against Entropy
No law of physics is more basic than the law of entropy, the tendency of the universe to move toward disorder and death. But life bucks the tide. using available free energy wherever it can get it, and hereabouts the most abundant source of energy is sunlight. The mayflower constructs its tiny oasis of order by drawing upon a corresponding increase of disorder at the center of the Sun, where hydrogen is fused into helium. There, deep at the heart of our planet's star, is the source of the ene...Folksonomies: entropy photosynthesis
Folksonomies: entropy photosynthesis
1 notes
notesStoring sugars, reflecting green light, and being consumed to power predators.
08 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Everything Comes from Stars
What gravity is and why it is, no one knows. Albert Einstein spent most of his life trying to figure it out, but the secret eluded him. it is simply a fact that everything in the universe with mass pulls on everything else. If it weren't for the initial outward impetus of the Big Bang, gravity would have caused the entire universe to collapse into a heap. (Indeed, someday the cosmic collapse may happen, if and when the initial impetus is expended, although the best evidence suggests that the ... 1 notes
notesThe Big Bang to the formation of stars, which formed the elements crucial to life. It takes 1,000 calories of sunlight to evaporate one thimbleful of water.
20 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
The Natural Economy is Solar Powered
The natural economy is solar-powered. Photons from the sun rain down upon the entire
daytime surface of the planet. Many photons do nothing more useful than heat up a rock or a sandy
beach. A few find their way into an eye - yours, or mine, or the compound eye of a shrimp or the
parabolic reflector eye of a scallop. Some may happen to fall on a solar panel - either a man-made
one like those that, in a fit of green zeal, I have just installed on my roof to heat the bathwater, or a
green leaf, ... 1 notes
notesAll life on Earth deals in exchanges of sunbeams.
03 MAR 2011 by ideonexus
The Flow of Semen Every Sixty Seconds
Humanity pumps 53.4 billion liters of bloodper minute, but that red river is not surprising; it must flow to sustain life. At the same time, humanity's male organs eject forty-three tons of semen, and the point is that though each ejaculation is also an ordinary physiological act, for the individual it is irregular, intimate, not overly frequent, and not even necessary. Besides, there are millions of old people, children, voluntary and involuntary celibates, sick people, and so forth. And ye...While this statistic is fictional, it is plausible and thought-provoking considering how Stanislaw Lem philosophizes on it.
