21 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Experiment Demonstrating Plants Produce Breathable Air
When air has been freshly and strongly tainted with putrefaction, so as to smell through the water, sprigs of mint have presently died, upon being put into it, their leaves turning black; but if they do not die presently, they thrive in a most surprizing manner. In no other circumstances have I ever seen vegetation so vigorous as in this kind of air, which is immediately fatal to animal life. Though these plants have been crouded in jars filled with this air, every leaf has been full of life;...Folksonomies: experimentation
Folksonomies: experimentation
1 
notes
notesUsing a mouse and a sprig of mint.
11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Mark Twain's Description of Evolution
Adam is fading out. It is on account of Darwin and that crowd. I can see that he is not going to last much longer. There's a plenty of signs. He is getting belittled to a germ—a little bit of a speck that you can't see without a microscope powerful enough to raise a gnat to the size of a church. They take that speck and breed from it: first a flea; then a fly, then a bug, then cross these and get a fish, then a raft of fishes, all kinds, then cross the whole lot and get a reptile, then work...Folksonomies: humor big history
Folksonomies: humor big history
1 notes
notesWitty.
24 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Species Go Through the Same Stages as Individual Living B...
Just as in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, an individual comes into being, so to speak, grows, remains in being, declines and passes on, will it not be the same for entire species? If our faith did not teach us that animals left the Creator's hands just as they now appear and, if it were permitted to entertain the slightest doubt as to their beginning and their end, may not a philosopher, left to his own conjectures, suspect that, from time immemorial, animal life had its own constituent e...Folksonomies: religion philosophy
Folksonomies: religion philosophy
1 notes
notesThey grow, change, and die.
30 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Homeostasis
The constant conditions which are maintained in the body might be termed equilibria. That word, however, has come to have fairly exact meaning as applied to relatively simple physico-chemical states, in closed systems, where known forces are balanced. The coordinated physiological processes which maintain most of the steady states in the organism are so complex and so peculiar to living beings- involving, as they may, the brain and nerves, the heart, lungs, kidneys and spleen, all working coo... 1 notes
notesOrigin of the word, meaning the tendency of animal life to maintain an internal equilibrium.
14 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Difference Between Vegetable and Animal
Thus it might be said, that the vegetable is only the sketch, nor rather the ground-work of the animal; that for the formation of the latter, it has only been requisite to clothe the former with an apparatus of external organs, by which it might be connected with external objects.
From hence it follows, that the functions of the animal are of two very different classes. By the one (which is composed of an habitual succession of assimilation and excretion) it lives within itself, transforms i... 1 notes
notesA lovely description.
09 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
An Ancient Observation of Life from Lifelessness.
Nature proceeds little by little from things lifeless to animal life in such a way that it is impossible to determine the exact line of demarcation, nor on which side thereof an intermediate form should lie. Thus, next after lifeless things comes the plant, and of plants one will differ from another as to its amount of apparent vitality; and, in a word, the whole genus of plants, whilst it is devoid of life as compared with an animal, is endowed with life as compared with other corporeal enti... 1 notes
notesFrom Aristotle's "History of Animals". From mineral to plant to animal; this could be seen as an early view of evolution.
28 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Perspectives on Gaia
TREVIZE WAS surrounded by the tameness of Gaia. The temperature, as always, was comfortable, and the air moved pleasantly, refreshing but not chilling. Clouds drifted across the sky, interrupting the sunlight now and then, and, no doubt, if the water vapor level per meter of open land surface dropped sufficiently in this place or that, there would be enough rain to restore it.
The trees grew in regular spacings, like an orchard, and did so, no doubt, all over the world. The land and sea were...Folksonomies: gaia gaia hypothesis
Folksonomies: gaia gaia hypothesis
1 notes
notesSelections from "Foundation and Earth" on the fictional world Gaia, which is a more concrete example of Lovelock's almost metaphorical description of Earth as a living being.
11 APR 2011 by ideonexus
We Exaggerate the Magnitude of Ice Ages
The history of Earth's climate is one of the more compelling arguments in favour of Gaia's existence. We know from the record of the sedimentary rocks that for the pst three and a half aeons the climate has never been, even for a short period, wholly unfavorable for life. Because of the unbroken record of life, we also know that the oceans can never have either frozen or boiled. Indeed, subtle evidence from the ratio of the different forms of oxygen atoms laid down in the rocks over the cours... 1 notes
notesIce Ages did not encroach on over 70 percent of the Earth's surface, meaning they were not as significant of an event as we tend to imagine them.
