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One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

nytimes.com

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Re: One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

#61

Post by grey-area »

Xplune13 wrote: post #43
grey-area wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason for going to Mars is not to avoid mankind’s mistakes (e.g. global warming) but to avoid the great filter in whatever form it takes.

Yes, that's what I meant when I said I'm all for space exploration. But, most of the reasons to leave the planet Earth from us general public have been in the line of "I'm fed up with all this and that's why I have to go to the Mars to start anew" i.e. mostly running away from the problems or fed up of the system etc. That being said, in my opinion, we should definitely pay more attention to saving this planet rather…

I sincerely think we do pay more attention to this planet than Mars, e.g. many people advocating mars are also involved in electric cars and solar energy.

Re: One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

#62

Post by w0de0 »

sfink wrote: post #52
Xplune13 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always find these types of comments funny. I cannot think of any other reason on why a person would think that going to mars is a better option than lack of research on the planet and its habitability. On top of that, going to Mars isn't going to magically solve the problems. As I've said earlier in some past comment, going to Mars is just as good as moving the goalpost. What we have to do is change what we're curr…

The way I think of it is: If you had to terraform a planet, which one would you choose? Option 1: a bombed-out Earth with runaway global warming, acidic oceans, the end result of mass extinctions where there's dramatically less species diversity and some planet-wide ecologies have utterly collapsed. Option 2: Mars. I would at least hope the answer is obvious. No matter how much we trash Earth, it's still vastly more…

Start adding embryos to the seed vault - I like it.

Re: One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

#63

Post by gamblor956 »

memorysafety wrote: post #28
nicoburns wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> dare you doubt human's destruction ability?.. I don't doubt human's ability. Which is why I fight those who don't seem to care about preserving earth. Who seem to overlap quite strongly woth those who believe that other planets may provide a viable alternative. I don't doubt our ability to destroy earth, but I do doubt our ability to successfully live somewhere else.

I might be a counterexample to your perceived overlap. 3 points: * It seems that, as a species, we have deep issues rooted in our tribal upbringing. Reaching a global actionable consensus seems as hard (if not harder) as colonizing another planet. The internet only catalyzes the "us vs they" thinking people struggle to get rid of. In one of its many incarnations, it's a nurture of horribly mistaken worldviews — and h…

Mars is not a viable safety hatch for continued human existence. It will simply be too dependent on resupply from the Earth for the foreseeable future (on a timescale measured in generations).

All of the following are easier to accomplish than colonizing Mars: solving global warming, colonizing the ocean floor, colonizing the Moon. Indeed, the technologies we would need to terraform or colonize Mars to a sufficient level to be an escape hatch would necessarily involve solving all of those first.

Re: One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

#64

Post by rmason »

The Beal garden is but a few miles from my house. Today is Dr. Beal's birthday and because of this little experiment he is remembered 97 years after his death far more than any of his peers.

If you're ever in East Lansing it's worth visiting Beal garden which is next to the campus library. It's so picturesque that students have their weddings there.

Re: One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

#65

Post by res0nat0r »

chriswarbo wrote: post #40
res0nat0r wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. It's crazy that so many folks are buying into the dream of moving off world successfully before the planet is uninhabitable. I think this is just tied to billionaire hero worship. We should be shaming them for wasting money vs. spending those billions to force real change on Earth to fix the climate situation here which will come due long before any off world living will be anywhere close to reality.

> We should be shaming them for wasting money vs. spending those billions to force real change on Earth to fix the climate situation here which will come due long before any off world living will be anywhere close to reality. That's a false dichotomy, and just as much of a fantasy utopia as the 'solve our problems by moving to Mars' crowd: - Space exploration and technology is an investment , not a waste. - Space tec…

If Jeff / Elon would instead say "it's a lot more nerd cool points to take maybe 30 people to Mars, possibly fruitful in 80 years, than it is to spend money doing the boring work of keeping the planet from overheating" and market their Mars ambitions that way vs. saving the human race then I'd have a much different opinion on the matter.

Re: One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

#66

Post by trompetenaccoun »

gnarbarian wrote: post #11

I find this both reassuring and terrifying. It's reassuring because if life was completely wiped out on the planet there would be trillions of seeds waiting for the right conditions to germinate and repopulate the Earth with life. It's terrifying because why would this have evolved?

You don't need extinction events for it to be an advantage for seeds to be more resilient.

Re: One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

#67

Post by julienchastang »

whyenot wrote: post #9
julienchastang wrote: post #7

Question: Do these seeds have any biological or biochemical activity while dormant or are they completely inert for all that time?

They have very reduced biological activity, but they are not inert. Seeds can respond to water, temperature, light, day length, chemicals produced by fire and smoke, and to different plant hormones among other things.

From a biophysics perspective, I find this really fascinating. These self-contained molecular machines with a co-located energy source can plod along, albeit very slowly, for perhaps hundreds of years and ultimately self-replicate. It seems like this has implications for interstellar colonization, among other things.
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