Fascinating and well written. I wish the author's site had an rss feed.
You might be able to achieve that by subscribing to the authors GitHub:
Where do our atoms come from?
21–30 of 77 posts
Re: Where do our atoms come from?
#22So if plants are roughly half carbon half water, and the carbon comes from the air while the water comes from the ground, it makes sense that plants spread roughly symmetrically both below the ground and above the ground. Well, a bit more above the ground because they also need photons.
Re: Where do our atoms come from?
#23 > In turn, most rain comes from water evaporated from surface water
Re: Where do our atoms come from?
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the most beautiful explanation that I've heard for a long time (:
Not quite as beautiful and eloquent as the original "we are made of stardust" quote by Carl Sagan that Neil deGrasse Tyson is aping here.
> Not quite as beautiful and eloquent as the original
The "original" would be Joni Mitchell's Woodstock, no?
Re: Where do our atoms come from?
#25So if plants are roughly half carbon half water, and the carbon comes from the air while the water comes from the ground, it makes sense that plants spread roughly symmetrically both below the ground and above the ground. Well, a bit more above the ground because they also need photons.
There is a tendency to draw the silhouette of a tree with roots the same size as the canopy but this image is wrong. The root system of most plants run much shallower than people assume because there is no oxygen in deep soil to sustain the roots. A 300 feet giant Sequoia would only reach 12 to 15 feet into the ground.
Re: Where do our atoms come from?
#26"The knowledge that the atoms that comprise life on earth - the atoms that make up the human body, are traceable to the crucibles that cooked light elements into heavy elements in their core under extreme temperatures and pressures. These stars- the high mass ones among them- went unstable in their later years- they collapsed and then exploded- scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy- guts made of carbon, ni…
Those feelings themselves are just patterns formed by particles in the brain, though.
Possibly not the same particles, though. Baryonic matter condenses and undergoes nuclear transformations in the stars. But if our feelings and memories are electrical phenomenon then they were not formed in stars.
Re: Where do our atoms come from?
#27So if plants are roughly half carbon half water, and the carbon comes from the air while the water comes from the ground, it makes sense that plants spread roughly symmetrically both below the ground and above the ground. Well, a bit more above the ground because they also need photons.
"Half" isn't accurate or significant, but...
A tree is a slow-motion explosion, one which can only occur at the boundary (interface) between air and earth.
A human is a slow-motion explosion, one which can only occur at the boundary (interface) between fluid and uterine wall.
We're not so different, because physics doesn't change. Both systems need resources from both sides in order to grow, so an interface is really the only option.
Re: Where do our atoms come from?
#28So if plants are roughly half carbon half water, and the carbon comes from the air while the water comes from the ground, it makes sense that plants spread roughly symmetrically both below the ground and above the ground. Well, a bit more above the ground because they also need photons.
"Half" isn't accurate or significant, but... A tree is a slow-motion explosion, one which can only occur at the boundary (interface) between air and earth. A human is a slow-motion explosion, one which can only occur at the boundary (interface) between fluid and uterine wall. We're not so different, because physics doesn't change. Both systems need resources from both sides in order to grow, so an interface is really…
What’s your definition of explosion?
Re: Where do our atoms come from?
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those feelings themselves are just patterns formed by particles in the brain, though.
Possibly not the same particles, though. Baryonic matter condenses and undergoes nuclear transformations in the stars. But if our feelings and memories are electrical phenomenon then they were not formed in stars.
Obviously, the patterns weren’t formed in stars. My point is, if you are admiring the body being a pattern formed of particles coming from the stars, realize that the admiration is itself also just such a pattern (as is that realization).
Re: Where do our atoms come from?
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those feelings themselves are just patterns formed by particles in the brain, though.
Possibly not the same particles, though. Baryonic matter condenses and undergoes nuclear transformations in the stars. But if our feelings and memories are electrical phenomenon then they were not formed in stars.
I think electrical activity in the brain is misunderstood. These electrical signals are not electrons moving along a wire, they are waves of depolarisation between the inside and inside of the cell membrane travelling along the axon or dendrites. The depolarisation is due to the activity of a bunch of ion pumps and channels that let ions pass between the inside and outside of the cell. Some of these ion channels are themselves voltage-gated, thereby further increasing the depolarisation in response to depolarisation, and propagating the signal that way.
So it's still mostly atoms moving in and out of cells. Still stardust.