[neilep (OP)]

Did You Know ? ..........


 There are microbes called endoliths that live deep inside rocks ? miles beneath the Earth?s surface ? surviving without sunlight or oxygen, sometimes for millions of years in near-total metabolic stasis. They are nature?s ultimate slow sleepers, quietly challenging our understanding of how long life can persist under extreme conditions.Interestingly, for much of the Earth?s early history ? well over two billion years ago ? oxygen and ultraviolet light were indeed harmful to most forms of life, which had evolved in anoxic (oxygen-free) environments. Then came the Great Oxygenation Event, when cyanobacteria began producing oxygen through photosynthesis. This caused a mass extinction of anaerobic life ? possibly the first time life itself triggered a global biological catastrophe.
Some of those early anaerobic organisms likely retreated to extreme environments: deep underground, in oceanic sediments, and even in places like the Dead Sea ? which, despite its name, is teeming with microbial life and may be one of the most densely packed microbial ecosystems on Earth.
The metabolism of these organisms is incredibly slow  but that same energy efficiency means they are unlikely ever to evolve into anything requiring speed or complexity, such as animals like sheep 🐑🐏🐏🐏🐏🐏🐏🐏. They are, however, astonishing survivors ? persisting for eons in silence, long after most other life has moved on.

[Halc]

I'm going to comment on several of these great tidbits. Kindly forgive me putting on my picky-hat on some of them.

There are microbes called endoliths that live deep inside rocks ? miles beneath Earth's surface ? surviving without sunlight or oxygen, sometimes for millions of years in almost complete metabolic stasis. Essentially, they're nature's ultimate slow sleepers, challenging our ideas of how long life can persist in extreme conditions!

All life up to about 2.5 billion years ago found oxygen and sunlight toxic, so it was everywhere. The oxygenation catastrophe (the first time (of two)) that a life form caused a massive extinction event, forced all these early life forms into hiding, in paces like the bottom of the dead sea, which is hardly dead since it is almost pure biomass.  Yes, the metabolism of these life forms is slow, so 'sleepers' is not a bad description. They'd never have evolved into anything with sufficient energy to become say some sort of 'animal'.


Picky-hat going on now.  The following comments also constitute interesting
Did You Know ? ..........

....and .. did you also know that those atoms have been around since the dawn of time?

The protons might have been around since pretty close to the dawn of time, but atoms are nuclei and electrons, and nuclei swap electrons like swingers swap wives, making them technically not the same atom anymore.

Secondly, most molecules (water in this case) contain neutrons, and those certainly have not been around since the dawn of time, but need to be manufactured in stars, probably the one that blew up and made the dust cloud from which our secondary solar system was formed.  So the oxygen nuclei in water is at best around half the age of the universe.

There are more possible positions in a game of chess than there are atoms in the entire observable universe?
Seriously. Here's the breakdown:
 

• Estimated number of atoms in the observable universe:
   ~10⁸⁰i]
      
  • Estimated number of legal, unique chess positions:
     ~10¹²⁰
  That number is so massive it's called the Shannon number, after Claude Shannon (the father of information theory). And that's just positions ? the number of possible games is even more absurd: 10??⁰⁰ or more.

I am going to contest this.
Shannon number is indeed that value (10¹²⁰ - 10¹³⁰) but that's the number of possible games, which presumes some rules are followed like the 50-move rule and 3-repeat rule are followed, without which the number would not be finite.
But the number of positions can't be that. I counted about a trillion legal pawn setups.  Add in the other pieces and it goes up to about 10³⁶.  All the legal games are just ordering that small number of positions into different legal orders.  No, I did not try to count those to verify Shannon.[/list]

[neilep (OP)]

I'm going to comment on several of these great tidbits. Kindly forgive me putting on my picky-hat on some of them.

There are microbes called endoliths that live deep inside rocks ? miles beneath Earth's surface ? surviving without sunlight or oxygen, sometimes for millions of years in almost complete metabolic stasis. Essentially, they're nature's ultimate slow sleepers, challenging our ideas of how long life can persist in extreme conditions!

All life up to about 2.5 billion years ago found oxygen and sunlight toxic, so it was everywhere. The oxygenation catastrophe (the first time (of two)) that a life form caused a massive extinction event, forced all these early life forms into hiding, in paces like the bottom of the dead sea, which is hardly dead since it is almost pure biomass.  Yes, the metabolism of these life forms is slow, so 'sleepers' is not a bad description. They'd never have evolved into anything with sufficient energy to become say some sort of 'animal'.


Picky-hat going on now.  The following comments also constitute interesting

Did You Know ? ..........

....and .. did you also know that those atoms have been around since the dawn of time?

The protons might have been around since pretty close to the dawn of time, but atoms are nuclei and electrons, and nuclei swap electrons like swingers swap wives, making them technically not the same atom anymore.

• Secondly, most molecules (water in this case) contain neutrons, and those certainly have not been around since the dawn of time, but need to be manufactured in stars, probably the one that blew up and made the dust cloud from which our secondary solar system was formed.  So the oxygen nuclei in water is at best around half the age of the universe.
  
  
  
  

  There are more possible positions in a game of chess than there are atoms in the entire observable universe?
  Seriously. Here's the breakdown:
   

  • Estimated number of atoms in the observable universe:
     ~10⁸⁰i]
       
    • Estimated number of legal, unique chess positions:
       ~10¹²⁰
    That number is so massive it's called the Shannon number, after Claude Shannon (the father of information theory). And that's just positions ? the number of possible games is even more absurd: 10??⁰⁰ or more.[/l][/l][/l][/l]

  I am going to contest this.
  Shannon number is indeed that value (10¹²⁰ - 10¹³⁰) but that's the number of possible games, which presumes some rules are followed like the 50-move rule and 3-repeat rule are followed, without which the number would not be finite.
  But the number of positions can't be that. I counted about a trillion legal pawn setups.  Add in the other pieces and it goes up to about 10³⁶.  All the legal games are just ordering that small number of positions into different legal orders.  No, I did not try to count those to verify Shannon.[/q]

Thank ewe Halc, please continue to correct or adjust as needed. I have rewritten with amendments.   sheeeeesh !
[/list]

[paul cotter]

Ewe are gambolling with your position on this subforum. Any more erroneous material and Halc will dispatch you to the bold corner, ie the new theories subforum!!

[neilep (OP)]

Ewe are gambolling with your position on this subforum. Any more erroneous material and Halc will dispatch you to the bold corner, ie the new theories subforum!!

   

considering i'm bald i am happy to be baaaanished to the bald bold baaaaad corner.

[neilep (OP)]

Did You Know............
If you could remove all the empty space from every atom in the human body, a person would be small enough to fit through the eye of a needle.This highlights just how much of what we perceive as solid matter is actually empty space. Atoms are mostly composed of a tiny, dense nucleus surrounded by electrons orbiting at vast distances relative to the nucleus's size. If you were to compress all that empty space, the nucleus and electrons would be incredibly close together, making the overall volume minuscule.

[paul cotter]

That's interesting, Neilep. That surely means that despite my vast wealth I will be able to reserve a place in heaven, when I die, if I decide to do the death gig- I haven't decided yet whether I will or won't. By the way, you did not specify the size of the quoted needle!!

[neilep (OP)]

Did you know ?....


Water can boil and freeze at the same time! This strange phenomenon happens at a specific pressure and temperature known as the triple point, where the three phases of a substance?solid, liquid, and gas?can coexist in perfect balance. It's a rare but real condition used in scientific experiments!
The triple point is a unique condition where a substance can exist simultaneously as a solid, liquid, and gas. For water, this happens at a precise temperature of 0.01?C and a pressure of 611.657 pascals (much lower than normal atmospheric pressure).
At this point, you can actually see ice, liquid water, and water vapour all present at the same time in perfect equilibrium. Scientists use the triple point of water to help define the kelvin temperature scale, because it's such a precise and reproducible condition.
This phenomenon isn?t something we encounter in everyday life because our normal air pressure and temperatures aren?t right for it?but in a controlled lab setting, it?s an amazing demonstration of the laws of thermodynamics in action!

[neilep (OP)]

.








Did you know?....
 The Mimosa pudica, also known as the "sensitive plant" or "touch-me-not", can move! When touched, its leaves fold up in a matter of seconds as a defence mechanism. This rapid movement is caused by changes in water pressure within the plant's cells ? a rare trait in the plant world and an amazing example of plant responsiveness.

[neilep (OP)]

Did Ewe Know ? ......


Your body contains more foreign cells than human ones.

It's estimated that the average human body hosts about 30 trillion human cells, but also around 39 trillion bacterial cells, mostly in your gut. That means you're more microbe than human, at least in terms of cell count!
And these microbes aren't freeloaders ? they help digest food, produce vitamins, regulate your immune system, and even influence your mood and brain function. You're basically a walking ecosystem.

[paul cotter]

30 trillion human cells in a body, that means the individual cells must be tiny. Yet within most cells, red blood cells and platelets excluded, the length of the DNA is around 5 feet long! It is of course coiled up to fit in.

[alancalverd]

Which leads to two questions

For philosophers: Is the mammalian body a "self" containing useful helpers, or a scaffold for feeding and transporting various bugs?

And for people with actual lives to lead: who cares?

[paul cotter]

It is actually a viral incubation system.

[neilep (OP)]

Did EWE Know ? .......


If you unravelled all the DNA in your body and laid it end to end, it would stretch: Over 100 billion kilometres (62 billion miles)that's enough to go from the Earth to the Sun and back over 300 times!
 

• Every human cell (except red blood cells) contains about 2 metres of DNA.
• The human body has roughly 37 trillion cells.
• Multiply that, and you get a total of about 74 trillion metres (or 74 billion kilometres) of DNA in your body.......some estimates go even higher.

And all of this fits neatly inside the nucleus of cells so small you need a microscope to see them. The level of miniaturisation, organisation, and efficiency is simply astonishing.

[paul cotter]

Yes indeed, it is astonishing but what I find more astonishing is the following: various signalling molecules enter the nucleus to turn on/off various genes, how do they find the right location on the 46 intensely coiled chromosomes? Ok, in any given cell type not all genes will be in use though they will all be present. Needle in a haystack job.

[neilep (OP)]

Did you know...
 Octopuses have three hearts, blue blood, and can taste with their arms? 🐙💙🫀
Two of their hearts pump blood to the gills, and the third sends it to the rest of the body. That third heart actually stops beating when the octopus swims ? which is part of why they prefer crawling!
And their blood? It?s blue because it uses copper (not iron like ours) to carry oxygen.
Oh, and those suckers on their arms? Packed with taste receptors. They can literally taste whatever they touch.

[neilep (OP)]

Did You Know?
Did you know that space smells like burnt steak?  Astronauts have reported that after spacewalks, the airlock smells faintly of seared meat or welding fumes. This strange scent comes from high-energy particles interacting with the metal of the spacecraft and the vacuum of space!
So next time you gaze at the stars, remember?outer space has a scent, and it?s surprisingly? meaty.

[Eternal Student]

Hi,

I didn't know about the smell, thank you for that information.   In general, high energy particles / cosmic rays are known to cause an array of issues.

Examples:

1.   Seeing spots of light and some other more unusual visual disturbances during space walks.    Various mechanisms are suggested.   Apparently this took quite a while to be reported by the Astronauts properly, no-one wanted to admit they might be "seeing things" or imply they might be losing their mind etc.
    Reference:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_ray_visual_phenomena

2.    Computer errors and crashes.   High energy particles can play havoc with electrical circuits and especially microelectronics like the CPU of a computer.  The worst such events are called SEU (Single Event Upsets) where a single bit has been flipped and the computer system doesn't crash in any obvious way, it appears to have worked correctly, but will produce erroneous results.     This was to some extent fully anticpated and the early spacecraft often had about 3 and sometimes 5 separate computer systems for important functions like navigation.   Course corrections were made only when there was agreement from 2 out of 3 (or 4 out of 5) of the computers.
    Reference:      https://stuyspec.com/article/the-possible-cosmic-culprit-behind-computer-errors

Best Wishes.

[alancalverd]

The light spots re generally attributed to Cerenkov radiation emitted in the vitreous humor by charged particles moving at v>c_medium.

But you don't have to venture into space to have your chips fried by ionising radiation. Soviet-era military aircraft continued to use thermionic valve technology for many years after the rest of the world had moved on, because it was relatively robust against nuclear radiation. I attended an interesting lecture on flash-proof design where the object was to produce a tank that could continue to operate for at least 20 minutes after the crew had received a lethal exposure. The trick was to work out which type of solid-state switches would be turned on and which turned off by a tactical nuclear weapon, then design a manual override for the most probable final condition.