Royal Society of Chemistry features pre-XKCD stick figure

[samwyse]

I won't spoil this more than the subject line already dones, but I loved reading this and hope that Randall could do a tie-in of some sort. My hero: Melvin Calvin

[addams]

I won't spoil this more than the subject line already dones, but I loved reading this and hope that Randall could do a tie-in of some sort. My hero: Melvin Calvin

Yep. That was cute.

I like the tone of the essay. Photosynthesis was hard to prove.
It would be hard to prove it all over again.

From what seems to be thin air comes a great deal of energy.

Plants are the dominate life form on this rock.

[pizzazz]

Depends what you mean by "dominant." I could argue for bacteria, or maybe insects.

[addams]

Depends what you mean by "dominant." I could argue for bacteria, or maybe insects.

O.K. I'll bite.

Photosynthesis is the way that this rock harvests the energy of the sun.
Plants do photosynthesis.
Therefore; Plants rule.

Most do it very, very gently.

Yeah. Yeah. There is that heat storage thing that water does. Water comes in second.

Bacteria and bugs? Not even close.

[pizzazz]

Bacteria produce most of the Earth's oxygen, and have been doing so since billions of years before plants existed.

Also, bacteria exist in many places that plants cannot,and most living organisms rely on some form (or many forms) of bacteria.

[addams]

Bacteria produce most of the Earth's oxygen, and have been doing so since billions of years before plants existed.

Also, bacteria exist in many places that plants cannot,and most living organisms rely on some form (or many forms) of bacteria.

I need a citation for that, "bacteria produce most of the planet's oxygen", statement.

[philsov]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytoplankton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanobacteria

[addams]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytoplankton

Phytoplankton (English pronunciation: /ˌfaɪtoʊˈplæŋktən/) are the autotrophic component of the plankton community. The name comes from the Greek words φυτόν (phyton), meaning "plant", and πλαγκτός (planktos), meaning "wanderer" or "drifter".[1]
Wandering Plant!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanobacteria

This one little blue guy? Nah.
All the forests, both on land and in the sea, with the grassland, perverse (golf courses) and wholesome (cornfields) along with the all the other sweet O2 producers allow life as we know it.

Do you ever think about all the water? Where did all the water come from?

The plants would not be able to do what they do, without water.

I think that I know the answer. I did not come up with it. It is amazing. Like most stuff, it was obvious, after someone else figured it out.

Photosynthesis! Yeah! Can you write the thing from memory? I can't and I don't have to.

[pizzazz]

From the wiki article:

However, unlike terrestrial communities, where most autotrophs are plants, phytoplankton are a diverse group, incorporating protistan eukaryotes and both eubacterial and archaebacterial prokaryotes.

The fact that they're named after plants, does not make them plants.

Microscopic organisms probably contribute at least half of the photosynthesis-produced oxygen in the world, but produced a lot more early on in the Earth's history and allowed for the development of more advanced organisms at all.

The water? I'm not sure, I believe from icy foreign bodies is one common theory, but it's irrelevant, because water life came first (and, you know, plants need water too).

[addams]

I won't spoil this more than the subject line already dones, but I loved reading this and hope that Randall could do a tie-in of some sort. My hero: Melvin Calvin

Let us back up.
photosynthesis is great!

The people that described it were brilliant.
Some of them had a sense of humor. Extra points for them.

Much of the best Science is done in joy.