cells and stars

[nari]

Have just watched "Origins" on TV where they re-iterate that we are stardust, made of the same stuff which is re-organised in a supernova after it has blown itself apart when the Fe level gets too concentrated.
At this point in trots C,N, and O...and here we are.

A couple of astrophysicists referred to the origins of the universe as a 'soup making' process, and this is what David Butler taught us in his course; that the brain is a soup, continually manufacturing, remodelling and reforming.

Bernard, you did separate cells and stars...but that is not EBM... :wink:


Can we put them back together again?


Nari

[bernard]

Nari,

I didn't separate anything there. The forum is called Cells and Stars because I thought many analogies between the two components of Universes.

Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Hydrogen are very common in Universe and of course it is a main component of stardust.

The richness of Earth is certainly water and this incredible association of Oxygen and Hydrogen.
Actually scientists try desperately to simulate a molecule of water and fail. They create around 40 models and none fits the physical properties we know about water.

Water is more than a riddle, it is life!

I do like brain soup metaphor anyway because it is far from the marvel of brain arrangements and at light years from truth. Brain is certainly a moving structure but not a soup.

[Diane]

Ditto that, Bernard, about water. There are people trying to work out the workings of cells based on the Brownian movement of the water that comprises 70% of every cell... how does it cope with that constant molecular jiggling? Feynman wrote a nice article in Scientific American about what he called "Brownian ratchets" or little protein paddle machines that move about in selective directions by getting pushed by Brownian movement. Because of their asymmetric shapes they remain in place when the H2O molecules push from one side but move when pushed from another, according to his hypothesis. Very cool. Because when you think about it, at that order of magnitude it must be like living in a multidirectional hailstorm, perpetually.

Philip Ball wrote a whole book on the physical and chemical and molecular and global properties of water, called A Biography of Water.. very interesting. It is so intrinsic to life that it can seem a real betrayal when it lumps up and destroys beaches and whatever is on them, like it has just done...
Diane

[bernard]

Hi All,

Here is a link to the book =>
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0520230086/102-8978572-6436165?v=glance

Ther is many comments about the book. 8)

[bernard]

This one is for Diane.

It is my second trial with Flash interactive animations.
Here some water molecules. It is far from reality but pretty to see?

http://www.somasimple.com/flash_anims/bounce.swf

full screen flash version (http://www.somasimple.com/flash_anims/bounce.swf)
html version in your browser (http://www.somasimple.com/flash_anims/bounce_test.html)

[Diane]

Brownian movement!! Very nice Bernard!!
:lol:,
Diane

[nari]

Energy??

Strings??



Nari :wink:

[bernard]

Hi all,

Brownian movements are energy and these moves are certainly based on ondulatoryquantumstrings physics.

A question for me remains:
Why these atoms and electrons are obliged to dance? (I know already the temperature) and how the ancient Greek know already something about atoms?

[nari]

Bernard,

Difficult questions, but I will have a bash at the first:

Unless there is movement (sap rising, water moving, tectonic plates shuffling and sliding) there is no life. So I guess it is energy. With no energy, we are all deadybones. (An ancient Pommy expression from the Goons)

The second question - I have a book at present on the rise of science, and will try to answer the Greek question a bit later!!


Nari

[bernard]

Nari,

I'm waiting for the Greek response but I'll already tell you that a stone has atoms in movement! :wink:

A single water drop contains a lot of energy.

[nari]

It surely has, Bernard, and in some stone they have discovered happy little bacteria living on the trace elements in the rock...

I'm still tracing the Greeks' theory on atoms...



Nari

[nari]

Some light-hearted and more serious ideas on what the Greeks thought about atoms:

http://www.thebigview.com/greeks/democritus.html

http://kittensinunderpants.com/1/mixed/atom.html

http://saugus.byu.edu/writing/Insight/2001-2002/werner/3.html

Seems like they were philosophising and theorising, but then they didn't have the goods to peer into molecular structure very well!


Nari

[bernard]

Nari,

Very good links, I appreciated particularly the humorous second. :wink: :lol:

My previous idea was wrong, in fact Democritus' theory was far from my thought. He had the concept of an atom (and of different sizes :shock: ) but not more (no electrons...). BTW, it was a good start and it is weird that while more than a millennium nobody contested that one.

[Diane]

Interesting links.

This one is a story about Einstein and Brownian motion.

http://www.britannica.com/nobel/micro/88_96.html

Cheers,
Diane

[bernard]

Hi All,

I saw the GATTACA movie for the fifth time last week.
It fits perfectly the definition of this forum:
At one moment we look at the cell and in the same present we seek the space for Titan. The film is very subtle than I found it when I saw it for the first time.

It is one of my favourite film since it shows that perfection is often hidden in simplicity. It contains all the good values that man may share => Love, Friendship and Intelligence.

[nari]

Bernard

Is Gataca the actual name for the movie, and what is its country of orirgin?

Will keep an eye out for it...

Nari

[bernard]

Hi Nari,

Here is a link to some good comments =>
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0767805712/qid=1105940339/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-9723134-0389707?v=glance&s=dvd

The name of the film GATTACA is made with the initials of the DNA components => Guanine, Adenosine, Thymine, Cytosine.

[Diane]

I found this this morning, and think it is a significant piece of information about how cells communicate amongst themselves, apart from the actual nervous system.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-04/uoc--hcf042005.php
Human cells filmed instantly messaging for first time:
Cells tugged in one direction sent biochemical signals in the opposite direction in the form of a signature pattern of fluorescent light

I love that the researchers were able to make this process visible!
Diane

[nari]

Diane - good reference.

Solitons again??



nari

[Diane]

I didn't see solitons mentioned specifically..
Diane

[bernard]

Hi All,

All is waves but not all waves are solitons.
I began a topic on solitons and waves and I'll show the major differences.

[Diane]

Here's another version of the news put out by the actual researchers. Interesting that they are engineers, they inherently have that mechanical sort of perspective I think.. There are pictures too.
http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news_events/release.sfe?id=371
Diane