Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

[aparch]

You know he's not a doctor anymore, right?

Aww man, Marvel retcon'd his Doctorial status? I can never keep up with the MCU.

[Kepler]

Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

Aww man, Marvel retcon'd his Doctorial status? I can never keep up with the MCU.

How would that even work? is he Not Doc Ock now?

[Kepler]

Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

Quantum biology? Hmm.

At one level, photosynthesis looks very simple. Plants, green algae and some bacteria take in sunlight and carbon dioxide, and turn them into energy. What niggles in the back of biologists minds, though, is that photosynthetic organisms make the process look just a little bit too easy.

It’s one part of photosynthesis in particular that puzzles scientists. A photon – a particle of light – after a journey of billions of kilometres hurtling through space, collides with an electron in a leaf outside your window. The electron, given a serious kick by this energy boost, starts to bounce around, a little like a pinball. It makes its way through a tiny part of the leaf’s cell, and passes on its extra energy to a molecule that can act as an energy currency to fuel the plant.

The trouble is, this tiny pinball machine works suspiciously well. Classical physics suggests the excited electron should take a certain amount of time to career around inside the photosynthetic machinery in the cell before emerging on the other side. In reality, the electron makes the journey far more quickly.

What’s more, the excited electron barely loses any energy at all in the process. Classical physics would predict some wastage of energy in the noisy business of being batted around the molecular pinball machine. The process is too fast, too smooth and too efficient. It just seems too good to be true.

Then, in 2007, photosynthesis researchers began to see the light. Scientists spotted signs of quantum effects in the molecular centres for photosynthesis. Tell-tale signs in the way the electrons were behaving opened the door to the idea that quantum effects could even be playing an important biological role.

This could be part of the answer to how the excited electrons pass through the photosynthetic pinball machine so quickly and efficiently. One quantum effect is the ability to exist in many places at the same time – a property known as quantum superposition. Using this property, the electron could potentially explore many routes around the biological pinball machine at once. In this way it could almost instantly select the shortest, most efficient route, involving the least amount of bouncing about.

[MissThundercat]

Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

In wine there is wisdom.

In beer there is freedom.

In water there is bacteria.

[joecct]

Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

A little earlier I posted a link to get the computer code to go to the moon.

Now you can crowdfund and get the Apollo 11 flightplan.

Go for it, Kep!

http://www.space.com/33467-apollo-11...ckstarter.html

[joecct]

Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

The Musk Master Plan - Part II

https://www.tesla.com/blog/master-plan-part-deux/

[walrus]

Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

The Musk Master Plan - Part II

https://www.tesla.com/blog/master-plan-part-deux/

Interesting on the solar, I want to pull the trigger on a solar array. Wonder how long before he actually gets his solar ideas on the market. I still haven't seen or heard him talk about how the national power grid is supposed to handle solar?

[Kepler]

Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

I love Elon Musk so much.

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

I think he's closer to Oz than what we think of him as a whole.

[Kepler]

Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

This is beautiful. Be sure to watch the commercial.

[joecct]

Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

This may be better

[FreshFish]

Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

Interesting on the solar, I want to pull the trigger on a solar array. Wonder how long before he actually gets his solar ideas on the market. I still haven't seen or heard him talk about how the national power grid is supposed to handle solar?

If I were an inventor, I'd find a way to embed solar fibers into roofing shingles (sort of like how one can now put an electric heating grid under a tile floor before they lay down the tile above it, but flip-flopped). Then, every time a person needs a new roof, they can get a two-fer quite easily; you only have to hire one crew once instead of two¹.

It seems to me a mis-use of solar to link it to a national grid at all. I'd think a localized mix of whatever works best in a certain area would make more sense. Every building have its own solar for its own use, with the excess shared / stored locally. Having too widespread a grid tied into all sorts of different generating technologies risks kluge effects that we might never unwind, and it also is a serious threat to national security.




¹ When people have solar panels on top of their roofing shingles, what do they do when it comes time to replace the shingles? Do they have to disconnect the panels and remove them, replace the roof, and then put them back up? Somehow that detail never makes it into the sales literature....

[Kepler]

Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

This may be better

That would be nice. My wife has critical asthma and it's like Wu Tang Clan.

[Kepler]

Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

If I were an inventor, I'd find a way to embed solar fibers into roofing shingles (sort of like how one can now put an electric heating grid under a tile floor before they lay down the tile above it, but flip-flopped). Then, every time a person needs a new roof, they can get a two-fer quite easily; you only have to hire one crew once instead of two¹.

It seems to me a mis-use of solar to link it to a national grid at all. I'd think a localized mix of whatever works best in a certain area would make more sense. Every building have its own solar for its own use, with the excess shared / stored locally. Having too widespread a grid tied into all sorts of different generating technologies risks kluge effects that we might never unwind, and it also is a serious threat to national security.

¹ When people have solar panels on top of their roofing shingles, what do they do when it comes time to replace the shingles? Do they have to disconnect the panels and remove them, replace the roof, and then put them back up? Somehow that detail never makes it into the sales literature....

I thought the idea of having them on the national* grid was to offset local weather. i.e., the weather is sh-t in the Midwest but that's OK because it's sunny in Arizona.

I love the idea of pre-imprinted solar roofs. That seems like a very nice way for somebody to get rich.

* Or if you're the Chinese, global.

[joecct]

Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

FreshFish-I asked a solar guy.

First, if the shingles are close to replacement, replace them. Second, it costs $500 to take the solar down and reinstall when you get a new roof.