Bill Bryson, Gribbin - A shrt histry of evrything & Biogrphy of Unvrse by

John Gribbin.

{Intro and PartI- Lost in the cosmos}

Of the billons and billons of species of lving thngs that hve exsted since
dawn of tme, mst 99.99% r no lnger arnd. Avg species on Erth lasts arnd
for billons of yrs.. In 3 mins aftr big bang, 98% of all mtter thre is or will ever
hve been prduced. The unvrse was creted in abt the tme it tkes to mke
sandwich. Thre is a csmic bckgrnd rad left ovr frm big bang. By the tme, it
crossed cosmos, it wld reach erth in form of microwves. If u look dwn
frm 100 th floor of empre stte blding, i.e, big bang at 100 th floor, and our
prsnt tme half an inch of bottom lane, Quasars is in 20th and mst distnt
galxies is in 16th floor. It may be that spce and tme had sme othr forms bfre
the big bang. The unvrse dubled in sze evry 10^-37 secs. And infltion lsted
for 10^-35 secs. Thre wre phtons, prtons, e-s, neutrns and much else,
betwn 10^79 and 10^80 of ech. If grvty frctnlly strnger or weakr and if
expnsion jst a lttle mre slwly or swftly, thn thre might nver hve been stble
elmnts to mke evrythng. Reqrs h2 to be convrted to He in a way that
0.007% of its mass convrts to enrgy. If 0.006% thn unvrse conssts of h2
nthing else and if 0.008%, bonding so profilic that h2 wld hve exhsted long
since. Grvity at crtcal densty. Explning the curvture of unvrse is imgne
smeone frm a unvrse of flt surfce, who had nver seen a sphre, brught to
erth. He wld nver fnd an edge.. Sven moons in the solr sys inclding our own
r lrger than pluto. The Kuiper belt near pluto is the sorce of shrt period
comets as Halley's comet.. Voyger 1 and 2 spcecrft r flying away frm us at
35, 000 miles an hour. Voyger launched in Aug, Sep 1977 as Jupter, Satrn,
Urnus, Neptne aligned in a way that hppens once evry 175 yrs. Enbled the
2 voygers to use grvty assist technque in which sattelte crcked lke a whip
succssvely flung frm one gassy giant (plnt) to nxt.. The solr sys, asteroid
belts fill less than trillionth of avlble spce. Neptne is 5 tmes furthr frm jupter
as jupter frm us. If erth redced to a pea, jupter 1000 ft away and pluto a
mile and a half and nrest star proxima centauri 10, 000 miles away. Cost of
missn to mars is $ 450 billon, and not to mention, dna of crew wld be
tattred by hi enrgy solr prtcles which cld not be shelded. Our nrest neghbor
in cosms is Proxima Centauri which is prt of 3 star clster knwn as Alpha
Centauri is 4.3 lght yrs away. Under Drake's eqn, u dvide nr of stars in
slected portion of unvrse by nr of stars that r lkely to hve plnetry syss; dvide
by nr of plnetry syss that cld supprt lfe; dvide by nr on which lfe, hvng
arsen, advnced to stte of intllignce; and so on. The nr shrinks coloslly. The
nr of advnced civilzations in Milky way is in millons. Sagan calclted nr of
probble plnets in unvrse is 10 billon trillon. If we randmly insrted into
unvrse, chnces u wld be on or near a plnet is one in 10^33.. Zwicky
conncted supernova to prduction of cosmic ray. 6, 000 strs r visble to
naked eye frm erth and 2, 000 frm a spot. With 16 inch telscpe, Revrnd
Evans of Austrlia can see 50, 000 to 100 , 000 glxies. Thre r autmted
suprnova hnting telscpes with compters and chrge coupled device.. For a
blst of suprnova explsion to kill u, u wld hve to be withn 10 lght yrs away. It
wld hve to blow away the mgnetosphre of erth. This mgnetosphre prtcts us
frm UV rays. Withut this sphre, under sun, we wld be ovrcookd pizza. For
suprnova, a candidte str has to be 10 to 20 tmes mre massve than our sun.
Closest is Betelgeuse str which is 50, 000 lght yrs away. One spernova
occred in 1054 clled crab nebula and anther in 1604 which visble durng day
for 3 weeks. Most rcent was in 1987 , which was brely visble in southrn
hemisphre, 169 , 000 light yrs away.. Abt 4.6 billon yrs ago, a grt swirl of
gas and dust 15 billon mles across accumlted in spce. 99.9% of mass went
to mke sun. 2 microscpic grains joind by elctrosttic F frmed our plnet.
In 200 millon yrs, erth was frmed, thugh still moltn and going thru constnt
bombrdmnt of debris. Abt 4.5 billon yrs ago, objct sze of mars crshed to
erth blwing out a sphre, forming moon. Mst of lunr mtrl came frm erth's
crust except its core, which is why moon has so lttle Fe whle we hve a lot.
Erth's atmsphre was filled with n2, ch4, co2 and sulphr. Co2 acted as a
greenhse gas. Othrwse as sun was dim then, erth wld hve frzen permnntely
withut life. The glctic debris to erth contned water to fill oceans and
compnnts ncessry for succsful frmation of life...

{Part II- The sze of the erth} Say, u stay in Paris & i go to moscow. We both
look at moon at the same tme. Mesre length betwn u and me and angles of
our 2 cornrs. Rest can be simply calclted.. Halley's comet was not nmed
aftr Halley until 16 yrs aftr his deatn. Halley was the one who said it's the
same comet which is reappring.. The spd of erth's spin is 1000 miles an
hour at the equtor to 0 at the poles. As the erth is oblate, it meant length of
a dgree wldn't be same in Italy as in Scotlnd. Length wld be shrthned as u
mved away frm poles. [Thnk of 180 degree compass. It wld be comprssed
in oblate erth at the pole or flttned on pole and hence length of 1dgree
grter.].. In 1787 , in new jrsey rivr an enrmus thigh bne found.. Geolgcl tme
dvided into 4 eras or seasns. 4 eras dvided into 12 to 24 subgrps as
months as Triassic, Jurassic etc. Thn Lyell's epochs which apply to rcent
65 millon yrs.. [Chmstry - Lussac estblshed whn 2 gasous substnces
cmbne togther the vol of 1 gas reqrd is always a simple proprtion to vol of
othr. If compnd prduced is also a gas, vol of 3rd gas is simple proprtion to
othr 2. Fits with the idea that ech molecule of compnd is mde of 1 or 2 atms
of 1 gas cmbned with a few atms of the othr.. Avogadro derved for any fxed
temp and prssre, eql vol gas contn same nr of molcules whtevr the chmcal
nture of gas.] Phosphrus whn expsed to air catchs fire. Bleach remves
color, whten by oxidtion. Cl is a blech. Rustng obj doesn't loose wt. NO
gves buoynt plsre.. In perodic tble, Cu sits in top of Ag which sits in top of
Au...
{Prt III- A new age dawns} Pb petrol redced the engne knock. Ozne in grnd
is pollutnt and at stratosphre soaks up dngerus UV rad. In strtosphre, it
forms one eighth of inch. CFC forms one prt per billon of atmsphre. One lb
of CFC can anhilte 70,000 lbs of atmspheric ozone. Also CFC hngs arnd
for a century. It is 10, 000 tmes mre excerbting greenhuse effcts than a
molcule of CO2. In shrt, CFC is the wrst invntion of 20th centry. CFC is
nonflmmble and noncorrsive.. Fear of accelrtor is strnge qrks wld be creted
which cld intrct with othr subatmc prtcles and propgte uncontrbly. Prtcles
can cme into being and gone in 10^-24 secnd. Gettng dwn to qrks reqrs
trillon of volts of elctrcty and a budgt of smll centrl amricn nation. LHC will
acheve 14 trillon volts of enrgy and cost over $1.5 billon. The std modl
consst of 6 qrks, 6 leptns, 5 bosns (W+, W-, Z0, phton, grviton) and a Higgs
bson. Std modl lacks elgnce and simplcty. We don't see the cretor twidling
20 knbs to set 20 parmetres to crete unvrse. Says nthng abt grvty.. The
heterotic strng conssts of 2 typs of vibrtions, clckwse and countrclckwise
treted diffrntly. Countrclkwse lve in 26 dims of which 16 r compctfied.
Clockwse lve in 10 dims. A flat empty brnes prllel to ech othr in warped 5
diml spce. The 2 brnes which frm walls of 5th dim, cld hve popped out of
nthng as a Q fluctutions in evn mre distnt past and thn drifted aprt.. The drk
mtter is wimps (weakly intrcting mssive prtcles), specks of invsble mtter left
ovr frm big bang and MACHOS, anther nme for blck hles, brwn dwrfs and
othr dim strs.. Oil cmpny geolgsts had knwn for yrs that if u wnted to fnd oil
u had to allw for the surfce movmnts implied by plte tectonics.. Evry yr
earth's rvers crried 500 millon tons of Ca (eroded mtrl) then ocean bottms
will be abve ocean tops. It was found ocen floor offred gooey smoothness
of ancent slits. Ocngrphers found mightist and extnsve mntn rnge undrwter.
This ment erth was splttng aprt at seams. The atlntic floor was 2 conveyr
belt, crrying crust twrd N amerca and othr twrd eurpe. Whn crust rechd at
bndry of contnnt, it plnged bck into erth. That explned whre all sedmnt
went. It was being retrned to bowels of erth.. We fnd ancnt mgntc ptterns
frzen in past britsh rock had spun on its axis and trvlled sme distnce to
north. Thy also discvred that if u plced a map of eurpe's B pttrns alngside
America frm same perod, thy fit togther as neatly as 2 hlves of a torn letter.

This ment contnnents r drfting. It was realized that the whle crust was in
motion and not jst contnnets. Now we knw that erth's srfce is mde of 8 to 12
big pltes & 20 or so smllr ones, mving in diffrnt drections at diffrnt speeds.
Venus is a twin of erth, yet has no tectnics actvity. Suggstion that thre may
well be reltnship betwn histry of rocks and histry of life.. It apprs Indonsia is
slwly drowning and drgging Austrlia dwn with it. Nthng in thries of tectnics
can expln this..

{Prt IV- Dangerus plnet} Manson, Iowa has well wter as soft wter. Explned
due to metrite collsion. Astroids r presummd to be plnets tht nver qute mde
it due to G pull of jupter. Thnk of Erth's orbit as a knd of mtorway on whch
we r the only vehcle, but which is crssed regulrly by pdestrns. At least 90%
of pdestrn r unknwn to us. Thy cruse at ovr 100 , 000 kmph. Evm a smll
asterd a size of huse cld destry a city. Near misses of astroid prbbly hppen
2 or 3 tmes a week & go unntced. The nr of peple in the wrld who r actvely
serchng for asterods r fwer than staff of a typcl McDonld's resturnt.. Evry yr
erth accumltes 30, 000 tnnes of spce dust, is infnitesml whn sprd acrss the
globe. Amng this is Irridum which is 1000 tmes mre abndnt in spce than in
erth's crust bcse most of irridum on erth sank to core whn the plnet was
yung. Thre was found in 1970 s a thin bind of reddsh clay that dvided 2
ancnt lyers of limstne, one frm Creceois period and othr at tertiry perod. It is
pssble to msre the chemcl compstion of clays by neutrn actvation anlysis.
That is, bombrdng samples with neutrns in a smll nuclr reactr and countng
the gmma rays that wre emtted. If thy mesured the amnt of exotc elmnts in
the clay and compred with its annul rate of depostion, thy wld knw how lng
it had tken the samples to form. The amnt of irridum thy fond in the reddsh
clay was 300 tmes norml lvels. Thy got the same reslt across worldwde
samples and fond elvted at sme plce by 500 tmes norml lvels. Thus prved
that Erth had been struck by asteroid or comet (now clled KT meteor) 65
millon yrs ago causng extnction of dinosaurs. Anthr suggstion was the
irrdum depsit mybe due to volcno at Deccn plateu in India.. If such a metor
strke hppens, air below it wld comprss like bicycle pump and temp below it
wld rech 60, 000 K. The meteor wld vporze instntly and the blst wld blow
out 1000 cubc kms of rock, erth. Peple up to 1500 kms away wld be kncked
off ther feet and slced by a blizzrd of flying projctles. It wld set off a chain of
devsting erthqke and tsunmis. Volcnoes acrss the globe wld rumble and
spew. Withn an hour, a cld of blckness wld cver the erth and burnng rock
and othr debris wld be pelting evrywhre, settng the plnet ablze. A billon and
a hlf people wld die the frst day. Mssive distrbnce to ionsphre wld knck off
comm syss evrywhre so survivrs wld hve no idea wht's hppenng elswhre. It
wld affct erth for abt 10, 000 yrs. We no lnger posses rockt powerful enugh
to send humns evn as far as moon. So to snd peple as Amageddon mvie to
destry the meteor is out of qstion. We wldn't see the objct/comet until it is
abt 6 mnths away, so it wld be too late. But lfe is hrdy, and whn the smke
clred thre wre enugh lucky survvrs frm evry specis that none permnntly
pershed... Nebrska has huge amnts of ash depsit. Sme of it was used to
mke huse clning pwders as Comet and Ajax. It was due to volcnic eruption
in Yellowstne natinl park.. It was fond certn erthquke shock wve has
pentrted to a pt deep in erth & thn bunced off at an agle and agn at a lower
lvel. Thus thre's a crust and below it a mantle. 2 cores - an innr one now
belived to be solid and outer one a liqd and seat of mgntism.. Seismic wve
of erth. Richter scle is an arbtrry msre of Erth's trmblngs bsed on srfce
msremnts. It rises expnntly. 7.3 quke is 50 tmes mre pwrful than 6.3 and
2, 500 mre powrful than 5.3. Scle 7 hppening deep in mtle, 400 mles dwn
mght cause no srfce dmage at all whle a smller one 4 miles down cld wreak
havoc. All this in uppr mntle. Much depnds on quke's durtion, freqncy of
aftrshocks and physcl settng of affcted area.. Evryday on avg smewhre in
the wrld, thre r 2 of mgntude 2.0 or grter. Enugh to gve smeone a prtty
good jolt. As the pltes push agnst ech othr, prssres build up untl one or the
othr gves way. The lngr the intrvl betwn qkes, grtr the pent up prssre and
grtr the scope for a big jolt. Tokyo stnds on the bndry of 3 tectnic pltes..
Thre is also intraplte quakes. As thy cme frm much grter depth, thy tend to
propgte ovr much wider area. Thy r as randm as lightning.. Russns had dug
on erth till 12km, which is 0.3% of plnet's vol. Sedimtry layer was found to
be 50% deepr. Rock at depth was saturted with wter, smethng not expctd..
Deep in erth up to 120 miles dwn, thre is an explsion that fres a cannonbll
of magma to srfce at suprsnic spd. Called a kimberlite pipe. Sme shoot up
at jst the rt spd and cool dwn to bcme diamnd. Such a pipe is thre in
Johannesburg. Diamnds up to 20 carats hve been fond at northestern
Indiana. Purty of gold contnd in gold alloy is gven in carat. For diamnd, it is
wt.. The wrld beneath has 4 lyers - rocky outr crust, mntle of hot viscus
rock, a liqd outr core and a solid innr core. Srfce is domnted by silictes,
which r reltvely light and not hevy to accnt for plnet's ovrall densty. To
genrte our B fld smewhre in the interior mst be concntrted belt of metllic
elmnts in a liqd stte. How the lyers intract, wht causes thm to behve in the
way thy do, wht thy will do any tme in future is not known. The contnntal
crust is 3 to 6 mles thck undr ocens, 25 miles thck undr contnnts, 40 to 60
miles thck undr big mntn chains. The crust undr Sierra Nevada Mntns is 19
to 25 miles thck and noone knws why. Some peple thnk it is sinking as in
quicksand. How and whn erth got its crust r qustion that dvide geolgsts into
2 camps - those who thnk it hppnd abrptly and those who thnk it happnd
gradully. The rcks r viscus, same way as glass. Erth's pltes mve acrss the
surfce, up and dwn as well, as rocks rise and fall undr chrning prcess knwn
as convction. Some say convction begns 400 mles dwn, othrs
say 2000 mles belw us. Geochmsts say certn elmnts on Erth's srfce cnnot
hve cme frm uppr mntle, but mst hve cme frm deepr withn erth.
Seismlogsts do not agree as thre is no evdence. The mntle, 2nd lyer accnts
for 82% of erth's vol and 65% of its mass. Mntle doesn't attrct much attntion
frm scientsts as mgntism hppens deepr dwn and erthqke nearer the srfce.
The prssres at centre of erth r hi, 3 millon tmes those fond at srfce to turn
any rock thre solid. Frm erth's histry, we knw innr core vry good at retning
its heat. Temp thre estmted to be 7, 000 F to 13, 000 F. Temp at core fllen
by no mre than 200 F snce frmation. Moon and Mars do not hve liqd core
and so no mgntism. In last 100 millon yrs, B has rversed abt 200 tmes and
we don't knw why. Clled the grtst unanswred qstion.. The erth's B fld has
dimnshed by 6%. Any dimnution in B is bad news as it stops dangerus
cosmic rays to entr, which wld hve tattred our DNA.. Volcnologsts r the wrst
in prdcting volcnoes. In 1980 , in Mt St Helens, a giant column of smke and
ash rose to 60, 000 ft in less thn 10 mins... Thre r sme 10, 000 visble cone
volcnoes on erth, a few 100 of thm r extnct. Thre r volcnoes so explsve that
thy burst opn in a single mghty ruptre, leving bhind a pit, the caldera. In
yellowstne, the caldera is the whle park. It is like a pile of TNT abt sze of
Rhode Island. Yellwstne sits on top of an enrmus hot spot, a resrvoir of
moltn rock that begns at lst 200 kms dwn in erth and rses to nr the surfce,
frming a suprplume.. The lst suprvolcno erption on Erth hppened in Nrthrn
Sumatra, 74, 000 yrs ago redcing globl popltion to mre than few 1000 . All
modrn humn popltion arose frm this smll base explning our lack of gentic
divrsty.. The heat rssistnt enzyms in the 2 new bcteria of yellw stone park
pool cld be used to crete polymerase chn rection, which can be used to
genrte DNAs, like gentc photocpying. It frmed the bsis of subsqnt gentic
scence...

{Prt V- Lfe itslf}

{L-16, Lonly plnet} In erth only in milky way life can sustain. 400 millon yrs
ago, we crawled out of sea and bcame lnd bsed, O brethng. Bcse, wter is
1, 300 tmes hvier than air, prssre rise swftly as u descnd. If u rose 500 ft
abve lnd, chnge in prssre wld be sligth. Sme depth undr wter, veins collpse
and ur lungs cmpressd like a coke can. In 1992 smeone went to depth
of 236 ft for a nanosecnd. In mariana trench in pcific, deepst pt in ocean, 7
mles dwn, prssre is 7000 lbspersqrninch. Home to amphipods, looks like
shrimp.. The air we brethe is 80% N. Put humn bdy undr prssre, N is
xfrmed into tny bubbls that migrte into blood & tissues. With too qck assent
by drver, bubble trpped in bdy will fizz out as in chmpgne deprving cells of
O, causing pain. Chmpgne fail to fizz in comprssed air of tunnl. Thus to go
dwn undrwter, frst is to shrt expsure to chnges in prssre and othr is to
ascnd by creful stges so that lttle bubbls of N disspte hrmlessly.. Lke all
mmals, humns are good at genrting heat. Becse we are so nrely hairless,
we r not good at keeping it. Lke mst anmls, we don't much lke relly hot
plces. We are so less adptble that we live in just 12% of lnd area, and only
4% of whle srfce if u inclde the seas.. Had sun been 10 tmes as mssive, it
wld hve exhsted itself aftr ten millon yrs instead of ten billon and we wldn't
be here now.. 5% nerer or 15% frther frm sun are the zone of hbitablty..
During the erly years of solr sys venus was only slightly wrmer than Erth
and prbbly had ocean. But few dgrees extra warm mde wter evporte, h2
atms escped into spce and o2 atms cmbned with crbon to form a dense
atmsphere of greenhse co2. Its srfce temp roasted to 470 degree celcius,
hot enugh to melt lead. And atm prssre is 90 tmes that of erth, more than
humns can withstnd.. Our lively interior of erth or magma creted the
outporings of gas that helpd to build an atmsphere and prvided us with B fld
that shields us frm cosmic radtion. Gives plte tectonics which contnully
renews and rumples the erth. If erth were prfctly smooth, it wld be cvered
evrywhre with wter to a depth of 4 kms.. Withut moon's stedying influnce
erth wld wobble like a dying top. The moon's stedy G influence keeps the
erth spnning at right speed and angle to prvide the sort of stblity necssry for
long and succsful devlopmnt of life. This won't go on for ever. The moon is
slpping frm our grasp at a rate of 4 cms a year. As mentned erlier, abt 4.4
bllon years ago a mars szed objct slmmed into erth, blwing out enugh mtrl
to crete the moon frm the debris.. Thre r 92 ntrlly occring elmnts on erth.
Plus a further 20, we hve creted in lab. Abt thrty of ntrlly occring elmnts are
widesprd on erth, and brely 6 of them are of central imprtnce to life. O most
abndnt, mking 50% of erth's crust. Nxt abndnt silcon. More obscre elmnts
as cerium etc more cmmn than btter knwn ones as Cu, Co or Nitrgen. Tin
brely mke it to top 50. Al 4th most cmmon elmnt on erth, accnting for 10th
of evrything under feet, but its existence wasn't even suspcted and was
trted as rare and precous. Frnch imprial fmily discrded stte Ag dnner servce
and replced with Al one. Crbn only 15th mst cmmon substnce but accnt for
0.048% of erth's crust, but we wld be lost without it. C not pntiful even in us
who so vitlly depnd on it. Of evry 200 atms in our bdy, 126 are hydrgen, 51
are oxygn, and 19 are crbon. Frm C is build prteins and dna. We need Fe
to mnufcture hemoglobin. Mdrn cttle need a lot of Cu bcse thy evlved in
Eurpe and Afrca whre Cu was abndnt. Sheep, howevr evolved in cu poor
areas of Asia Minr. Our tolrnce for elmnts is prprtnl to ther abndnce in Erth's
crust. We hve evlved to expct tny amnts of rare elmnts that accumlte in
flesh that we eat. But step up the doses, we r in truble. A tny amnt of
Arsenic is needed but too much of it will kill u. O and H, ech combstion
frndly. O itslf not combstble but fcilittes combstion. H2 gas itslf vry
combstble. Put togther frms incombstble water. A smll lump of pure Na in
wter will explde. Smll conc of Cl kill microrgnsm. U can smell Cl in bleach.
Cl in lrge vol used as poisnus gas in frst wrld war. Evn affects a swmmer as
sore eye if too mch in wter.. If an elmnt not solble in wter, we tnd to be
intolrnt of it. Pb used in food vssel and pipes for plmbing. Whn elmnts don't
occr nturlly on erth, we tend to be intolrnt as plutonium.. N2 gas does not
react with anythng and it forms 77% of our atm. All our foods contn trces of
Mn, selnium and zinc...

{L-17, Into the trposphre} Raindrps wld pound us sensless if it wren't for
atm slowng drag. Atm extnds upwrd for abt 120mles. Atm dvided into 4
uneql lyers: trposphre, strtosphre, mesosphre and ionosphre or
thrmosphre. Trpsphre is abt 10mles in eqtor and 6 or 7 in temparate
lattude. All wter and wethr in it. A fst elvtor as ones in skycrper wld get us
thre in 20mins. Such rapd ascnt withut prssrization wld kill us. Temp 6
miles up is -70F.. Aftr tropsphre temp wrms up agn abt 40F due to absrptve
effct of ozone. Thn plnges to - 130 F in mesosphre to 2700 F in errtic
thermsphre whre temp vries 1000 dgree frm day to nght. At sea lvel
trillonss of air molcules, so thick that molcules keep on bnging. So a lot of
ht exchngd. But at 50mles or so, in thrmosphre, air so thn that 2 molculs
miles aprt. So althugh ech molcule vry warm, little heat trnsfrnce. Othrwse
any man mde objct as satellits and spceships wld burst into flme. Evn if atm
thn, if a crft cmes too steep in angle, >6degree, genrtes drag of combstble
nture as in Colmbia spce shttle in Feb 2003 . If too shallow an angle, will
bunce bck. Peple who lve at hi alttude hve spnt 1000 yrs devlping lrge
chest and lungs, incrsng densty of O bering red blood cells, thugh limts to
how much thckning with red cells the blood supply (heart) can withstnd..
Sunlght enrgzes atms. In summr, it's relly excted atms u feel. At hi lvel
fewer molcules so fewr collsions. Temp drp 3F with evry 1000 ft clmb.. The
rson u don't feel crshed undr extra half ton of prssre is the sme resn ur bdy
wld not be crshed deep beneth sea as it is mde mostly of incomprssble
fluids, whch push bck, eqlizing prssres withn and withut. Whn u get millons
of tns of atm rushng past at 30 or 40 mph, limbs snps and roof tles go
flying.. One thndrstorm has been clculted to hve an amnt of enrgy equivlnt
to 4 days use of elctrcty for whle US. Strm clds can rise to a heights of 6 to
10 miles and contain updrfts and dwndrfts of 100 mph, oftn side by side.
Which is why pilots don't fly thru thm. For resns not knwn lightr prtcles tnd
to becme +vely chrged and to be waftd by air currnts to top of cld. The
hvier prtcles lingr at base, accumlting -ve chrges. -ve chrges hve a pwerful
urge to rush to +vely chrged erth. Lightnng heat air svral tmes hottr than
srfce of sun. 1, 800 thndrstrms r in prgress arnd the globe, sme 40, 000 a
day.. A disrptve cell of air (jet strm) locted 30, 000 ft up can bowl 180 mph
and inflnce wethr syss ovr whle continnt. Clear air turblnce occsnly enlivens
airplne flights. No one knws wht causes this.. Wrm air frm equtoral regns
rises untl it hits brrier of tropopauuse and sprds out. As it trvels away frm
eqtor and cools, it sinks. Whn it hits bttom, it looks for lo prssre area to fill
and heads bck to eqtor, compltng the circut.. At eqtr convctn prcess genrlly
stble and wethr prdction fair. Not so in temprte zones. Fight betwn hi & lo
prsrre air. Lo prssre sys creted by rsing air, whch convys wter molcules to
sky frming clds and then rain. Wrm air can hold mre moistre than cool air.
So lo area asscatd with cluds and rains. And highs genrlly sunshne and fair
wether. Whn 2 such syss meets, clds frm. Stratus cld form as moistre bring
updrfts cnnot brke stble air abve and sprd out like smke hittng celing. It is
unprdctble evn by suprcompters. We do knw, ht frm sun is unevnly distbted
so diffrnces in air prssre arise on plnet. The grtr the discrpncy in prssre the
fastr the wnd blows.. A wnd blwing at 200 mph is not 10 tmes strngr than
20mph but 100 tmes strnger, thus mch mre destrctve. A trpicl hurrcne can
relse as much enrgy as rich medum szed ntion like britain uses in a yr..
Rsing and flling colmns of air prduce cells. Explnd by Coriolis effct. Due to
this, wther sys curl and send hurrcnes spnning off like tops. Nval guns fring
artllery shlls adjst to lft or right; a shell fred 15 mles wld othrwse devte by
abt 100 yds.. Clds dvided into 10 types. Most cushny one is No.9. Hence
the exprssn, on cld 9.. A fog is a cld that lacks the will to fly. A fluffy summr
cumulus 100 yds enugh to fill bthtub or 25 to 30 gllons of wter. 100 yds of
fog is half a cu inch of wter, not enugh evn to gve a descnt drnk. Thus clds
not grt resvoirs of wter. Only 0.035% of erth's frsh wter floating arnd abve
us.. If rain flls on plnts, revprted withn hrs or days. In a lake, collctn of
molcules thre for abt a decde. In ocen, abt 100 yrs. 60% of molecules in
rain retrned to atm withn a day or 2. Spnd no mre than 12 days or so bfre
flling agn as rain. Meditrnean wld dry out in 1000 yrs if it wre not contnully
replnshed. 6 millon yrs ago, contnntal mvemnt clsed strait of gibraltar. As
medtrran dries, its evprated contnt fell as frshwter rain into othr seas dilutng
their saltness, and thus freezing. The enlrged ice bunced bck mre of sun's
ht and pushd erth to ice age. Redcing slt in water incrses its melting temp
(also can be clled freezng temp). Hence ice frmed at a highr temp. Pure
wter ice mlts at 0C (highr temp) while with salt mlts at -6C as fwer wter
molcles rech the srfce and it tkes longer or lwer temp for ice to form.. Wter
is mrvellus at hlding & xfrring ht. Gulf stream crries ht to Eurpe equvlnt to
wrld's outpt of coal for 10yrs. This is the resn why britain and irelnd hve
mild wntrs compred with Canda and Russia. Wter also wrms slwly, so lakes
and swmmng pools r cold evn on hottst day. Explns the lag betwn astrnmcl
strt of sesn and actl strt.. Atlntic is salter thn pacfic, incrsng its densty.
Withut it, Atlntic currnt wld hve proceeded to Arctc, wrmng north pole and
deprving Eurpe of warmth.. The scentsts can msre chloroflurocrbns cmpnd
in wter and wrk out how lng it has been snce thy wre last in air. By comprng
frm diffrnt depths and loc thy can chrt the water's mvmnt. Trmohline
circltion - srfce wtr, as thy get to Eurpe grw dense and snk to grtr depths
and bgin a slw trip bck to sthrn hemsphre. Whn thy rech antrtca thy r
caught in polar currnt and drven onwrd into pacfic. It can tke 1500 yrs for
wter to trvel frn nrth atlntic to mid pcific, but vols of wter mved r consdrble
and inflnce on clmte is enrmus. Also helps to stir up nutrnts for fsh and othr
mrne cretres. Incrsed meltng of Greenlnd cld disrpt the cycle disastrusly..
Sun brns 25% mre brghtly than whn yung. Yet no effct on wrld. Reasn -
Algaes cpture CO2 whn it flls as rain. Thy keep it frm reevportng into atm,
whre it cld build up as dngerus greenhse. Altgethr thre is abut 20, 000 tmes
as mch C lockd in erth's rocks as in atm. Evntlly, C storing algaes die and
fall to bottm of sea bcming limstnes. Much of this lmestnes will end up
feedng volcnoes and C will retrn to atm and fall to erth in rain. Called lng
trm C cycle. Cycle of half a millon yrs keeping clmte stble in absnce of any
distrbnce. Snce 1850 we hve snt 100 billon tns of extra C into air. Volcnos
and decay of plnts send 200 billon tons, nrely 30 tmes as much as we do
with our cars and factries. The lvel of co2 in air wld rise to 560 prts per
millon by end of this centry. Crrently ocns and forsts hve mnged to save us.
Fear is a runaway inc. Mny trees and plnts wld die relsng their stres of C
and adding to problm. Such cycles hve happnd in past withut humn
contrbution. The lst tme it hppend, it took nture 60, 000 yrs to cme bck to
stble C cycle..
{L-18, The bounding man} Wtr with certn orgnc molcules can form carbnic
acids so nsty that thy can strip the leves frm trees and eat the faces off
statuary. Potato is 80%, cow 74%, bcterium 75%, tomtoe 95% wter. Humns
r 65% wter.. Wter expnds (volmnus) on bcmng solid (lwer densty) and
thrfre flots. Evry molcule in wter is chngng prtner billon of tmes a secnd.
Thy can be esily seprted as whn u dve into pool. At any gvn momnt only
15% r actlly tuchng.. The mleculs at srfce r attrcted mre powrfully to like
molcules beneth and besde thm than to air molcles abve. Giving srfce
tension. A membrne strng enugh to supprt inscts & skpping stnes. Deprved
of wter, in our bdy, lips vnish, gums blckn, nose withrs, skin contrcts arnd
eye to prvnt blnking. Smllst frction of wter in erth deadly poisnus bcse of
salts withn it. Seawter contns 2.5 teaspoons of commn salt and lrge amnt
of othr elmnt salts. The proprtn of salts in our tissues sme as in seawter.
Tke a lot of salt into ur body then frm evry cell, wter molcles rush off leaving
cells dangerusly shrt of wter. Ovrwrked blood cells crry the salt to kidney,
which overwhlms and shutdown. U die.. The amnt of wter in erth is all we're
evr going to get. The sys is clsed. By 3.8 billon yrs, ocens had achved their
prsent vols. 60% of plnet's srfce is ocean mre than a mile deep. We wld
btter cll our plnet not erth but wter.. 90% of plnet's ice is in antrtica and mst
of rst in Greenlnd. If all wter in atm fell as rain, evnly evrywhre, ocean wld
deepn only by an inch. The estwrd spn of erth piles wter up agnst ocean's
westrn mrgin bcse of clckwse mvmnt of coriols frce in nrthrn hemsphre. We
hve btter maps of Mars than we do of our sea beds. Deep sea vents r
betwn tectnic pltes undrneath sea frm which hot wter is oozing out. In deep
deep sea vents, bcteria wre deriving ther enrgy and sustennce frm H2S,
compnds toxic to srfce creatrs. Livng syss thre bsed not on phtosynthsis
but on chemosyntsis. No sunlght, O or anythng asscated with life. Temp at
pt of outflw 760 F whre livng orgnsms r survving.. Why ocens don't grw
salter with tme? Millons of gllons of fresh wter evaprte frm ocean daily,
leving all salts bhind. So seas ought to grw mre salty. Smethng tkes eql
amnt of salt out of wter as being put in. As wter tken dwn into crust thru
vent, salts filtred out and agn cln wter blown out again thru vent. Can tke up
to 10 millon yrs to clen ocea, but prcess very effcent.. Frm 1957-58 ,
dumpng of rado wstes going on into sea.. The grt blue whle, so huge that
its tunge wegh as mch as elphnt, hrt size of car and its blood vessl so huge
that u cld swm dwn thm. We don't knw whre thy breed. Thy break off a
song, thn pick up agn at same spots 6 mnths lter. Smetme strke up a new
sng, whch no mmbrs heard but ech alrdy knw. Gint squids nver seen alve.
Knwn as wshed up on beches of New Zelnd. Mst be in lrge nrs bcse form
centrl prt of sprm whle's diet. Thre cld be as mny as 30 milln spcies of
anmls lving in sea, most stll undiscvered...

{L-19, The rse of life} Miller had 2 flsks. A flsk contning lttle wter to reprsnt a
primval ocean. The othr contning methane, ammnia and hydrgn sulphde
gases to reprsnt erly erth's atm. Connctd with tube. And elctrcl sprks
intrducd as lightnng. Found the wter in flsks contned amno acids, ftty acds,
sugrs and othr orgnic compnds. Pople thught to gve flsks a good shke & lfe
wld crwl out. Scntsts now claim erly atm nthng lke millr's stew. But was
reactve blnd of N and CO2. Cretng amno acids not a prblm but cretng
prtein is. Millon types of prten in humn body and ech one a mircle. To mke
Collgen protn, u need to arrnge 1, 055 amno acds in prcisly rt seqnce. But
hre a crucal pt. U don't mke it. It mkes itslf spntanusly withut drection, and
this is whre unlklihoods cme in. Thre r 22 ntrlly occrng amno acids knwn on
erth. Only 20 of thm necessry to prduce us & mst othr lving thngs. For
rndom evnts to prduce evn a sngle proten wld seem huge improbblty. Like
a whirlwind spnning thru a junkyrd and laving behnd a fully assmbled jumbo
jet. Prtein mst not only assmble amno acids in their rt seqnce, it mst thn
engge in a kind of chmcl origami and fold itslf into a vry spcfc shpe. It mst
be able to reprduce itslf. For that it needs DNA. DNA, prtns and othr
compnnts of lfe couldn't prospr withut sme sort of membrne to contn thm
clled cell. In cell thse divrse mtrls tke part in an amzing dance clled lfe.
Withut cell thy r nothng mre than intrstng chemcls.. Wht if the prten chns
didn't assemble all at once, but evlved. Thre mst hve been sme knd of
cumlatve prcess that allwed amino acds to assmble in chunks. Lots of
molcules in nture get togthr to frm lng chns clled polymrs. Sugrs constntly
assmble to form startch. Crystls can do a nr of liflike thngs - replicte, repnd
to envrnmntl stmuli, tke on ptternd complxty. Not a grt deal of assmbling lfe,
but no shrtge of self assmbly as symmtry of snwflkes to comely rings of
Satrn. So pwrful this ntral implse to assmble that life gving assmbling
condtns wld be encntred perhps a millon tmes in evry glxy. To crte lving
objct, u need C, H, O, N and smll amnts of S, P, Ca and Fe. Monmers
turning to polymrs, or begn to crte prten is not enrgtclly fvrble in prmtve sea
or any aqueus medm bcse of mass action law. It is lke puttng sugr in a
glass of wtr and hving it bcme cube. Wet monmers don't trn into polmrs
excpt whn creting life on erth. Prsent date of 3.85 billn yrs of lfe cretion is
stnning as erth's srfce didn't bcme untl abt 3.9 billon yrs ago. The
murchison metrite attck in Austrlia in 1969 was fond to be 4.5 billn yrs old
and it was studded with 74 types of amino acds, 8 of whch r invlved in
frmation of erthly protens. In 2001 , it was fond to contn complx strngs of
sugrs clled polyos, whch has not been found off erth bfre. It is actlly
confrmed that unvrse is rich in orgnic compnds. Hlley's plnet is 25% orgnic
molculs. Get it crshing into sutble plce like Erth, u hve bsic elmnts needed
for life. Pansprmia or extrtrrstal thries doesn't answr how lfe arose, but
merly mves respnsblty elsewhre. The oldst rock is one fond in Greenlnd
in 1997 is 3.85 billon yrs old, kept in Canbrra in Austrlia. It cmes frm the
same depsit whre oldst life was excvted, so it prbbly had life in it. Shrimp is
a mchne that msres decay rate of urnium in tny minrals clled zircons. Mst of
erth's crst has been slipped bck into intrror (subdction) at sme pt, but
occsnlly geolgsts fond outcrps of rcks in Greenlnd and wtstrn Austrlia that
hve remned at srfce. In 1982 shrmp dted a rock 4.3 billon yr found in
Westrn austrlia. Shrimp mchne is able to detct subtle diffrnce in amnts of
Pb and Urnum in zircon smples by whch age of rock can be accurately
adduced.. Phtosynthsis was not invntd by plnt, but by bactria or blue green
algae (cyanobcteria) genrting O to atm. In anaerbic wrld, O is extrmly
posnus. Our wbc use O to kill invding bcteria. Buttr trns rancid due to O.
The O lvel in our cell is tenth the lvel fond in atm. Whn O sprd, the anrobic
orgnsms mved to bogs, lke bottms and digstve tract of beings like us. Untld
nrs faled to adapt and died. At frst extra O prducd didn't accumlte in atm,
but cmbned with Fe to form ferrc oxdes whch sank to bottm of prmtve sea.
The wrld rusted which we see in iron depsts that prvde so mch of wrld's
iron ore. Abt 3.5 billon yrs ago, whre sea was shllow, the cyanobcteria
bcme tacky, trpped microprtcles of dust and sand to form solid rock bcteria
called stromatoltes. The stromatoltes came in form of colmns, mtresses
etc. In 2 billon yrs thse rased lvel of O in erth's atm to 20%, preprng mre
complx chpter in life's histry. The cyanobcteria were grzed out of exstnce
by vry orgnsms whose exstnce thy mde possble. Thy wre fond to exst in
Shrk bay in Austrla. Once 20% O in 40% of erth's histry, new type of cell
arose contning nuclus and othr lttle bdies clled orgnelles. Whn bcteria eithr
invded or cptred by othr bactria as it trned out suited thm bth, the bcteria
bcme mitochondrion. This mde complx lfe possble. In plnts simlr invsion
prduced chloroplsts whch enble plnts to phtosyntesize. Evry nutrient u
absrb goes to feeding mitochondrion. Thy r so smll that u can pck billons
into spce occupd by a grain of sand. It is lke hving a strnger in ur house,
who has been thre for a billon yrs. We cldn't live for 2 mins withut them. Thy
mntain ther own dna, rna and ribsmes. Thy look lke bcteria, dvde like thm,
respnd to antibiotic the same way. The new type of cells clled eurokaryotes
arrved suddnly in fossl recrd. Oldest of thm discvred in Michgan in 1992 .
Eurokryotes cld crry 1000 tmes mre DNA. Amoeba contns 400 millon bits
of gentic info in its DNA. Thus thse new protists a wnder of desgn and
sophistctions. In a billon yrs, eurkryotes formed complx multicelllr beings...

{L-20, Smll wrld} Bactria synthsze vitmns in our gut, convrt thngs we eat
into sugrs and polyscchrides and go to war on alien micrbes that slip dwn
our gullet. Bcteria pluck N frm air and convrt it into usful nucleotdes and
amno acds for us. Algae & othr tny orgnsms bubblng away in sea
blow 150 billn kgs of O evry yr. Bcteria r evrywhre in nuclr reactr to evn a
left cmera on moon. Thy eat stffs in rcks as Fe, S, Mngnese and so on. Thy
brethe odd thngs too as Fe, Cr, Co and U. Such prcesses may be instrmntl
in concntrtng Au, Cu and othr precius metls and depsits of oil and nturl gas.
It is suggstd their tirless nibblngs creted Erth's crust. If u took out all bcteria
out of the erth's srfce and dmped thm on srfce, thy wld cver plnet to depth
of 15m. In a pennsylvnia unvrsty in 2000 , thy hve resuscitated 250 millon
yr old bcteria that hve been trpped in salt depsts 600 m undrgrnd. If so, this
micrbe is oldr than contnnts.. One micrbe in a thusnd is a pthogen for
humns. Vomting, sneezng and diarrhoea r excllnt methds of gtting out of
one host and into postion of bording anther. The hiv the mosquto sucks up
on its trvels is disslvd by mosquto's own metbolism. Whn the day cmes that
the virus muttes its way arnd this, we may be in real truble. Englsh swetng
sicknss which rnged frm 1485 to 1552 killed 1000 s as it wnt, bfre burnng
itslf out. Too much effciency is not a good thng for any infctus orgnsm. In its
quest to rid bdy of pthogns, the immne sys smetmes destry cells or dmges
crtcl tissue so oftn that whn u r unwell wht u r feelng is not the pthogns but
ur own immne respnses. Thre r sme ten millon typs of wbc, ech desgned to
identfy and destry a prtculr sort of invder. Ech vriety of wbc keeps only a
few scouts on actve duty. Whn an antigen invdes, relvnt scouts identfy the
attckr and put out a call for reinfrcmnts of rt type. Wbc r mercless & will hnt
dwn and kill evry last pthogns thy can fnd. To avd extnctn, virus eithr thy
strke qckly and mve on to a new hst, as with flu. Or as with hiv, the virs sit
hrmlessly and unnticed in nuclei of cells for yrs so that whte cells fail to spot
thm bfre sprnging into action.Micrbes that normlly do no harm at all smetme
get into wrng prts of the bdy and go crzy. For exg, with car accdnts,
micrbes normlly benign in gut get into blood strems and cause hvoc. For
resns unknwn, sme bcteria causng the disese necrotizing fasciitis get thru
the linng of the throat and into the bdy propr whre thy wreak hvoc. In
meningitis, in one yung persn in a hundrd thusand it gets into the blood
strem and mkes thm vry ill. Sme 70% of antibotics used in devlopd wrld r
gven to farm anmls as a precution agnst infction. Such applctions gve
bcteria evry opprtnity to evlve a resstnce to thm. In u.s. hosptals alone, sme
14, 000 peple a yr die frm infctions thy pick up thre. In 1960 s evn as an
u.s. surgeon spke abt complte erradiction of a prtcult bcteria by pencillin,
90% of those strains wre in prcess of devlping immunty to pencillin. One
scientst had found a prticulr bacteria cause of ulcer but the phrmactical
indstry was carless to listn to him. Bcteria thmslves get sick due to virus. In
isoltion virus r inert & hrmless. Intrdce thm into suitble host and thy burst
into busyness into lfe. Abt 5000 typs of virus r knwn and thy afflct us with
mny hundrds of diseses. Virses prsper by hijcking gentic mtrl of a lving cell
and using it to prduce mre virus. Mny inclding hiv hve 10 genes or fewr
whreas simplst bcteria hve sevrl thusand. The viruses cnnot be seen by
micrscpe but by e- micrscpe. Thy burst in sme new and strtling form and
thn vnish qckly. One suggstion is that virses hide out unntced in popltions
of wild anmls bfre trying their hnd at a new genrtions of humns...

{L-21, Life goes on} Evn if u mke into smll pool of orgnsms, the less than
0.1%, that don't get devoured, the chnces of being fosslized r vry smll. Only
abt 15% of rck can prsrve fossls, so no good keelng ovr on a fture site of
grnite. The decesed mst dcmpose withut expsure to O permtting molecules
in its bones and hrd and sft prt r replced by disslved minerls, creting a
petrfied cpy of the orgnal. Thn as the fssils r prssed and folded and pushed
abt by erth's prcesses, the fossl mst smehow maintn an identfiable shpe.
Abt one bone in a billon bcmes fosslized. Less thn one species in
10, 000 has mde it into fossl recrd. Cmmon estmte is erth has 30 billon
specis of creture in its tme. Thre r 250 , 000 spcies of creture in fossil recrd.
Most land animls wether down to nothng. Abt 95% of all fossls that we
possess r of anmls that once livd undr wter, mstly in shllow seas...

{L-22, Goodbye to all that} Lichns r in blwy mntntops, arctc wstes, antrtca
whre virtlly nthng else will grw. Thy r a prtnrship betwn fungi and algae. The
fngi excrte acds that disslve srfce of rock, freeing minrals that algae convrt
to food suffcnt to sustain both. Thre r more than 20, 000 specs of lichen. It
may tke a lichc mre than half a centry to attain dimnsns of a shrt button.. To
survve out of wter, mrne cretures needed to cme up with new load bering
int archtctre, not the sort of adjstmnts that hppen ovrnight. Thre was a
pweful incntve to leve wter. It was gtting dngerus dwn thre. The slw fusn of
contnnts into a single lndmass meant thre was mch, mch less costline than
formrely and thus mch less costal hbitat. Plnts began prcess of lnd
colniztion abt 450 millon yrs ago, accmpnied of necssty of tiny mites and
othr orgnsms that thy needed to brk dwn and recycle dead orgnic mtter on
their behlf. By 400 millon yrs lrger anmls wre ventring out of wter. Frst
visble mobile resdnts were wood lice, that r commnly thrwn into confsion
whn u uptrn a rock or log. Durng erlier perod, O lvels was 35% as oppsed
to 20% now. How do we knw? Durng erlier perod, plnkton creted their
shells of clcium carbnte by drwing O frm atm and combning with C. These
orgnsms die and drift to bottm of sea frming limestne. Thy hve 2 stble
istopes O-16 and O-18. The istopes accumlte at diff rates depnding on how
much O and CO2 in atm at the tme of their cretn. By compring thse ancnt
ratios, geochmsts can cunngly read condtns in ancent wrld. The prncpl
reasn of hi O level in erly wrld was lnd domnted by giant tree ferns and
swamps which disrpted norml C recyclng prcess. Instd of compltly rotting
dwn, vegttve mtter sqezeed into coal beds that sustn much ecnmic actvty
evn now. The heady lvels of O encrged outszed grwth. The frst terrstal
vertbrates or frst lnd anmls frm whch we wld derve r a mystery. Most anmls
r tetrapods hving 4 lmbs with 5 fingrs or toes. Dinosurs, brds, humns, fish r
all tetrapods hving cmmon ancstor. In greenlnd in 30s and 40s, thy lookd
for fossl fish. Thy fond a 3 foot lng anmal, but it had 8 fingrs & toes on ech
limb. In shrt we don't knw whre we the tetrapods cme frm. 99.99% of all
specis that hve evr lved r no lnger with us. Solr flare will relse enrgy eqvlent
of a billon hydrgen bombs and fling into spce hundrd billon tons of hi enrgy
prtcles. The mgnetosphre and atm nrmlly swat thse bck into spce or twrds
poles whre thy prduce erth's comely auroras. A hundrd tmes typcal flre
could ovrwhelm our ethereal dfenses.. Erth has seen 5 mjor extnctn
episdes in its tme and mny smller ones. Ech wiped out 70 to 75% of specis.
Thse r all jst infrmed guesses. We r tlking abt deth of specis not indvdls. In
KT meteor impct, why did dinosaur wipe out, but othr reptles lke snkes and
crocodles survive? Why did prtculr grp of anmls wre wiped out in sea? Sme
inscts lke beetles cld live on wood. But those like bees that navgte by
sunlght and need polln, how cld thy survve? Corals reqre algae and algae
reqre sunlight. Much publcty in lst few yrs that corls dying frm chnges in
sea temp. How did thy survve the long impct winter? Extnctn seem to hve
been far less sevre in the sothrh hemsphre than the northrn. Grt deal we
don't knw.. After dinosar extnction, it was age of turtles. 16 species of thm
survved and 3 mre came into exstnce soon after. KT impct wipd out almst
90% of lnd bsed specis but only 10% of those lving in fresh wter. Oftn
wrngly stted that only smll anmls survved kt impct. In fct amng survvors wre
crocdiles who wre 3 tmes lrger than thy r today. Mmals expnded prodigusly.
Thre wre guinea pigs the sze of rhinos and rhinos sze of 2 strey huse.
Dinasurs ruled erth for 3 tmes as lng as mmals. So ether dinosaurs wre
remrkbly unprdctve of specis or we hve brely scrtched srfce of erth.
Museum disply of dinosrs r artficl. Dinusaurs of this perod came frm only
abt 300 specmns reprsnting jst 16 specis. Scantiness of recrd has led to
belief that dinsurs wre on their way out whn KT impct occred.

{L-23, The richnss of being} In pillow, it is estmted one tenth of its wght will
be mde up of sloughed skin, livng mites, dead mites and mite dungs. In
wshing mchine, if u wash lousy clthing at lo temp, all u get is clenr lice. If u
scoop a hndful of soil, u will be hlding up to 10 billon bcteria, most of thm
unknwn to science. As mny as 400 millon r unknwn. In 10 hectres of jungle
in Borneo, a 1000 new species of flwering plnt r thre. Trpicl rainfrests cver
only abt 6% of erth's srfce. But thy hrbor hlf of its animl life and 2/3 of its
flwering plnts. 99% of flwerng plnts hve nver been testd for their medcnl
proprties. Bcse thy can't flee frm predtors, plnts contrve elborate chmicl
defnses. Nerly qrter of prescrbed medcnes r derved frm just 40 plnts, with
anther 16% cmng frm anmls or micrbes. Any nturl molcule hve passd 3 and
a hlf billon yrs of evlution. While chmists can artfclly genrte
40, 000 compnds at a tme in labs. An orgnsm bdelloid rotifers whn drpped
into boling wter or frzen to abslute 0 curl up into a compct shpe. Whn thy r
retrned to a mre plesing env, thy uncurl and mve on as if nothng has
hppened. Fungi cme as mushrooms, yests etc. Fungis cause potato blghts,
jock itch, and r respnsble for yogurts, beers & cheese. Thre r mre specis of
fungus than thre r peple to fnd thm. In 1980 s, in a deep cave in Romnia
seald off frm outsde wrld wre found spiders, lices and othr smll cretures
blnd, colorless and new to science. Thy wre living off micrbes which wre
feeding on hydrgn sulphde frm hot sprngs...

{L-24, Cells} Thre r abt 140 , 000 trillon cells in ur bdy. Ech one crries a

copy of the complte gentic cde, the instrctn mnual for ur bdy. So it knws
how to do not only its own job but evry othr job in the bdy too. Ur cells r a
cuntry of 10, 000 trillon citizns, ech devted in sme spcfic way to ur ovrall
well being. U hve atlest 200 , 000 diff types of prtein laboring away insde u
and so far we undrstnd wht no mre than abt 2% of thm do. Nitrc oxde is a
formdble toxn and cause of air polltion. In humn cells thy contrl flow of
blood, enrgy lvels of cells, attckng cancr, respnsble for penile erctions.
Nitroglycrne, a well knwn explsve convrts to nitrc oxde in bloodstrm relxing
muscle lnings of vessls, allowng blood to flow freely.. Cells cme in vriety of
sze. Nerve cells filmnts stretch to ovr a metre. Thre r tny, disc shped rbcs
and thn thre r rod shped phto cells that hlp to gve visn. A sngle sprm
confrnts an egg 85, 000 tmes biggr than it whch confrnts the notion of mle
conqst. Ur skin cells r all dead. Evry inch of ur srfce is decesed. U r luggng
arnd ovr 2 kgs of dead skin, of which sevrl billon tny frgmnts r sloughd off
ech day. Lvr cells can survve for yrs, thugh compnnts withn thm may be
renewd evry few days. Brain cells last as long as u do. U r issued a hundrd
billon or so at brth and that is all u r evr going to get. U loose 500 of thm an
hr. Indvdl compnnts of ur brain cells r constntly renwed as with lver cells.
No prt of thm is likly to be mre than a mnth old. Thre isn't a single bit of any
of us, not evn a stray of molcule that was prt of us 9 yrs ago.. Thre r
8, 280 , 000 protozoas in a sngle drp of wter. The food and O r cmbned in
cells into elctrcity. It is a mere 0.1 volts trvellng distnces msred in
nanomtres. The mmbrne is mde of fatty mtrl knwn as a lipid which is light
grde of mchne oil. On molculr scle wter bcmes hevy duty gel and a lipid is
like iron. A cell is supprted by a complx fremwrk of griders clled cytoskeltn.
Ech strnd of dna is attckd or dmged once evry 8.4 secs, ten thusnd tmes a
day by chmcls & othr agnts that whck into or crelssly slce thru it, & ech of
thse wounds mst be swftly sttched up if the cell is not to persh. The prteins
r spnning, pulsatng and flyng into ech othr up to a billon tmes a sec.
Enzyms dash evrywhre perfrmng 1000 tsks a sec. Lke speeded up wrker
ants, thy bld and rebld molcules, haulng a pice of this one, addng a pce to
that one. Sme monitor pssing prtens & mrk with a chmcal those that r
irreprbly dmged or flwed. Once so selcted, the doomd prtens prceed to a
strctre clled proteasome whre thy r strpped dwn and their compnnts used to
bld new prtns. Sme type of prtns exst for less than half an hour; othrs
survve for weeks. The molculr wrld mst necessrly remn beynd pwers of our
imgnation owing to the incrdble spd with which thngs hppen in it. A cell
contns 20, 000 diff typs of prtn, and of thse 2000 typs ech will be reprsnted
by 50, 000 molcules. Thre r 100 millon prtn molcules in ech cell. It gves
sme idea of swrmng immnsty of biochmcl actvty withn us.. Hrt pumps 3
millon ltres blood in a yr, enugh to fill 4 olympc swmming pools to keep all
the cells oxygented. Durng exrcse, rate can incrse 6 fold. The oxygn is tken
up by mitochndria (cell's powr sttions), abt 1000 of thm in a typcl cell, thugh
nr vries depnding on wht a cell does and how mch enrgy it reqres. The
mitochndrias hve ther own gentc instrctns, dvidng to ther own tmetble,
spekng their own langge. Food and O delvred aftr prcessng to mitochndria
whre convrtd to ATP. A cell will hve 1 billon atp molecules (btteries) and in
2 mins evry one of thm will hve drained dry and anther billon will hve tken
their plce. Evry day u prduce and use up a vol of atp equivlnt to abt half ur
bdy wght. The warmth of ur skin in ur atp at wrk.. If a cell not gven actve
instrctions frm anther cell, thy kill thmslves. Thy devour ther compnnt prts
or prgrmmed cell death. Whn a cell fails to expre in prscrbed mnner, but
dvide and prolifrate wildly, reslt is cancer. Cells mke this mistke farly
regulrly, but bdy has mechnsm for deling with it. Only rrely prcess sprls out
of contrl.. Most of the signls arrve to cells by means of hormnes. Chmcals
lke insuln, adrenline r sent frm thyroid and endocrne glnds. Trillons and
trillons of reflxve chemcl reactns add up to a moble, thnkng, decsn mking u.
Disassmble the cells of a spnge, thn dump thm into a soltn, thy will bld
thmslves into a spnge agn...

{L-25, Drwin's singulr notion} Beaks on one island wre strdy and shrt and
good for crckng nuts whle on the nxt were long and thin and suited for
winklng food out of crevces. That set him to thnkng that perhps the birds
had not been creted this way, but had in a sense creted thmslves. Drwin's
thry suggsted a mechnsm for how a specis mght bcme strnger or fitter but
gave no indiction of how it mght thrw up a new specis. Drwin belived that
any benficl trait that arose in one genertion wld be pssed on to subsqnt
genrtions, thus strngthng the specis. Jenkin pointd out that a fvorble trait in
one genrtion wldn't bcme domnnt in succeedng genrtions, but in fact wld be
dlutd thru bnding...

{L-26, The stuff of life} By thrty genrations ur totl nr of forebers is ovr 1

billon and by 64 genrtions rsen to 1 millon trillon, sveral 1000 the totl nr of
peple evr lved. U cldn't be hre withut a lot of incest. Mst of the peple u see
arnd r vry probbly reltve. The gens in one humn being 99.9% sme as
anther. The tny diffrnce, 1 nuclotde bse in evry 1000 endow us with our
indvdlity. Thre is no sch a thng as 'the' humn genme. Evry humn genome is
diff. It is endlss recombntions of our genme, ech nerly identcl to all othrs,
but not qte that mke us wht we r, both as indvdls & as specis. Insde nuclus
cell is 46 chrmsmes. 23 frm mothr and 23 frm fther. 99.999% of thm crry
same complmnt of chrmosmes. Exceptions r rbcs, immune sys cells & egg
& sprms cell, which for varius orgnztnl reasns don't crry full gentc packge.
DNA cretes mre DNA. Nrly 2 mtres of it is sqeezd into almst evry cell. Ech
length of DNA comprmises sme 3.2 billon lettrs of cding enugh to prvde 1
fllowed by 3 billon zeros pssible combntions. DNA itslf is not alive. It is the
mst nonrectve, inrt molcule in lving wrld. That is why it can be recvred frm
ptches of blood or semn and coaxd frm bnes of ancent neanderthls. It has
4 bsic compnnts clled nucleotides, like an alphbet of 4 lettrs. Chrmosmes
wre so clled as thy absrbed dye and thus wre esy to see undr micrscope.
Chrmosme consst of one molecule of DNA and sme prtein. This DNA strnd
is of 2 mtres in ech cell nuclus. 97% of ur dna conssts of junk or noncding
dna. Only hre and thre alng ech strnd do u fnd sectns that contrl and
orgnze vitl functns. Thse r the genes. Genes r instrctns to mke prtens. A
sngle gene is like a piano key, no prticulr fnctn. Combning genes as
cmbinng piano keys, u can crete chrds and meldies of infnte variety. Put all
thse genes togthr and u hve the grt symphny of exstnce as humn genme.
Chrmsmes can be imgned as book's chpter and genes as indvdl instrctns
for mking protens. The wrds in which instrctns r wrtten r clled codons and
letter r knwn as bases. The uprghts of strctre of dna r mde of a type of sugr
clled deoxyribose and the whle of helix is a nucleic acid, so the nme
deoxyribonumcleic acid. The ordr in whch thse lettrs apper as u mve up or
dwn the ldder consstutes dna code; loggng it has been the job of humn
genme prjct. Our dna replctes with dutful accrcy, but occsnlly abt one tme
in a millon, a lettr gets into wrng plce. Called single nucltde polymrphsm or
snp. Genrlly thse snips r burried in non cding dna and hve no detctble
consqnce for the bdy. But occsnly mke a diffrnce. For instnce, incrsed
prdction of rbcs for smeone lving at altude. Thse slght modfcations
accumlte bth in indvdls and in popltions, contrbting to distnctvness of bth.
Too mny errors and the orgnsm can't fnc, but too few and it scrfces
adptbility. Rbcs crry mre O so inc in rbcs in a persn hlp a persn in hi
elvtions to mve and brethe mre esily. But it's hrd on hrt so the persns pay
for with higher risk in hrts. The 0.1% diffrnce betwn ur genes and mine is
accnted for by our snips. For evry one of our 3.2 billon bses, smewhre thre
will be a persn with diffrnt cding in that postion. We hve 6 billon genme. We
r 99.9% same, but eqlly humns shre nothng. The 97% of our dna thugh
junk exst that thy r good at gtting thmslves duplcted. The jnk dna is also the
portn emplyed in dna fingrprnting. The dna for mking genes is not ncessrily
with smooth fnctning of orgnsm in mind. One of the commnest genes for
prtein, 'revrse transcriptase' is to mke it pssible for retroviruses sch as hiv
to slip unnticed into humn systm. Our bdies' genes prduce prteins, the
lrgest proprtion knwn in any orgnism, that don't do anythng at all. The
genes jst reprduce thmslves. Salmon and spidrs die in prcess of mting. Frm
an evlutnry pt of view, sex is a rewrd mechnsm to encurge thm to pass on
their gentic mtrl.. In germny, scentsts took the gene that contrlled
devlopmnt of a mouse's eye and insrted into larva of fruit fly. It mde a fly's
eye. Hre were 2 cretures that hadn't shred a commn ancestr for 500 millon
yrs, yet cld swap gentc mtrl as if thy wre sistrs. Thy fond that thy cld insrt
humn dna into certn cells of flies and the flies wld accept it as if it wre ther
own. 60% of humn genes r same as those in fruit flies. 90% r same as in
mice. We evn hve the same genes for mking a tail, but thy r not swtched
on. Life, as it appered was drwn up frm a single set of blueprnts. Thre is in
exstnce a clutch of mster contrl genes, ech drectng the devlpmnt of a sectn
of bdy clled hox genes. Hox genes tell how billons of embrynic cells, all
arsing frm a single fertlized egg and crrying identcl dna, knw whre to go
and wht to do. That this one shld bcme lver cell, this one neurn cell, a
bubble of blood or this one for beating wing and so on.. We hve 46
chrmosmes. Some ferns hve 600 . Lungfsh, one of the lest evlved of all
complx anmls, has 40 tmes mre dnas than us. It is not the nr of genes u
hve that mtters, but wht u do with thm. We hve 40, 000 genes, abt the
same nr as r fond in grass. A few disordrs as haemophilla, parkinson's
disease r caused by lone dysfnctnal genes, but as a rule disrptve genes r
weeded out by ntural selction long bfore thy can becme permnntly
trublesme to a specis or popltion. For the mst prt, evn our eye color r
detrmned not by indvdl genes but by complx of genes wrking in allince.
That's why it is so hrd to wrk out how it all fits togethr and why we won't be
prducng desgnr babies any tme soon. Evn thnking, it turns out, affcts the
ways genes wrk. How fast a man's beard grws, is prtly a fnc of how much
he thnks abt sex bcse thnking abt sex prduces a testosterone surge. In
erly 1990 s, scientsts fond thy cld knck out vital genes frm embryonc mice,
and stll see the mice not only brn helthy, but actlly fitter than their brthers
and sistrs who had not been tmpered with. Whn certn genes wre destryed,
othrs wre steppng in to fill the breach. It intrducs an extra lyer of complxty
to smethng we had brely begin to undrstnd. The genme tells us wht we r
mde of, but nthng abt how we wrk. Needed the oprtng mnual - instrctns for
how to mke it go. Proteome is the librry of infrmtion that cretes prteins. It is
much mre complcted than genme as per 2002 report. 100 millon prtens
may be busy in any cell at any momnt. Prtein's behvr and fnctns r based
not on their chmstry as with genes, but also on ther shpe. Prtens not only
mst hve the ncessry chmcal compnnts, but then mst be folded into an
extrmly spcfic shpe. Drnk a glass of wine and u mterilly alter the nr and
types of prteins at lrge in ur sys. Not so helpful for geneticists who r trying
to understnd wht is going on. Abt half the chmical fncs that tke plce in a
bnana r fundmntlly the same as the chmcl fnctns that tke plce in u...

{L-27, Ice time} In 1815 , a volcno explded in Indonesia, 150 tmes the sze

of Mt St Helens. It obscred sun's ray & causng the erth cool. 1816 bcame
knwn as the yr withut summer. Crops evrywhre faild to grow. Yet globlly
temp fell by less than 1 degree celsius. The erth's ntural thermostt is an
exceedngly delcate instrmnt. The erth in 1816 was balmy compred with
former epochs, and mch of the lnd arnd thm had been shped by crshing
glciers and cold that wld wreck evn a frost fair.. The bnes of arctic reindeer
was fond in wrm south of Frnce. Huge rocks strnded in improbble plces.
Those wre good evdnce to shw that ice had once lain hevily not jst acrss
Swiss alps, but ovr mch of eurpe, asia and north amerca. One of the ppers
in 1864 was on how vriations in erth's orbit mght hve preciptted ice ages. It
explned cyclicl chnges in shpe of erth's orbit, frm elliptcal to nerly circulr to
elliptcl again, might expln the onset & retret of ice ages. Agassiz bcme
convnced that ice had once cvered the whle erth, extngushng all life which
god had then recreted.. The erth is subjct not jst to varations in length and
shpe of its orbit, but also to rythmic shfts in its angle of orienttion to sun, its
tilt and pitch and wobble, affctng durtion and intnsty of sunlght flling on any
patch of land. This Milankovitch cycles wre of 20, 000 ,
40, 000 & 100 , 000 yrs. The cause of ice ages is to be fond in cool
summrs, not brutl wintrs. If summrs r too cool to melt all snow that flls on a
gven area, mre incming sunlight is bounced bck by reflctve surfce,
excerbating coolng effct and encrging yet mre snow to fall.. A mssve
freezng occred abt 2.2 billon yrs ago fllowed by a billon yrs or so of wrmth.
Anther ice age evn lrger than frst occred clled supr ice age knwn as snwball
erth. Bcse of fall in solr rad of abt 6% and dropoff in retntion of greenhuse
gases, erth lost its ablity to hold on to its heat. Cyanobcteria survved the
exprnce and phtosyntszed. Thse bcteria wre able to get sunlght bcse ice
remned trnslucnt lettng sunlght to pass thru or a lttle ocean wter remn
exposed due to sme knd of loclized wrming at a hot spot. How did erth got
wrm agn?, as snowbll effct conctrdcts it. We wre saved by volcnoes, whch
pushed thru the buried srfce, pmping out lots of ht and gases that meltd the
snws and refrmed the atm. As erth wrmed, it probbly had the wildst wether
with hurrcnes pwerful enugh to raise wves to hts of skycrpers and rainflls of
huge intnsity. Life frms adherng to deep ocen vents went on as if nthng wre
amiss, but all othr lfe on erth cme close to chcking out enterly. The ice ages
of mre recnt tmes seem prtty smll scale.. Thanks to ice cores frm Greenlnd
we hve a detled recrd of climte for smethng ovr a 100 , 000 yrs. Twrds the
end of last big glaciation, 12, 000 yrs ago, erth bgan to warm, and thn
abrptly plnged into bittr cold for a 1000 yrs. The artc plnt dryas is one of the
frst to recolonize land aftr an ice sheet withdrws. At the end of 1000 yrs
temp leped by 4 degree celsius in 20 yrs. Greenlnd temp grew by 8
degrees in ten yrs. This caused unsettlng on a thnly populted plnet. Today
the consqnces wld be uimgnable. Thre seems sme trrible feedbck loop
invlving disrptions of norml pttern of ocen circultn, but all this not undrstood.
It is nturl to suppse globl wrming wld act as a countrwght to erth's tendncy
to plunge bck into glcial condtns. Thre is the idea that slght wrming wld
enhnce evaprtion rates and inc clud cover, leding in highr lttudes to mre
accumltions of snow. Thus lead to loclized coolng in N america and northrn
eurpe.. Climte a prdct of mny vrables, nmely, rsing and flling CO2 lvels,
shfts of contnnts, solr actvty and sttely wobbles of milankovitch cycles. It is
so diffclt to comprhnd evnts of past to predct those of futre. Tke antrtica.
For 20 millon yrs it remned cvered in plnt and free of ice. It shldn't hve been
possble. T Rex dinausar is fond 10 dgrees lattude of N pole. But it is
continully dark for 3 mnths of year. So eithr T Rex migrted sesonlly ovr
enrmus distnces or it spnt mch of yr in snwdrfts in the dark. Not knwn..
Durng this century, if all the ice sheets meltd, sea lvels wld rise by 60
metres, ht of 20 strey blding and evry coastal city wld be inundated. We live
on a knfe edge. A futre offring us perishng frigidty or eql expnses of stemy
heat.. Ice ages may not be bad news. Thy grnd up rocks, leving rich soil,
mke freshwter lakes that prvde nutrtve possblites for 100 s of species...

{L-28, The mystrius biped} The java and pekng men both becme homo
erectus. Sme 20 typs of homonid r recgnzed in literture today. Almst no 2
experts recgnze the same 20. Homo erctus wlked the erth for well ovr a
millon yrs and inhbted territry frm atlntic edge of eurpe to pacfic side of
china. Yet if u brght bck to life evry homo erctus indvdl whose exstnce we
can vouch for, thy wldn't fill a school bus. Homo habilis cnsist of evn less.
U've got homnid skulls in georgia dated to abt 1.7 millon yrs, then almst
millon yrs bfre nxt remns trn up in Spain, rt on othr sde of contnnent and
thn anther 300 , 000 yr gap bfre u get one in germny, and none of thm look
lke othrs. Whn habilis bnes arrnged in seqnce, thy shw males bcming less
apelke and femle frm same priod apear to be mving away frm humnness
twrds greter apeness.. For the frst 99.99999 % of our hstry as orgnsms, we
wre in the same ancestral line as chimpnzees. Nthng is knwn abt prehistry
of chimpnzees, but whtever thy wre, we wre. 7 millon yrs agi, a grp of new
beings clled Austral emrged frm tropcl frests of afrca and bgan to mve abt
on open savanna. Like the suth afrcan chld fossl, thy cld walk uprght & sme
of thse specis exsted for millon yrs, othrs for a mdest 100 , 000 . Evn the
lesr succssful had histries mny tmes longr than we hve yet acheved. A 3.18
millon yr old austral fond in Ethopia in 1974 . The Austral is the missng link
betwn ape & humn. A humn bdy has 206 bnes out of which 120 r redndnt.
2 yrs latr, footprnts by 2 austral fond to hve wlked thru muddy ash follwing a
volcnic eruptn. A suggstion that we mst hve adptd an austral femur for a
millon yrs and thn gone bck to ape femur whn we mved on to nxt phse of
our devlpmnt. Betwn 2000 to 2002 , mre cretres fond of 5.8 millon yrs. All
suggstng thy walkd uprght and thy wre walkng uprght far erlier than
prevusly thoght. Brth canl in femle very nrrow, whch mens long trm infnt
care or solid mle femle bondng. Elphnts and whles hve lrger brans than
ours, but we r smrter. It is the reltve size that mtters. Austra had brain
of 450 cc, smller than that of gorlla and wghed less than 45 kilos. But
gorllas wegh 150 kilos. Why did the austral cme dwn frm trees? Flow of
wter was cut frm pcific into atlntic, divrtng wrmng crrents away frm arctic
and leadng to onset of shrp ice age in northrn lttitudes. In afrca, grdully
jungle was trning into savnna. It was not so much that austral left the
forests. The frests lft thm. We r only cretre that can hrm at a distnce. We
can thus affrd to be physclly vulnrble. For ovr 3 millon yrs, austral did not
chnge at all. Thre was no rapd evlution of ther potent brain. It appers thre
wre 6 homnds exstng in afrca. Only one, homo emrged bgnning 2 millon
yrs ago. We possibly ate up the australs as thy vnished mysterusly. The
homo line bgns with homo habilis and ends with sapiens (litrlly man the
thnker). In betwen thre r abt 6. The hbilis had brain 50% lrger than austral.
We hve fond no reasns as to why ther brain began to grw 2 millon yrs ago.
Brains mke up 2% of bdy's mass and devour 20% of its enrgy. A big brn
needs mre food and mre food means incresed risk. Big brn may hve been
an evlutnry accdent. Mny of the erly forms fllowed side trails that didn't cme
to anythng. The java man or homo erectus exstd abt 1.8 millon yrs ago to
20, 000 yrs ago. Thy were a grp of tool usrs. Evrythng befre thm was
apelke and aftr thm humn like. Thy huntd, used fire and lookd aftr weak and
frail. To othr homnids, thy seemd powerful and giftd. It had the bdy of adult
humn but brain of a baby. In 1980 a homo erctus boy was fond in kenya. It
had an entrely bdy strcture. A womn's bdy was fond which had a disese of
eting liver of a crnivre. It shwed she had lved months with the disese, so
she was tken care of. First sign of tnderness in homnid evlution. Their skull
has brain assocted with speech. Chimps don't hve such a feature. The
fossl evdence suggst sme mmbers of specis reched java at same tme or
slightly bfre thy left afrca. So perhps modrn peple did not rise in Afrca, but
in asia. A mystry is how thy passd west side of red sea, an area evn drier in
past. Modrn humn r 98.4% gentclly indistngushble frm modrn chmpanzee.
Thre is mre diffrnce betwn zebra & horse or dolphn & porpoise...

{L-29, The restless ape} Thre r sme plces in afrca whre u can't mve withut
stpping on the hand axes. Shped lke a sperhd, but the size of stepping stne
fond in Tanznia wghing 11 kilos. Noone knws its use. Acheulean tools hve
been fond evrywhre excpt in Far est. Thre only oldowan or tanzian tool has
been used. The java man & pekng man was homo erctus. In mungo,
austrlia, a dry inhosptble plce for 12, 000 yrs, humn bones hve been fond.
Crbon dting shws that the bnes r 60,000 yrs old. Sweet pottoes hve been
fond in new guines while it is ntive of sth amrca. Wht is certn is that peple
hve been mving arnd for lngr than trdtnlly thught and shring genes as well
as info. Only 1 humn fssil of 300 , 000 yrs old has been fond in india, in the
wrld. 2 millon yrs ago homo erctus left afrca. Thse evlved into java man &
pking man in asia and homo neanderthls & heidelgnsis in europe. A secnd
wve homo sapiens arse in africa and sprd, displcng the erlier ones. Thre is
no sign of slughter. So how thy did it? A 100 , 000 yrs ago thy appered in
modrn day israel. Neandrthls & mdern humn co exsted for 10, 000 yrs in
mddle est. Achueln tool of homo spiens r fond in middle est ovr a milln yrs
but in eurpe 300 , 000 yrs. Cro mgnons wre in far wst eurpe at abt the
same tme thy wre cming in frm est. Neandrthls survved tugh wnters of
-45degree in eurpe. Nenderthls wre stuck with an ovrsze bdy that reqred
mre food to sustain. While mdern humns had btter clthng, fire and shlter.
Our brains wre smller than neandrthls but mre effcient. Possble that
neandrthls and comagnon had diffrnt nrs of chrmsomes. Hrses hve 64
chrmsmes and donkeys 62. Mate thm and u get offsprng of usless 63
chrmsmes. In shrt a strile mule.. Mitochndrl dna pass on only thru femle
line and mutates abt 20 tmes fastr. In 1987 anlyss was mde of mitchndral
dna and declred that rise of mdrn humns occred in afrca withn
last 140 , 000 yrs. In 1992 , stdies shwed that neandrthl dna was unlke any
dna fond on erth. And that modrn europns descnded frm few 100 afrcns
who left ther hmeland 25, 000 yrs ago. Thre's mre divrsty in a social grp of
55 chmps than entre humn poplation. The australian mungo spcimen shws
his mitochndral dna is no lnger fond in lving humns and hve dscnded frm
indvdls who left afrca in recnt past. 2 vriants of gne fond commn amng
asians and ntve austrlian but hrdly exst in afrca. It arose in est asia lng bfre
mdern homo sapns reched the regn.. Brethng on a bne or wter in lab will
contmnate it. We r all swmming in foregn dna.. No humn bone has evr
been fond in ologesaile. Howevr much tme thy spent thre shping rocks, it
appers thy wnt elswhre to die. It is assmed homo erctus mde thm and that
thy had brain of an infnt...

{L-30, Goodbye} The bckgrnd rate of extnctn on erth thruout biolgcal histry
has been one specis lost evry 4 yrs on avg. Humn causd extnctn now may
be rnning at as mch as 120 , 000 tmes that lvel...

{John Gribbin - Whre did lfe orgnte?} Fossl evdnce shws that lfe (single
celled life) alredy exsted on erth 4 billon yrs ago, less than a billon yrs aftr
erth frmed.. Si can also mke 4 chmcl bnds. But thre r 8 tmes as mny C
atms arnd as thre r Si atms, and the bonds mde by Si r weker than those
mde by C.. Aprt frm H & He, mst cmmn elmnt is O and secnd mst commn
is C, both prduced by stellr nucleosynthsis.. The enrgy of strlght (infrred
and ultraviolt rad) is avlble to drve intrstng chmcal reactns. By 2005 , mre
than 130 molculs had been detcted in spce such as NO, SiO, HCN, SO2,
acetylne (HC2H) & formic acid (HCOOH fond in bee stngs). Prteins prvide
strctre of ur bdy (hair, fngernails as well as muscle) and also r enzmes,
drectly contrlling chmstry of our bdy. The wght of a single C atms is 12
units and the molculr wghts of prtens rnge frm a few 1000 unts to a few
millon unts. Amno acds wgh 100 unts whch indctes how mny amno acds it
tkes to mke a prten. Hlf of the mass of all biolgcl mtrl on erth is amno acds.
Amno acid is 4 bnd of C atm is attched to a sngle H, one to a 3 lnked atms
amne grp (NH2) and one to carbxylic acid (COOH), hnce the nme amno
acid. All prtns fond in lving thngs in erth r mde up frm diff combntns of jst 20
amno acids. Prtns r life molcules, thugh isolted prtn molcule is not alve.
Prtns r not prducd by non lving chmstry. The globulr prtn acts as enzyms
encrging sme chmcl reactns imp to life and discrging othr chmcl reactns
detrimntal to life. Prtns r messges wrttn in 20 ltter amno acid alphbet. The
info stred in this way in prtns that mkes one prtn chain suitble for frming prt
of a strnd of hair and anthr suitble for crrying O rond in ur blood. Whre do
amno acds cme frm? The 20 amno acds r mde of H, C, O, N cmbned in diff
ways, and S crps up in a cuple of amno acds. The welth of complx
molcules identfied in spce suggsts lfe cme frm thre. A sys IRS 46 whch lies
abt 375 light yrs away frm our solr sys contns H Cynide 10, 000 tmes grter
than that fond in intrstllar gas. Dna & rna r mde of sugr.. How far can the
bld up of complxty prceed in gmcs (giant molculr cluds)? How do complx
moleculs get dwn to the srfce of a plnet lke the erth? C brning only tkes
plce insde strs that hve 8 tmes as much mass as the sun. AGB strs r red
giant strs. C mde in core of str is drdged up to srfce by convctn untl nr of C
exceeds O atms, thugh not in all strs. The solid prtcles that surrnd agb strs
inclde silictes and silcon crbide. In O rch strs, compnds prduced r mostly
oxdes and in C rch strs orgnic cmpnds r prduced.. Sand is mde of grains of
silcate (SiO2). Silcte is mst commn minral in erth's crst and has been
detcted in mre than 4000 agb. An oxde of Al r rubies and sapphires, the
secnd hrdest aftr diamnd. Phospherus is the key elmnt of nuclc acid.. Lfe
on erth uses lft hnded amno acds to bld prtns and rt hnded sugrs to bld
nuclec acid. A dna molcule cannot mke use of lft hnded dexyribse (sugr).
Low clorie sweetnrs r mde frm lft hnded sugrs, the bdy cnnot use thm, evn
thugh thy still tste sweet. The hndedness is defned by the way the molcules
affct polrzed light. In late 1990 s, astrobilgists discvred amno acds fond in
metrites r also lft hnded. Molecules of one hndedness r elmnted by effcts of
circulrly polrzed light. Thus it will imprnt a prefrred hndedness on thse
orgnic molcules, bfre prts of the clud collpse to form new strs and plnets..
Cmets r drty spce icebrgs. Lrge amnts of wter in thm. A lot of dirt in comet
is orgnic mterial, thugh it is a smll proprtn of mass of comet. But the totl
adds up to a lot of mtrl by humn stndrds. 4 billon yrs ago wht bttered moon
also bttered erth. Perhps all of erth's wter was depsted on plnet durng this
tme. It's pssible that orgnic mtrl cld hve survved such impcts. Impossble for
dna and prtns to cmbne in this wter. A suggstion that the key molcules wre
trpped in lyers of clay like mtrl. The imprtnt prt is a mmbrne got frmed on
cell whch allwed certn molcules to get in (food) & certn molecules to get out
(wste prdcts). Icy dust grns exst in gmcs contning orgnic cmpnd. Whn
irrdiated with uv light and put in warm wter, lttle hollow sphres form whre
chmstry prceed withut intrfrnce frm outsde. From non lving to lving in the
nxt billon yrs...