Archive of posts by Sven van Eijl
Do plants make the world heavier?
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012
Through photosynthesis, do plants take light energy from the Sun, convert it into mass and actually add to the overall mass of the Earth?
The person who asked this question is probably referring to Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2. However, plants are no particle physicists and cannot convert energy into mass. What they can do better than any human chemist though, is to capture the energy contained in sunlight and use this to combine two of the most abundant compounds on earth, carbon dioxide and water, into glucose.
Glucose, or fruit sugar as it is also known, is used by living creatures ranging from yeast to elephants as a carrier of readily available energy. The only ones that can actually make it from scratch (or rather CO2 and H2O) are plants, however.
Tags: Biology, photosynthesis, plants
Posted in Originals | No Comments »
Why is snow soft and ice hard?
Friday, February 17th, 2012
This question is quite easy to answer; It’s the air inside!
You might have thrown snow balls as a child. Thinking back to those days, when you collect some snow from the ground it’s nice and fluffy and soft. This is because snow is made up of lots and lots of tiny ice crystals that have a lot of space for air to get trapped inside.
Tags: ice, snow
Posted in Originals, Your Questions | No Comments »
Is there any genetic link between insects and plants, that could explain mimicry eg. Mantis orchid
Tuesday, January 25th, 2011
The first part of the question can be answered in the affirmative; yes, there is a genetic link between insects and plants. In fact, there are genetic links between all living things. This is one of the amazing facts modern biology has revealed to us.
Then the second part: can this link be an explanation for mimicry eg. Mantis orchid? This is almost surely not the case. To find out why, we need to have a look at the relations between all living things according to the theory of evolution.
Tags: Biology, genetics, insects, plants, relations
Posted in Originals | No Comments »
Why don’t tortoises die from starvation and thirst when they are hibernating?
Monday, November 1st, 2010
To answer this question we should first ask ourselves why they need to eat and drink in the first place. Any animal, also a tortoise, needs food to provide it with energy. It needs energy to power its muscles, and keep its body temperature constant in the face of changes in the enviromental temperature.
It needs water because its body (like any animal) is to a great extent made up of water. But there is a continuous loss of water through sweating and the production of urine. Sweating contributes to cooling of the body, and urine will excrete some of the waste that is produced when the animal extracts energy from its food.
Tags: Biology, hibernation, tortoises
Posted in Originals | 1 Comment »
