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I wonder why life never evolved something like this? It seems like it would be useful for places with large day/night gradients or around volcanoes
by mrfusion 5y ago
I wonder why life never evolved something like this? It seems like it would be useful for places with large day/night gradients or around volcanoes
- Kon-Peki 5y agoDo you mean like solar-powered nighttime lighting where the "battery" is just a big rock and the "photocell" is a temperature drop because the sun went down? That might take a bit of engineering to work well, but it's a pretty good idea :)
- pjc50 5y ago- need a hot side/cold side - generates electricity, which isn't directly useful for most life - fairly terrible efficiency - and the big one: life evolved photosynthesis instead, which was so effective it transformed the atmosphere of the planet. (There are some interesting "volcano powered" creatures living around thermal vents in the deep ocean, but they work by metabolizing chemical output instead)