2 ms·

Life is attracted to gradients; I would expect the most interesting behavior at the twilit ring.

• sfink 3y ago
  But the article's main point is that the intermediates/gradients in heat and moisture are not necessarily where you expect them to be. If you have a point heat source on one side of an enclosed volume—a big box, say—then in a vacuum the most "interesting" area is halfway between that point and the far wall. But if there's a gas or liquid in the box, convection will produce a flow where the interesting regions are scattered around and that midway point is probably one of the less interesting spots. Life is also attracted to energy. Even if it started in the twilit ring, it would compete to fill the most insolated areas, and would be lushest there. I think it's more like life is attracted to the volume of flow. A gradient is what drives the flow, but the flow has velocity and so sums up the gradient over a history of motion.