5 ms·
Purple Earth hypothesis
- joshuafuller 1y agoJimi was right—Earth was in a purple haze. It just came from retinal-based photosynthesizers, not acid.
- O5vYtytb 1y agoFun fact, early hand written lyrics were "purple haze, Jesus saves...". It was a recollection of a dream where he was walking under water. The connection to acid is more so by interpretation of the audience.
- morkalork 1y agoIt's not more associated to cannabis? There's many strains even named for it.
- zahlman 1y agoThis presumably happened later, as LSD became less popular in the underground drug culture.
- worik 1y ago> LSD became less popular in the underground drug culture. Hmmmm... Maybe relatively less popular, as the menu of recreational drugs is expanded from a very few bad ones to a cornucopia of good ones, but still very popular
- zahlman 1y agoNowadays I only ever hear people talk about it in the context of former users, or general discussion of the 70s.
- AlecSchueler 1y agoLSD definitely had a resurgence and it's very popular again today, but it's still accurate to say it lost popularity the crackdowns at the end of the 60s.
- morkalork 1y agoProblem was in the 90s most North American supply was apparently coming from a couple of guys and when they got busted it almost disappeared overnight.
- AlecSchueler 1y agoYeah there was the mini resurgence in the late 80s, early 90s but I think the scene since the start of the 2010s has grown to be bigger than ever in a certain sense.
- scythe 1y agoLess accessible. Illicit LSD production will probably never be as widespread as it was before the List of Chemicals was introduced. You can develop alternative manufacturing methods for most drugs. But a hexahydroindolo[4,3-fg]quinoline? Not so easy.
- weinzierl 1y ago"Retinal-containing cell membranes exhibit a single light absorption peak centered in the energy-rich green-yellow region of the visible spectrum, but transmit and reflect red and blue light, resulting in a magenta color.[5] Chlorophyll pigments, in contrast, absorb red and blue light, but little or no green light [..]" I wonder why no plant evolved to use both and make the more even efficient use of light. These plats would appear dark, maybe almost black. They could live between all the green plants from their scraps so to speak. "However, the porphyrin-based nature of chlorophyll had created an evolutionary trap[citation needed], dictating that chlorophyllic organisms cannot re-adapt to absorb the energy-rich and now-available green light, and therefore ended up reflecting and presenting a greenish color." Yes, but why?
- pc486 1y agoAs far as I understand it, this is a still debated question. One theory is it's about evaporating water: Plausible photomolecular effect leading to water evaporation exceeding the thermal limit (https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2312751120 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2312751120). There are black plants though! And they're studied for the same kind of questions. E.g. The Functional Significance of Black-Pigmented Leaves: Photosynthesis, Photoprotection and Productivity in Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3691134/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3691134/)
- verisimi 1y agoNigrescens is overdue a 'naming review' with the Culture Ministry.
- darth_avocado 1y agoA few different threads based on my limited online research: 1. Absorbing all spectrum of light would provide more energy than the organisms can handle. They need gas to run the engine, and all spectrum would provide jet fuel. 2. Current predominant species of plants evolved from the undergrowth. Original plants would absorb only green, so the undergrowth evolved to absorb the other spectrums because that’s what was left. After a few planet scale extinction events where the sunlight was scarce, being able to absorb a wider spectrum became a successful evolutionary trait and became the predominant one. 3. There are species of fungi that use melanin to absorb radiation for energy source and appear black.
- dvh 1y agoDo you think it is just coincidence that chlorophyll is green and sun has peak luminosity in green frequencies? Or did chlorophyll win just because of that?
- OgsyedIE 1y agoIn the rest of the niches in the entire domain of life it is the case that many different strategies were tried simultaneously, usually with a sole predominating outcome.
- anonymous_sorry 1y agoChlorophyll reflects green light, meaning it doesn't use these frequencies. Who knows, maybe that's why the retinal photosynthesis evolved first though.
- deadbabe 1y agoMaybe other frequencies “taste” better. And that’s why many humans don’t like eating their greens, because even plants don’t like greens.
- joshdavham 1y agoSo the world might've been purple in the past... That's really neat!
- worik 1y agoIs this seen in some trees today? Near me there is a plum tree with purple leaves Not mentioned in the article...
- anonymous_sorry 1y agoNo that's just a pigment. They still contain chlorophyll. Often you'll find leaves in full sun are redder, because they need less chlorophyll to operate at full efficiency. Leaves more in shade may be darker, as they require more chlorophyll (meaning light is absorbed across most of the visual spectrum by the pigment and chlorophyll together)
- anonymous_sorry 1y agoThis page says the theory was first proposed in 2007, but I remember being told about it at university around 2003.
- charcircuit 1y agoSomething similar happened with me for another theory's article. I knew it existed before the article said. But I only had a primary source to prove it. Since it's not a secondary source I couldn't fix the article, so I put it on the talk page. Now the talk page has been wiped and the article is still wrong about the origin.
- ipsum2 1y agoHappens frequently. Usually the Wikipedia article is written by the guy who wants to claim credit for an existing design or idea, so he zealously guards the page against the truth. It's just disappointing.
- wpollock 1y agoI remember vaguely reading about this in the 1970s, maybe Scientific American? Cannot find that article now though.
- evrimoztamur 1y agoConsidering assembly theory (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_theory https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_theory) for a possible explanation. The OP does state retinal is simpler, but it's significantly more basic and is organic. On the other hand: Chlorophyll(s) all have a single magnesium caught at the center of a chlorin 'net'. It seems significantly harder to manufacture!
- wonderwonder 1y agoWe really don't give enough credit to the people that maintain Wikipedia and do the work required to make these articles. Its a shame that a lot of political / social influence has started to creep into some of the articles but on the whole its really an incredible benefit to humanity.
- gitremote 1y agoPBS Eons has an episode on this: When the Earth Was Purple https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IIA-k_bBcL0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IIA-k_bBcL0 (This is great science channel. PBS should have continued to receive federal funding.)
- Isamu 1y agoSomeone should add citations to the Evidence section.