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Was just rereading - it was the radioactivity and the large natural satellite that was unique in his universe. Tides are interesting because once you have life
by sleepy_keita 1y ago
Was just rereading - it was the radioactivity and the large natural satellite that was unique in his universe. Tides are interesting because once you have life in the oceans, it's a kind of forcing function to adapt to land conditions
- actionfromafar 1y agoForcing function + making a stretch of land which is neither dry nor enterily wet. A gradient. If there are no tides the leap life has to make is much bigger.
- piker 1y agoFascinating
- euroderf 1y agoAnd perhaps the advantages of this gradient extend up as far as aquatic apes.
- actionfromafar 1y agoNot sure what this means.
- stavros 1y agoWhy are tides a forcing function? Marine life has been perfectly content just not going near a beach.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> Why are tides a forcing function? "Nucleotide formation and polymerization are both more favored thermodynamically when subunit and nucleotide concentrations increase and the water concentration decreases (i.e., at low water activity)" [1]. Tide pools provide a regularly-cycling low-water and high-water environment. (And you get thermocycling, nutrient refreshment, and a path to the oceans, too.) They're not a forcing function, generally, because we don't know how life formed. But I believe they're close to one in a RNA-first or metabolism-first origin-of-life universe. [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07389-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07389-2
- stavros 1y agoVery interesting, thank you!
- sleepy_keita 1y agoI was thinking more on the lines of "if marine life never found itself stranded on land, it wouldn't need to evolve to survive on the land"