4 ms·
Nature really has produced some amazing things, but they are generally not optimal, just good enough.
by w-ll 12y ago
Nature really has produced some amazing things, but they are generally not optimal, just good enough.
- jostmey 12y agoTrue. And Natural Selection never discovered how to extract energy by breaking apart the atom---that took an act of intelligence. Still, I suspect there may exist limits to how small a fundamental computational unit can be: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/11/021126203508.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/11/021126203508.ht...
- ars 12y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_reactor
- nullc 12y agoOh yea?! so where does there exist a natural fusion reactor?!? Man: 1 Nature: 0 (... :P I think the point was that there are— as far as we know, no evolved organisms using fission. Not that there wasn't fission in nature prior to man.)
- cowardlydragon 12y agoI thought there was bacteria that used nuclear radiation to sustain themselves. They aren't doing fission... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061019192814.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061019192814.ht...
- wiml 12y agoThose are really just feeding on the reactive chemical species produced by the ionizing radiation from nuclear decays in the rock. Pretty nifty, and I hadn't heard of them before. The other possible answer to this that I know of are the fungi who might be able to derive metabolic energy from gamma rays--- though last I checked it wasn't entirely certain that's what they're doing.
- ars 12y ago> a natural fusion reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_sun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_sun