Oxygen atoms dance in the atmosphere. They don't really like to dance alone, so you will usually find two dancing together, arm in arm. (O2)
Picture a charming couple, two oxygen atoms, making a molecule. They swirl with the other couples in the atmosphere, and the sun calls the tune. Hotter, faster, up! Up! Cooler, slower, down, down.
They dance happily along, and spot a crowd of other molecules close together. Something interesting is happening! They take a closer look. Suddenly, swoosh! They are swept with the crowd into the dark cabaret of a pair of lungs. They catch a hemoglobin shuttle in the blood stream, and are carried off into the hugest party ever.
Our oxygen atoms get separated at some point, as they investigate the goings on. One helps out in the liver, where gangs of carbohydrate and protein molecules are distributing sun energy into the body. The other joins up for a while with a group of molecules to form an antibody, and fight off a virus gang of party crashers, intent on making trouble.
They dance with many other atoms, and see many things. The slow chess games of calcium atoms in the bones, and the swift, shocking dance of the nervous system. Eventually our two oxygen atoms meet up again. What a wonderful time they have been having. A handsome carbon atom tells them that, if they think this is fun, they ought to try out a plant party. There's a whole different set of adventures there!
So the three of them link arms (CO2) and catch the nearest vein to the lungs. Whoosh! They are back in the atmosphere, off to new adventures.
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Sunday, July 13, 2008
Amazing Ancient Feats
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Really. I am impressed by "Amazing Feats of the Ancients", but I am not amazed.
People write and talk about things like Stonehenge, the Pyramids, the Mayan Calendar, as if there is something mysterious about their construction. "How did they do this? Where did they get their information?"
There's nothing amazing about any of it. It's impressive, but not amazing.
First, feats of construction:
The only people who are amazed live in industrialized parts of the world. They have forgotten just how much can be done with plain brute force. They also underestimate how strong people used to be.
The people who built the Pyramids, and who raised the stones at Stonehenge, did physical labor all their lives. They not only had the muscle and bone, they had the physical knowledge of how to use it efficiently. You can meet people like that today. Here in New Mexico, you can go to the Pueblos, and meet people who have done traditional farming or herding all their lives. They are like living rocks. They can snatch a fleeing 200 pound sheep with one hand and stop it short. They can pick up 50 pound bales of hay and toss them around like nothing. And they can do this ALL DAY.
Get a bunch of well built people like this together, and you don't need mysterious forces to raise great hunks of stone. Add one person with some ideas on how to focus the energy of a group of people and you get Chichen Itza.
Astronomical Feats:
Some people are amazed by the accuracy of ancient calendars and astronomical information. These calendars are all produced by agrarian cultures who depended for their lives on accurate predictions of the seasons. They were motivated to have accurate calendars.
What does it take to have an accurate calendar? Careful observation and recording. That's all. These people had unpolluted skies, undimmed by artificial lights. It does not take a telescope to observe such skies.
Why should one be amazed, then that these people had accurate calendars?
I think these attitudes are based in the idea that "primitive" cultures are stupid.
Just because they did not have the advantage of hundreds, or thousands of years of previous research and design, does not mean they were stupid.
As I said, I am impressed, but not amazed.
.
.
Really. I am impressed by "Amazing Feats of the Ancients", but I am not amazed.
People write and talk about things like Stonehenge, the Pyramids, the Mayan Calendar, as if there is something mysterious about their construction. "How did they do this? Where did they get their information?"
There's nothing amazing about any of it. It's impressive, but not amazing.
First, feats of construction:
The only people who are amazed live in industrialized parts of the world. They have forgotten just how much can be done with plain brute force. They also underestimate how strong people used to be.
The people who built the Pyramids, and who raised the stones at Stonehenge, did physical labor all their lives. They not only had the muscle and bone, they had the physical knowledge of how to use it efficiently. You can meet people like that today. Here in New Mexico, you can go to the Pueblos, and meet people who have done traditional farming or herding all their lives. They are like living rocks. They can snatch a fleeing 200 pound sheep with one hand and stop it short. They can pick up 50 pound bales of hay and toss them around like nothing. And they can do this ALL DAY.
Get a bunch of well built people like this together, and you don't need mysterious forces to raise great hunks of stone. Add one person with some ideas on how to focus the energy of a group of people and you get Chichen Itza.
Astronomical Feats:
Some people are amazed by the accuracy of ancient calendars and astronomical information. These calendars are all produced by agrarian cultures who depended for their lives on accurate predictions of the seasons. They were motivated to have accurate calendars.
What does it take to have an accurate calendar? Careful observation and recording. That's all. These people had unpolluted skies, undimmed by artificial lights. It does not take a telescope to observe such skies.
Why should one be amazed, then that these people had accurate calendars?
I think these attitudes are based in the idea that "primitive" cultures are stupid.
Just because they did not have the advantage of hundreds, or thousands of years of previous research and design, does not mean they were stupid.
As I said, I am impressed, but not amazed.
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Wednesday, July 9, 2008
I am sometimes asked, "Do you believe in Evolution, or in Creation?"
"Evolution" is usually meant, in the question, to mean that the universe just happened, and is how it is now purely by chance.
"Creation" is usually meant to mean that God made everything, and nothing happens by chance.
That's why people see a conflict. There are many people who see no conflict. God made everything, and the process of evolution is just how he made it. This view makes the answer to the question, "Yes!"
I see things yet another way.
I see a higher power, but not outside the universe. It's not so much that the power created the world, but that it IS the world. The changes over time described as evolution are its movements. It's making things up as it goes along. There is no ordained Master Plan. Galaxies spin, planets revolve, mountains rise and sink. It's a dance of joy. We can tune into it, and dance along, or we can resist, and spend our whole lives trying not to fall down.
This view makes the answer to the question, "No." There is no outside power, and it's not all chance, either.
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"Evolution" is usually meant, in the question, to mean that the universe just happened, and is how it is now purely by chance.
"Creation" is usually meant to mean that God made everything, and nothing happens by chance.
That's why people see a conflict. There are many people who see no conflict. God made everything, and the process of evolution is just how he made it. This view makes the answer to the question, "Yes!"
I see things yet another way.
I see a higher power, but not outside the universe. It's not so much that the power created the world, but that it IS the world. The changes over time described as evolution are its movements. It's making things up as it goes along. There is no ordained Master Plan. Galaxies spin, planets revolve, mountains rise and sink. It's a dance of joy. We can tune into it, and dance along, or we can resist, and spend our whole lives trying not to fall down.
This view makes the answer to the question, "No." There is no outside power, and it's not all chance, either.
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