The Spring on my Lab Door

The door has a spring attached, it closes automatically. It is the door to my lab. I sit there at my desk for hours at a time worrying about the smallest intricate part of the software code that I use. The software code that brings the oceans of the earth alive inside my computer.

But its not the oceans that I'm usually thinking about, its mostly something trivial, like a forgotten semicolon in one of the lines of code. I spend entire days and weeks sitting there silently, the only conversations that I have are, "Oh! I think it would work better if you changed this constant...", or, "Why isn't this code compiling?!".

But the door! Sometimes, it closes gently with a click, and other times, it bangs shut with a loud thud, the vibrations jar my desk and my ears. I kept wondering what made the spring behave differently.

The door intrigued me as much as my non-compiling code! I started having conversations with the spring while thinking out aloud, "Why are you so erratic? Or is there some pattern here that I'm missing?"

Sometimes, I feel its better to think about the smaller details, otherwise, the enormity of the problems would simply overwhelm you.

Its funny how while walking along the beach at night, I was thinking about the infinitesimal grains of sand and how much more infinitesimal we ourselves are when you look up at the skies above with the millions of stars. And at the same time, we aren't as insignificant as we think we are, after all, we are capable of contemplating the infinite.

Just like how the viscous fluid inside the spring mechanism of the door helps to damp it because of the intermolecular forces. Take that away, and there's a bang!

This was written today at a "Performance Poetry" workshop. You can find amazing videos of performances in YouTube. Search for these artists: Kattie Makkai, Andrea Gibson, Taylor Mali, Phil Kaye, Sarah Kay, Rives, Shane Koyczan.

Infinite Space

Sylvia Plath (source: Wikimedia)

The piece was inspired by a line in a poem by Sylvia Plath.

It was like a marriage that was never meant to be, but had to be. Like two spiraling arms of a cyclone, we plunged headlong into each other, we were wedlocked into a tight embrace, fondling while we loved and ravaging each other while we hated.

Neither knew what would be, we experienced the present without prescience. Though I am much older than Life, I couldn't claim to be much wiser. I could claim as much credit for the Sylvan landscape, as the leaf could for the incredible chloroplast.

The early stirrings were indiscernible. My ancient oceans were a soup, with the ingredients that had been forged in the belly of the stars. My only company was the sun, the moon and the occasional asteroid. The distant stars with their cold light creeping across the infinite spaces were but a reminder of my infinitesimal existence.

The ages, I silently observed, at first without concern or care for the precious phenomenon upon my bosom. Life suckled at my ample teats, the Sun fertilised me with a continuous stream of radiant heat. I came to love that which could care no more for me than those distant stars. It was a love like none other, primal, unforgiving, merciless, brutal and nourishing.

Out of the oceans crawled out the crabs, soon on slithering spines did Life's tentacles spread across my lands. Lush forests festooned my rainfed belt, the sparse mountains blossomed into multitudinous colours. Life grew in complexity, the ages swept by, leaving an assortment of species, one stranger than the other, one more ingenious than the other. Every niche, thinkable and unthinkable soon became occupied, only to be wiped out by my calamitous nature, only to respawn and crawl back, in a new form, a varied garb, a stranger ecosystem that one couldn't have dreamed of in their wildest delusions.

My brethren remained sterile, their vast expanses lay bare and exposed to the infinite spaces above. My soil was covered by the canopies, my mantle became fluid and flowed, the tiniest bacteria began causing tectonic shifts. My atmosphere changed, my climate changed. My soils changed, so did my rivers, oceans and lakes. Everywhere, life held on with a tighter grip than before.

I iced over once, with the frosty fingers reaching into my tropics. The very oceans turned into an icy slush, I almost suffocated Life. But Life held on with much more vigour than I had anticipated, biding its time for a favourable sunrise.

Over the ages, Life became aware enough of me, only to ravage me, and to become aware of my own assaults, some retaliatory, and some unprovoked.

Humans emerged on the horizon, building civilizations a fortnight after they climbed down from their trees. The cities grew hungrier and thirstier. The rivers were all diverted into them, and they emerged black and full of stink, with a sludge that could not support the very Life that I had nourished for ages in my harsh lap. The wheat and barley grass grew were once great forests stood, now uprooted and gutted. The noble whales were hunted without mercy. The long dead forms of Life were dredged up, their ghosts filled the air with noxious fumes and trapped the sun's heat. The Humans went on heedless, with disregard for the rest of Life and for their nourishing partner.

Their follies compounded and destroyed their own numbers. Their poor died first, and their rich died too. Out of the ashes emerged an enlightened biped, with an awareness unsurpassed. With locks of hair flaming red, their consciousness could contemplate the mysteries of the universe. One no more felt small and lonely while surveying the infinite spaces, the twinkling stars, now seemed to beckon. I go forth now with my child, my lover, my paramour. Each indistinguishable from the other. Out of the ashes, I rise, like a volcano, exploding the red entrails into the skies, and I eat the parsecs like air.

A story of how bacteria moved continents!

  [This post first appeared here: http://renewsiitm.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/biogeochemistry-a-story-of-how-bacteria-moved-continents/]

A group, led by the planetary scientist Tilman Spohn at the German Aerospace Center's Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin, has suggested that biological activity has strongly influenced the formation of continents.

Models suggest that without life, continents would cover only about 5% of the Earth's surface as against the nearly 30% that we see today!

The significance of biological activity on the atmosphere has long been established. The “Great Oxygenation Event” (GOE) that occurred about 2,400 million years ago increased the proportion of free oxygen in the atmosphere from that of a trace gas to the abundant levels that we see today. Ancient cyanobacteria photosynthesized and released oxygen into the oceans and atmosphere. During the early stages, the free oxygen oxidised iron and other minerals which got deposited in the crust from where we extract them now for our industrial purposes. The oxygen also reacted with atmospheric methane, a greenhouse gas, reducing its concentration. This probably triggered the Huronian glaciation which lasted for 300 million years and the evidence suggests that this was the first of the Snowball Earths.

[Source: Wikimedia (used under CC licence)]

Snowball Earth is the name given to periods in the Earth's history when it is posited that glaciers extended into the tropics and the entire surface was covered in ice. The oceans were probably iced over or were covered in slush with the possibility of a narrow open band of water near the equator. This theory gains credence from the evidence of glaciers that had formed in the tropical zones.

While dealing with geological time scales, it is not easy for us to comprehend the true magnitudes of the numbers that are cited. For instance, the earliest members of the genus Homo evolved around 2.3 million years ago and the earliest fossils of anatomically modern day humans have been dated to around 200,000 years ago. All of modern civilization with settled agriculture and animal husbandry is just 13,000 years old. It is with this context that we can begin to understand the enormous time scales that are part and parcel of geosciences.

If we were to draw the time scale of the planet on a 100m long line, we would find the first instances of lifeforms after the first 23m. The GOE occurred somewhere around 47m, and the Huronian glaciation lasted for another 6.5m. The early Homo species emerged at the 99.949m mark and the entire history of modern civilization has lasted for 0.3mm.

Whether the cyanobacteria caused the Huronian glaciation or not, they definitely had a significant impact on the atmpospheric composition and the global climate. Biological activity is tightly coupled with geochemical processes and have a significant bearing on the global climate. The field of biogeochemistry is an important contributor to modern day climate models and climate studies.

Cyanobacteria (Source: Wikimedia)

Spohn, the author of the study, in an interview (http://phys.org/news/2014-01-planet-life-continents.html) explained their hypothesis that life had a significant role to play in the formation of the continental landmasses. The bacterial action increases the rate of erosion of rocks. So much so that without life, erosion rates would be only 60% or less than what it is. These eroded sediments contain nearly 40% (by weight) water. These are carried into the oceans by the rivers and winds. These hydrous sediment on the ocean beds move towards the subduction zones where they are driven deep into the mantle. If not for the hydrous sediment, such large quantities of water could not have entered these higher density areas of the earth's innards. The high pressure and temperatures of the mantle releases the water. Water being a polar molecule, reduces the bond strength of the minerals in the rocks and lowers their melting temperatures.

The presence of water in the mantle increases the tectonic and volcanic activity and the formation of new landmasses.

Mount Rinjak eruption, 1994, Lombok, Indonesia (Source: Wikimedia)

Doughty et al., 2013, ^[2] have shown, through a mathematical model, that the megafauna of the Amazon forests were primarily responsible for the homogeneous spatial distribution of essential nutrients. Megafauna are animals that are larger than 40 kg in body weight. The herbivore megafauna acted as a nutrient pump. The animals consume large quantities of plant matter. Their excretions in the form of faeces and urine would be spatially distributed, the extent of which would depend on the size and physiology of the animal. Their excretions being rich in nutrients such as phosphates would go on to nourish more vegetation. This plant matter would further be consumed and excreted by other animals and through this step by step process, homogeneous spatial distribution of nutrients was achieved.

Even 30,000 years after the extinction of the pleistocene megafauna, we still find some amount of homogeneity in the nutrient distribution, however, this is fast reducing on most continents and the authors raise serious questions regarding the effect of this heterogeneity on the biogeochemistry of the planet.

It is another well known fact that whales, by feeding at depths and excreting closer to the surface, act as giant nutrient pumps which sustain the marine biota dependent on phytoplankton and algae near the surface. The phytoplankton are responsible for the fixation of nearly 40 Gigatons of carbon every year ^[3]. Any disruption to this sensitive ecosystem with each player playing an important role could have profound impacts on the climate on geological time scales.

It may be a mind boggling concept for those that are unfamiliar with biogeochemistry, but it is true that biological activity has had a very significant effect on the earth's climate, topography and geological activity. It is with this heightened awareness of the global ecosystem that we must approach public policy and planning. Economic growth at the cost of the destruction of the environment would mean nothing.

References:

[1] Tilman Spohn interview, phys.org, (http://phys.org/news/2014-01-planet-life-continents.html)

[2] Christopher E Doughty et al., 2013, “The legacy of the Pleistocene megafauna extinctions on nutrient availability in Amazonia”, Nature Geoscience, Issue 6, pp. 761-764

[3] Paul G Falkowski et al., 1998, “Biogeochemical controls and feedback on ocean primary production”, Science, Vol. 281, no 5374, pp. 200-206