{"id":139,"date":"2014-10-09T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-09T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/an-expedition-into-photosynthesis-setting-forth"},"modified":"2019-08-25T04:04:19","modified_gmt":"2019-08-25T04:04:19","slug":"an-expedition-into-photosynthesis-setting-forth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2014\/10\/09\/an-expedition-into-photosynthesis-setting-forth\/","title":{"rendered":"An Expedition Into Photosynthesis – Setting Forth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sitting with Lucretius in the garden<\/strong><\/h4>\n

There are moments when the jungle before me implodes under the weight of its own complexity.<\/p>\n

Every stone is a mountain writ small, and the invisible air conceals\u00a0a maelstrom of atoms and vacuums<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The appearance of stability\u00a0dissolves: reality rearranges itself into a catalogue of magnitudes.<\/p>\n

The substance of “being” comprises yardsticks and archetypes and foundations, and all a series of nested matryoshka dolls.<\/p>\n

Details are dense with the possibility of perspective.<\/p>\n

The world I am born into each day regains its original novelty; it is a posited proposition, as selective as any other.<\/p>\n

This precise moment is a precipitous peak – unbalance tips me over,\u00a0down deep into exotic\u00a0dimensions.<\/p>\n

A garden with<\/em> (a lawn, chairs and a table, a rusty shovel in the shade, and next to it) a vine growing<\/em> (grasping at the brick wall, hidden roots, a lone flower among) leaves\u00a0with<\/em>\u00a0(glas<\/a> green and pandurate blades, rough to touch \u00a0except for the soft brush of) trichomes protruding from<\/em>\u00a0(protective epidermis, hidden vasculature sharing sweet juice, and mesophyll tissue made of)\u00a0assimilation matrices founded on<\/em> (receiving sunlight, interchanging simple and complex molecules via) chloroplast empires<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Falling deep and deeper, ever stranger territory; eventually amino acids, and nuclei, strange quarks and improbability, and lilliput<\/a> become\u00a0brobdingnag<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Children of Helios<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

The greatest part\u00a0of life as we know it\u00a0–\u00a0our anthropocentric bubbles around which we base and define our life, all the way down to microbes that coat its every surface\u00a0–\u00a0all of it is a derivation\u00a0of the light emitted by the sun and absorbed by this planet. Biology is like the whirlpools that form atop an unplugged drain; both are a strange construction, seemingly purposeful, but really a\u00a0(beautiful) superficial shape\u00a0of entropy; we are a mode of energy dissipation. All food webs are built up from a foundation of photosynthesizing life, like the olden-day economies<\/a> built upon\u00a0gold bullion – without mined ore, money\u00a0could have no value and marketplaces no existence.<\/p>\n

This dependence is even more marked\u00a0when we vainly focus upon the creatures<\/em> of life\u00a0(viz.\u00a0the multicellular life forms), whose induction into possibility itself<\/em> depends on the oxygen produced by photosynthesis. Every few seconds I inhale a new breath, an action that is virtually synonymous with life, and which\u00a0is the unconscious basis of all that I do.<\/p>\n

The photosynthesizing organisms I know best and with whom I feel the greatest kinship are plants. Plants are built of cells that (some of them) contain and use chlorophyll to\u00a0absorb sunlight. Or, from the other side, chlorophyll constructs cells and plants as extensions for reaching sunlight. The verdant greenery I see so often is merely the cloak that represents this incredible and complex passageway between the sun and life. Every blade of grass and leaf is a demonstration of this understated, subtle magnificence.<\/p>\n

In those moments when I become aware of the fractal nature of reality, I see a leaf as a tremendous industrial district, mining the environment for molecules and photons, to be processed through sublime electronics and atomic fabricators, powering infinitesimal pumps and manufacturing monads of fuel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photosynthesis on one foot<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n

Photosynthesis is a process in which light energy is captured and stored by an organism, and the stored energy is used to drive energy-requiring cellular processes. MMoP, p1<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This photogenic process occurs in throughout the tree of life, but I follow the tread of my interest – botany. Plants specialize to acquire light depending on their environment, which wavelengths or colours are most bountiful, and provide the most energy.<\/p>\n

Plant cells are encapsulated in a membrane, and contain\u00a0organelles – “microcells”, surrounded by their own membranes –\u00a0wherein the molecular apparatuses of photosynthesis are stored an employed. These organelles are the chloroplasts.<\/p>\n

The enterprise\u00a0of photosynthesis, taking place within a chloroplast, can be described\u00a0as\u00a0four steps.<\/p>\n

Molecular complexes called\u00a0antennas<\/em>\u00a0are hit by photons, absorb the energetic shock, and transmit the potential in the manner of a funnel, moving down towards a reaction centre.<\/p>\n

What the reaction centre receives is an energetic electron, desperate to react. This volatile subatomic particle provokes a chain reaction between molecules that can handle the electron whilst avoiding its reactivity, until finally, a (relatively) more stable bond is achieved.<\/p>\n

The molecule carrying the (still energetic) electron is, as a result, a strong reductant eager to donate its charge. This propensity drives another sequence of reactions, whose power drives molecular pumps and recharges molecular fuels.<\/p>\n

All that’s left for the process is the vital synthesis and\u00a0export of stable products; primarily the sugars that form the staple of the plant’s transportable energy and life processes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sitting with Lucretius in the garden There are moments when the jungle before me implodes under the weight of its own complexity. Every stone is a mountain writ small, and the invisible air conceals\u00a0a maelstrom of atoms and vacuums. The appearance of stability\u00a0dissolves: reality rearranges itself into a catalogue of magnitudes. The substance of “being” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[159,303,90,317,39,16],"tags":[8,34,15,35],"metadata":[],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-ancientgreek","category-blog-posts","category-lucretius","category-meanwhileiii","category-science","tag-botany","tag-molecular-biology","tag-photosynthesis","tag-plants"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2437,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/02\/28\/greenblatt-the-swerve-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":139,"position":0},"title":"Greenblatt – The Swerve","author":"Pala","date":"February 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Summary: The rediscovery of Lucretius' text by Italian scribe (Poggio Bracciolini) and its impact on contemporary\u00a0\/ renaissance thinking. Quote: \"[With Lucretius] it became possible - never easy, but possible - in the poet Auden's phrase to find the mortal world enough.\" {Preface} \"Acediosus, sometimes translated as \u201capathetic,\u201d refers to an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2435,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/02\/28\/lucretius-the-nature-of-things\/","url_meta":{"origin":139,"position":1},"title":"Lucretius – The Nature of Things","author":"Pala","date":"February 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Some essential part of stories lies in their telling. Here is a story: Kant has the idea of the sublime, whereby the aesthetic is significantly determined by its ability to transcend (and hence terrify) our senses. For instance the magnitude of a mountain or a storm - both threaten our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2478,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/04\/21\/lucretius-the-nature-of-things-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":139,"position":2},"title":"Science Review: Saturn’s magnetic ring rain","author":"Pala","date":"April 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Concept: Saturn's magnetic ring rain. Source: Nature News and Views, based on an original research Letter\u00a0(April 11, 2013). Background: Rings made up of water ice, most of which can be described by Newtonian forces, but those small enough require an explanation of the Lorentz force. If they gain a high\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":239,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2014\/10\/14\/exploring-photosynthesis-capturing-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":139,"position":3},"title":"Exploring Photosynthesis – Capturing Light","author":"Pala","date":"October 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: This post was found in 'Draft' mode in the original blog and may be incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 14\/10\/2014 I seek to redefine the meaning of words and objects, to enrich them with knowledge of the cosmos they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2014\/09\/28\/science-news-on-one-foot-circa-september-25\/","url_meta":{"origin":139,"position":4},"title":"Science News on One Foot (circa September 25)","author":"Pala","date":"September 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Three headlines selected from this week's Science\/Nature journals: (1) Memory in the innate immune system, (2) water in extrasolar atmospheres, and (3) enhancing photosynthesis in crops. Herein I summarize these, highlighting what makes them interesting to this person.","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2840,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2014\/03\/29\/to-you-whom-this-concerns\/","url_meta":{"origin":139,"position":5},"title":"To you whom this concerns","author":"Pala","date":"March 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"To you whom this concerns, I don't know where to start. Which reminds me of how I began one of my journals. 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