The Greatest Invention Ever?

Embedded deep within the green structure of plants is perhaps the greatest invention audacious nature ever came up with. Nature is full of wonderful inventions. Who can argue with the brilliance of inventions as wonderful and diverse as wings, eyes, brains, consciousness, er...women, sex, muscles, the orgasm, DNA replication, photosynthesis. But there is another invention that is not as well known as the above. Probably because it is more subtle and it does its magic with little fanfare. I am of course (!) referring to the 'Oxygen Evolving Complex' or OEC for short. This is a little cluster of molecules that sits at the beginning of the plant photosynthetic machinery. It basically looks like a circular cusp with an open end and a Manganese atom in the middle. What makes this structure special is that it has the singular ability; unique to all life and chemical processes on earth, of taking ordinary dull unresponsive water, and splitting it into the very reactive oxygen and hydrogen gases; using nothing but energy from sunlight. Now I know what you are thinking. Why am I harking on about this? Why am I even deigning to mention this? What place does something so obviously geekish have in a cool blog such as this? Have I gone mad?! Do I harbor a secret masochistic desire to destroy my carefully cultivated cool and funky persona? Well, I appreciate your concern and  I also appreciate your comments but just bare with me here.

You see the thing is water is very stable. Water exists on earth in 3 physical states: liquid water, steam and ice - and it exists everywhere and most importantly of all, it is almost impossible to split water into its components (hydrogen and oxygen) without using a lot of energy. Try heating up a pan of water and what happens? Answer: it turns to steam. Try heating up some ice and what happens: it turns to liquid water. Try cooling steam and what happens? It condenses to liquid water. See - it's almost impossible to split it up!

You can however split water into its components in the lab by passing an electric current through it.  You'll end up with oxygen gas at the positive electrode and hydrogen at the negative electrode. Plants however are smarter. Oh yes. They may not look it but green plants are really really smart! They have evolved over millions of years the oxygen evolving complex - that structure I mentioned earlier on, that allows them to remove electrons from water using energy from sunlight - and by removing electrons from water - you end up splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen gases. The amazing thing is that the energy they need to do this is minimal - a single photon of light per water molecule!

If we humans can imitate this process. If we humans can learn how plants do it, and then copy it. If we can set up on a massive factory scale this water splitting process. If we can take normal stable abundant nonreactive water - and pass it through our factory at one end - and then at the other end - end up with hydrogen and oxygen gases - all from using energy from sunlight - do you know what we will have done?

Do you?

Caused a world revolution! We'd only have gone and solved our energy crisis! And with this a major chunk of the current contemporary conflicts raging around the world. Yes! I kid you not. Free abundant energy for all in the guise of hydrogen gas. The hydrogen gas released can power our energy greedy lives. And the best bit is - there won't be any nasty by products either - only water! You see burning hydrogen with oxygen to release energy will form water again! All this powered by abundant free sunlight.

They say there is no such thing as a free lunch.

I always thought the universe and life were free lunches - and now to add to this list - the oxygen evolving complex.


Smart or what?


Can we do it? Can humanity work together and do it?

Who needs drugs when you've got imagination

Some people use drugs. Others take ecstasy, LSD or magic mushrooms. Some drink alcohol. A certain remote tribe in Africa take 'Imphepho' to induce a trance like state. The Sanema people in present day Venezuela take a powerful hallucinogenic drug called 'Sakona' taken from the dried sap of the Virola tree - it brings forth visions. The world appears anew. The forest comes alive. The spirits creep out of their dwelling places.


I don't need any of this to get a high. I can just use my imagination. 


Yesterday; in one of those trance like states that often overtake me - I suddenly realised, in a moment of sublime clarity, that the whole of this world: the tides, the winds, the weather, the snow, the rain, the waves crashing down on the shore - the clouds, the plants, the whole of life in fact - everything - the volcanoes, earthquakes, the movement of the continents - everything - me, you, the lamp hanging over this screen, the radiator keeping my room warm, the thin life-line of electrons in the form of electricity that keeps my laptop alive nay powers it, the energy required to boil me a cup of water for my coffee - the energy I consume to keep me alive - from the bread and cheese and chocolates I eat, to the green olives I enjoy - everything - the whole of this - is powered by one thing and one thing only. 


The sun.


Or rather; to be more precise in thermodynamic terms - the energy or entropic gradient between the sun and the earth. Let me explain. Everything you see around you is powered and made possible by the simple fact that the sun is many magnitudes more energetic then the earth. The sun has a lot of energy - the earth little - or to put it in another way - the sun has low entropy or low disorder and entropy is a measure of the amount of disorder in a system. The 2nd Law of thermodynamics states that on a whole, entropy or disorder increases. The sun is steadily becoming more disordered by loosing its energy in the form of heat and light. This heat travels to the earth and powers the weather. The light on the other hand is soaked up by plants during photosynthesis and used to make sugars. Plants convert sunlight energy into chemical bond energy and this is stored in sugars. We eat plants or we eat animals, but either way we are using the sunlight energy stored in the bonds in sugar molecules to power ourselves.


I am typing this using the energy that was initially present in sun beams! What a poetic thought! My thoughts, my emotions, my feelings - the firing of my neurons, the twitching of my muscles, the heat of my body - the words on this page - all this and more is powered by the sun!


What is life?


How is life possible if the 2nd Law of thermodynamics states that the universe is tending towards a more disordered state? Surely, life is ordered? It is, but the increase in order that life engenders is exceeded by the disorder that results from life processes - i.e. loss of bodily heat, respiration, decomposition - ultimately, the 2nd Law still stands. Life is a small pocket of order in a universal system that tends towards disorder. I am a pocket of order. You are a pocket of order. When you die, you will become disordered - your body will become one with the environment - your temperature, PH, salinity, composition will assume that of the earth - eventually. All the innumerable products of vitality resume, after death, the original form from which they sprung. And thus death - the complete dissolution of an existing generation - becomes a source of life for a new one.


But for now, for this brief existence - during this ephemeral moment of life - I am fighting against the 2nd Law (not defying it).

This world is full of 'life things'. And these life things were once simple single-celled molecules; but now, look around you - they have morphed into the rich and complex tapestry of flora and fauna you see around today. Isn't that amazing?! I spend much time thinking about the sheer otherworldliness of life. The sheer amazingness of trees. The sheer improbability of flowers and bees. The miracle of my being here, alive, right now. Most of us spend our lives staring at the pavement. If only we just raised up our heads and looked around a little. I mean it. Look around you. Forget for a moment your jobs, children, troubles, wants, needs, vexations, ills and ails - just stop! Pause. Look around and ask yourselves: what is all this?

Fly ten miles up and view the whole of creation (past, present and future) in one blink of an eye. In one image. In one viewing.

Who needs drugs when you've got your imagination.

Stop Begging Me!

After having posted the message below I have begun receiving a steady torid drip-drip of messages imploring me, nay begging me - to post extracts from my forthcoming book. No! Buzz off! Leave me alone! I will post extracts if and when I feel like it. Your incessant whining and dribbling and annoying sycophantic lovey-dovey rhapsodising ain't gonna change my mind. Yes, I know you can't wait. Yes, I know this will be the most influential book since the King James Bible. Yes, I know I am a living genius who has found his true vocation in life. Yes, I know you all love me. Yes, I know genius is sexy - but quit kneeling before me. It don't suit you. I'm not God. Well not yet anyway. A time will come I assure you, in the future, when an extract will be posted. An extract of such distilled potency that in the words of a famous Queen song: "Gunpowder, Gelatine. Dynamite with a laser beam. Guaranteed to blow your mind - anytime!'

So until then. Stay calm. Please. Otherwise you might go mad. 

***Message for my readers***

Due to the fact that the Swashbuckling Vagabond has finally figured out how to finish his damn book (maybe the slow ticking away of time had a hand in it), the blog service you see here, will be (like the government spending cuts), undergo a drastic reduction. I will be posting items now and again...and (maybe) if you're lucky (and if you beg me hard enough), and (if you say 'please please pretty please!' frequently enough) I may even deign to post extracts...for your titillation...

...occasionally.

When I feel like it...

Watch this space.

V.