FOTW February 18, 2017
On the line: Ben, Billy, Xaviar, Tony, Trevor
Pentagon Admission
MagField Spike 3000yrs Ago
Gothenburg Magnetic Excursion
Mars Landing Sites
North Atlantic Cooling Risk
Zealand: Continent
Aztec Salmonella
245 Million Year Old Fossil
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Trevor, Love how you were talking about the failing of planet cores. I see the same thing in play and would like to hear more about that.
I liked this quote from the end of the 245 mln yr old fossil article:
“Evolution never really attains the optimal solution,” he said. “It obtains the best solution possible based on the current situation.”
Ah, just realised that that’s the very sentence that got you thinking Ben, right?
Liked your foray into potential genetic attributes that might protect some of us in a future catastrophic event.. It brought to mind Matt Ridley’s book, The Agile Gene, I think of two examples, high blood sugar in humans being protective during the little ice age similar to how a unique frog winters over by increaing blood sugar therby causing increased urination that reduces water to blood ratio therby decreaing the number of ice crystals that potentially form in the blood over a winter hibernation that would cause harm to the blood vessels, therby allowing the little frog to survive a very cold hibernation environment. Humans experience the same increae in urination when they have high blood sugar and maybe more of those born with that genetic attribute were able to survive better through the cold of the little ice age and pass on their genetic info to their offspring who now no longer live in or need this cold protective advantage and are now disadvantaged by the other deleterous effects of high blood sugar. Another example, sickle cell anemia is an inhospiable blood cell shape for malaria to reproduce but not such a good shape for other functions the body has to perform like transporting iron, oxygen, etc… Maybe some of us today are living with an unknown gene or genes that tolerate radiation better….? Or maybe there are genes that would allow for easier respiration in a different atmosphere like say maybe cystic fibrosis suffeers are discovered to breathe better, than those without it, in higher or lower levels of oxygen or CO2…..? It is a vey intesting question to ask and if we knew could then have a rough idea who might survive a variety of potentially predictable environmental conditions. But you realize that we are all born with the genetic info we have, cant add to it, …..yet, or remove it…. So it isnt so much an actively adapting feature as it is a luck of the genetic draw, if one persons genetic cards can survive the environment its in better than anothers genetic cards. Some environments are purely definitive, its not a matter of ingenuity or skill or brain power…..
Another thing is that adaptation is a misnomer because the genetic change can only happen in the next generation whether by mutation or new genetic combination by two parents that had not ever been combined before….the individual itself cannot in its lifetime adapt its genetic information to meet the demands of a changing environment, it can learn new ways to exist in a changing environment as long as the genetic parameters allow it….
Evolution in a macro sense will never attain any solution because it isn’t happening, but natural selection, however, which is observable, predictable and repeatable will spare those lucky enough to have the right genes for the environment its born into and take out those that dont have the right genes to survive the environmrnt it was born into…natural selection is not macro evolution and mutations are always a loss of genetic information, never has a mutation been shown to acquire new genetic information.
I don’t think its been observed anywhere yet that a gene will mutate in real time to accomodate/adapt to a new set of challenges in order to preserve the organism it resides in. It is known that bacteria will eventually develop over generations from those that had the right genetic stuff to survive the onslaught of some specific antbiotic we throw at it, but again that is natural selection, the ones that survived were already born with the genetic makeup to survive and thus were able to pass it on to their offspring who also survived until soon enough these are the only bacteria left, the ones that had the right stuff given to them by their parents, etc, etc, and the bacteria that did not have the right stuff died.
One conclusion I have come to after all this thought you have instigated from this podcast is that I fear that some may already be thinking that rather than waiting for a random chance that the right gene/genes will be conferred we should manipulate our own genetic info to our own liking…..really too scary to think
in my experience it is those of flexible thought and capabilities that do best in shtf situations. intelligence dose not help if it is stuck in dogmatic rut. huge numbers of brit. sailors died of scurvy as they sailed over miles of kelp that has plenty of vit. c. another example is the southern polar expeditions where the brits. took horses and died and amundsen used dogs and had a fine time. nice thing about the s0 community is that it supports the unique perspective thus exhibiting flexibility of mind.
Regarding the change in magnetic field strength, would the eruption of a “super”volcano have an effect on the core?