The elevation of Donald Trump to the American presidency has spelt a dismal descent in political leadership, and more than suggests a systemic decay in the American way of life. Selfsame corruption haunts other societies. But Trump’s ascendency cast a stark spotlight on the nation that was the erstwhile leader of the free world.
All vertebrates feel pain. Pain functions to alert an animal to potential damage and to reduce activity after trauma.
According to a conjecture called cosmic inflation, just after the Big Bang, before many of the fundamental physics forces had even taken hold, the size of the universe mushroomed from next to nothing to the size of a dime; at an expansion rate faster than the speed of light.
The United States space agency NASA has taken a peek at the Earth below, and found: “the stretching of resources due to the strain placed on the ecological carrying capacity” as well as “the economic stratification of society into elites and masses (or ‘commoners’).” In that regard, “accumulated surplus is not evenly distributed throughout society, but rather has been controlled by an elite. The mass of the population, while producing the wealth, is only allocated a small portion of it by elites, usually at or just above subsistence levels.”
Almost all cells – whether prokaryote or eukaryote – have tails. Eukaryotes evolved from a tail-bearing prokaryote. Only seed-producing plants have cells without tails, though their genomes retain the knowledge.
In multicellular organisms, somatic cell replication is essential to replacing worn-out cells with fresh copies. While, to some degree, plants can grow themselves past genetic defects, animals must have good working replacements for proper functioning.
The mind and body are entangled. Changes to the brain can influence mental function. But, more than anything, it is the power of the mind that controls health. That’s true even for birds.
The vast expanse of interstellar space is supposed to be too cold for most chemical reactions to occur. The more frigid it gets, the harder it is to spark a chemical reaction, for lack of energy – the very definition of cold. Yet a vast variety of complex organic molecules are formed in space. Some reactions transpire on the surface of cosmic dust grains, or with a little help from gamma rays or stray high-energy electrons. But most happen beyond the laws of chemistry.
That complex life could evolve on Earth involved a set of fantastic coincidences. One of them was the prolonged pummeling of the planet for 800 million years, starting over 4.5 billion years ago. Seeding the planet with cosmic debris was essential to its evolution, as was what was taken off in the process. One benefit of bombardment was ridding Earth of most of its chlorine.
Late spring 2013: from the remaining forests of the northeastern United States, cicadas are emerging to mate as the culmination of their 17-year life cycle. Their ways retain enigmas.