Category: Topography

How Plants Produce Food Via Photosynthesis

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If a leaf is magnified 1000x, green bacteria like structures can be observed, referred to as “chloroplasts,” which are packed into virtually every cell of a plant. These chloroplasts behave like bacteria, retaining their own deoxyribonucleic acid, and are only 5000ths of 1 millimeter (0.005 millimeters or 5 micrometers) in diameter. It is inside chloroplasts that photosynthesis occurs. Photons, which are tiny and rapid moving particles of electromagnetic energy (e.g. rays of light), are harvested upon the surface of the plant’s leaves, where they then enter the plant’s cells and are absorbed by the light harvesting complex located within the chloroplasts themselves. It is here that the photon is leveraged to drive the photolysis reaction, which is to split a water molecule and release oxygen, electrons, and hydrogen ions, fueling the energy transfer mechanisms that ultimately convert carbon dioxide into sugars for the plant’s growth and survival

The Reason Mercury’s Orbit Around the Sun Appears Retrograde From Earth

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Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity can be proven because of how Mercury orbits the Sun. Isaac Newton correctly explained how and why planets orbit the Sun, but because Mercury is so close to the Sun, it orbited its center star 7% faster than it should have therefore Mercury is close enough to the Sun that its space-time path is warped because of the mass of the Sun and this warping causes Mercury to orbit faster than planets further away. For many decades scientists hypothesized there was another planet, unseen yet, which gave Mercury an extra push. This additional planet was prematurely named “Vulcan”, which was in vain because no such planet ever existed. It was also theorized that cosmological dust gave Mercury its extra boost or that an unseen asteroid or asteroid field was helping Mercury along. It wasn’t until Albert Einstein proposed that all matter cuts through both space and time, following a curve, that the catalyst could be definitively proven. If a sphere rolled along a table and suddenly hit a dip, it would speed up and change its trajectory. This is essentially what occurs within space-time and is the reason Isaac Newton’s Universal Laws of Gravitation don’t quite fit with Mercury. Mercury is close enough to the Sun that its space-time path is warped because of the mass of the Sun and this warping causes Mercury to orbit faster than planets further away. It is not only Mercury which does this; any planet or body near its host star will orbit slightly faster than planets or bodies further away. Although it is impossible to visually see the curvature and bending of space-time, it can be definitively proven because of the way large bodies of matter affect smaller bodies of matter due to the mass of each body

The Lush Forests of Australia and Antarctica During the Mesozoic Period and the Reason Antarctica Became Cold

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Both Australia and Antarctica were once fused together as part of the supercontinent Gondwana, neither being an arid and hot landscape nor a cold desert but instead a vast and lush forest, larger than the Amazon Rainforest, spanning thousands of kilometers in size. The reason Antarctica is no longer temperate and forested is because in contrast to most shorelines which disrupt and disperse ocean currents upon contact with the coastline, the waters around Antarctica encircle it unobstructed, forming the Antarctic Circumpolar Current after the Drake Passage opened 34,000,000 (34 million) years ago. Because there is no land to stop this flow of water, it forces the current to become stronger and deeper over time. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current cut the continent of Antarctica off from the warm waters of the north, a thermal isolation further exacerbated by decreasing carbon dioxide levels over millions of years. In a mere 1,000,000 (1 million) years during a rapid cooling phase, although the full shift took tens of millions of years to complete, Antarctica transitioned from an appearance which resembled Australia during its wetter, forested period of the Cenozoic Era, to become a frozen tundra, virtually uninhabitable by humans until the mid 20th century, due to its subzero temperatures which consistently remain far below any other location upon Earth, as well as being locked in by vast ice sheets which formed 14,000,000 (14 million) years ago

The First Human Beings to Migrate to North America

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The first people to arrive in North America are suspected to have arrived 15,800 years ago. Sea levels were much lower because of polar ice caps being frozen, which allowed modern day Siberia and Alaska, United States of America, to be connected. How migration occurred is still debated, with some scholars hypothesizing that walking whilst hunting large mammals was the most likely way, while others propose that the indigenous people of North America hunted along the shoreline using maritime skill sets and travel vehicles. 10,000 years ago, the ice sheets receded northbound allowing for civilizations to domesticate northern British Columbia, Canada

The Reason the Catacombs of Paris, France Were Created

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There are over 300 kilometres of underground passages underneath Paris, France as underground quarries were made due to the large demand of stone it took to build the city. The catacombs beneath Paris hold nearly 6,000,000 (6 million) human skeletons. During the 18th century, death was quite common and the cemeteries quickly filled up. As such, the city of Paris decided to empty the cemeteries and place the bones underground. The bones were tidied up by making them into walls by stacking skulls and humerus arm bones on top of eachother, making each piece fit in the groove of the next. The collection of bones beneath Paris is essentially the Medieval population of Paris

The Volatile Temperament of Jesus Christ

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Jesus Christ was known to be confrontational when his message was not being understood correctly. Christ was not adverse to conflict and was not as mild and reconciling as he is portrayed during the modern day, in fact there are accounts in which he cursed fig trees for not bearing any fruit and cursed entire locations for not responding to his message, after which he continued to migrate with his congregation, effectively leaving those people behind instead of persisting to convince them of his teachings. The Gospels account for instances like this multiple times throughout their recounts

The Reason Life Upon Earth Migrated From the Ocean Onto Land

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Billions of years ago when the first living organisms started harnessing the energy of the sun through photosynthesis, they began producing a waste product which was oxygen. When oxygen rises high up into the atmosphere, it transforms into ozone which is why the Earth has a thin protective layer of ozone which alongside the magnetic field, helps protect the Earth from the violent ultraviolet radiation spewed out by the sun. As plants, microbes, and fungi migrated from the water to land, even more oxygen was produced, extending the ozone layer to become much more formidable. This was the catalyst for life migrating onto dry land which occurred 450,000,000 – 500,000,000 (450 million – 500 million) years ago during the Paleozoic Era, specifically during the Ordovician and Silurian periods

The Condition of the Earth After the Chicxulub Asteroid Collision Which Caused the Extinction of Dinosaurs

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Immediately after the Chicxulub Asteroid collided with the Earth, heat from the fireball produced reached temperatures of 5500 degrees Celsius and produced a shockwave which broke the speed of sound, causing gale force winds equivalent to a hurricane. Everything within 965 kilometers was instantly decimated. Within 11 minutes of impact, the sky began to darken as debris which had been pushed up into the atmosphere started to settle back down. As these small spheres the size of a grain of sand descended back down to Earth, they heated up upon re-entry, identical to that of an asteroid, which provided the illusion of billions of simultaneous shooting stars. The energy produced during this re-entry barrage of heat was more intense than the sun for a brief period of time and made the sky glow red, as if it was comprised of liquid magma. This debris reflected heat back towards the Earth and effectively caused the Earth to act as an enormous radiator. To add to this damage, wildfires began sprouting up due to the intense temperature which caused heat and smoke to fill the atmosphere, compounding the damage already done. Strong winds helped perpetuate these fires and because so much of the Earth was affected, it only took a few hours to become globalized, engulfing the entire Earth in a mass fire which burned hotter than a regular fire due to the inability to dissipate heat sideways. In addition to this, gypsum which contains sulphur, blocked the sun and cooled the Earth over the long term. Gypsum had a seismic effect upon the world’s oceanic ecosystems as ocean acidification occurred due to sulphuric rain being produced by the gypsum within the atmosphere. The reflecting of the sun caused 75% of all plants to die as the Earth only received as much light during mid day as what is present during a cloudy, moonless night of the modern day

The Advent of the Steam Engine Permanently Changing the World

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Scottish mechanical engineer James Watt taught himself engineering and at age 27 he invented the modern steam engine. Watt was inspired by a pot of tea which he observed boiling, as the lid of the kettle would move when excessive heat had built up. Watt realized from this encounter that steam power may have the ability to be harnessed to perform work. Building upon a design already in existence which used steam to drive a piston to pump water out of mining operations, Watt revolutionized this technology by adding gears and wheels. Early steam engines only pumped up and down, but after Watt discovered how to effectively implement wheels and other facets, he took the idea of steam power and made it transportable via rotary motion. This simple alternate design paved the way for countless machines which succeeded it, as gears and wheels allow an infinite number of combinations to be constructed allowing for adaptations to all forms of industry. The world became smaller and faster seemingly overnight as humans and animals were no longer required to perform all forms of work. Watts’ engine started the Industrial Revolution, one of the most important periods within human history as it nearly autonomously created the modern technological age

The Center of the World and the Reason It Will Not Exist During the 22nd Century

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Kiribati (pronounced “kir-ah-bas”) in the Pacific Ocean is in the center of the world because it is the only country which is in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere as well as the east and the west of the International Date Line; no other country has that designation. Kiribati is located upon the equator, which historically has been devoid of cyclones, however global weather patterns are shifting due to climate change and the equatorial zone is now subject to the path of cyclones. Climate predictions have definitively and conclusively demonstrated that Kiribati will be completely submerged beneath the ocean by the end of the 21st century