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From: peter@baylor.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: Handwaving
Message-ID: <567@baylor.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-Aug-85 07:11:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: baylor.567
Posted: Thu Aug 29 07:11:25 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Sep-85 07:07:19 EDT
References: <14600042@hpfcrs.UUCP>
Organization: The Power Elite, Houston, TX
Lines: 47

Oh boy, now he's making a fool of himself:

>      By the way, could you give me the calculations and physics involved
> in explaining to me why the bumble-bee can fly?

No mystery. The "fact" that a bumblebee can't fly was a joke by a bunch
of physicists who proved that if the bumblebee was a glider it couldn't
fly.

> Or why man uses less than 1/6 th of his brain?

He doesn't. That's another case of some non-scientist grabbing hold of
partially completed research & using it. The actual result was that only
about 1/6 of any complex brain (human, dolphin, etc) had any direct
motor function. Our brains do more than handle reflexes, you know.

> Or perhaps share with us the chemical formula and
> the synthetic equations needed to produce life from non life?

Define life and non-life. We can create many life structures in the lab,
things like amino acids, cell membranes, etc... just what are you looking
for.

> Perhaps
> give us the calculations that tell us why this planet has an atmosphere
> of Nitrogen and Oxygen and the others don't.

Well, to begin with this is a red herring, since it assumes we have the same
physical structure as other planets. Which we don't. The interior of the earth
differs considerably from even that of Venus and Mars. But...

Easy: life. Originally the athmosphere had very little free oxygen, and most
organisms were anaerobic. All sorts of bizarre energy chains were used. Some
of these have been found (for example the suphur-metabolising organism near
fumaroles on the ocean floor). Then a new, efficient, chain that freed oxygen
developed and the organisms that used it reproduced explosively by the
standards of the time. Within a short time, geologically, the oxygen content of
the air was high enough to kill most anaerobic life. Only a few species of
anaerobic life remain, in a few places that little free oxygen is found.

> How about using the "TOOLS OF PHYSICS" to tell me why I am writing this?

I can't. I'm sure someone could use the tools of psychology to do so though.
-- 
	Peter (Made in Australia) da Silva
		UUCP: ...!shell!neuro1!{hyd-ptd,baylor,datafac}!peter
		MCI: PDASILVA; CIS: 70216,1076