Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!deimos.cis.ksu.edu!rutgers!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!rg20+ From: rg20+@andrew.cmu.edu (Rick Francis Golembiewski) Newsgroups: sci.bio Subject: Re: Fusion Powered Dragons Message-ID: Date: 10 May 89 21:28:03 GMT References: <2060@basser.oz> Organization: Class of '92, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 29 In-Reply-To: <2060@basser.oz> Assuming that cold fusion is real, then I can think of several good reasons that it wouldn't have evolved as a power source for organisms: 1> Palladium & D2O are fairly rare (compared to all the hydro carbons out there). 2> Generating the energy necessary to start the fusion is farily prohibitive (ie. an organism would have to already have a system for producing energy). 3> Fusion generates radiation which is damaging to orgamisms. 4> Fusion produces heat energy and a system to utilize heat energy would have to evolve since organisms utilize chemical energy (usually stored in ATP) I'm sure I could come up with some more, but needless to say there is a LOT of problems... As for encorporating fusion into new/existing organisms, well you would have to solve all the above problems (plus some others I'm sure), and there is not a real need for it, ie it would be much simpler to have fusion powered lights for growing plants inside. As for adding fusion to people, bological systems are pretty complex, and we don't really have enough knowledge to do something that extensive... yet. In any case I'de really be very satisfied with Fusion powered cars, as they would run a lot cleaner and use less precious resources then gasoline cars. Is fusion real? Wait and see, once P&F actually publish the full specifications for a cell, then it will only be a short while before cold fusion is confirmed a fact or a fantasy. // Rick Golembiewski rg20+@andrew.cmu.edu \\ \\ #include stddisclaimer.h // \\ "I never respected a man who could spell" // \\ -M. Twain //