tag > Nature
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Branching geometry of lightning and roots
Nature tends to create efficient branching patterns for fluid or electric current flow, as seen in rivers, circulatory systems, lungs, trees, and electrical discharges. Dr. Adrian Bejan's Constructal Law states that systems evolve to better facilitate the currents passing through them, ensuring their persistence over time. In simpler terms, structures in nature adapt for smoother flow of fluids or energy, promoting longevity.
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Mud
Truly curios about the mysteries of intelligence and life? Forget about AI for a minute and research nature's dirty little secret: Mud. A bustling hub for trillions of versatile microbes, mud plays a crucial role in all planetary ecosystems. For millennia, mud has been a cornerstone in medicine and beauty treatments. Its benefits are backed by science yet we barely understands it.
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The value of an (existing) tree🌳
We love planting new trees, but there's NOTHING as precious as an old tree. The word graphic says it all..
Visualise a 100 year old beech, almost 20 metres high and with a treetop diameter of 12 metres. It’s got 600,000 leaves which convert its base of 120 square metres into some 1,200 square metres of leaf-surface.
Due to the physical structure of the leaves themselves, this amounts to a total surface area of 14,000 square metres for gaseous exchange, which equals the area of two football pitches.
On a sunny day, this tree converts 9,400 litres, i.e. 18 kilogrammes, of carbon dioxide. With a carbon dioxide concentration of 0.03% in the air, almost 36,000 cubic metres of air have to flow through these leaves.
The leaves also filter out many airborne particles like bacteria, fungal spores, dust and other harmful substances. At the same time the tree evaporates almost 400 litres of water per day and in doing so it humidifies the air.
Furthermore, through photosynthesis, the tree produces 13 kilograms of oxygen, which equals the needs of 10 people. Moreover, the tree produces 12 kilograms of sugar on a single day, from which it develops all its organic substances.
Some of these substances are accumulated as starch, others are used to build up the tree’s new wood.
If the tree is chopped down, because it must give way for a new road or someone has complained about the shade from the tree or just because the space is needed for a new shed, one would have to plant some 2,000 new trees, each with a tree top volume of one cubic metre in order to compensate fully for the loss of the tree. The cost of this would amount to roughly £150,000.
(Credit: @barchams)
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Many are feverishly working towards fully AI Generated audiovisual media. The more exciting opportunity that most are missing, is creating AI audiences that consume the endless synthetic content - so humans can go to the forest with friends and enjoy the peace.
#ML #Augmentation #Generative #Media #Nature #Philosophy #Culture #Comment
