Re: [meteorite-list] Strangest link between life on earth and mars yet!
Quoting the famous words of Mork, I replynano nano. Best, John At 09:47 PM 1/8/2007, Sterling K. Webb wrote: Hi, Gerry, How big is nano again, one billionth of a ---? One billionth of a meter, or one millionth of a millimeter, so if you had nanobacteria that were 100 nm long, it would take 10,000 of them, head to tail (assuming they had heads or tails), to span one millimeter. A wavelength of visible light would be 400 nm to 770 nm (depending on its color), so a 100 nm nanobacteria would be about 1/6 the width of one wavelength of yellow light. (Do you suppose they surf?) There is a smaller unit, the angstrom, which is one ten-billionth of a meter, or ten times smaller. We're talking SMALL here -- individual atoms range from five angstroms (hydrogen) up to about 15 angstroms in size (lead). Figure atoms at one nm +/- half an nm. So a 100 nm critter is at most only 200 atoms wide and could only contain about 8 million small atoms if it were a sphere. A simple organic molecule, like cooking oil, is about 20 angstroms across; that's 2 nm. We can measure that molecular size in our backyards, by the way, by placing a tiny drop of oil of known volume on the surface of a big calm pool of water and waiting for it to spread out as far as it can go, then divide the known volume by the area of the oil-slick, which is only one molecule thick. Neat trick, eh? Who thought of that? Benjamin Franklin... Most viruses are 10 nm to 100 nm, but the record-holder is 400 nm, or bigger than some bacteria. Most bacteria range from 200 nm (the very tiniest) up to big nasty ones at 2000 nm. Helpful little animals like yeast cells (there are 600+ species of yeast) are 2000 nm, no bigger than a bacterium, up to 15,000 nm. Cells of protozoa like amoeba are 20,000 to 30,000 nm across, but every once in a while an ameoba may grow to 4,000,000 nm across --- that's 4 mm and almost big enough to have a sit-down talk with! (If they had anything to say...) Protozoa like paramecium are very complicated creatures. Even though they are only one cell, they have specialized cellular structures that function as gullets, stomachs, excretory organs, and legs. They have an interesting sex life and probably have more to say than that amoeba... The many paramecium species range from less than 100,000 nm up to as much as 500,000 nm, or big enough to see with the naked eye (well, your eyes, maybe; mine are not quite that good). One of your own 100,000 billion human body cells is on average, about 10,000 nm across and weighs, on average, about one nanogram, less if you're skinny. And, me, I'm about 1,775,000,000 nm tall. Does that put things in perspective? Sterling K. Webb --- - Original Message - From: Gerald Flaherty [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Sterling K. Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 7:24 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Strangest link between life on earth and mars yet! The relatively recent acceptence of germs required a revolution in the medical community ushering in the modern norm where cleanliness became the imperative. So it seems plausible that self-replicating nano things might make modern science balk. How big is nano again, one billionth of a---? Jerry Flaherty __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Strangest link between life on earth and mars yet!
absolutely and fun too esp ben's little TIP. Jerry Flaherty - Original Message - From: Sterling K. Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Gerald Flaherty [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Meteorite List meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 11:47 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Strangest link between life on earth and mars yet! Hi, Gerry, How big is nano again, one billionth of a ---? One billionth of a meter, or one millionth of a millimeter, so if you had nanobacteria that were 100 nm long, it would take 10,000 of them, head to tail (assuming they had heads or tails), to span one millimeter. A wavelength of visible light would be 400 nm to 770 nm (depending on its color), so a 100 nm nanobacteria would be about 1/6 the width of one wavelength of yellow light. (Do you suppose they surf?) There is a smaller unit, the angstrom, which is one ten-billionth of a meter, or ten times smaller. We're talking SMALL here -- individual atoms range from five angstroms (hydrogen) up to about 15 angstroms in size (lead). Figure atoms at one nm +/- half an nm. So a 100 nm critter is at most only 200 atoms wide and could only contain about 8 million small atoms if it were a sphere. A simple organic molecule, like cooking oil, is about 20 angstroms across; that's 2 nm. We can measure that molecular size in our backyards, by the way, by placing a tiny drop of oil of known volume on the surface of a big calm pool of water and waiting for it to spread out as far as it can go, then divide the known volume by the area of the oil-slick, which is only one molecule thick. Neat trick, eh? Who thought of that? Benjamin Franklin... Most viruses are 10 nm to 100 nm, but the record-holder is 400 nm, or bigger than some bacteria. Most bacteria range from 200 nm (the very tiniest) up to big nasty ones at 2000 nm. Helpful little animals like yeast cells (there are 600+ species of yeast) are 2000 nm, no bigger than a bacterium, up to 15,000 nm. Cells of protozoa like amoeba are 20,000 to 30,000 nm across, but every once in a while an ameoba may grow to 4,000,000 nm across --- that's 4 mm and almost big enough to have a sit-down talk with! (If they had anything to say...) Protozoa like paramecium are very complicated creatures. Even though they are only one cell, they have specialized cellular structures that function as gullets, stomachs, excretory organs, and legs. They have an interesting sex life and probably have more to say than that amoeba... The many paramecium species range from less than 100,000 nm up to as much as 500,000 nm, or big enough to see with the naked eye (well, your eyes, maybe; mine are not quite that good). One of your own 100,000 billion human body cells is on average, about 10,000 nm across and weighs, on average, about one nanogram, less if you're skinny. And, me, I'm about 1,775,000,000 nm tall. Does that put things in perspective? Sterling K. Webb --- - Original Message - From: Gerald Flaherty [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Sterling K. Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 7:24 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Strangest link between life on earth and mars yet! The relatively recent acceptence of germs required a revolution in the medical community ushering in the modern norm where cleanliness became the imperative. So it seems plausible that self-replicating nano things might make modern science balk. How big is nano again, one billionth of a---? Jerry Flaherty __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Strangest link between life on earth and mars yet!
:03 PM Subject: [meteorite-list] Strangest link between life on earth and mars yet! http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2006/1817115.htm _ Fixing up the home? Live Search can help http://imagine-windowslive.com/search/kits/default.aspx?kit=improvelocale=en-USsource=hmemailtaglinenov06FORM=WLMTAG __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Strangest link between life on earth and mars yet!
Hi, Gerry, How big is nano again, one billionth of a ---? One billionth of a meter, or one millionth of a millimeter, so if you had nanobacteria that were 100 nm long, it would take 10,000 of them, head to tail (assuming they had heads or tails), to span one millimeter. A wavelength of visible light would be 400 nm to 770 nm (depending on its color), so a 100 nm nanobacteria would be about 1/6 the width of one wavelength of yellow light. (Do you suppose they surf?) There is a smaller unit, the angstrom, which is one ten-billionth of a meter, or ten times smaller. We're talking SMALL here -- individual atoms range from five angstroms (hydrogen) up to about 15 angstroms in size (lead). Figure atoms at one nm +/- half an nm. So a 100 nm critter is at most only 200 atoms wide and could only contain about 8 million small atoms if it were a sphere. A simple organic molecule, like cooking oil, is about 20 angstroms across; that's 2 nm. We can measure that molecular size in our backyards, by the way, by placing a tiny drop of oil of known volume on the surface of a big calm pool of water and waiting for it to spread out as far as it can go, then divide the known volume by the area of the oil-slick, which is only one molecule thick. Neat trick, eh? Who thought of that? Benjamin Franklin... Most viruses are 10 nm to 100 nm, but the record-holder is 400 nm, or bigger than some bacteria. Most bacteria range from 200 nm (the very tiniest) up to big nasty ones at 2000 nm. Helpful little animals like yeast cells (there are 600+ species of yeast) are 2000 nm, no bigger than a bacterium, up to 15,000 nm. Cells of protozoa like amoeba are 20,000 to 30,000 nm across, but every once in a while an ameoba may grow to 4,000,000 nm across --- that's 4 mm and almost big enough to have a sit-down talk with! (If they had anything to say...) Protozoa like paramecium are very complicated creatures. Even though they are only one cell, they have specialized cellular structures that function as gullets, stomachs, excretory organs, and legs. They have an interesting sex life and probably have more to say than that amoeba... The many paramecium species range from less than 100,000 nm up to as much as 500,000 nm, or big enough to see with the naked eye (well, your eyes, maybe; mine are not quite that good). One of your own 100,000 billion human body cells is on average, about 10,000 nm across and weighs, on average, about one nanogram, less if you're skinny. And, me, I'm about 1,775,000,000 nm tall. Does that put things in perspective? Sterling K. Webb --- - Original Message - From: Gerald Flaherty [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Sterling K. Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 7:24 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Strangest link between life on earth and mars yet! The relatively recent acceptence of germs required a revolution in the medical community ushering in the modern norm where cleanliness became the imperative. So it seems plausible that self-replicating nano things might make modern science balk. How big is nano again, one billionth of a---? Jerry Flaherty __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Strangest link between life on earth and mars yet!
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2006/1817115.htm _ Fixing up the home? Live Search can help http://imagine-windowslive.com/search/kits/default.aspx?kit=improvelocale=en-USsource=hmemailtaglinenov06FORM=WLMTAG __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
