SMF

I don't think that the second law of thermodynamics says that everything will eventually die out. SM

The temperature from fever goes up for the same reason that your house gets warmer when you turn up the thermostat. We are homeotherms that maintain internal temperature accurately. There is a thermostat. SM

Lemur. Please expand your first point a little more because I don't understand this. In my area, which is admittedly pretty rural, most small farms are family run or are cooperatives. There are some larger ones that are by subscription where you can pay a monthly or yearly fee and get just about all the produce you can eat of whatever is in season. This movement is often called slow food, in contrast to McDonalds, where uniformity and calorie content is replaced with emphasis on minimal processing, freshness, and only eat what is in season. There is also an ethic of not expecting every fruit or vegetable to be waxed and perfect. I have heard some discussion regarding how this can be scaled up to supply large population centers, but this would probably require some big compromises and some good science. The second point is very interesting, but one big problem is that human waste has a lot of potential problems. Having human waste in contact with human food production is a vector for disease and requires the extra expense in order to sterilize it. Also, we all take a lot of drugs that are present in the sewage and there are a lot of other troublesome products that go down the sewers. One interesting answer to this is a proposal to use human waste in an expanded treatment pond arrangement to grow plants for making fuels. For alcohol, for example, apparently cattails are perfect. Yes cattails. They apparently have a very large, and efficiently produced, starch content in the roots, stems, and the top that could be fermented, and the remaining cellulose and potential methane production at a sewage plant could be used for distillation. This, obviously, would not be a major replacement for fossil fuels, but it is much more efficient than the dumb corn ethanol idea, and we need a mix of different strategies to become independent of fossil fuels. Fossil carbon is such a precious resource as a raw product that it should be preserved for future generations instead of just burning it up as fast as possible. SM.

I agree with much of the several posts just above. I live in an area (Mendocino County, CA) where there is a lot of concern about keeping food local. There is even a movement to grow grains in the rows between wine grapes. Much of the local foods are more expensive while some are not, but one of the primary motivators is the fact that local agriculture, from smaller farms, produces food of much higher quality. This is because plants don’t have to be engineered for mechanical picking and for shipping. Those of us who garden and eat food ripe on the vine know about this. One important factor to include when considering the costs of agriculture, beyond fuels for transportation, is the fact that much of corporate agriculture is also very dependent upon fertilizers and pesticides that are produced from natural gas and petroleum (respectively). SM

Ecoli. I found it funny that under the Science list that when your post, just above, was the most recent in this thread it read as "relationship between price and...ecoli. I am easily amused, especially by non sequiturs. I will await Mr Skeptic to answer for himself, but I certainly think it best to make all contributions to prices apparent. I also would like to think that this would help people make sound eco-friendly choices. An example is my photovoltaic solar power system. People tell me that it was just too much money, but it will pay itself off long before the panels wear out, and then my electricity is free. Further, the price I paid, amortized over the life of the system is fixed, while electric rates are only going to go up. Regarding the role of government, I believe that its primary function is to manage problems for all of us that are difficult for individuals and individual groups. Issues associated with the problem of "the tragedy of the commons" comes to mind. Even your tree example requires our collective will embodied by government. Without government your neighbor's only recourse to theft of his timber is a gun. I believe that the current obstruction to intelligent government is that the robber barons have gotten a little ahead of us again and will eventually have to be beaten back with laws like in the past. SM

This is theoretically possible but would not be practical. This is because you would have to provide a living environment for a critter that requires many more resources than just that required to run the electric organ. SM

Mr Skeptic, I am presuming that your new version of the question- includes the various business and production costs along with "resource plus environmental costs." I am not sure if this addition has any importance, but I am thinking about it. That said, I think you have accounted for the overall cost of a product, but does price accurately reflect cost? In a near-ideal free market demand can vary for reasons independent of cost and shift the price. I guess I am still having a problem understanding what it is you are trying to get at relative to eco-friendly. SM

Mooeypoo, thank you for the good advice. As an old curmudgeon scientist and teacher I don't tolerate juvenile delinquents very well. SM

Mr Skeptic, sometimes cost and price are two different things. I think that the resources required to make an object for sale should also include what economists call external costs, or “externalities.” It is hard to judge what something really costs us if there are associated costs that are not made apparent. Two prominent examples: Costs for the portion of electricity, and those products that require electricity for production, that are generated by coal don’t show the additional expense of direct and indirect governmental subsidies or, more importantly the cost for environmental degradation. For example, some people complain about compact fluorescent bulbs because of the mercury they contain, but the much greater amount of environmental mercury pollution from coal fired plants is mostly ignored. There is also much more radioactive pollution than from nuclear power and a variety of other heavy metals in coal-electric plant effluent that is not paid for by the utilities that make it. We pay in health costs and clean up. When accounting for the cost of petroleum for our transportation the direct and indirect governmental subsidies are not included in the cost. There are some who would tally the indirect cost for military action in the Middle East, the governmental costs required to protect shipping of, and make and maintain the ports for unloading of petroleum in the hidden costs of transportation fuel. Also, I don't see why our taxes should be going directly to companies that are making record breaking profits already because of market shortages of fuel. Here is an old paper on direct and indirect costs- http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.energy.26.1.361?journalCode=energy.2 and if you want the full text see here- http://www.mindfully.org/Energy/Fossil-Fuel-Subsidies.htm SM

A few minutes ago walking on a path near my woodland home I found quite a handsome banana slug crawling across the path. I went and got a ruler and found that the slug was 182 mm long (a little more than 7 inches) and it was cooking along at an average of 162 mm/min (6.4 in/min). This translates to 9720 mm/hr (383 in/hr) or 0.00972 km/hr (0.006 mph). With an N of one and three timed distance measurements this should be considered a pilot study on banana slug speed. I don’t know why he/she was crossing the road or any other particulars. Banana slugs, presumably Ariolimax californicus in my area, are the largest slug in the Americas and while mine was in the average range, they can be much larger, but less than one foot. They are quite attractive with a yellow-green color, similar to a banana, but with large dark spots in different patterns on individuals. Check out the Banana Slug Derby race at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park on the Northern California coast. Here is a story about the races- http://www.highlightskids.com/Science/Stories/SS0800_slugRace.asp SM

Mooeypoo, his mother failed at her job, but I admit my indiscretion and apologize. Can't you just ban this clown? SM

Explain why you would want to know. Otherwise, check with your mom, she will be able to tell you. SM

You should be ashamed.

False.

As posed your question could be answered accurately by yes, no, maybe, whatever, and/or it depends. Perhaps you could provide a little discussion about what "eco-friendly" means and what cost consists of before someone might be willing to discuss "price." SM

Mystery_of_GodST, you should be ashamed. SM

Mr. Mystery_of_GodST: I really wonder what someone with your chosen screen name is doing asking such a disgusting and silly question on a science forum. Perhaps you should consider if your motives are pure and honest. On the other hand if you really want an answer, please provide what your preferred human donor has been eating for the last few days, the exact volume and weight of the pile (metric please), the water content of the pile measured within a few seconds of deposition, the surface on which the pile is deposited (new or old asphalt, concrete, gravel with rock species and grade defined, dirt with carbon content, etc.), the temperature of the surface, the time of day, the temperature of the air and any radiant heating of the surface on a minute by minute basis for the period of measurement desired, the humidity during the measurement period, and, of course, the measurement period. With this information someone might, if the question is of sufficient interest, attempt to get you an answer. Now, if someone did do the experiment and gave you the answer would you feel the shame you should for asking? Please answer this last question. SM

Marat. I agree with the principle of a single curative approach as a possibility, but the age relationship is not a good example. I think that, to a large extent, cancer is a stochastic process so that the longer you live the more likely the chance of getting it. Nec209. Can you provide a reference for your cancer survival statistics. At least for all prostate cancers what you say is way off and this makes me suspect the rest. SM

I am sure that many marine invertebrates do and I wouldn't be surprised if many fish and amphibians do also. How about plants? SM

There is also hot rock geothermal electricity production. What are you interested in. It would be helpful if you formulated some specific questions that are more appropriate for a forum rather than your shotgun of questions that, taken together, would be an appropriate subject for an entire book. SM

I think that this is a rapidly evolving research area. I have seen many instances in which the specific folding pattern of proteins can show why and how a resulting active patch is made and functions in some cellular process. I think that it is only a matter of, relatively short, time to when there will be the computer power to design a protein for a specific purpose, and to then to be able to work back to and produce the gene needed to produce the protein. SM

I would guess that during the pre-agricultural period for humans when they were evolving in small hunter-gatherer groups, that inbreeding could be a problem. This is because small groups can concentrate bad traits while, in contrast, out breeding is a plus because of hybrid vigor. How the survivors of this evolutionary environment genetically internalized outbreeding as a positive needs to be studied, but one might suspect that it might somehow involve familiarity (e.g. sibs and relations in the small group) becoming sexually unattractive, and novelty (mates from unfamiliar groups) being more sexually attractive. Think about this in your own personal experience. SM

Fish breeding behavior is quite variable between different species and groups. For some, the spread of eggs and sperm is almost random, while other species have courtship displays and activities, build nests, and care for their young. There are even several groups that fertilize eggs internally and produce live young (I have caught surfperch females that squirted out a dozen live babies after hauling them up on the beach). There are studies that demonstrate that visual cues are important (e.g. sticklebacks get turned on by pornographic videos of mating pairs) while touch and lateral line stimulation is very important for others (e.g. Astyanax fasciatus, Mexican blind cave characins, have a side by side flutter that coordinates ejection of sperm and eggs). By far the most studied stimulation is hormonal or endocrine products related to the generation of mature sperm or eggs that mediate communication between males and females for coordinating breeding activities. If it were a little easier, fish watching would be right up there with bird watching. SM

A species of tiger moth has been found to be able to jam the sonar of bats attempting to catch them.

DemonHead. I guess the question is whether a computer, that has been programmed to produce purposeful behavior, is intelligent in any meaningful human sense just because it can make some intelligent decisions. SM