Winds of Entropy

Self-indulgence at its finest

[stupid-fucking-rope]

Lay with me Cersei, I incest

Jaime Lannister, probably, at some point (via stupid-fucking-rope)

[tiduspoo]

bye

[scienceisbeauty]

This thread is porn for nerds: Nice scientific pictures show off (TeX - LaTeX Stack Exchange)

[infinity-imagined]

A hypothesized mechanism for the origin of life, an event called abiogenesis.  In this version, called RNA world, small molecules called nucleotides formed in the waters of the early Earth during the Hadean Eon, and polymerized on the surface of clay minerals.  These simple chains of RNA could replicate themselves in solution, but only slowly and inaccurately.  An RNA molecule developed which would fold into a structure that catalyzed RNA polymerization; a ribozyme.  The first ribozymes would replicate their sister strands, and produce copies of themselves and other RNA molecules. 

     In the same environment, long chains of carbon molecules called phospholipids were formed.  These molecules have two parts, the tail, which is hydrophobic, and the head, which is hydrophillic.  Because of these properties phospholipids will stick together and form micelles and vesicles in water.  Vesicles can absorb RNA nucleotides, concentrating them and creating a space where they can replicate, mutate and evolve.  At some point a ribozyme became enclosed within a vesicle, starting a chain reaction that evolved into the multitude of biological forms that we see today.

   Because this event occurred more than 3.8 billion years ago, theories about how and where it happened are highly speculative.  Possible environments for abiogensis include hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, hyper saline bubbles of water trapped in ice, radioactive lakes or lagoons on earths surface, and even in space or on another planet, brought to earth through a panspermia event.  We have very little molecular evidence of the first cells, but ribozymes and catalytic RNA molecules are embedded in the DNA replication machinery of all life.  Because evidence of this event has almost certainly been lost to time, the true mechanisms of the origin of life may remain a mystery to science.

[windsofentropy]

Follow my other blog yo it's cool: www.theinfinitywall.tumblr.com

[theinfinitywall]

Call her moonchild Dancing in the shallows of a river Lovely moonchild Dreaming in the shadow Of the willow. Talking to the trees of the Cobweb strange Sleeping on the steps of a fountain Waving silver wands to the Night-birds song Waiting for the sun on the mountain. She’s a moonchild Gathering the flowers in a garden. Lovely moonchild Drifting on the echoes of the hours. Sailing on the wind In a milk white gown Dropping circle stones on a sun dial Playing hide and seek With the ghosts of dawn Waiting for a smile from a sun child.

King Crimson, Moonchild (via theinfinitywall)

[de-preciated-deactivated2020112]

Perspective by Steven Lamar on Flickr.

[cunninggreeneraven]

Closer to nature by AnnaArmona

[thinksquad-deactivated20190405]

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.

Heraclitus (via thinksquad)

[larstheyeti]

the Water Cycle

[we-are-star-stuff]

What happens to the Earth as the moon gets farther away?

There is a physical principle called the conservation of momentum, which says that the Earth will have to slow down as the moon gets farther away. This means that the length of the day increases slightly. (For example, 620 million years ago the day was 21 hours). However, the increased day length is a tiny tiny fraction of a second in our lifetimes.

The moon itself will never go away. After billions of years (the precise number is hard to estimate), the moon will get to its final end state where it orbits more slowly and the Earth spins exactly as fast as the moon. One side of the Earth will see the moon fully up in the sky while the other side will never see it again. This state is called tidally locked. But don’t worry; by this time, the Sun will have become a red giant and disrupted or destroyed the Earth and moon entirely.

[source]

[sci-universe]

First Asteroid With Rings Discovered (like how cool is that?!)

Until now it seemed that only giant planets had the gravity to hold on to the billions of bits of orbiting ice and dust that make up a ring, but in a paper published today in Nature, astronomers report the discovery of two icy rings around a small object named Chariklo that orbits between Saturn and Uranus.

The discovery was made possible by observations at many sites in South America, including ESO's La Silla Observatory. The origin of these rings remains a mystery, but they may be the result of a collision that created a disc of debris.

"This probably will be the biggest discovery of my career," says Felipe Braga-Ribas of the National Observatory in Brazil, who led the team that found the rings, and who received his Ph.D. just last year.

Sources: 1, 2 Illustration by Lucie Maquet

[swordbabe-deactivated20151016]

SAY IT WITH ME

the mitochondria are not “deep”

the mitochondria are not “quirky”

the mitochondria are the fucking powerhouse of the cell

STOP ROMANTICIZING MITOCHONDRIA

[norsefaery]

Hva var det øyeblikket verdt,

Når stoltheten din hadde brukket av tvert?

Hva var det i dine øyne jeg så,

Var det fremtidens sorg i dem jeg kunne spå?

Hadde du gjort noe vondt og noe galt?

Hadde du flyktet da du så fremtidens maleri bli malt?

Skal du stikke ut øynene dine?

Skal du stenge deg inne og leve i din pine?

Ingen kan forestille seg det jeg så av smerte

I dine øyne der jeg stod med blod i snøen fra ditt bankende hjerte

[quotes-shape-us]

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

W.B. Yeats, The Wind Among the Reeds 1899  (via quotes-shape-us)

[windsofentropy]

Monsters are real.

[alienated-nymph]

Rommet var svakt opplyst av dagslyset som trengte seg gjennom det mørke teppet jeg hadde hengt foran vinduet. Trøttheten fylte mine øyne, stillheten og den svake brisen av vind som seilte mykt mot vinduet utenfor, fylte hodet mitt. Bena mine føltes slappe, om de ikke var der. Tærne mine satte i...