Month: September 2022

EXAPTATION OF GENES. "Whether megaphylls, which arose independently in four vascular plant lineages (ferns, sphenopsids, progymnosperms and seed plants), recruited the same gene systems is open to investigation. However, this does seem a possibility given that a common developmental mechanism for leaf production appears to have been recruited independently at least twice in the evolution of land plants." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/96/3/345.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

REFLEXIVE CYCLE. "In the long term, plants brought about a gradual and continual alteration of the global environment that modified selection pressures on subsequent generations, effectively facilitating their own evolution through the process of niche construction." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/96/3/345.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

IMPACT ON INSECTS. "Moreover, plant activities appear to have caused rates of evolution in terrestrial animals to accelerate. Late Palaeozoic insect and tetrapod faunas diversified together with terrestrial plants, and enhanced burial of organic carbon raised global oxygen levels, fuelling a spectacular radiation of insect gigantism." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/96/3/345.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

THE UP INNOVATION. "Deriving from the apical vegetative meristem flank, the abaxial surface is as old as land plants themselves, so genes specifying adaxial identity constitute a key innovation in leaf evolution. Plants appear to have evolved a complex hierarchy of transcription factor activation and depression, with the HD-ZIP (homeodomain–leucine zipper) gene family promoting adaxial leaf surfaces and others promoting abaxial differentiation." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/96/3/345.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this two weekend contemplation of the humble leaf. Taken in an evolutionary context, it has survived massive changes on the planet, adapted and successfully exploited those changes, and in the process nurtured whole ecosystems and global cycles of carbon and nitrogen. Undoubtedly, the leaf is continuing to adapt to changes on planet Earth. It richly deserves the role as a classic image of life on Earth. View in LinkedIn

INCEPTION. “We want to tell you about a recent project that we've been working on in lab that we've called Project Inception. They should make a movie about this. Where they plant ideas into people’s minds, so they can control them for their own personal gain. We'll call it: Inception.” https://lnkd.in/d9qh8PB View in LinkedIn

“IN A WORLD OF TOMORROW.” Sundance short film prize 2015. https://lnkd.in/due4kvm View in LinkedIn

UNDERUTILIZED CAPACITY. “The human brain has a capacity that is ten times greater than first thought. They discovered that, on average, one synapse can hold about 4.7 bits of information. This means that the human brain has a capacity of one petabyte, or 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes. One petabyte is about the same as about 20 million four-drawer filing cabinets filled with text or about the same as 13.3 years of HD-TV recordings.” https://lnkd.in/dNpHDtY View in LinkedIn