> Nate H. wrote:
>
> >Is life not the goal of life? Earth best chance for the continuation of
> >life is the meme species, that is, mankind.
>
> No actually it's insects--far more adaptible with a higher reproduction
> rate. Do the math and see.
>
> -Prof. Tim
Actually, the most important thing for the continuation of life is the
simple - under 100 atoms - substance adenosine triphosphate. Without it,
nothing on the planet could live for even a second. That's under a
hundredth of the time of survival in complete vacuum, and less than a fifth
of one percent of the time remaining if the sun went supernova this second.
Most poisons, including arsenic, carbon monoxide and all air pollution,
merely inefficiently interrupt the reformation of ATP, without which the
current supply lasts less than five seconds. BTW, my beloved AP Bio teacher
is having usd memorize the structure of ATP as part of our summer
assignment. I guess he subscribes to the 'observer dependence' theory of
reality, and is ensuring, along with doubtless thousands of biology
teachers, that the biosphere cannot go kapput if all the biologists in the
world die simultaniously :)
-- Nathan Russell frussell@frontiernet.net
"I'm not a bad politician, I'm a Republican!" -Dan Quayle