UniVerses

Radiance
 
Beneath the blistering disk’s slow cruise
i hear the sonorous pulse of flowing sap.
Earth’s verdurous glaze sucks the sun’s ooze
and strives all sloughed photons to entrap.
Each percolates through stacked chromophores
to nudge a sole electron one orbit higher
and drive the photosynthetic force
that sweets the nectar we all respire.
The sun’s exhaust sweeps molecules
that spike the syrup within the phloem
that life, and thoughts and dreams refuels
the fermentation that wrought this poem.
The incidental waste of fusing nuclei
feeds all we were,  and evermore shall be.

Life clings to this blue planet like a miracle. It is amazing how effective living things are at garnering the energy of the sun and converting it into chemical energy.

Anywhere you look living things fight for room to capture sunlight and propagate.

The heart of this process is a reaction in which a photon provides the energy for a chemical reaction, combining carbon atoms into a sugar molecule.

It is wonderful how efficient that process is, and awesome to see the proliferation of diversity that has evolved from it.

Geologists tell us that atmospheric oxygen appeared when living cells unlocked it from earth's rocks. Before life there was hardly any oxygen in the air.

This simple reaction, capturing the waste product of nuclear fusion, has also fueled every idea that every human ever had.

The symphony of life is one of the great discoveries of our time. The solar panels within plant cells are organized to capture as many photons as possible, to optimize the production of sugars. These plants, in turn, provide the nutrients to sustain the grazing animals who, in turn, sustain the carnivores.

The behavior of all these diverse pieces combine to produce the miracle of life on earth.

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