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Could human skin be photosynthetic?

I've always thought, that were it possible for biology to harness
ionizing radiation for energy, some organism would already have done
so. We'd just have to find it. For example we already know about the
D. Radiodurans bacteria which survives immense gamma-ray doses, but
doesn't harvest the photons as far as anyone knows. The Earth
contains vast fungal and bacterial communities subject to billions of
years of evolutionary forces, and also contains "light sources" in the
form of uranium ore deposits.

Well, it looks like my suspicions were correct:

Inside the Chernobyl reactor: fungus feeds on radiation
http://www.wtnrradio.com/news/story.php?story=262


But there's more... Apparently the fungus uses an unsuspected
photosynthetic molecule: melanin. It's not green like light-loving
plants, instead it's brown and eats gamma rays. This is new, so the
details are yet unknown.

What other organism deals with hard radiation and employs the melanin
molecule? People?

Expose caucasian skin to ionizing radiation (hard UV sunlight) and it
ramps up melanin production. Melanin absorbs UV and acts as a
shield. "Getting a sun tan." Or be of non-European ancestry and
you're already shielded.

But wait a minute. What if human skin was bright green. Would you
think to yourself "ah, our skin contains a dye molecule which shields
against visible light?" Or instead would you think "ah, our skin
contains an energy-harvesting molecule which employs visible light to
synthesize it's own fuel?"

In other words... if I have a dark tan, and I go sit in summer
sunlight without eating, will avoid starvation longer than if I stayed
indoors without eating? Maybe vitamin-D isn't the only thing made by
human skin in sunlight.

Just out of curiousity, I wonder if human melanin production responds
to ALL ionizing radiation? If I stick my hand under a high-power
gamma ray source for a few minutes per day, will I receive a nice dark
tan? (I'd be sure to start slowly so I don't get a bone-deep sunburn
at the start.)

And just how effective is melanin as a shielding material for high
energy photons? (When compared to equal mass of, say, metallic lead?)


((((((((((((((((((((((( ( ( (o) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty Research Engineer
beaty a chem washington edu UW Chem Dept, Bagley Hall RM74
billb a eskimo com Box 351700, Seattle, WA 98195-1700
ph425-222-5066 http://staff.washington.edu/wbeaty/
 
P

Pmb

Jan 1, 1970
0
I've always thought, that were it possible for biology to harness
ionizing radiation for energy, some organism would already have done
so. We'd just have to find it. For example we already know about the
D. Radiodurans bacteria which survives immense gamma-ray doses, but
doesn't harvest the photons as far as anyone knows. The Earth
contains vast fungal and bacterial communities subject to billions of
years of evolutionary forces, and also contains "light sources" in the
form of uranium ore deposits.

Well, it looks like my suspicions were correct:

Inside the Chernobyl reactor: fungus feeds on radiation
http://www.wtnrradio.com/news/story.php?story=262


But there's more... Apparently the fungus uses an unsuspected
photosynthetic molecule: melanin. It's not green like light-loving
plants, instead it's brown and eats gamma rays. This is new, so the
details are yet unknown.

What other organism deals with hard radiation and employs the melanin
molecule? People?

Expose caucasian skin to ionizing radiation (hard UV sunlight) and it
ramps up melanin production. Melanin absorbs UV and acts as a
shield. "Getting a sun tan." Or be of non-European ancestry and
you're already shielded.

But wait a minute. What if human skin was bright green. Would you
think to yourself "ah, our skin contains a dye molecule which shields
against visible light?" Or instead would you think "ah, our skin
contains an energy-harvesting molecule which employs visible light to
synthesize it's own fuel?"

In other words... if I have a dark tan, and I go sit in summer
sunlight without eating, will avoid starvation longer than if I stayed
indoors without eating? Maybe vitamin-D isn't the only thing made by
human skin in sunlight.

Just out of curiousity, I wonder if human melanin production responds
to ALL ionizing radiation? If I stick my hand under a high-power
gamma ray source for a few minutes per day, will I receive a nice dark
tan? (I'd be sure to start slowly so I don't get a bone-deep sunburn
at the start.)

And just how effective is melanin as a shielding material for high
energy photons? (When compared to equal mass of, say, metallic lead?)


((((((((((((((((((((((( ( ( (o) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty Research Engineer
beaty a chem washington edu UW Chem Dept, Bagley Hall RM74
billb a eskimo com Box 351700, Seattle, WA 98195-1700
ph425-222-5066 http://staff.washington.edu/wbeaty/


Thanks. That's interesting!

Pete
 
I've always thought, that were it possible for biology to harness
ionizing radiation for energy, some organism would already have done
so. We'd just have to find it. For example we already know about the
D. Radiodurans bacteria which survives immense gamma-ray doses, but
doesn't harvest the photons as far as anyone knows. The Earth
contains vast fungal and bacterial communities subject to billions of
years of evolutionary forces, and also contains "light sources" in the
form of uranium ore deposits.

Well, it looks like my suspicions were correct:

Inside the Chernobyl reactor: fungus feeds on radiation
http://www.wtnrradio.com/news/story.php?story=262

But there's more... Apparently the fungus uses an unsuspected
photosynthetic molecule: melanin. It's not green like light-loving
plants, instead it's brown and eats gamma rays. This is new, so the
details are yet unknown.

What other organism deals with hard radiation and employs the melanin
molecule? People?

Expose caucasian skin to ionizing radiation (hard UV sunlight) and it
ramps up melanin production. Melanin absorbs UV and acts as a
shield. "Getting a sun tan." Or be of non-European ancestry and
you're already shielded.

But wait a minute. What if human skin was bright green. Would you
think to yourself "ah, our skin contains a dye molecule which shields
against visible light?" Or instead would you think "ah, our skin
contains an energy-harvesting molecule which employs visible light to
synthesize it's own fuel?"

In other words... if I have a dark tan, and I go sit in summer
sunlight without eating, will avoid starvation longer than if I stayed
indoors without eating? Maybe vitamin-D isn't the only thing made by
human skin in sunlight.

Just out of curiousity, I wonder if human melanin production responds
to ALL ionizing radiation? If I stick my hand under a high-power
gamma ray source for a few minutes per day, will I receive a nice dark
tan? (I'd be sure to start slowly so I don't get a bone-deep sunburn
at the start.)

And just how effective is melanin as a shielding material for high
energy photons? (When compared to equal mass of, say, metallic lead?)

((((((((((((((((((((((( ( ( (o) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty Research Engineer
beaty a chem washington edu UW Chem Dept, Bagley Hall RM74
billb a eskimo com Box 351700, Seattle, WA 98195-1700
ph425-222-5066 http://staff.washington.edu/wbeaty/


Could work. Approximating a (naked) body has a 6' by 2' area (about 1
sq. meter), assuming the body is lying in direct sunlight, and
assuming sunlight has an intensity of 1 kW/sq.meter, you get about a
kW of available energy. And you only need, what, 100W of energy to
maintain bodily functions (at rest). Maybe more, to avoid predators
or psychotic engineers...

Of course, photosynthetic organisms aren't 100% efficient. Herbivores
eat quite a few plants each day, and you know how long it takes for a
plant to reach maturity.

Don't forget compounds which can take gamma radiation and downconvert
that to visible wavelength electromagnetic radiation.

http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/850408-3Vdsn0/850408.PDF

We just had our HAZWOPER refresher today at work. The innards of the
Ludlum were discussed, where sodium iodide emits visible light when
struck by gamma photons. I didn't know that...!

Michael
 
Interesting.

Radiation doesn't have to be ionizing in order to be photosynthetic.

If one allows a flight of fancy - we can imagine a nano-engineered
self-replicating machine system that are deployed throughout Earth as
a spore like device and when it touches human skin it invades the skin
and inhabits it much like a fungus,The machines operate on sunlight.
The fungus like machines ideally would invade the blood supply and
circulate the blood through them, providing nutritional molecules made
from the environment and processed by sunlight energy.

The sun produces 1,000 watts per sq meter,

According to medical models of metabolic rates;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate

A human body uses 32 kilocalories per hour per square meter.
Projected area in sunlight (the area of your shadow) varies- but may
be 1/3 this amount. And sunlight is available about 1/6th the time -
depending on weather.

So, you'd need 18 times this amount - 576 kilocalories per hour per
square meter- NET production. 2,411 kilojoules per square meter per
hour. that's 670 watts per square meter.

The sun produces 1,000 watts per square meter surface normal to the
sun's rays. So, this nanomachine fungal infection would need to be
67% efficient in converting the sun's rays to food energy and
injecting it in the bloodstream using air and waste products found in
the blood. The fungus may also infect the gut as well to reuse the
material streams. In all a person need not eat if so infected..

The devices should also inject neurochemicals into the blood,
psychoactives, that cause people to feel satisfied and happy to be in
sunlight for long periods of time with no clothes on.

Another possibility to reduce time in sunlight is to implant wings on
to the 2 through the 6th thoracic vertebrae, and have them controlled
with peripheral nerves connected to the brain for that purpose. These
black leathery 'wings' could easily double the surface area naturally
found in the body and easily be presented to the sun quite naturally
independently of body orientation.

Person's so infected would not need to wear clothes, and so this
infection would cause them to want to shed all their clothing.

Their skin would take on a dark reddish hue - ranging from jet black
to deep red and be leather tough.

As mentioned they need not eat or drink under normal conditions. The
machine systems would also be capable of providing a wide variety of
neuro chemicals - as well as communicate with some sort of variant of
blue-tooth technology with other swarms nearby. This would implement
a sort of mental telepathy between infected cohorts.

A film forming over the eye of flourescent nanomachines could also
produce visual hallucinations on demand - and machines could stimulate
thenatural skin in controlled ways. Sounds would also be produced by
nanomachines invading and stimulating individual hairs in the
cochlea. In this way virtual reality could be implemented.

In the book AMERICAN VESUVIUS there is a chapter on how low velocity
particle clouds of great mass can lift and transport individuals and
objects great distances without destroying them. That is, the thrust
imparted by a jet of material is;

F = mdot * v

Where F = force newtons
mdot = kg/sec
v = velocity

Small independently flying objects at moderate speeds of 10 m/sec (36
kph) massing as little as 10 kg (22 lbs) can be coordinated to lift a
person on demand.

The nanomachines infecting the skin and organs of an individual could
interact with free flying nanomachines to cause individuals to be
lifted up and transported great distances at high speeds in short
periods of time.

These clouds could be solar powered. They would be inky black clouds
that absorb the sunlight and use that energy to jet around -
coordinated to produce propulsive effects. Objects could be carried
around, including people.

The air naturally wouldn't have sufficient materials to supply all the
food products needed by an individual. Some devices would feed on the
soil and when persons passed, they would crawl up the passing persons
body and be absorbed by the skin. Other material would drop off in a
cloud as it was needed by the stationary population. This could all
operate seamlessly.

So, there would be stinking yellow/brown clouds swirling angrily
around the feet of individuals as they walked through this wasteland,
their skin would be black to black red, with small leathery wings,
yellow bloodshot eyes, distended ears and gut, useless anus and urinal
tracts, inky black clouds swirling overhead in their minds filled with
impulses to sit still in sunlight, and voices of a billion others all
talking at once...

Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.
 
P

Paul Burke

Jan 1, 1970
0
If one allows a flight of fancy - we can imagine a nano-engineered
self-replicating machine system that are deployed throughout Earth as
a spore like device and when it touches human skin it invades the skin
and inhabits it much like a fungus,The machines operate on sunlight.

Make that bacteria, and you've got the probable scenario of how plants
acquired chloroplasts a billion or so years ago. But if people ever do
get to photosynthesise, think of the implications for future evolution...

Surface area. The bigger, the more food you'd get, and the better you'd
thrive. One available source of extra area is the otherwise rather
useless ear. We'd all end up looking like Prince Charles.

Sunlight and water. UK's no good, Nevada neither. All move to somewhere
sunny and swampy- Florida?

Competition for sunlight- taller is better to gather light (overshadow
the competition), but for the same resources short is better for using
resources for muscle, to shove the tall weedy ones out of the way. So
there would be competition between the tall, beanpole build and the
short muscular build. Or perhaps the short muscular ones would rely less
on primary production, but eat the tall thin ones.
 
B

Bhushit Joshipura

Jan 1, 1970
0
I would say you stole my fancy! :)
There are a few catches though.
1. Photosynthesis yields starch. Animals need glycogen. Starch breaks
down only in digestive system!
2. How would the body carry the synthesized material to lever from
skin?
3. Saline glucose injection causes human beings to form and release a
lot of gas. I'd say the idea 'stinks'.

Another set of very interesting possibilities:
1. Suddenly war would shift from Iraq to Bangladesh (for America would
need sunlight and water more than petroleum)
2. Industries like textiles, garments and agriculture have a sudden
stop (or at least significant slow down) and many others follow (like
fertilizers, dyes, fashion etc.)
3. Body appearance related industry, tourism, "near solar system"
travels, entertainment industry, recreational drugs and similar
industries thrive
4. Deforestation accelerates, obesity jumps (and so does health care
industry)
5. >90% of population of the world works to secure food. In a long
run, human photosynthesis would just break down civilization, in
which, society does not yield food unless human beings do something
useful
 
C

CWatters

Jan 1, 1970
0
In other words... if I have a dark tan, and I go sit in summer
sunlight without eating, will avoid starvation longer than if I stayed
indoors without eating?

Ah an experiment worthy of an Ig Nobel prize perhaps :)
 
C

CWatters

Jan 1, 1970
0
Just out of curiousity, I wonder if human melanin production responds
to ALL ionizing radiation? If I stick my hand under a high-power
gamma ray source for a few minutes per day, will I receive a nice dark
tan? (I'd be sure to start slowly so I don't get a bone-deep sunburn
at the start.)

And just how effective is melanin as a shielding material for high
energy photons? (When compared to equal mass of, say, metallic lead?)

Perhaps space travellers should get a good tan before thet set off for mars?
 
T

Tim Williams

Jan 1, 1970
0
You've been reading too much Michael Crichton ;)

Tim
 
J

John Bailey

Jan 1, 1970
0
I've always thought, that were it possible for biology to harness
ionizing radiation for energy, some organism would already have done
so. We'd just have to find it.
Well, it looks like my suspicions were correct:

Inside the Chernobyl reactor: fungus feeds on radiation
http://www.wtnrradio.com/news/story.php?story=262
What other organism deals with hard radiation and employs the melanin
molecule? People?

Wow! Entertaining speculation. Thanks.

It aligns with a speculation of mine. Why did plants never evolve the
ability to move around? Surely the ability to go from a water hole to
a well lit place would be a decided evolutionary advantage. Is
perambulation a pre-requisite for higher intelligence? Plants have
been short changed generally regarding a number of features--sight,
hearing, locomotion, intelligence, ...(others?) Well at least plants
have sex and photosynthesis.

Perhaps relevant:
The juvenile sea squirt wanders through the sea searching for a
suitable rock or hunk of coral to cling to and make its home for life.
For this task, it has a rudimentary nervous system. When it finds its
spot and takes root, it doesn't need its brain anymore so it eats it!
(It's rather like getting tenure.)
From CONSCIOUSNESS EXPLAINED, by Daniel Dennett, p. 177

John
 
Wow! Entertaining speculation. Thanks.

It aligns with a speculation of mine. Why did plants never evolve the
ability to move around? Surely the ability to go from a water hole to
a well lit place would be a decided evolutionary advantage. Is
perambulation a pre-requisite for higher intelligence? Plants have
been short changed generally regarding a number of features--sight,
hearing, locomotion, intelligence, ...(others?) Well at least plants
have sex and photosynthesis.


They do move. Ever turned a potted plant around? Its leaves will
eventually turn so that they are again facing the sun.

My speculation is that it 1) takes too much energy to move around
(unless it's limited to... eh, one inch per day), and 2) uprooting and
digging a new hole by itself is just too hard.

Michael
 
R

Rich Grise

Jan 1, 1970
0
But wait a minute. What if human skin was bright green. Would you
think to yourself "ah, our skin contains a dye molecule which shields
against visible light?" Or instead would you think "ah, our skin
contains an energy-harvesting molecule which employs visible light to
synthesize it's own fuel?"

A. An area like a human body wouldn't produce enough photosynthetic
"stuff" to live on.
B. Everybody would have to run around naked, and let's face it -
with about 95% of the population, you wouldn't want to see them naked. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich
 
T

Tim Williams

Jan 1, 1970
0
Though to be honest, those 95% of the population would get great
photosynthesis per capita.

Tim
 
B

Bill Beaty

Jan 1, 1970
0
Could work. Approximating a (naked) body has a 6' by 2' area (about 1
sq. meter), assuming the body is lying in direct sunlight, and
assuming sunlight has an intensity of 1 kW/sq.meter, you get about a
kW of available energy. And you only need, what, 100W of energy to
maintain bodily functions (at rest). Maybe more, to avoid predators
or psychotic engineers...


But if it only provided a small bit of energy, it still would be
reinforced by
evolution. For example, if in two competing bacterial species one
species
outgrows the other by a small percentage, soon only one species will
exist.
If two human tribes face hard times, something like skin-
photosynthesis
might let one tribe pull through where they otherwise would die.

((((((((((((((((((((((( ( ( (o) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty Research Engineer
beaty a chem washington edu UW Chem Dept, Bagley Hall RM74
billb a eskimo com Box 351700, Seattle, WA 98195-1700
ph425-222-5066 http://staff.washington.edu/wbeaty/
 
B

Bill Beaty

Jan 1, 1970
0
For this task, it has a rudimentary nervous system. When it finds its
spot and takes root, it doesn't need its brain anymore so it eats it!
(It's rather like getting tenure.)

Heh.


ANYWAY... people here seem to be assuming that for human
photosynthesis to evolve, it would have to supply 100% of
body energy input. Why? What if it only supplies 1%? In
conditions where death by starvation was a constant danger,
any creature which developed even a poor version of
photosynthesis, might survive to outbreed all competitors.

I could even reason thus: if human photosynthesis was
possible, then we'd probably have evolved that trait already.

The only difficulty has been in assuming that if photosynthesis
was happening, human skin would have to be colored green.
The article about the Chernobyl fungus suggests that brown
skin might be a signature of photosynthesis capability... but
based on ionizing radiation rather than visible light.

On the other hand, mammailia rather than humans would
have evolved the trait, and we'd expect to see tropical
animals having bare skin. HEYYYY! Is animal fur
typically opaque to ultraviolet? (Do people get scalp-
sunburn despite thick hair?) Maybe they wouldn't need
bare skin.

((((((((((((((((((((((( ( ( (o) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty Research Engineer
beaty a chem washington edu UW Chem Dept, Bagley Hall RM74
billb a eskimo com Box 351700, Seattle, WA 98195-1700
ph425-222-5066 http://staff.washington.edu/wbeaty/
 
J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
I've always thought, that were it possible for biology to harness
ionizing radiation for energy, some organism would already have done
so. We'd just have to find it. For example we already know about the
D. Radiodurans bacteria which survives immense gamma-ray doses, but
doesn't harvest the photons as far as anyone knows. The Earth
contains vast fungal and bacterial communities subject to billions of
years of evolutionary forces, and also contains "light sources" in the
form of uranium ore deposits.

Well, it looks like my suspicions were correct:

Inside the Chernobyl reactor: fungus feeds on radiation
http://www.wtnrradio.com/news/story.php?story=262


But there's more... Apparently the fungus uses an unsuspected
photosynthetic molecule: melanin. It's not green like light-loving
plants, instead it's brown and eats gamma rays. This is new, so the
details are yet unknown.

What other organism deals with hard radiation and employs the melanin
molecule? People?

Expose caucasian skin to ionizing radiation (hard UV sunlight) and it
ramps up melanin production. Melanin absorbs UV and acts as a
shield. "Getting a sun tan." Or be of non-European ancestry and
you're already shielded.

But wait a minute. What if human skin was bright green. Would you
think to yourself "ah, our skin contains a dye molecule which shields
against visible light?" Or instead would you think "ah, our skin
contains an energy-harvesting molecule which employs visible light to
synthesize it's own fuel?"

In other words... if I have a dark tan, and I go sit in summer
sunlight without eating, will avoid starvation longer than if I stayed
indoors without eating? Maybe vitamin-D isn't the only thing made by
human skin in sunlight.

Just out of curiousity, I wonder if human melanin production responds
to ALL ionizing radiation? If I stick my hand under a high-power
gamma ray source for a few minutes per day, will I receive a nice dark
tan? (I'd be sure to start slowly so I don't get a bone-deep sunburn
at the start.)

You'd most likely have deep tissue damage, and maybe cancer. Gammas
penetrate.
And just how effective is melanin as a shielding material for high
energy photons? (When compared to equal mass of, say, metallic lead?)

It's no more effective a gamma shield than any other light molecule,
that is to say, not very. It's still made of carbon, hydrogen, and
nitrogen, and the molecular structure doesn't influence gamma
interaction.

Just because a substance converts radiation-strewn ions into some
non-thermal form of energy (like, say, a phosphor converts it to
light) that doesn't mean it's any better an absorber.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_rays

"Due to their high energy content, they are able to cause serious
damage when absorbed by living cells."

"Shielding for gamma rays requires large amounts of mass. The material
used for shielding takes into account that gamma rays are better
absorbed by materials with high atomic number and high density."


John
 
J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
They do move. Ever turned a potted plant around? Its leaves will
eventually turn so that they are again facing the sun.

My speculation is that it 1) takes too much energy to move around
(unless it's limited to... eh, one inch per day), and 2) uprooting and
digging a new hole by itself is just too hard.


The way a critter gets enough energy to move around is by eating
plants. It gets to eat plants by moving around.

Photosynthesis is not very efficient, 0.1 to 1% overall usually. I
suspect what limits it is CO2 availability, which shortage we are
working on.

John
 
R

Robert Adsett

Jan 1, 1970
0
John Larkin said:
The way a critter gets enough energy to move around is by eating
plants. It gets to eat plants by moving around.

Photosynthesis is not very efficient, 0.1 to 1% overall usually. I
suspect what limits it is CO2 availability, which shortage we are
working on.

Actually as I understand it, nitrogen is a bigger limiter. Plants
cannot use what's in the air and so rely on nitrogen fixing bacteria.
One of the biggest roles of crop rotation is to plant a crop that
supports nitrogen fixing bacteria to enrich the soil for subsequent
crops.

There is a limit to how much nitrogen a plant can absorb, I suspect the
same is true of CO2 although I don't know where the limit is.

Anyone have any information on what CO2 variation does when the nitrogen
levels are not raised?

Robert
 
G

guskz

Jan 1, 1970
0
I've always thought, that were it possible for biology to harness
ionizing radiation for energy, some organism would already have done
so. We'd just have to find it. For example we already know about the
D. Radiodurans bacteria which survives immense gamma-ray doses, but
doesn't harvest the photons as far as anyone knows. The Earth
contains vast fungal and bacterial communities subject to billions of
years of evolutionary forces, and also contains "light sources" in the
form of uranium ore deposits.

Well, it looks like my suspicions were correct:

Inside the Chernobyl reactor: fungus feeds on radiation
http://www.wtnrradio.com/news/story.php?story=262

But there's more... Apparently the fungus uses an unsuspected
photosynthetic molecule: melanin. It's not green like light-loving
plants, instead it's brown and eats gamma rays. This is new, so the
details are yet unknown.

What other organism deals with hard radiation and employs the melanin
molecule? People?

Expose caucasian skin to ionizing radiation (hard UV sunlight) and it
ramps up melanin production. Melanin absorbs UV and acts as a
shield. "Getting a sun tan." Or be of non-European ancestry and
you're already shielded.

But wait a minute. What if human skin was bright green. Would you
think to yourself "ah, our skin contains a dye molecule which shields
against visible light?" Or instead would you think "ah, our skin
contains an energy-harvesting molecule which employs visible light to
synthesize it's own fuel?"

In other words... if I have a dark tan, and I go sit in summer
sunlight without eating, will avoid starvation longer than if I stayed
indoors without eating? Maybe vitamin-D isn't the only thing made by
human skin in sunlight.

Just out of curiousity, I wonder if human melanin production responds
to ALL ionizing radiation? If I stick my hand under a high-power
gamma ray source for a few minutes per day, will I receive a nice dark
tan? (I'd be sure to start slowly so I don't get a bone-deep sunburn
at the start.)

And just how effective is melanin as a shielding material for high
energy photons? (When compared to equal mass of, say, metallic lead?)

((((((((((((((((((((((( ( ( (o) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty Research Engineer
beaty a chem washington edu UW Chem Dept, Bagley Hall RM74
billb a eskimo com Box 351700, Seattle, WA 98195-1700
ph425-222-5066 http://staff.washington.edu/wbeaty/

Too interesting of a story.

And too little doubt that the "destruction" of skin & organ cancer
through radiation is improper, instead focusing the radiation and
combining with this recent discovery should promote good cell
growth.

Perhaps but more complex is possible advancement in stem cell growth
as well.
 
J

John Bailey

Jan 1, 1970
0
The only difficulty has been in assuming that if photosynthesis
was happening, human skin would have to be colored green.
The article about the Chernobyl fungus suggests that brown
skin might be a signature of photosynthesis capability... but
based on ionizing radiation rather than visible light.

While reading this, I can see through the window our purple leafed
Norway Maple. There is also a purple leafed plum.

John
 
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