September 5, 2016 Monday
Bedtime story
Carbon and I
Oddly enough, carbon came to known by our ancestors relatively late.
It was the Egyptians and Sumerians in around 3700 B.C. who found the use of soot and charcoal.
They would make charcoal from wood by heating it inside a clay pyramid to exclude air.
This process is called pyrolysis meaning thermo chemical decomposition of any organic matter in the absence of oxygen.
In this process all the organic stuff is destroyed and is lost as tar, methane or hydrogen, leaving behind carbon and inorganic ash.
When my body will be burnt after I euthanize and eradicate myself (if not killed earlier), pyrolysis will lead to escape of coal gas (containing hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and volatile hydrocarbons) and tar (phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAHs and heterocyclic compounds).
These are the only "spirits" that will leave my body.
Whatever solid that will be left behind of me will be char.
That carbon that is going to leave my body in various forms including gaseous PAHs will be utilized by life forms as diverse as microbes (including infections ones), insects or fungi.
In short, I will be recycled.
This recycling is an ongoing process that happens all the time as I shed my epidermal keratinocytes (technically called desquamation), hairs, nails and the mucous membranes all over and inside my body.
The PAHs are quite abundant in the universe and the first of them were formed as early as 2 billion years after the Big Bang that happened 13.82 billion years ago (+- 21 million years).
PAHs are most likely the starting molecules/material for the abiological synthesis of the earliest forms of life (they are much simpler than a RNA or a DNA molecule).
Interestingly, pyrolysis is also the first step in all the burning processes including our cooking processes such as roasting, baking, toasting or grilling.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
Spectral Line of Carbon
Bedtime story
Carbon and I
Oddly enough, carbon came to known by our ancestors relatively late.
It was the Egyptians and Sumerians in around 3700 B.C. who found the use of soot and charcoal.
They would make charcoal from wood by heating it inside a clay pyramid to exclude air.
This process is called pyrolysis meaning thermo chemical decomposition of any organic matter in the absence of oxygen.
In this process all the organic stuff is destroyed and is lost as tar, methane or hydrogen, leaving behind carbon and inorganic ash.
When my body will be burnt after I euthanize and eradicate myself (if not killed earlier), pyrolysis will lead to escape of coal gas (containing hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and volatile hydrocarbons) and tar (phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAHs and heterocyclic compounds).
These are the only "spirits" that will leave my body.
Whatever solid that will be left behind of me will be char.
That carbon that is going to leave my body in various forms including gaseous PAHs will be utilized by life forms as diverse as microbes (including infections ones), insects or fungi.
In short, I will be recycled.
This recycling is an ongoing process that happens all the time as I shed my epidermal keratinocytes (technically called desquamation), hairs, nails and the mucous membranes all over and inside my body.
The PAHs are quite abundant in the universe and the first of them were formed as early as 2 billion years after the Big Bang that happened 13.82 billion years ago (+- 21 million years).
PAHs are most likely the starting molecules/material for the abiological synthesis of the earliest forms of life (they are much simpler than a RNA or a DNA molecule).
Interestingly, pyrolysis is also the first step in all the burning processes including our cooking processes such as roasting, baking, toasting or grilling.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
Spectral Line of Carbon
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