David

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bio	website	openwetware.org/wiki/…
	location	Urbana, IL
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visits	member for	1 year, 5 months
	seen	May 2 at 21:04
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	679 reputation	bio	website	openwetware.org/wiki/…	visits	member for	1 year, 5 months
111 badges		location	Urbana, IL		seen	May 2 at 21:04

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Mar 6	comment	What controls leaf senescence in deciduous tree species, and how can I predict it? there was a related question on stats.SE (about modeling bud burst) stats.stackexchange.com/q/9797/1381
Sep 30	comment	Are there any substance that are more dangerous at low dose than at higher dose? thanks for the clarification; as written it can be interpreted as "homeopathy" doesn't work, except when it does. On another note (more as a clarification for readers than as a correction to you) the GMO study is a poor example to use. Because of the many flaws, any inference is limited (e.g. my primary conclusion is that there is insufficient information to conclude anything about the relationship dose-response relationship).
Sep 30	comment	Are there any substance that are more dangerous at low dose than at higher dose? Example of something always reactive no matter the dose?
Sep 30	comment	Are there any substance that are more dangerous at low dose than at higher dose? sugar, water, protein, ... these all have an optimal range of healthy doses- too much OR too little can be harmful.
Aug 21	comment	List of species recently found of economic value Perhaps the Biofuel Ecophysiological Traits and Yields Database would be of some help?
Aug 1	comment	What is the effect of a pure-oxygen environment on a plant? If the plant is potted, thre could be co2 from the soil, as well as from plant respiration. But at such high o2, photosynthesis would be inefficient.
Jul 9	comment	How deep in the soil can a seed be placed and still develop into a plant/tree? there is no single mathematical relationship, but I have tried to provide a general answer please let @richard or I know if you have further questions
Jul 5	comment	How deep in the soil can a seed be placed and still develop into a plant/tree? @RichardSmith Thanks for looking it over. I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything obvious.
Jul 5	comment	How deep in the soil can a seed be placed and still develop into a plant/tree? nice answer. I'd appreciate your opinion of mine.
Jul 5	comment	How deep in the soil can a seed be placed and still develop into a plant/tree? TL;DR 1) yes, 2) depends on species, soil, climate, 3) yes
Jul 2	comment	Is Homo sapiens the only species capable of prioritization? Animal behavior is not my field but I think the answer is "no, animal feeding / foraging shows optimization of the cost / benefits of finding and capturing different foods / prey", an ecological 'paradigm' as explained here notes.utk.edu/bio/greenberg.nsf/…
Jun 27	comment	Do all plants photosynthesize with equal efficiency? Yep, you are correct, I read a good bit of the article, but when it came to writing down the numbers I just grabbed them from the Abstract where they are called "maximum conversion efficiency of solar energy to biomass", in the text they explain that this is the theoretical max. The numbers you give are short term max reported values (for the record, the C3 value is 3.5%, second line of p 157). I changed your answer.
Jun 27	comment	Do all plants photosynthesize with equal efficiency? Zhu et al, 2008 provide a review titled "What is the maximum efﬁciency with which photosynthesis can convert solar energy into biomass?" in the Journal Current Opinion in Biotechnology.
Jun 27	comment	Do all plants photosynthesize with equal efficiency? According to Zhu et al,, 2008 the maximum observed conversion of photosynthetic energy to biomass is 6% at 30C. I am not sure why there is a discrepancy, but Wikipedia has no citation nor reference temperature and Zhu et al do not consider CAM plants or algae.
Jun 24	comment	What's the state of the art in designing and creating your own life forms? @nico huh? E. coli can be considered free, and media is about $20/kg dry (e.g. malt extract)
Jun 23	comment	Do all plants photosynthesize with equal efficiency? Define efficiency: carbon fixed per unit of what [h2o, nitrogen, light, CO2]? Any way you look at it, the answer will be "no".
Jun 23	comment	Why hasn't mother nature made us aware of our lizard brain? -1 mother nature does not evolve us. That is a religious rather than a scientific view
Jun 21	comment	How high is the energy yield of photovoltaics compared to photosynthesis? I don't think either could meet domestic energy requirements alone, at least not in the near future. Your question could be improved with better definitions; it still says "converting", without saying to what. See, for example, quantum efficiency and quantum yield.
Jun 21	comment	How high is the energy yield of photovoltaics compared to photosynthesis? Does energy used to evaporate water count? Or the energy required to physically transport water from the soil to the air? PV cells don't evaporate or transport water. These are not accounted for in standard measures of quantum efficiency.
Jun 21	comment	How high is the energy yield of photovoltaics compared to photosynthesis? Your question could use some clarification. As stated, the premise is wrong because neither leaves nor PV cells produce energy. They can capture or store energy, they can also reflect or absorb and release energy. What pools or fluxes of energy are you interested in comparing? a common comparison is "quantum efficiency", but it is not clear if this is the comparison that you are looking for.