[__ Science __ ] Caves

[HeIsRisen2018]

I was just watching this Bill Nye The Science Guy episode and it reminded me about the cave tour I recently had in Maryland, but I don't believe that this question was ever fully answered. Everybody knows it'sextremely cold and dark in a cave, but yet life still manages to find ways to survive and I was just wondering how that could physically and biologically possible. Especially for plants that thrive on water and sunshine.




Sure it is very damp in a cave but I'm not sure that would be enough water to help the plant to grow. I remember learning somewhere that not all plants need soil to survive, but I'm pretty sure that they need water and sunshine. And where are they going to get that in a cave? How can animals (besides bats that I do believe use echo location) even see what they're doing let alone survive?





I remember when they turned off all the lights and put us in total darkness when we were on the tour and I couldn't even see the nose in front my face. Then the guy started talking about the fact that we would slowly lose our minds the longer we spent trapped in total darkness and how we would start hallucinating as well.

 

[WIP]

There are plants that grow in pretty unlikely places. The bottom of the ocean is teaming with plant life even though the sun's light does not penetrate that far. There are plants that live in toxic pools where we would be unable to venture. One of the unique things that catches my attention when I am fishing in Ontario is how the trees, even large trees, are able to take root and grow on the side of a rock. Without a doubt, if someone asked me to plant a seed and expect it to grow without me providing it water and some kind of soil regularly, I'd tell them they were nuts. But I see them all the time. How the saplings manage to not dry up during a week or two dry spell is beyond me.

 

[HeIsRisen2018]

There are plants that grow in pretty unlikely places. The bottom of the ocean is teaming with plant life even though the sun's light does not penetrate that far. There are plants that live in toxic pools where we would be unable to venture. One of the unique things that catches my attention when I am fishing in Ontario is how the trees, even large trees, are able to take root and grow on the side of a rock. Without a doubt, if someone asked me to plant a seed and expect it to grow without me providing it water and some kind of soil regularly, I'd tell them they were nuts. But I see them all the time. How the saplings manage to not dry up during a week or two dry spell is beyond me.

So in another words, I think what you're basically saying is you don't know either. Maybe survival in cold and dark places is just one of those mysteries of life that we will never understand. As far as I know our ancestors (even looking at the Christianity creatonist side of view which trust me, I am) were able to do it, so there must be some trick to it that literally only God knows. Hopefully I'm never in that situation, (and I don't think that I will be) but if I was, hopefully instincts would kick in.

 

[Razeontherock]

Caves regulate to 40 degrees F. That's not extremely cold; but it does require some specialization for life to adapt to it.

Scientifically it is well known how life manages to live in caves. That's good science too, being observable.

 

[WIP]

So in another words, I think what you're basically saying is you don't know either. Maybe survival in cold and dark places is just one of those mysteries of life that we will never understand. As far as I know our ancestors (even looking at the Christianity creatonist side of view which trust me, I am) were able to do it, so there must be some trick to it that literally only God knows. Hopefully I'm never in that situation, (and I don't think that I will be) but if I was, hopefully instincts would kick in.

Nope, I don't know. What I do know is that God has done some incredible things and despite how smart we think we are, we are barely scratching the surface of what God has done. The millions and millions of minute details required to come together to create the life planet we have are beyond imagination. The size of our sun, the position of our earth relative to the sun, the atmosphere that protects us from the sun's radiation and holds our planet at just the right temperature, the existence of water, the soil with all the microbes and nutrients to sustain plants, the perfect life relationship between plants and animals (without both we all die), the millions of variety of individual species, the repetition of life, even our own bodies and how not one part can exist by itself and yet all the parts are needed for a complete body. Even God uses our bodies as a reference in 1 Corinthians 12.

I love enjoying a cup of coffee in the mornings outside on our deck. We put out a bird feeder to attract many varieties and I just enjoy seeing, hearing, and smelling God's creation around me. It helps me focus on the Creator in seeing His perfect creation.

 

[WIP]

Just for fun, I quickly went outside and took a photo from my chair on our deck looking toward our horse pasture. You can see that my wife likes to decorate our deck with a variety of flowers. In the background between our deck and the pasture fence you can see our peonies, which unfortunately are about done blossoming, with our bird feeders and such. My wife has white, pink, and red peonies. The fragrance from them can be scented from 100' away when they are in full bloom.

There are quite a few flowers in there that will blossom later in the year too so we usually have plenty of color year round. Can't see them from this photo but my wife also has roses along the deck that are just now starting to bloom. We also have lilacs on two sides of our house which make for a pleasant fragrance while sitting on our deck earlier in the year.

Ignore the broken fence rails. I already measured for new ones to fix them this year. She calls our place "The Crooked Fence Ranch" anyway so.....you know.


Here's something new being worked on. Our daughter and her boyfriend started this for Mother's day. They aren't quite finished with it yet but it's beginning to take a nice shape.