The Alien World

How alien are we? I give a lot of thought about it, considering how diverse the life on earth is be it over the surface or in water. Roughly 1.75 million species have been formally described and given official names, undescribed are even much more than that (reference http://www.eoearth.org/article/Biodiversity). It is very likely that many of these species got its origin form different planets in the galaxy.

Around 4.5 billion years ago a star explode under supernova causing enormous amount of rubble of rocks and meteors. Due to enormous acceleration and gravitational force the meteors collided with each other to form bigger rocks meteors which are also known at proto-planets. Over the period of millions of years that followed after supernova this process stopped, forming our solar system.

The earth was not like what it is today. In the beginning it was a ball of molten rocks and gases…. Billions of years ago earth was filled with gases – hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon-di-oxide, but no oxygen. But from where does the oxygen came? What is the source of water on earth?

Origin of life is still the most puzzling of all the things explored by scientists. 3.1 billion year ago humans would have only survived for few moments. What is the source of life? The answer lies in the answers for the source of water & oxygen.

Even after formation of all the planets there were still millions of meteors left in the universe. Many of them found their way to earth. Many of these meteors also contained frozen gases & water and also an important building block of life – amino acids. When they hit the earth surface all these become part of our planet. The impact of frozen meteors cooled down the surface of earth forming continents and oceans. Actually it didn’t cooled the surface instantly, instead its a different topic how the earth’s core was formed with molten iron and nickel. But these meteors actually played a crucial role in cooling done the burning planet.

This explains the source of water, but not about oxygen.

With lot of CO2 and sun bacteria started forming under the surface of water – they were none other than Cyanobacteria also known as green-blue algae. This was the first sign of life. They absorbed sunlight and absorbed CO2 from the atmosphere, and in the process released oxygen. The process we now know as photosynthesis. Over the period of time the CO2 continued to decrease and oxygen continued to increase. Once there was enough oxygen, there was no looking back. Life found its way on the land as well.

This suggests that life on our planet is attributed to the alien bodies that came to earth billions of years ago and become part of the planet and found a way to evolve into complex life. This also may mean that we all, including all animals, are aliens or have some genes of them in us!

Further references: Humans are alien of animal planet – part 1 & part 2

My company is starting a initiative “Go Green – Reduce Reuse Recycle” on ‘Earth Day’ i.e. celebrated around the world by earth lovers. This initiative includes:

• Travel smart - You reduce 1.5 kg of carbon dioxide pollution for every 5 km you don’t drive. Use public transport, avail of the company transport, or simply try car-pooling. You not only contribute to less pollution, you also cut down on fuel cost and stress pills because of less driving.
• Tree plantation – The company is providing 55 trees, to be bought, and will be planted in the company’s campus.
• Reduce paper – Resist the urge to print everything. A visit to the printer room reveals how much paper we waste. As a “green” measure, all printers are by default to duplex print. Also, hand dryers are provided in the wash rooms to reduce the paper usage.
• Vermi-composting on Company’s Campus - Vermi-composting is the technique of using EARTH worms to break down the organic waste generated out of food, paper etc. to create fertilizer. The company will produce vermi-compost fertilizer for all trees on the campus.

This seems to be a really nice initiative at a company level, but the success of it depends on the individuals. Company cannot enforce them, these are just suggestion and best practices. It is left up to individuals to realize their responsibility and find out ways how they can contribute in making earth a better place to live. Companies like mine have started a small but a significant step toward making a greener earth.

I think the demand of energy is directly proportional to the green house gases which are the main source of global warming. Consider this – the electricity used in IT to keep the industry running is huge. The number of computers is doubling every year. Each computer consumes a lot of power and generates a lot of heat. This is not all – to keep the computers cool, air conditions are installed, which again consumes the equivalent amount of energy or perhaps more. Big companies like Google & Microsoft have huge data centers with tens of thousands of computers. They consume massive amount of energy. There is a lot of scope of reducing this electricity consumption by having more energy efficient computers with generate much less heat or does not require any external cooling. I read somewhere that Microsoft was planning to open a big datacenter in Russia or Siberia. I wonder if that is the step to reduce the air conditioning bill…

We all know from our school days that the primary source of electricity are coal (thermal), water (dams), nuclear. Wind and Solar energy is tried at some places but they have not gained the popularity, primarily because ROI is not good. Electricity produces from bio-wastes have been experimented successfully, but again there is the problem of adoption. People tend to use things which are easily to install and use. Wide adoption of alternate fuels requires willingness from both the government and individuals.

Fuel seems to be the major source of contaminating the environment because when it burns it releases CO2 and other gases participating in green house effect. It is very unlikely that the consumption of fuel may be reduced because our demand for energy is only going to increase with each passing day. We need to find better and efficient ways of using the available resources. Scientists are busy finding alternates to currently available fuels option – like in Brazil, ethanol produced from sugarcane is used as an alternate to petrol. Ethanol is cheaper then petrol and produces less green house gases. More than 70% of the gas stations in Brazil now have ethanol available. This was only possible by the willingness and participation of government and citizens.

Government in US is forcing the auto industry to come up with more fuel efficient engines, with alternate to petrol and diesel. With each passing year emission norm are becoming tougher. Hybrid cars are the future, but they are a long way from adoption by common man. We have long heard and seen nuclear powered submarines, but that technology is still far from being used in cars & planes. But there will be one day when our cars will have a small nuclear battery inside that may never be required to be replaced for the car’s entire life.

All this is a big plan, most of them may not even see the light of the day, but as individuals we should thrive of discipline to use our natural resources efficiently. Charity starts from home, so shall any good cause.

Celebrate ‘Earth Day’, everyday!