Trees' Leaves Grow At a Cool 70° All Over the World 537
biogeochick writes "Ever turn on the air conditioner on a hot day? How about a heater when it gets cold? OK, so we all know that humans act to keep themselves cool, but what about trees? A recent article on tree core isotopic evidence has shown that trees from tropical to boreal forests all grow at 70 degrees. The study, published in Nature by some fantastic researchers (so one of them is my adviser, so sue me) and covered by NPR on All Things Considered, has shed some light on the convergent temperature at which trees perform photosynthesis." Update: 06/19 21:31 GMT by T : I give, I give -- that's 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
Or in Celsius (Score:5, Insightful)
Americans really need to start using the metric system. Honestly, it really is worth the effort to switch.
Re:Or in Celsius (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Or in Celsius (Score:4, Insightful)
Really? I'm a physicist and spend all my professional time working in m/s/kg units, but outside of that, what does it matter? We changed over the easier things, but the bit that's left (espcially feet/inches) don't justify the amount it would cost us to retool everything to use metric.
I never did get the obsession other people have with the units we use in the states.
Re:Why are plants green? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd imagine that the range of structures that can produce chlorophyll-like function is constrained, and that such structures with broader absorption either aren't possible or aren't evolutionarily reachable.
Re:Shameless karma whore (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Get a real unit. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Or in Celsius (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure a war or two has been fought over whether toilet paper should be hung in the proper overhand fashion or the grotesque underhand abomination.
Re:Shameless karma whore (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Or in Celsius (Score:5, Insightful)
Sometimes it's worth an inconvenience...
Re:Or in Celsius (Score:4, Insightful)
And for the record, I'm Canadian, living in the US. I STILL haven't gotten a feel for American units, but I'm getting a little better at doing the conversions in my head. That being said, I had no idea what 70F was until googling it.
Re:Shameless karma whore (Score:5, Insightful)
But seriously, when did Fahrenheit stop working?
About the same time that furlongs per fortnight ceased to be a useful measure of speed.
Re:Shameless karma whore (Score:5, Insightful)
That's nuts! An AVERAGE temperature to calibrate a thermometer? That's the same thing as calibrating my speedometer in my car to the average speed of a laden swallow.
Re:Or in Celsius (Score:2, Insightful)
That is the only one that actually makes sense, since the rest of our numbering systems, including time, are big-endian. I happen to like a certain 13 month calendar [newearthcalendar.com] as well, so that would be MM from 01 to 13, and DD from 01 to 28, or to 35 in a leap year.
Re:Or in Celsius (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Shameless karma whore (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is another way of saying 'less than 5% of the population of the world still uses Fahrenheit'. Looked at that way I'd assert it's in exactly the same league, or, indeed, the same 5.560 kilometres.
Wrong title (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Or in Celsius (Score:2, Insightful)
For daily living, where during the course of a day the temperature changes less than 30 degrees Fahrenheit from morning to night. Would I rather see the temperature change in smaller increments or larger ones? In casual conversation do we really need to go into decimal points describing something?
Temperature and a person's dimensions are in my opinion better in imperial measure. Someone who is 1.82 meters tall and someone who is 1.80 are about the same, but in America one of them is 6ft and one of them is 5' 11". I'll bet the person who is 5'11" rounds up all the time, but does the person who is 1.80? To me the significance of the information is lost with the metric measure, I supposed if you grow up with it works for you.
Re:Or in Celsius (Score:5, Insightful)
So, we've been doing pretty well working with both at the same time for years. You mean to say the rest of the world can't keep up?
Re:Shameless karma whore (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Shameless karma whore (Score:5, Insightful)
There's nothing wrong with specifying a non-standard unit, as long as it's specified accurately. Doing conversions is all part of the fun.
Re:Or in Celsius (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Humans are 98Â but prefer 72Â (Score:2, Insightful)
Now if trees were from Venus and preferred 70F temperatures, that would be remarkable. What's not remarkable is that both trees and humans prefer an environment they evolved in.
Re:Shameless karma whore (Score:5, Insightful)
=Smidge=
Re:Or in Celsius (Score:3, Insightful)
We've all converted to metric but the US refuses the change. That's partly understandable due to the cost/effort, but it means that the rest of the world forever more has to convert units to talk to them. Effectively they're making more work for everyone, and don't seem to care. When you think about it, in many social situations it's considered a bit rude to needlessly make work for other people.
The other aspect of this is that many Americans either don't know, remember or care about foreigners using a different unit systems, so even when they mention things like "it was 96 degrees outside today!" they don't bother offering a conversion or even a "sorry, don't know what that is in Celsius".
Okay this post is a lot longer than I intended; it's not really that annoying in the big scheme of things, but you asked why it annoys people so I'm explaining why it irritates me. No biggie.
Re:Or in Celsius (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Shameless karma whore (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Get a real unit. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Shameless karma whore (Score:3, Insightful)
Evidently, you don't have a passport. In the rest of the world, Fahrenheit is about as commonly used as the cubit.
Re:Or in Celsius (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm generally in favor of metrication and the use of metric units, but the issue of temperature is a key exception. The Fahrenheit scale is more precise, and its zero-to-100 degree range more realistically covers the spectrum of what one would typically see on a weather report.
I sometimes wonder why Celsius is considered a metric measure to begin with: It predates the advent of the modern metric system itself. Its zero-degree reference point is just as arbitrary as Fahrenheit's in the big scheme of things. And, the measure doesn't employ metric prefixes (although I suppose they could conceivably be appropriated for the purpose).
Re:Shameless karma whore (Score:4, Insightful)
You are missing the elegance and simplicity of using ice water and body temperature to calibrate thermometers. In the 18th century, every thermometer was hand calibrated. Plunge the thermometer into a vat of ice water and make a mark. Plunge the thermometer into your body, make another mark. If you are using ancillary temperature (under the arm) rather than oral or rectal temperature (and really, where would you rather stick that thermometer?), 96 is pretty close. Make 64 evenly spaced marks between the two marks by subdividing by 2 six times. Why not use the boiling point of water? The simple answer is that it is too hot. You would end up with a thermometer unsuitable for measuring outdoor temperatures in a fancy garden, which I imagine were the most profitable sales of the thermometers.
Notice that 32 is also a power of two, and that there are 180 degrees between the boiling point of water and the freezing point.
Re:Or in Celsius (Score:1, Insightful)
I grew up with MM/DD/YYYY and as soon as someone from outside the states showed me DD/MM/YYYY it was immediately obvious that the latter was better.
MOD parent up (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Or in Celsius (Score:3, Insightful)
I disagree, it's quite useful on a weather report to be able to communicate easily what side of freezing the temperature is. It's not arbitrary when it means potentially hazardous road conditions, or the need to leave the heating on low to prevent the pipes from freezing.