Water is a marvellous thing

Water is, as you know the prerequisite for life on Earth. Or rather, the Earth's life forms have arisen mainly due to the unique characteristics of water. On other planets with different conditions, there may of course exist completely different forms of life. Who knows?

Water is not like many of our other elements. The solid state of water has a greater volume and lower density than its liquid form. The density is highest in the liquid state at +4 degrees Celsius.

This strange fact that the density is highest in the liquid state makes the ice float on the water, and the water around the polar areas does not bottom freeze. Along the bottom, the water is +4 degrees Celsius and the biological activity does not stop. This means that a big range of aquatic animals can find some food during the winter, which would have been impossible if the ground was covered with ice

Why do the leaves fall off in the autumn? Part III

For all leaf-bearing trees and bushes, it is therefore better to let these cells shrivel up and put energy on creating new leaf rudiments and empty as much water as possible to prevent frostbite and cell burst. In areas on earth where there is no risk of frost, the leaf-bearing plants are green year round. They even manage a few nights of frost and a total loss of foliage, but would the cold period hold for longer cells would burst and kill the plant

Why do the leaves fall off in the autumn? Part II

Despite all the rain- and snowfall, the winter is a relatively dry season with cold dry air. It actually works to dry laundry outdoors cold, clear winter days. The water freezes in the garment and then evaporates without passing through the liquid state. We have, in other words, a fairly high vapor pressure on the garment surface and the same would apply to the leaves. The tree would have a hard time trying to retain moisture and at the same time not able to take up new liquid (the ground's frozen) with dehydration as a result.

Who do the leaves fall off in the autumn? Part I

OK it is summer on the norhern hemisphere and one should maybe not think so much about autumn and winter, but newertheless her comes some thoughts:

With water-filled leaves left on the tree, would first of all the cells burst as the water expands when it freezes. The trees could protect themselves by producing/store lots of sugar in the leaves during the early fall to get a high sugar content in the cells.

This would work like glycol in the coolant/antifreeze and provide some protection. To produce this sugar is obviously more dangerous and energy consuming than to simply turn off all cell functions in the leaves and let them fall off.

Aldus Manutius first to print Dante's Divine Comedy

It is rather strange that when you start digging into something, there are endless things to learn. I first wrote about Aldus Manutius because I thought it was a bit hilarious that there was a specific person who invented the semicolon, today appearing as smileys in so many SMS-messages. As I dig further, it turns out that this man must have been one of his times greatest entrepreneurs and visionaries.

Aldus Manutius who was active in Vendig in the late 1400s and ran one of those days largest printing works. Not only has he printed texts from his own era, but he converted many ancient handwritten parchment works into printed books.

Among other things, it was Manutius who first printed Dante's Divine Comedy and a number of works by Aristotle, Aristophanes, Euripides and Plato. I wonder if he had any idea of the long lasting greatness of these works? And that they, to some extent still influence a lot of art and literature 500 years later?

Aldus Manutius inventor of fonts like Garamond

Another interesting detail about the book printer Aldus Manutius, is that he also developed a host of fonts that is today widely used. The font family is called Medievelatikva or Garald. The Font family includes Garamond and Palatino as you probably recognize.

Useless knowledge perhaps, but I think it's classy that the fonts were created 500 years ago and I wonder if they knew which impact their work would have on the future.

Aldus Manutius invented the semicolon

Some inventions have transformed the history of the world and have become widely publicized. Some inventions have also had great influence, but the inventor has remained relatively unknown.

 

One of these inventors is Aldus Manutius, who lived between 1450 and 1515. Only 44 years old he invented the semicolon character (;). One can imagine how the mood was in his Venetian printing works when they realized that they had created something new, something big, something historic (I am ironic).

What they did not count on was the fact that not one single, normally gifted person, would use the sign during its first 510 years, but the suddenly used thousands of times an hour around the globe;-)

 

Semicolon was originally meant to be used when you think that a point is a too strong separation sign and a comma causes two sentences in a row. It is used between sentences - typically main clauses - which are closely related to each other. A semicolon is usually followed by small letters and can also be used for enumerations in order to separate groups from each other