Re: Colors of alien plants -- Scientific American

In article
<e23609e6-0d04-41c2-b8af-8498a556892b@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Brian Davis  <brdavis@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>On Mar 30, 8:24=A0pm, "Dan Goodman" <dsg...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> The April issue of Scientific American has an article on
>> astronomical including what light would be used for
>> photosynthesis on planets of various star-types...
>
>Curious. What are they basing this on? Things like "take advantage of
>frequency where the tensity is the greatest" (green, for our Sun...
>oops, looks like evolution missed that)? It would seem so much depends
>on what first photoactive pigment gets fixed into the system that
>there's an awful lot of good old evolutionary luck in there. Not to
>mention there's going to be some frequencies that biology would have
>intense trouble tapping (it's tough to fix energy when the incoming
>energy is enough to break covalent bonds, for instance).
>
>What's your take on it - worth the read, or reha****ng the wrong?
>
>> and what the plants might look like.
>
>It does sound interesting, especially when I teach biophysics again.

Yup, some neat pictures.  Hal was reading it as we sat at the
laundromat this afternoon.  I'll get hold of the SciAm in a day
or two.

(I was reading a Miss Silver whodunit, if anyone cares.)

Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt@[EMAIL PROTECTED]