Plants On Other Planets

Interesting bit of science here via Reuters - 

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The same rules that make Earth plants green may make non-Earth plants yellow, red or green -- but likely not blue, NASA scientists said on Wednesday.

They said their findings -- which look at how plants absorb and reflect different types of light -- may help narrow the search for life on planets beyond our solar system.

And, as a bonus, they may have answered a basic question about life on Earth.

"We've uncovered maybe the best explanation of why plants are green," said Nancy Kiang, a NASA biometeorologist who led the study, which appears in the journal Astrobiology.

Understanding plant colours on other planets is important as scientists prepare for new information to be generated from giant space telescopes planned by NASA and the European Space Agency to study Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars.

"We can guess the plausible range of colours they might be," said Vikki Meadows, an astrobiologist the California Institute of Technology who heads NASA's Virtual Planetary Laboratory.

Meadows and a host of scientists from different disciplines first studied how light is absorbed and reflected by plants and some bacteria on Earth.

That led to computer model for predicting the colour of plants on other planets and new insights about plants on Earth.

Chlorophyll in plants takes light from the sun and converts it into energy through a process called photosynthesis.

Scientists have long known that most plants on Earth absorb more blue and red light and less green light, but they have not understood why.

It turns out that more red light reaches plants on Earth, and blue light is the easiest to absorb. So plants make most efficient use of these two, and that leaves green light as largely superfluous.

"They don't absorb the green because they have more than enough light from blue and red. They just don't need green," Kiang said.

As a result, plants reflect away relatively more green light, which is why plants appear green.

"It turns out plants are actually using the best light there is," Kiang said.

On other planets, where other colours of the light spectrum might dominate, the plants might soak up more green or even more blue light and reflect back whatever is not needed for energy.

The scientists believe the same rules will apply on Earth-like planets in other solar systems.

"It turns out that photosynthesis is one of those things that is likely to be common. If we look for life on other planets, we will try to look for signs of photosynthesis," Meadows said.

Good name for a plant person "Meadows" - green fields and all that.

Odds And Ends

A bit of a trudge today doing a car survey fro EMS. At least the weather was fine and sunny which made up for it. Glad Easter is over as it brings havoc to the banking system and still not got my monies from A&L after a week since i sent of the acceptance letter.

However, picked up a few bargains crate diggin' ,starting with a psych-garage obscurity by Faine Jade called "Introspection,A Faine Jade Recital" (Sundazed LP),and on CD more lounge and funk grooves courtesy of seventies Rediffusion label called "Soundsational" (Earful 2004) for £4,as this item is now deleted and commanding high prices,as it's full of cool jazzy grooves.

From Fopp the reissued and remasterered (with extra tracks) "There's A Riot Goin' On" by Sly and The Family Stone for £5 - a seminal album for me from the early seventies.

Picked up a copy of Record Collector from WH Smiths as well since it has part two of Bob Dylan's "Planet Airwaves" based on his "Theme Time Radio Hour" aired on BBC RAdio 2. I must try and get last month's RC for part one.

Also coming42 texted me about a CD he listened to and wanted to get via Apple's iStore,or whatever its callled. A female artist called Clara Moreno. Never heard of the lady but its a latino Brazilian thing i think (he says she sounds a bit like Astrud Gilberto).  Anyway, i  don't buy downloaded music as i prefer the original physical copy,but if it's a free download then i would,and often frree downloads are there to promote an album or group,etc.

Nice pic of a tabby cat with glasses via pissed_pacifist which did remind of Tiggy so much.
Also cute photos from river_cadence esp.the small dog's birthday photo that amused me so much. 

A bit of a cop-out (excuse the pun) with the last of the current series of "Life On Mars". I wouuld have thought Sam would have stayed in the now and not gone back to 1973. An obvious liink to a further series i say!!