| ▲ | Ericson2314 2 days ago |
| I remember as a kid wondering if we could give humans chlorolaplasts. |
|
| ▲ | rustyhancock 2 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| I believe that mitochondria and chloroplast both were originally independent single celled organisms. So kind of funny that, chloroplast is being "stolen" again by this sea slug. |
| |
|
| ▲ | gus_massa 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Somewhat related https://what-if.xkcd.com/17/ The surface is too small and you only get like 4% of the energy you need (Assuming you like being naked under full sunlight all day long. The article is for cows, but I guess the number is similar for humans.) 4% of 2400 kcal is almost 100 kcal, that is the content of a small diet treat or 2 apples. These sea slugs can survive because they move very slowly. For a human, I think it's not enough energy to survive even if all the activity is to watch TV inside a hot swimming pool. |
| |
| ▲ | eigenspace 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Dietary need scales with volume, whereas incident sunlight would scale with surface area. Assuming a spherical cow and a spherical human, the calories needed would scale with the radius cubed, whereas the calories gained from sunlight would scale with the radius squared. So while I agree this wouldn't be very many calories, even if you sat under the sun all day, I think the 4% figure is probably quite pessimistic. | | |
| ▲ | gus_massa a day ago | parent | next [-] | | Mmm... Cows weight like 5 persons, 5^(1/3)=1.7, so 4%*1.7=7%, so 170 kcal that is still less than a single cheeseburger. | |
| ▲ | KnuthIsGod 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Marvelous... Finally a good reason to assume a spherical cow! | |
| ▲ | pfdietz 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | The square cube law pops up all over the place, my favorite being in fusion reactors, where it is a two edged sword. |
| |
| ▲ | 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | [deleted] |
|
