Can somebody help me out with some ideas?-- OK, got it!

[Caroluna]

...because my creativity is running low

It's common for homeschooling parents to invent some sort of end-of-year project to pull together everything the kid has learned over the past year. I'm trying to create a Science summary project. We've been chugging along through the book "The Way Life Works" (DNA, RNA, amino acids, ...), did a long unit on insulation (spin-off from construction project) and recently, a month of astronomy (thanks Denny )

Here's my idea so far-- Kevin is in charge of planning an expedition to a previously unknown solar system near the center of the Milky Way galaxy. It helps that a Wormhole has recently been discovered that takes you from an area close to our moon out to the new solar system. That should speed the trip up. For smaller distances, we now have "sails" able to capture the energy from neutrinos

The solar system Kevin is in charge of exploring has 6 planets, two of them with liquid water. That's all he knows so far. The rest of the information will come in as the probes arrive back from the Wormhole (i.e. when Mom stays up til 4 AM again doing more research )

Kevin will have to decide where he wants to go, how long to spend there, how many people he wants on his team, and what their specialties are. Then he has to figure out how big of a research station they have to set up...something like this...
http://www.geodesic-greenhouse-kits.com/features.php

There will be life forms there with something like DNA but with 3 strands instead of 2. There will be something like photosynthesis but not with green chlorophyll, some other color(s).

OK ....now what? can somebody help me out with some ideas?
I'll gladly give credit by naming it after the contributor. "Izzarina's Resonance Phenomenon" "Nanohedral Symbiosis"....? DisJunctive Metamorphosis? (And Denny should probably get a whole planet named after him)

Please... no nubile alien babes. Sex ed. is a separate topic

[djm]

DisJunctive Metamorphosis

I had to look that one up.

There will be something like photosynthesis but not with green chlorophyll, some other color(s)

The grass may not have always been green
4/11/2007 4:21:00 PM - Erinn Piller
A recent study suggests that ancient life on planet Earth may have once been purple.

According to Shil DasSarma, a microbial geneticist at the University of Maryland, ancient microbes may have used retinal to harness the Sun's energy instead of the assumed chlorophyll.

In turn, these organisms reflected purple rather than green.

Chlorophyll is the green pigment in plants that facilitates photosynthesis. It absorbs blue and red wavelengths from the sun and reflects green ones, which - in turn - gives the plant its distinctive colour.

Conversely, retinal absorbs green light and reflects red and violet ones which - combined - appear purple. Today, it can be found in the membrane of a photosynthetic microbe called halobacteria (part of the archaea family).

DasSarma argues that ancient microbes using retinal dominated the chlorophyll-dependent latecomers, thus giving the planet a purple hue. (Chlorophyll was forced to use retinal's leftover blue and red light.)

Slowly, over time, chlorophyll began to thrive in earth's low-oxygen environment and - according to DasSarma - it eventually overcame its purple competitor.

But some skeptics are wary to jump on the purple Earth bandwagon.

David Des Marais, a NASA geochemist, questions making large assumptions on ancient organisms based solely on wavelength absorption and reflection.

If the Purple Earth hypothesis is proven true, researchers say it could help in their search for life on other planets.

Man, you owe me big time.

As for the DNA/RNA stuff, I recommend you move to Tennessee or some place where Intellegent Design is practised (along with Ostrichism).

djm

[Innocent Bystander]

Sorry, Caroluna, I'm not sure what you are looking for.

If it helps, the third book of Phillip Pullman's series "His Dark Materials" called "The Amber Spyglass" has a planet where the creatures are not tubes with spines, like us, but rhombuses with a limb at each corner. And they move in quite different ways. If you borrow or even buy a copy of the book you'll see what I mean.

[fearfaoin]

If you borrow or even buy a copy of the book you'll see what I mean.

Or wait for the movie in a couple years (yay)

[Caroluna]

DisJunctive Metamorphosis

I had to look that one up.

It exists? I thought I just invented it

The grass may not have always been green
4/11/2007 4:21:00 PM - Erinn Piller
A recent study suggests that ancient life on planet Earth may have once been purple.

Perfect!! Thank you thank you!!!

[Caroluna]

Sorry, Caroluna, I'm not sure what you are looking for.

Basically some things to help Kevin use what he learned, in different ways. Ex. if DNA had 3 strands, how would it copy itself?

I also want to include some things just because they are fun to imagine. Ex. I learned that if you were on a planet near the center of the galaxy, there would be hundreds of thousands of stars visible to the naked eye instead of just thousands.

...a planet where the creatures are not tubes with spines, like us, but rhombuses with a limb at each corner. And they move in quite different ways.

OK-- different geometries-- I think I can work that in-- thanks!

Maybe if the "DNA" has 3 strands, then "mitosis" would result in 3 cells, and the growth patterns would be based on triangles???

[lalit]

Disclaimer: I don't know much about genetics, so there! But common sense suggests...

It's easy to imagine two strands of DNA working kind of like a zipper. But if you go to three, a few different geometric configurations would be possible, and could feature different types of symmetry. But all of them would require a more complex arrangement than the good old double helix, and would open themselves to a much greater possibility for error. A little bit of mutation (little errors in the code) can be a good thing now and then, but serious mutations (big errors in the code) can be disastrous for a being's or a species' survival. So you might want to think about that when considering the three strands thing.

Nature usually finds elegant (if not necessarily simple) solutions to all its creation needs.

If you were willing to add a chemistry component you could use the old sci-fi theme of silicon- vs carbon-based life forms. Then you could do something wild with the DNA issue.

Speaking of sci-fi, you might be able to get some good ideas from hard-sci-fi stories & novels.

[djm]

Nature usually finds elegant (if not necessarily simple) solutions to all its creation needs.

I'm not sure I can agree with you there. Nature tries just about every possible combination. What works survives through a process of elimination. The survivors may be pretty elaborate, but there is nothing elegant about the process. It is blunt trauma in motion.

djm

[Caroluna]

Speaking of sci-fi, you might be able to get some good ideas from hard-sci-fi stories & novels.

True, but "home-made" is more fun....

... a more complex arrangement than the good old double helix, and would open themselves to a much greater possibility for error. A little bit of mutation (little errors in the code) can be a good thing now and then, but serious mutations (big errors in the code) can be disastrous for a being's or a species' survival. So you might want to think about that when considering the three strands thing.

Um, ... good point.... "lalit's Mutation Hypothesis"
With our life forms here, the information goes from DNA to RNA to protein, but (my book says) NEVER in reverse. How about, these new life forms can go from "DNA" to "RNA" to "protein" and then cycle back to the "DNA", in such a way that there is some kind of error-correcting feedback loop? If some versions of the protein were defective (didn't do their job well), the "more sucsessful" versions would go back and edit the original "DNA". (Don't ask me how )

Would that mean that these critters could reverse-engineer other critter's "DNA" by eating them (breaking their proteins apart) ?!?!

Nature usually finds elegant (if not necessarily simple) solutions to all its creation needs.

Ah! They reverse-engineer other critter's "DNA" by eating them... elegantly if not simply...with fine silverware and linen tablecloth.

edited to correct speling

[missy]

on a somewhat related vein:

My microbiology final in college was describing the Kreb cycle in the bacteria "mismerium probsia" (the two teachers were Dr. Miesmer and Dr. Probst) and instead of ATP we were to use Baby Ruth Candy Bars.

I don't remember the answer 29 years later, but I still remember the question!!!!

If you like things in 3s - you need to read the Rama series by Arthur C. Clarke. The Ramans did everything in 3s.

[FJohnSharp]

That would explain 3 packs of raman noodles for a dollar.

[FJohnSharp]

...because my creativity is running low

OK ....now what? can somebody help me out with some ideas?
I'll gladly give credit by naming it after the contributor. "Izzarina's Resonance Phenomenon" "Nanohedral Symbiosis"....? DisJunctive Metamorphosis? (And Denny should probably get a whole planet named after him)

Please... no nubile alien babes. Sex ed. is a separate topic

You could have them communicate in binary

http://www.roubaixinteractive.com/PlayG ... o_Text.asp


You could have all the water be heavy water

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_water


What if one of more planets had negative gravity?


What if the aliens had to have gill-like breathing structures to breathe their air?

Kids would like this: what if they ate with their butts and excreted through their mouths?

[fearfaoin]

You could have them communicate in binary
http://www.roubaixinteractive.com/PlayG ... o_Text.asp

One of my favorite exercises from a programming book (which
was teaching math in bases besides base-10) was to imagine an
alien race with 3 fingers on each hand. How would they count?
What happens when they got past 6?

[Denny]

You could have them communicate in binary
http://www.roubaixinteractive.com/PlayG ... o_Text.asp

One of my favorite exercises from a programming book (which
was teaching math in bases besides base-10) was to imagine an
alien race with 3 fingers on each hand. How would they count?
What happens when they got past 6?

63...

[djm]

I don't remember the answer 29 years later, but I still remember the question

The answer is 42.

djm