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 .'''p001 ch01 Doctor Dunnet's Fulmar'''
''I. LONGEVITY IN THE AIR''
 .'''p019 ch02 The Origin of Flight'''
 .'''p031 ch03 Pterosaurs: The First Flying Vertibrates'''
 .'''p041 ch04 Birds: The Longest-Lived Dinosaurs'''
 .'''p059 ch05 Bats: The Longest-Lived Mammals'''
''II. LONGEVITY ON THE EARTH''
 .'''p081 ch06 Tortoises and Tuataras: Longevity on Islands'''

Steven Austad Books


Methuselah's Zoo

what nature can teach us about living longer, healthier lives

  • 2022 Beaverton Lib 571.879 AUS
  • p001 ch01 Doctor Dunnet's Fulmar

I. LONGEVITY IN THE AIR

  • p019 ch02 The Origin of Flight

  • p031 ch03 Pterosaurs: The First Flying Vertibrates

  • p041 ch04 Birds: The Longest-Lived Dinosaurs

  • p059 ch05 Bats: The Longest-Lived Mammals

II. LONGEVITY ON THE EARTH

  • p081 ch06 Tortoises and Tuataras: Longevity on Islands

  • p111 "Biology is complicated. If it were simple, it would be physics"


  • How many atoms in human body?

    • Total Earth biomass 550 GT carbon 5.5 x 1e2 x 1e9 x 1e6 (tonnes per gram) = 5.5e17 grams
    • carbon is 12 amu and 12% of the atoms in human body
    • Avogadro's number 6e23, hence one gram of human carbon is 5e22 atoms
    • Associated with (100/12)*5e22 ≈ 4e21 total atoms per gram of human carbon
    • Fermi estimate: Total Earth biomass 5.5e17 * 4e21 atoms = 2e39 biomass atoms if humans representative

    • There are 1e22 to 1e24 stars in the universe
    • Thousands of asteroids and trillions of comets and icy bodies orbit the Sun
    • Perhaps 3e12 comets per star times 1e24 stars is 6e36 icy bodies in the universe, not counting unbound bodies
    • that's a LOT of physics
    • Both biology and physics are complicated ... or simple, if one is a simpleton



To Err Is Human, To Admit It Is Not and Other Essays

  • 2022


Real People Don't Own Monkeys

  • 2022


Why We Age: What Science Is Discovering about the Body's Journey Through Life

  • 1999 Why We Age: What Science Is Discovering about the Body's Journey Through Life


StevenAustad (last edited 2026-02-10 08:44:42 by KeithLofstrom)