The Biosphere Blog

Life Needs an Electron Flow Just as electricity is the flow of electrons, so too is life the flow of electrons. Chemistry is the study of the reactions between atoms and molecules, which are all driven by electron flow. Biochemistry is the study of the… more »

Life Needs an Energy Flow All living things need energy to constantly fuel the biochemical pathways that enable them to grow, reproduce and move. The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can only be… more »

Until 1859, it had always been accepted that life on Earth had always been around, unchanged and unchanging. Until the publication of a single book that year turned everything on its head, and changed the theological and scientific worlds forever:… more »

The Spheres of Earth Planet Earth is a complex system, made up of sub-systems called ’spheres’, as they too are round like Earth. It is possible to divide the Earth into at least 17 spheres (and possibly more), beginning with its core and… more »

Back in 1648, Johannes Baptista van Helmont took a young willow sapling weighing 5 pounds (2.3 kg*), and planted it into 200 pounds (90.7 kg) of soil. Five years later he uprooted the tree and determined its weight to be 169 pounds and 3 ounces… more »

What started out as a little blog about jujube trees has grown and evolved somewhat, and far past its original scope of ‘just’ the tree! While most posts have not been specifically about the jujube tree, they’ve still been relevant and… more »