Tag: fire
Needed for Fire: All the Right Fuel
There is another aspect of the Earth’s environment that is absolutely crucial in allowing the utilization of fire for metal-based technologies.
In Praise of Copper, a Gift from Nature
If the conductivity of copper were ten times less, wires would have to be ten times the cross-sectional area to provide the same conductivity.
For a Technological Civilization, We Must Have Metals
It is very doubtful that any beings in the universe could develop a civilization remotely comparable with our own without the use of metals.
For Fire, Our Planet Is Just the Right Size
Self-evidently, the gravity on the surface of a planet limits the maximum size of large terrestrial organisms.
Why Do We Not Spontaneously Combust?
James Lovelock has pointed out that atmospheric levels of oxygen much above about 25 percent, let alone 30 percent, would cause raging conflagrations today.