What Is the Most Amazing Natural Phenomenon on Earth?

[d00dz]

Hello, this is my first post that the Physics Forums so i guess i should say something about myself; I'm 19, male, live in Toronto but currently in Ottawa for University, studying Mechanical Engineering, 2nd year. I am interested in just about anything (Science wise), and I've got a Private Pilot Licence. Anyways i thought of starting out by asking:

What is the most amazing thing that nature has come up with on earth, from your point of view.

I thought of asking this question so that i can see what kind of people surf this forum and what people are interested in most...

One of the most amazing things i find is E-Coil and how they propel through fluid using a primitve propeller driven by a current of protons with an efficiency approching 100%, everything being hundreds of times smaller then current technology can produce.

 

[rick1138]

Women definitely. There is nothing that fascinates me more than women. I think my interest in differential geometry, the geometry of curved surfaces, is fascination with women in disguise.

 

[Monique]

Originally posted by d00dz
One of the most amazing things i find is E-Coil and how they propel through fluid using a primitve propeller driven by a current of protons with an efficiency approching 100%, everything being hundreds of times smaller then current technology can produce.

You mean E. coli :) for those who don't know, he is referring to a mechanism microorganisms use to move around, basically a long tail that spins around.

I think your choice is excellent :) yes, it is a molecular turbine and the microorganism is able to stear towards nutrients with it and away from toxins. Researchers have completely figured out every single cog in this system, which is amazing :)


What I find the most amazing thing.. I have to say the fact that we can read the book of life: the sequencing of the human genome and all the other genomes that have followed. It has been a great tool and will help advance medical research, together with all the integrated databases.

The other amazing thing I am still waiting for is a proteome map of the human genome: researchers are busy with mapping out every single interaction between proteins in cells. With all that information it should enhance our ability to figure out biochemical pathways and gain great insight in the design and workings of the cell :)

very basic research achievements thus.

 

[Kerrie]

conception...how do those tiny little sperms find the egg hidden in a tube? honestly, i find conception amazing...

 

[Monique]

There is a chemical gradient that the sperm cells recognize and they follow the direction in which the signal gets stronger :) so they have the road map :D

 

[hypnagogue]

Consciousness.

 

[FZ+]

What is the most amazing thing that nature has come up with on earth, from your point of view.

The fact that the universe actually follows logical laws is pretty amazing to me.

 

[Monique]

Originally posted by FZ+
The fact that the universe actually follows logical laws is pretty amazing to me.

really? That is the last thing that amazes me.. what amazes me is that life made its own logical laws to live in such a universe.

 

[d00dz]

Originally posted by FZ+
The fact that the universe actually follows logical laws is pretty amazing to me.

I've never even tought of that...or never put much sense into it.

 

[Nereid]

Oxygen. More specifically, organisms which evolved ~2 (3?) billion years ago to produce it, and then others evolved to thrive in it ... so marginalising the original inhibants.

 

[Mentat]

Originally posted by hypnagogue
Consciousness.

I'm with hypnagogue on this one. In fact, my answer is a bit more broad, since I'd say that the neocortex altogether is the most amazing thing that nature has produced.

 

[einsteinian77]

the universe itself, or nature itself