The Origin of Everyday

Sunday

Though early zoologists leaned plant-y, we now know that sponges are animals, albeit without muscles, organs, or specialized tissues, and may have indeed been the first multicellular animals ever.

Monday

Most sponges are filter feeders and create the water currents that bring in the plankton, bacteria, viruses, and detritus which sustain them. Not all sponges, however, are so passive. Some species insert tentacles into living hosts to feed off of them, and others bore holes into their hosts to eat. Sponges living where there is very little biological matter to eat go very retro, digesting the 1000+ year-old fossilized remains of invertebrates from the ocean floor.

Tuesday

As sponges eat, so too are they eaten. “Spongivore” animals specialize in eating…sponges. Most are sea slugs, but several fish, nudibranchs, and the Hawksbill turtle also join the feast.

Wednesday

Sponges can completely regenerate themselves, not just to repair damage, but from single cells taken from the original sponge. No other plant or animal can regenerate to this extent.

Wednesday

Humans have been using real sponges to bathe and clean for the last 3,000 years, but artificial sponges arrived in about in the 1940s. They are far more common in households today than the real thing, and are typically made of cellulose and polymers.

Friday

When it comes to reproduction, sponges can have it both ways (sexual and asexual reproduction, that is). Some sponges reproduce alone simply by shedding parts of themselves, as described above, budding, or releasing gemules into the water to grow later. Some species are hermaphroditic, producing sperm and eggs, but these are produced at different times so as to avoid self-fertilization. Notably, this sperm can sometimes be release in dense “clouds” in the water, not unlike mushrooms releasing their spores in visible puffs (see Friday, week of 1/21/2024).

Saturday

That sponge in your shower does not hint at how big they can grow in the ocean depths. At 7 x 12 feet, a sponge “the size of a minivan” has been discovered in Hawai’i, and the aptly-named barrel sponge reaches sizes of at least 6 feet across.

Sunday

Habeas Corpus = “That you have the body”, is a writ to determine if the detention of an individual is valid.

Monday

Amicus Curiae = “Friend of the court”, usually a person or entity who is not a party to a lawsuit, but is permitted to offer information or advice to the court, including writing “amicus briefs” advocating a particular position in a pending matter.

Tuesday

Res Judicata = “The matter has been adjudicated”, is a legal principle against the relitigation of substantially similar issues and parties once the issue has been already decided.

Wednesday

Ex Parte = “From one side/party”, usually referring to motions or requests coming from one party without notice or input from the other, often in the form of direct contact with a judge.

Thursday

In Camera = “In chambers/private”, as opposed to in public or open court.

Friday

Nunc Pro Tunc = “Now for then” usually indicates correcting an innocent oversight or omission by retroactively applying the effective date of an order or filing.

Saturday

Ex Post Facto = “From a thing done afterward” typically refers to an act not criminal when done, but made criminal retroactively by law. Passing such laws is forbidden in the US Constitution.

Sunday

Leaves turn sunlight into sugars and starches to feed the plant with the help of the chlorophyll molecule, which reflects green light and thus appears green. This is the main reason so much of the natural world appears green, though a few other colorful molecules can also perform the same sunlight conversion work.

Monday

Conveniently for we oxygen-breathers, oxygen is a waste product of photosynthesis, just as the carbon dioxide we exhale is used in leaves as part of photosynthesis…a perfect cycle.

Tuesday

Needles are a highly modified form of leaf which evolved during the Mesozoic Era to reduce water loss. Since this needle-leaf split, trees have either had needles or conventional leaves, but never both (or neither) on a single tree.

Wednesday

Like the number of sand grains on a beach, the number of leaves that fall every year seems too vast to estimate, but it nonetheless has been done. In the US, about 203.58 billion trees drop about 40 quadrillion leaves onto forest trees every year. By this math, the worlds estimated 3 trillion trees drop about 1,200,000,000,000,000,000 leaves annually.

Thursday

Leaves can get really big, but some distinctions are needed for the title. The biggest non-split and non-floating leaf is the giant taro, with leaves up to 6 feet wide. The largest split non-floating leaf is the Raphia regalis palm, with leaves (comprised of leaflets) up to 82 feet long and 10 feet wide. Meanwhile, the massive Victoria boliviana water lily, with leaves nearly 10 feet across, can support the weight of a human adult on the water’s surface.

Friday

For all the green color it produces, chlorophyll is a short-lived molecule that needs constant replacement. So when the days shorten in the autumn and chlorophyll production slows, leaves can show off their other bright colors produced by pigments like anthocyanin and carotenoids.

Saturday

Whether you plan to or not, you likely eat a lot of leaves. Among the many common edible leaves in the human diet are spinach, lettuce, cabbage, kale, bok choi, chard, basil, arugula, oregano, watercress, spearmint, parsley, mustard greens, rosemary, endive, and many others.