Re: Cannibalism (and yes it was on topic)

G'day guys,

Rob wrote:
 >We're talking cannibalism and you have a "gut feeling?" Anyone else
getting
 >a little worried about Beth's significant other? ;-)

Too much of a lady to comment on that one.... ;P

Karl wrote:
 >Guess the 'more unlikely than FTL' depends on whether you are a
 >biologists or a physicist by training. I got my PhD in physics ;)

I'm endeavouring to get a PhD in ecomathematics so that probably just
makes 
me weird (enough with the "we could've told you that" comments!) ;)

lastly Brian wrote:
 >I could see a new pod to accomplish this...

Not a bad idea, though I wouldn't necessarily restrict it to other 
'bioships', if they live in space I seriously doubt they have to eat
other 
living matter as food, much more likely to 'filter' feed hydrogen atoms,

skim planetary atmospheres or even the outer edges of stars or engulf 
asteroids... so a starship shouldn't be too far off what they could 
tolerably ingest. Given the amount of energy they'd have to produce to 
support themselves I'd go for something like...
"While know to consume solid matter, asteroids and the odd unlucky 
starship, as a means of boosting or supplementing their uptake in the
short 
term, the Sa'Vasku are thought to be primarily radiosynthetic.
Apparently 
they absorb free gases or actively skim planetary and stellar
atmospheres 
absorbing the gaseous forms of the nutrients required as apart of their 
radiosynthetic metabolism. It is theorised that they use wavelengths
from 
all parts of the electro-magnetic spectrum to create a usable energy
source 
in much the same way terrestrial plants use the visible wavelengths for 
photosynthesis. There is some suggestion that they're actually 
graviosynthetic (that is they use gravity, not radiation during
synthesis), 
but there is little support for this view currently."

Just a thought

Beth

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Elizabeth Fulton
c/o CSIRO Division of Marine Research
GPO Box 1538
HOBART
TASMANIA 7001
AUSTRALIA
Phone (03) 6232 5018 International +61 3 6232 5018
Fax 03 6232 5053 International +61 3 6232 5053

email: beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au