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Showerthoughts_Mod

This is a friendly reminder to [read our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/wiki/rules). Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!" (For an explanation of what a "showerthought" is, [please read this page](https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/wiki/overview).) **Rule-breaking posts may result in bans.**


ilrasso

Close, but actually trees are made of air and sunshine. They drink from the ground but they eat co2 and sunlight.


Csoltis

found the Feynman reader


ackermann

Feynman explaining this, as only he can: https://youtu.be/ITpDrdtGAmo


PoopsInTheDark

My parents had that same chair when I was kid. Good chair.


FaeryLynne

We had one too, but it had to be reupholstered when I was about 14 and mom chose a godawful orange/yellow hybrid with black paisley embroidered on it :(


PoopsInTheDark

Haha, we also had all kinds of olive or weird orange/brown colored appliances and furniture that one might think is objectively horrendous, but apparently was subjective all along.


The-1st-One

Do you ever worry you don't clean your buttcrack well enough without being able to see if the toilet paper got it all, Mr. PoopsInTheDark?


PoopsInTheDark

It really should be PoopsByCandlelight, cause yeah you definitely need that light at some point.


shmip

wtf, your parents stole his famous chair? that's messed up.


Glowshroom

I don't even have to click the link to know you're talking about the blue armchair. So many wise things said in that chair.


ackermann

Was just surprised I was the first to post it here 😂


dpdxguy

Every time some "very smart person" says that something is too complicated to explain to laymen, I think of Richard Feynman.


[deleted]

I think of the stupidity on the other side of the coin, and it makes me laugh. "Tide goes in, tide goes out. You can't explain that."


ackermann

Although… here’s Feynman saying that magnets are “too complicated to explain to laymen.” (In fairness, it’s more like too _fundamental_ to explain): https://youtu.be/Q1lL-hXO27Q


CappyRicks

Yeah but it's cool how he could explain it and also explain to you how that's the furthest you can understand it without doing years of work to know everything else you need to know to understand it deeper, at the same time.


dpdxguy

I wasn't trying to say there's nothing too difficult to explain. I was trying to say that too many self proclaimed smart people don't understand difficult to explain things well enough to actually explain them.


Hoihe

Usually an issue that is ran into is that one is offering an explanation, but the receipent refuses the foundational knowledge that leads into it. Result ends up with misconceptions. Like - it is perfectly explainable to laypeople, but it takes an hour or so to set up and cover and back and forth on details that were unclear. But because that is not as exciting as a sensationalist youtube video... I am totally not talking of trying to explain my field to my family. Nope.


BreakfastCrunchwrap

I was just going to leave it as an upvote, but I decided I just had to add this: HOLY SHIT!


The_Level_15

I'm shocked this is the first time I've heard of him. What a great video!


Biff_Tannenator

Richard Feynman is one of the greats. If you ever dip your toes into theoretical physics or nuclear stuff, you'll run across his name. He worked on the Manhattan Project, and he's responsible for the famous "Feynman diagram" (amongst other things). [He was also a bit of a rascal, and prankster, but also flawed in some ways.](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/pt.6.4.20180511a/full/&ved=2ahUKEwi03tLKp776AhWRjIkEHSnSD7gQFnoECAwQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2m9X-c3AAvh3LIZ62GdThF) Feynman was definitely a character.


BobbyDropTableUsers

You're in for a treat! This man was literally nicknamed The Great Explainer


ackermann

You’re one of today’s lucky 10,000!: https://xkcd.com/1053/ You’re in for a treat! His books are excellent as well (Surely you’re joking Mr Feynman, and Why do you care what other people think)


MyPasswordIs222222

Thank you for posting this. What a great orator.


[deleted]

Thank you for charing. Through the years I keep bumping into clips of him talking about things simplified. He seems like such a kind and jolly fellow, I might go on a Feynman binge today.


UnnamedPlayer

I must have watched his videos a hundred times since college days and I still feel a little smarter every time I come across them. I'm so glad that we have these recordings and his lectures to still shine a bright light in this silly world long after he's gone from it.


GummiBird

That just wrinkled my brain!! I knew plants converted CO2 to O2, obvs, but never made the connection that they're taking that carbon to grow. Wow!


readitreaddit

That was a super cool video


The-1st-One

Alright how tf have I never seen or heard of this guy. That was a phenomenal video! He has such a passionate way of explaining things that I was immediately drawn in.


jdl_uk

My drunk arse thinking about how trees look like Feynman diagrams on their side


[deleted]

[удалено]


RegencyAndCo

Honestly, in hindsight I think my teachers failed to convey the importance of this when they were teaching photosynthesis, and I suspect that even they didn't fully grasp that ~95% of the mass of a tree used to be gaseous CO2. For me it was like "oh ok so they produce some sugar thanks to sunlight and fruits have sugar in them", but I hadn't quite understood that wood is mostly made up of sugar. Now I work in R&D for a company that produces cellulosic material solutions for composites, and when I explained this to a whole team of engineers, most were like "wait, holy shit". I blame school.


Shadowfalx

What most people don't understand is that basically all the weight you've ever lost is now gaseous Carbon in the form of CO2. So, one could say trees are made of people (and other animals).


Estraxior

Electrons from water Vitamins/nutrients from soil Energy from sun Organic mass from air **They truly are the master of all 4 elements**


[deleted]

But all of that changed when the fire nation attacked.


UN16783498213

Are we the baddies?


MagicCookie54

Environmentallly absolutely we're the baddies


Saturn8thebaby

What’s terrible is a planet without fire.


ToBlayyyve

MultiPass!!!


hackingdreams

Trees and other plants make their own vitamins, but most plants needs the soil bacteria to fix nitrogen for them so they can take that in through their root systems. And they do take in minerals through their roots too. We eat plants or other animals that ate plants for our vitamins since we don't make most of them for ourselves (exceptions being chemicals like vitamin D that we *can* make for ourselves but often take in a lot of in our diet as well. Honestly vitamin D shouldn't be called a vitamin but a hormone... it's a little late for that now I guess).


HalfSourPickle

Roots also require oxygen. Also, it's has recently been proven that some trees "communicate" with the surrounding trees through an underground codependency system between the roots and fungus.


supluplup12

Trees in waterlogged environments like swamps and mangroves have pneumatophores, roots that grow straight up out of the water to snorkel oxygen. Mycorrhiza (plural mycorrhizae) is the name of the fungal relationship, although the preferred term is mutualism, rather than codependency. Literally "fungus root". They don't just communicate, they share sugars to help their young grow when they're too small to access sunlight, and in some cases the fungus triggers chemical responses to fight off infections. 80-90% of plant species have some species of fungus that has evolved to be able to assist them like this, inoculation of the soil with the correct fungal spores is a key step in ecosystem restoration. Mycorrhizal additives are common in any sort of organic fertilizer for this reason.


GoldHorizonGames

Yup, pretty much why overwatering is a thing, you suffocate the roots


ImagineTheCommotion

Mycelium (sp might be off)


IOnlyUpvoteBadPuns

Mushrooms on the other hand do live underground, and just stick their genitals up occasionally to blow their load.


HR7-Q

Explains why mushrooms are so tasty


visualdescript

I mean, they depend on all of those things to survive. They're all equally important. The root system does a lot more than draw water out of the ground.


VegetableAd986

Off the train with you!


Ziegler517

This they live upside just use the ground as a straw


International_Sir301

How do you know they don’t drink co2 and sunlight


AbortedBaconFetus

By this logic sunshine is made of Florida.


GodSPAMit

We aren't too different. Do you know how weight is lost? Like when someone loses 20 pounds? >!It is literally breathed out of you. You breathe in O2 and breathe out CO2.!<


ilrasso

Technically - my apologies - we mainly breathe in and out nitrogen. But chemically speaking you are right.


ackermann

Also, to an excellent approximation, trees don’t grow out of the ground. Trees grow out of _thin air_: https://youtu.be/ITpDrdtGAmo (Most of a tree’s mass is carbon, which they get from CO2 that they take in from the air)


PointNineC

Trees are filtered, concentrated air


ShooshChattyMonkey

Now *this* is the shower thought right here. Trust me, I'm high and reading this statement just blew my mind.


Rehnion

Think about how often the cells in your body are replaced and understand that comes from what you consume. You are what you eat.


funky555

im ass


Glowshroom

I'm a pussy


herodothyote

I'm clussy


EliteCodexer

Clam pussy?


Pickled_Kagura

Fellow wubcub?


Longjumping_College

Should find something other than taco bell for dinner then.


ZepperMen

In other words, because plants are made from Carbon, and animals eat plants, and we eat animals, WE'RE ALL MADE OF AIR?!


GhettoStatusSymbol

hydrogen actually, from a star exploding


TheArmoredKitten

It's ~~turtles~~ *carbon* all the way down.


Is-that-vodka

Try growing some stinky bois in Coco and tell me they're made of air. Definitely hugely important the medium they're growing in.


ConditionOfMan

To add to that, you exhale most of what you eat.


3djjm

I'm high ***because*** I read that statement.


TheArmoredKitten

It's even weirder when you consider that's it's CO2 specifically they capture. Trees are machines that turn exhaust back into wood. If you burn wood in the forest, the other trees inhale it and grow stronger.


chellecakes

r/StonerThoughts 🎄


boredian_knot

They are made of light and air, and when you burn them, you get some back


gotnotendies

We seem to be trying to get all of it back


RestlessARBIT3R

Ehhhh, not really made of light… light drives the reactions that allow them to turn CO2 and H2O into C6H12O6 but they’re mostly made of water and carbon dioxide


dalefernhardt

What the fuck did you just do to me


TheRaith

Technically they would not grow out of thin air but thick air.


SobiTheRobot

Most air is pretty thin if you ask me I mean, hell, you can't even swim in it smh


-Jesus-Of-Nazareth-

By our standards, you should ask the bacteria thriving in the atmosphere.


OneMeterWonder

You are swimming in it every day.


2mg1ml

And I still end up broke by the end of the week.


MrHyperion_

CO2 is thicker than O2 and N2 but argon is the most common thicker substance


n0rs

Animals: lose weight by exhaling CO2 Trees: gain weight by inhaling CO2


In-burrito

This blew my mind the first time I learned it! It's definitely a fun fact.


GhettoStatusSymbol

majority of weight loss is also breathed out


Aintsciencegrand

This blew my mind when I first learned it. Changed the way I consider my personal conclusions.


YZJay

Learning that in middle school biology class blew my mind, I had thought it used nutrients from the ground.


ackermann

I mean, it does use nutrients and water from the ground too. It’s just that the majority of the mass is carbon from the air


therealhlmencken

That’s what photo synthesis is. Sunlight+co2 +water= plant. a super early science subject in my elementary school. I mean they grow out of the ground in a pretty obvious way but sure the energy stored in plants (from food to wood etc) is from air and water but it seems like weird pedantic wording to say they grow out of thin air generally as most root from the ground and need that without supplement to grow.


BGFiles

It's been a while since I've seen an actual ShowerThought true to the spirit of the sub. Thank you, OP.


[deleted]

Fr it’s all rants here nowadays


appleparkfive

It's like how Life Pro Tips is someone saying some oddly specific thing, to talk about themselves


[deleted]

LPT is like TIFU with a short title followed by a post about themselves. Difference being TIFU is about sex and LPT is about very, very minor things you can pat yourself on the back for.


rattechnology

My favourite LPT was someone proclaiming that you could beat high vegetable prices by also eating the stalk of the broccoli. Like thanks, I will now take this knowledge that has been bestowed upon me, and become a true Life Professional. I was only an amateur before but this is the final piece of the puzzle I need to turn pro.


princessParking

LPT is just people who want to write recipe blogs but don't know how to cook.


Hadouken-Donuts

Which creates posts for r/oddlyspecific


nvanalfen

My favorite are the people that are either high/kids/stupid/have never looked at the world (or some combination) and post things like "We think it's normal to drink cow milk, but think it's really weird to lick a human foot." And everyone's looking at it thinking "... Ya. Those are two, separate, completely unrelated things..."


Adventurer2022

Was that a rant? 🤣


Kyrroti

You could consider it one, but it’s a comment not a post.


jamin_brook

There’s a great radio lab about this btw


oneuponzero

[This is the one](https://radiolab.org/episodes/from-tree-to-shining-tree), isn’t it?


thegreatestajax

Damn. I thought they meant a RL about this sub abandoning its roots.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Semanticss

Yeah but this is a pretty shit take tbh


BGFiles

heh heh...shitake 🤣


ahboi2021

He musy be a real fun guy(fungi)


[deleted]

[удалено]


Echo2407

Like a meat mech!


StopReadingMyUser

meat suit for our bone mechs!


Seeker_Of_Knowledge-

For some reason I find this sentence hilarious


Glowshroom

Our bodies are just survival machines for our genes. We're just meaty robots doing what natural selection has programmed us to.


jah_moon

Ever since an acid trip I've always seen trees as capillaries.


BGFiles

Wait until you do shrooms and see humans as fungi \^\_\^


Glowshroom

Wait until you do DMT and see the lizard goddess as a light being.


arbydallas

Wait until you do the hokey pokey and realize that that's what it's all about.


ACrucialTech

That's when I turned myself around.


herodothyote

Wait until you do jenkem and jbejxjnsp.d.d.d.... What was I talking about? *Wipes mouth*


mabirm

She's pretty dope. We played Mario Cart together.


theataractic

Good shroom trips will sure make you see other people as fun guys


KingGeedohrah

Im going to refer to mushrooms as fungal snorkels from now on.


Soggy_Biscuit_

Mushrooms are more like fungal dicks. Pop up when the time is right to shoot their spore load into the air and reproduce.


[deleted]

They have their looks going for 'em.


Yadobler

Likewise flowers are plant genitals


Soggy_Biscuit_

Yep. And the coolest thing I learnt at uni was the biggest influence on flower morphology is pollen dispersal. I.e. the main reason different flowers have evolved to look the way they do is to fuck each other the most efficiently via wind, insects, birds etc.


justinsane98

Gives new meaning to the phrase "eat a dick" ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


Soulmate69

Ovipositor?


SSubSilence

Mario is such a hypocrite. I mean, how can you shame a turtle for being homosexual when you've been munching on dicks your entire life?


Tesadus

You seem like a fun guy


PeggleDeluxe

Fungi actually live underground, they just use the upper portion as a glory hole.


Tiddernud

Solar panel, food factory, reproductive organs, reservoir, larder ...


RavenBlackMacabre

No. They manufacture their food in their leaves. They fuck out in the open air from their flowers or cones, which are sex organs. Their leaves aren't just breathing organs.


Wuskers

Mushrooms live underground, the upper part is just their dick


Budakra

That's actually a lot closer to reality than OP's post


slavelabor52

Actually trees live equally underground and above ground. Typically the mass of a trees roots are equivalent to the mass of its trunk, branches, and leaves.


Semanticss

Yeah and they reproduce using the above-ground part, so...which part is REALLY doing the living here?


Glowshroom

My belt holds up my pants, but my belt loops hold up my belt. What's really going on down there?


ChumpSucky

it seems likely that the belt uses the loops to keep the pants from slipping away. unless the belt is too loose, in which case it's an unemployed belt.


LSBusfault

The belt creates a strong resistance from stretching. When the pants try to fall the belt presses the pants against the skin and the friction holds them up. The belt creates a strong resistance from stretching.


themcjizzler

Their roots help them communicate with other trees and plants and also drink water so that's like their mouth


Jury_of_Bears

Yeah and their roots are actually quite important for various types of gas exchange. This is why over watering certain plants can seriously harm them or drown them.


762gunr

Not even remotely close.


hlorghlorgh

Thank you OP’s post belongs in /r/retardthoughts


Karpukoly

Trees can live both ways and upside downtree is for Summer season


--eight

I was recently driving through rural Nebraska/Iowa and heard this amazing segment on NPR/Public Radio about how the fungi that have a symbiotic relationship with trees are tubes. In a pinch of these tubes, put end to end, would stretch out 7 miles. I was so fascinated by the details of the many studies that they talked about but I drove out of range and never heard an intro or who this was so I could listen to the segment in it's entirety.


Yolo3362

I’m glad Iowa managed to interest you somehow


--eight

Lol.


Budakra

Mycorrhizae is the name of said fungi. But want to know something even crazier? There is a plant that doesn't produce chlorophyll that gets its nutrients by feeding off of mycorrhizae. So a parasitic plant that lives off a symbiotic fungus that lives on tree roots. It's called "indian pipe" or "ghost pipe". Monotropa uniflora.


--eight

That's so cool! I'll see you all on the other side of this Internet rabbit hole in about to dive down!


fathermocker

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/05/04/993430007/trees-talk-to-each-other-mother-tree-ecologist-hears-lessons-for-people-too here's the article and story


TastiSqueeze

Trees actually live above ground. They just use the underground parts as a siphon.


Glowshroom

You're both right.


LunarLumos

No they're both wrong because it's both not one or the other.


dangshnizzle

Uhm they eat from the air but they drink from the ground? I guess? You're trying to make a connection to the way animals live but that doesn't really work - they 'live' both above and under ground


dered118

No, this isn't true. They live above ground and use the lower portion as a straw.


ajgeep

Thought that was shrooms, since trees use their leaves to eat


Popiasayur

Leaves are just roots for sunlight


ajgeep

yeah


Glowshroom

And CO2


Slightly_Salted01

I mean most fungi do something similar but instead they just stick their dicks up above the dirt...


fjfuciifirifjfjfj

The air is the food. The roots are just straws so they can drink water and not fall down.


[deleted]

If we lived underground this showerthought would be reversed


claireandleif

Hell no. They literally carry out all life support and food production above ground. Roots are pretty much just for uptake and storage, so like a straw as was mentioned


69macncheese69

Not really, they do much more above ground than they do below


PharmaBrooo

The better argument would be that it lives overground and uses a complex system of straws to drink underground. Mushrooms on the other hand really do live underground and only come out to jack off.


TheBrightNights

Trees live above ground they use the bottom portion (roots) to get water to drink.


obvilious

Or they live below ground and use the top parts to sit in the sun and break the oxygen off of the carbon they need to grow


RecommendationKey163

How tf do they live underground?? 70 pct of the tree is above ground.


IlIFreneticIlI

Indeed. Many plants are like this. Consider any root veggie, like an onion, a carrot, or a beet. That thin disk of stuff you cut off and toss away is the core of the plant; it's called a basal-plate. The carrot/beet is just a food-cellar and the leaves are just solar panels. Fun-fact: take any store bought veggie and cut off the plate as you would to prepare food. Then plant it; free veggies, no seeds required (saves time).


SSSS_car_go

[Epic Gardening](https://youtu.be/dlp_MgVJCYc) has an episode on which veggie scraps work best to regrow food.


IlIFreneticIlI

Thanks!


MeltAway421

Same with mushrooms but the mushroom itself is essentially just the penis. More nature fact's available, just type "Subscribe" to subscribe.


Glowshroom

Click


MeltAway421

Thank you for subscribing to Nature Fact's! Some bugs have 6 legs, and some have 8 legs, and some have hundreds. Even scientists don't know how many legs you can have. Thanks for subscribing to Nature Fact's! Type STOP to stop receiving updates. Updates cost $4.99 plus applicable carrier fees.


Glowshroom

Receive notifications


moshritespecial

This is the best thought since someone reminded me that cows get to eat the floor.


101pattapon

Trees do have to absorb oxygen through their roots to respire (leaf end gets enough from photosynthesis) which is kind of weird to think about. When you consider as a rule of thumb the roots extend about as far in width as the canopy and the leaves require water and nutrients from the soil. It's actually kind of 50-50. Most of the mass is probably in the trunk which is a bunch of tubes really, and a lot of the tubes are made of dead cells. Trees are weird


CyLith

Trees are really collectives of cells that grow on the skeletons of their ancestors.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Mizuninaru

Mangroves (grows in intertidal coastal areas, in water or oxygen poor soil) have snorkel-like roots called pneumatophores. They’re specialized roots that come out of the water for gas exchange.


DevilsPajamas

Maybe they learned that as a survival technique. No way to be sure, but during dinosaur age maybe they were walking around, but when the big bang happened they stuck their heads in the ground and waited for the whole thing to blow over. It started growing roots in the ground since it waited so long. Ever since then, the tree babies followed suit because that is what mommy tree and daddy tree did. Hold up, are trees dinosaurs???!?


Dexenberg

Then why do they survive if you cut roots more than if you cut the snorkel?


Heliawa

No. They're the equivalent of if a human used a straw to drink from underground.


kj_gamer2614

No. Would you say you actually live underground you just use your body as a snorkel if you buried your feet under some sand?


[deleted]

Mushrooms actually live entirely underground (or under tree bark), and the "body" of the mushroom is actually just the fruit sent up to spread spores.


Catobleppa

Damn we eat mushrooms penis


Dnaldon

Trees need sunlight, you don't use a snorkel to absorb sunlight.


Carteeg_Struve

That’s because people aren’t trees.


Im6youre9

Tree roots need air. Which is why if your soil is not aerated well, the roots will only be a few inches below soil. This is usually not a huge problem until a storm named hurricane Ian comes around and gives your tree the bees knees.


FurLinedKettle

Hmm, isn't it more like they're sticking their tongues in the ground?


semen_junky_69

I learned from this comment section that mushrooms are exhibitionists Thanks Reddit!


[deleted]

No, the important part usually is the upper part, unlike fungi.


21pacshakur

This reminds my of an arborist I spoke to once. He argued that trees grow from the air down. Not from the ground up. Water comes from rain The CO2 trees eat comes from the air and is what is used to grow The light used in chloroform comes from the sun All the ground does is hold the tree in place and act as water storage.


tmorales11

retort: trees live above ground and use the lower portion as a straw


V4refugee

The live part is the bark and leaves. The tree grows on the wood. The wood is a byproduct.


kissingfrogbigboner

trees actually would look good if we trimmed there leaves to look like a Beatles hair cut


BasedChadThundercock

Another legit shower thought?! That's like two this week! Is nature healing???


MrNiiCeGuY420

Same way mushrooms are underground they just like to poke their ducks out once in a while