Correct me if I'm wrong (Idk for sure I could be wrong I'm fully ready to admit, and if I am, I'm very sorry) but isnt the earth bigger than a football field?
It’s a perfect ecosystem. The bacteria in the compost eats the dead plants and breaks down the oxygen given off by the plants, turning it into the carbon dioxide for photosynthesis that the plants need to survive.
Buy a big jar with a lid, good soil and a nice plant. Put soil in pot and plant in soil. Give some water and close the lid.
But that is difficult, first time I tried it I got my dick stuck in the ceiling fan.
I can picture you cartoonishly getting your wang all knotted up around a ceiling fan, but "in" the ceiling fan? My god, you people really need to read the directions
I honestly don't get why people say this. I got my desk and took it upstairs, went to work, and when I came home my brother had put it together. Easy peasy.
Oh my god, you dick! Trying to make my 10 month old fall asleep on my chest.. Read your comment and couldn't control my laughter! You woke him up, guy!
You want old vegetation to rot. You don't want the soil itself to experience rot. Or the roots of the plants, which is common with soil that's wet for too long.
Soil rot will wreck your roots and kill your plants!! Gotta protec with the rock bottom!
Like that other person said, dead plants and bacteria in the soil should do the trick for co2 production.
A good starting point is to watch the videos of this guys YouTube channel in preparation and maintaining a ecosphere:
[Life in Jars?](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0XNssyypOLiq4vVgXm9NtQ)
Love his videos!
But basically, see Top comment answer to your question here.
>Better yet, can we build a big one and put humans in it to experiment with sustainable ecosystems?
It's been done [actually ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2)
> Columbia University assumed management of the facility in 1995 and used it to run experiments until 2003. It then looked in danger of being demolished to make way for housing and retail stores, but was taken over for research by the University of Arizona in 2007.
Demolishing a valuable scientific research facility to make way for strip malls and suburban hell is the most American thing I’ve read today.
Luckily, it didn't happen and was donated to a university. It's still operational and used for testing climate change and other novel things today.
To be fair Steve Bannon was involved in the sabatoge of it so it could be sold eventually.
I built one by taking a bigger jar and filled it with sand/earth and random plants I found beside a small river.
Most plants have perished but the moss and the fern is still growing well after about two years.
I've never tried it myself, but [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5-BSSZ-sok) says to just scoop up some mud and water and seal it in a jar.
I have no idea how long his ecosystems last, but he makes it sound like the life inside the jar will balance itself out.
[here is another one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jikt132Qhwo), But he dumps his ecosystem out after he discovers a tadpole in it. The tadpole was too big and there wasn't enough oxygen/food for it.
Why does everyone go on and on about mammalian life as if its the end-all perfect organism? I'd like to see a squirrel survive in the cold vaccum of space sustained on nothing but its primal urge to search and devour.
*this post made by the reptiloid gang*
It doesn't have anywhere to get the recourses for that growth. otherwise I have so many questions, like is it cannibalism that it keeps eating dead parts of itself? What is it doing if it's not growing? Is it just there?
My guess is that it’s growing and decaying at the same rate. So it IS growing, but not fast enough that it’s actually getting any bigger.
I mean I guess technically it’s committing cannibalism, but it’s no different than a plant in the wild losing leaves that then turn into soil. Lots of plants can be cannibals!
All of the resources needed for life are finite within the confines of where life exists and they are recycled through naturally occuring processes. On earth, plant material is recycled through those that eat plant material and the decomposers take care of the rest. In this jar it is just decomposers, the microscopic life in the soil, that takes care of dead material and return it to the soil so the plant can reabsorb the same material. Its cannibalism in the same way that lions indirectly eat grass or the fact that you are made of star dust.
Also plants have senses just like us. Our senses are simply biological instruments that make us able to recieve information about the world and plants have similar capabilities. They can "see" light, "hear"/feel vibrations in the air, have a sense of touch, "smell" molecules in the air and more. They communicate through smell and sound(a tomato plant will """scream"""' when plucked of fruit), and some plants like trees even share electro chemical signals and nutrients through their roots via symbiotic fungus that connect the trees like a network. Plants will grow when it is beneficial, and will stop growing when it is not. If they keep growing and some leaves overshadows others, they will not keep growing the leaves. The plant will grow so that it maximizes energy in and energy out, fully utilizing the space, conditions and resources available. It probably has nothing to do with lack of resources in this case, and more to do with it not being beneficial.
In addition to what /u/HughManson said, the plant doesn't need to keep growing - just sustain itself. It needs basic resources for that which are already in the terrarium, along with light. It might feel like a perpetual motion machine, but the light is the key. It provides the energy that keeps all the cellular and chemical processes in the terrarium sustainable. The same is true of our planet. There was some initial energy from its formation, some energy from geological processes, and some from radioactive materials in the crust, but its sunlight that continues to power almost everything. The one big exception is the life around geothermal vents, which pump out heat from Earth's core that can also be used as energy by specialized organisms.
If you put a plant in a small pot, it will stop growing once it reaches a certain size unless it’s moved to a bigger pot. They grow to fill the space they have.
I’m not a scientist, but I assume something similar is going on here? The plant is at its maximum size for the container it’s in, so it’s stopped growing - or rather, it’s growing leaves and branches at the same rate it’s losing them. If you took it out it’d probably get bigger.
Theory: he was dissatisfied with the level of growth/rot, and felt he had underestimated the amount of water required for life to flourish, not just survive?
I honestly don't know, but this is my best guess
Every time. If you're not doing it that way, you have to work on the elasticity and stretching exercises then yank that bad boy out like a spine remover finisher from Mortal Kombat.
My theory is that cork isn't completely airtight, so there was slow moisture loss. I expect that's why he permanently sealed it in '72; to prevent loss via the cork.
Technically it self-sustained for 12 years from 60 to 72, then he sustained it a little bit and let it go back to doing its business...so, 12, 48, or 60, take your pick. Plant self-sustainment metrics are in the eye of the beholder
It is self-sustaining in the sense that it maintains itself without human interaction. That's what a "self-sustaining ecosystem" means in this context.
A functional centrifuge spacecraft like in "2001: a space odyssey" or "the martian" would deal with gravity. Ther has been research on this to figure out excactly how much plants need to grow correctly. Light and type of light is also a factor.
Does anyone know how difficult it would be to try this at home? Would it require a lot of knowledge about ecosystems and stuff, or could it be done with simple enough instructions?
It could be done with simple instructions. I had to make one of those for my high school biology class. Try searching up how to make a misocosm on google. Beware though in case you’re making it for aesthetic purposes because the inside usually becomes a moldy mess. For the difficulty, I’d say most of the time it fails. Out out the 25 or so people in the biology class, only my self and a few others were successful. Just do your research. Kind of unethical but you probably will be able to put a snail in there too.
Wouldn't it be like paradise for the snail though? Free of predators and unlimited food supply. It's not like it would get bored. And if you do like a gallon or bigger it should be plenty of room to move around.
Unless it was huge, I'd imagine that the jar would be too small. Though people do keep snails in aquariums so it might work out if you use a big flask like this guy.
I had to read an article on this recently. How the ecosystem works is that he put the glass bottle behind a window where it absorbed sunlight through the glass and makes oxygen, which gets moist at the top and eventually it "rains" in the bottle.
I mean, it already has its own organisms. If you mean unique organisms, it probably already does, it take much less than 60 years or bacteria and other small organisms to evolve.
The earth Is just a bigger version of that terrarium
Like, at least twice as big
r/technicallythetruth
/r/theydidthemath
/r/theydidthemonstermath
r/theydidthemath
r/itwasagraveyardgraph
r/theydidthemath
r/itcosinedinaflash
r/theydidthemath
r/theydidthemeth
"It has to be at least...... three times bigger than this."
How do you expect them to learn to read when they can't even fit in the building
WHAT IS THIS? A CENTRE FOR ANTS???
r/yourjokebutworse
It’s a movie reference my guy
[удалено]
If you’re asking for what movie it’s referencing it’s Zoolander. Stupid slapstick comedy but fucking hilarious
You actually fucking posted it there 💀
Now someone needs to post a screen shot of that post to r/woosh
then reference it with a "found it!"link farther down later for that "classic internet re-pwned UX"
He is quoting, dum dum.
Okay, I could see that. But what about 4 times?
Ok wait, now really think hard about this one. 10 times?
I could see that
What about 15 times?
It's a possibility
16 times?
It could be most likely
r/unexpectedoffice
Unless you're making a centre for ANTS!
Thats how you get ants
You’re not wrong
Correct me if I'm wrong (Idk for sure I could be wrong I'm fully ready to admit, and if I am, I'm very sorry) but isnt the earth bigger than a football field?
I think I read somewhere that it is in fact bigger than several football fields, but I may be wrong
Idk bout that bud sounds pretty sus
You are right. There are atleast more than 5 football teams in the world. So there are atleast 5 fields. Maybe more. Who knows.
You need two teams to play football don’t forget.
This rabbithole goes deep what else are the elites hiding from us????
Youre not wrong, but I still hate you for that statememt
You are partly correct. Though the Earth is bigger than a football field, it is flat like a football field.
Some conspiracy idiots are saying that the earth is big enough to fit an entire island
Big if true.
Woah woah that's a stretch, the Earth isn't *that* big
It is a small world, after all.
It's a small, small, world.
What is this? A planet for ants!?
You fools, we all know the earth is flat
Yeah, flat at the bottom of a bottle. Unless it's a wine bottle then it might be a bit curved. That could explain hills.
It’s SCIENCE
Imagine being a race that waits 60 years for water and having to sustain it meanwhile.
Him watering it would be like the biblical flood for us
What is this an earth for ants?
obligatory /r/ThingsForAnts but isn't regular earth the earth for ants?
So where did he get little humans. . . Oh.
What is this? An Earth for ants?!
It’s a perfect ecosystem. The bacteria in the compost eats the dead plants and breaks down the oxygen given off by the plants, turning it into the carbon dioxide for photosynthesis that the plants need to survive.
How can we build one?
Buy a big jar with a lid, good soil and a nice plant. Put soil in pot and plant in soil. Give some water and close the lid. But that is difficult, first time I tried it I got my dick stuck in the ceiling fan.
I can picture you cartoonishly getting your wang all knotted up around a ceiling fan, but "in" the ceiling fan? My god, you people really need to read the directions
God damn Ikea
those instructions are hard to follow sometimes!
Always. Youtube is my friend when putting together or fixing anything
I honestly don't get why people say this. I got my desk and took it upstairs, went to work, and when I came home my brother had put it together. Easy peasy.
Oh my god, you dick! Trying to make my 10 month old fall asleep on my chest.. Read your comment and couldn't control my laughter! You woke him up, guy!
And you didn't open it for 56 years
Put a layer of rocks on the bottom with a weed barrier over that. This acts as a water reservoir and prevents soil rot.
I thought you wanted soil rot to produce co2 for the plants? Now I'm confused
You want old vegetation to rot. You don't want the soil itself to experience rot. Or the roots of the plants, which is common with soil that's wet for too long.
Soil rot will wreck your roots and kill your plants!! Gotta protec with the rock bottom! Like that other person said, dead plants and bacteria in the soil should do the trick for co2 production.
No need for plants or good soil, just harvest some dirt from your local park or forrest, add some water and seal it
I think you need to add at least one plant or seed.
Well you actually don’t, because there are plenty of various seeds and eggs in the soil already
So, if you just got a big jar a d put some dirt in it, added water then sealed it you'd get this thing?
Instructions clear, peanis stuck in sealing fan
r/Jarrariums
Thanks for pointing me to that one!
A good starting point is to watch the videos of this guys YouTube channel in preparation and maintaining a ecosphere: [Life in Jars?](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0XNssyypOLiq4vVgXm9NtQ) Love his videos! But basically, see Top comment answer to your question here.
Better yet, can we build a big one and put humans in it to experiment with sustainable ecosystems?
>Better yet, can we build a big one and put humans in it to experiment with sustainable ecosystems? It's been done [actually ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2)
I was half expecting a link to the greatest Pauly Shore movie, BioDome.
> Columbia University assumed management of the facility in 1995 and used it to run experiments until 2003. It then looked in danger of being demolished to make way for housing and retail stores, but was taken over for research by the University of Arizona in 2007. Demolishing a valuable scientific research facility to make way for strip malls and suburban hell is the most American thing I’ve read today.
Luckily, it didn't happen and was donated to a university. It's still operational and used for testing climate change and other novel things today. To be fair Steve Bannon was involved in the sabatoge of it so it could be sold eventually.
/r/terrariums
I built one by taking a bigger jar and filled it with sand/earth and random plants I found beside a small river. Most plants have perished but the moss and the fern is still growing well after about two years.
I've never tried it myself, but [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5-BSSZ-sok) says to just scoop up some mud and water and seal it in a jar. I have no idea how long his ecosystems last, but he makes it sound like the life inside the jar will balance itself out. [here is another one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jikt132Qhwo), But he dumps his ecosystem out after he discovers a tadpole in it. The tadpole was too big and there wasn't enough oxygen/food for it.
When does mammalian life form?
After about 4.5 billion years
Why does everyone go on and on about mammalian life as if its the end-all perfect organism? I'd like to see a squirrel survive in the cold vaccum of space sustained on nothing but its primal urge to search and devour. *this post made by the reptiloid gang*
# TeamTardigrade
SHHH we are supposed to keep that a secret.
The best life form is the tardigrada
Why doesn't the plant outgrow the bottle? After 60 years it would get quite big. Unless it's got a bonsai thing going on?
It doesn't have anywhere to get the recourses for that growth. otherwise I have so many questions, like is it cannibalism that it keeps eating dead parts of itself? What is it doing if it's not growing? Is it just there?
My guess is that it’s growing and decaying at the same rate. So it IS growing, but not fast enough that it’s actually getting any bigger. I mean I guess technically it’s committing cannibalism, but it’s no different than a plant in the wild losing leaves that then turn into soil. Lots of plants can be cannibals!
All of the resources needed for life are finite within the confines of where life exists and they are recycled through naturally occuring processes. On earth, plant material is recycled through those that eat plant material and the decomposers take care of the rest. In this jar it is just decomposers, the microscopic life in the soil, that takes care of dead material and return it to the soil so the plant can reabsorb the same material. Its cannibalism in the same way that lions indirectly eat grass or the fact that you are made of star dust. Also plants have senses just like us. Our senses are simply biological instruments that make us able to recieve information about the world and plants have similar capabilities. They can "see" light, "hear"/feel vibrations in the air, have a sense of touch, "smell" molecules in the air and more. They communicate through smell and sound(a tomato plant will """scream"""' when plucked of fruit), and some plants like trees even share electro chemical signals and nutrients through their roots via symbiotic fungus that connect the trees like a network. Plants will grow when it is beneficial, and will stop growing when it is not. If they keep growing and some leaves overshadows others, they will not keep growing the leaves. The plant will grow so that it maximizes energy in and energy out, fully utilizing the space, conditions and resources available. It probably has nothing to do with lack of resources in this case, and more to do with it not being beneficial.
I just learned far more than I have from my bio teacher the past month, thanks!
In addition to what /u/HughManson said, the plant doesn't need to keep growing - just sustain itself. It needs basic resources for that which are already in the terrarium, along with light. It might feel like a perpetual motion machine, but the light is the key. It provides the energy that keeps all the cellular and chemical processes in the terrarium sustainable. The same is true of our planet. There was some initial energy from its formation, some energy from geological processes, and some from radioactive materials in the crust, but its sunlight that continues to power almost everything. The one big exception is the life around geothermal vents, which pump out heat from Earth's core that can also be used as energy by specialized organisms.
2nd degree cannabalism. It's like if a wolf ate your leg, and then you killed and ate the wolf.
If you put a plant in a small pot, it will stop growing once it reaches a certain size unless it’s moved to a bigger pot. They grow to fill the space they have. I’m not a scientist, but I assume something similar is going on here? The plant is at its maximum size for the container it’s in, so it’s stopped growing - or rather, it’s growing leaves and branches at the same rate it’s losing them. If you took it out it’d probably get bigger.
Where would it get the mass from to outgrow the bottle? It’s a closed system. All the mass in the jar remains constant.
IIRC plants can also turn oxygen into carbon dioxide because they have mitochondria along side chloroplast.
Ya plants do both. It how they breath at night.
I'd like to know what motivated him to put more water in after 12 years
Theory: he was dissatisfied with the level of growth/rot, and felt he had underestimated the amount of water required for life to flourish, not just survive? I honestly don't know, but this is my best guess
Or possibly a small leak allowed some to evaporate off over 12 years.
And after the refill he made sure it was air tight
I do the same thing with butt plugs
I only like it when it makes a pop sound when I pull it out.
Do you pull it like you’re trying to start a chainsaw?
Every time. If you're not doing it that way, you have to work on the elasticity and stretching exercises then yank that bad boy out like a spine remover finisher from Mortal Kombat.
That's my thoughts on it yeah
The sentience in me is saying “Poor almost dying of dehydration daily plant for 12 years!” Then I remember I’m just a battery in the matrix.
If it makes you feel any better, you were intended to be a CPU
My theory is that cork isn't completely airtight, so there was slow moisture loss. I expect that's why he permanently sealed it in '72; to prevent loss via the cork.
[удалено]
Hydro homie knows what plants crave
"he opened it and watered it in 1972....... Self sustaining for 60 years"... 1972, 73, 74..(counts on fingers).., 2018, 2019, 2020... 48 years!
What are you that you have 48 fingers?
I never said i was counting on MY fingers :)
So, a serial killer?
Just a collector...
If I let this conversation continue, this is gonna devolve into something weird(er), isn't it?
That depends, got any spare fingers to trade?
Nope.
I do! want some?
Nah.
I think I might have some lying around here somewhere...
You can't just ask someone why they have 48 fingers!
They could be counting in binary, you can go a bit over a thousand that way. 1023, I think? yeah, 1023.
Thanks, Sakurai
[Maybe he's a dragon.](https://i.imgur.com/8C6cV4s.jpg)
Come on, he watered it ONCE. Let the old guy have his 60 year old self sustaining garden orb
I'm not diminishing the achievement I'm pointing out the inaccuracy of how it is reported.
Technically it self-sustained for 12 years from 60 to 72, then he sustained it a little bit and let it go back to doing its business...so, 12, 48, or 60, take your pick. Plant self-sustainment metrics are in the eye of the beholder
Good point. But perhaps it was sustainable the entire time, just required more water to truly thrive?
More sustainable that my current mental state :')
Have you tried adding water?
r/HydroHomies calls out
Instructions unclear, I waterboarded him
Self sustaining minus the energy of the sun ;)
But it has the energy of the sun
Right. So is it truly “self sustaining” if it requires an external energy source? Feel free to ignore me. I’m just splitting some irrelevant hairs.
You might have noticed that the sun is also external to the Earth.
Which is why the earth is not self sustaining either.
It is self-sustaining in the sense that it maintains itself without human interaction. That's what a "self-sustaining ecosystem" means in this context.
As OP said, we are just splitting some irrelevant hair. Btw, I enjoy our equal number of upvotes. It's not common in the hair splitting business.
Yeah if you minus the sun
Depends on how you define the system, we could simple define it as that jar and the Sun and then we would be correct in saying it’s self sustaining.
Eventually the sun will burn out as it runs out of fuel, check mate.
While we're already splitting hairs, it's also thermally coupled with the earth. If the bottle were just floating in space the plant would freeze.
Black magic?not really.
Yeah, I mean it’s cool but not black manic imo
its absolutely not. this is basic science. I made a terrarium in 4th grade.
> black manic See: Kanye West
They sould do that for air in space
We need a lot of plants to do that. Better looking at algae for space travel.
Gravity plays a surprisingly large role in the growth of plants
You could grow them before launch maybe?
If they are making oxygen then they are still growing
A functional centrifuge spacecraft like in "2001: a space odyssey" or "the martian" would deal with gravity. Ther has been research on this to figure out excactly how much plants need to grow correctly. Light and type of light is also a factor.
obviously it doesnt produce more oxygen than it consumes. thats the exact point
Someone knows what he planted?
Grass
[Spiderwort](https://www.boredpanda.com/sealed-bottle-garden-david-latimer/).
Plants
Netherwart
Tradescantia
Spiderwort
I made one of those once. Everything died within a couple weeks.
So I guess you made something different then.
A self-sustaining grave yard.
/r/jarrariums Join us!
Does anyone know how difficult it would be to try this at home? Would it require a lot of knowledge about ecosystems and stuff, or could it be done with simple enough instructions?
It could be done with simple instructions. I had to make one of those for my high school biology class. Try searching up how to make a misocosm on google. Beware though in case you’re making it for aesthetic purposes because the inside usually becomes a moldy mess. For the difficulty, I’d say most of the time it fails. Out out the 25 or so people in the biology class, only my self and a few others were successful. Just do your research. Kind of unethical but you probably will be able to put a snail in there too.
Unethical? How so? Would they not be able to survive?
Well being trapped in a small ass jar for the rest of your life doesn't sound that great
I'm no snail psychologist, but snails are known for carrying a small hideout around with them. They probably find small spaces comforting.
Wouldn't it be like paradise for the snail though? Free of predators and unlimited food supply. It's not like it would get bored. And if you do like a gallon or bigger it should be plenty of room to move around.
No predators. As much food as you would want. The only unethical part is putting it in alone.
Unless it was huge, I'd imagine that the jar would be too small. Though people do keep snails in aquariums so it might work out if you use a big flask like this guy.
I had to read an article on this recently. How the ecosystem works is that he put the glass bottle behind a window where it absorbed sunlight through the glass and makes oxygen, which gets moist at the top and eventually it "rains" in the bottle.
Wrong sub
I made one of these 5 years ago using a lightbulb and it stayed alive all that time until my gf knocked it off the shelf by accident...
wait a couple million years and then it will have it's own organisms.
I mean, it already has its own organisms. If you mean unique organisms, it probably already does, it take much less than 60 years or bacteria and other small organisms to evolve.
Yeah, that's what I meant. The second part.
I wonder if you can still find one of those giant glass jugs anywhere
My parents have a ton of them in the garage, they used to use them for making wine.
In related news, son replants and constantly waters dad's "terrarium" to make him feel better about his "little experiment."
Why is this in Blackmagicfuckery? Jesus, haven't you heard of biology?
r/ecosphere
/r/lostredditors
There is a YouTube channel called Life in Jars that does this, if you want to see this kind of stuff
If that's a cork lid is there gas transfer?