There are no trifles in the knowledge of the real world. Even ordinary salt can tell us about a global change in the nature of our planet. We just need to carefully peer and reflect on what lies right before our eyes …
What you learn by reading this article can be expressed in words - amazing side by side. It is amazing, because a kind of "breath" of the living world, organized by changing the dimensionality of space, opens up to the imagination. Science calls it osmosis (pressure). It’s surprising, because every housewife is engaged in this magic of changing the dimensionality of space in the volume of a soup pot. But still, the main topic of the article is the obvious connection between salt consumption and changed atmospheric pressure.
Sudden lack of salt
It turns out that salt consumption is not at all a gourmet whim. It is vital for a person. Our daily requirement is 5 … 10 grams. If consumption is stopped, then the inevitable consequences come in the form of a breakdown, nervous diseases, digestive problems, fragility of bones, lack of appetite, and, finally, death. This is because the body makes up for the lack of salt by extracting it from other organs and tissues, i.e. destruction of bones and muscles.
Why did nature treat us so cruelly? Where did our "wild" ancestors have to get salt, if it became available relatively recently?
A few centuries ago, salt was very expensive, since it is rarely found in nature in a usable form. It must be obtained. It was only by developing salt extraction technologies, which took several centuries, that we artificially satisfied this need. But why did a person find himself deprived of the resources necessary for life, although the state of the developing ecological system is abundance? Any significant infringement leads to a delay in its development.
And it would be okay to talk only about a person. Almost all herbivores and birds experience the same salt deficiency. The industry even produces special feed salt for livestock. Salt is used to feed horses, rabbits, guinea pigs and parrots. In the wild, wild boars and moose will never pass by the bait in the form of a piece of lizun salt. Unhappy animals, like us, suffer from a lack of salt, but unlike humans, they do not have a salt-extracting industry. They lick stones, dig soil in search of salty, and are happy with any handouts.
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Everything indicates that the current state of nature is abnormal. Something has clearly changed in the calm course of evolution. Most likely, the very need for salt arose not so long ago, as a result of some global changes on our planet. Otherwise, the animal world would have had time to fully adapt to the changes.
Scientific view of the problem
It will not be superfluous to find out how the scientific world looks at all this. And he doesn't see any problem and just tries to describe the patterns. For example, they say that the salinity of animal blood corresponds to the salinity of the world's oceans:
“This circumstance was noted back in the last century by Bunge (Bunge, 1898), who for the first time suggested that life originated in the ocean and that modern animals inherited from their oceanic ancestors an inorganic composition of blood, so similar to seawater. The theory of the oceanic origin of the mineral composition of the internal environment was developed by McCallum (1910, 1926), who cited numerous blood analyzes of various animals to prove it. Over the course of 50 years, this theory has received more and more new reinforcements, until it has acquired by now the degree of probability that is possible for biological constructions covering distant epochs of the development of life (doubtful probability - author). " "Physiological mechanisms of water-salt balance" Ginetsinsky A. G.
According to scientists, the salinity of the blood only imitates the ancient habitat of the simplest organisms. That is, the ocean fluid gradually closed in the internal cycles of the body and was genetically preserved in this form. All modern animals became the heirs of those ancient organisms.
The optimal salinity of blood is approximately 1% (more precisely 0.89%). The salinity of the world's oceans is now 3 times higher. This scientific world does not bother at all, do not reject such a beautiful theory over a trifle, especially since there are no other guesses. So they agreed to consider that once in the distant past the ocean was exactly 1% salinity. And then for some reason (no matter why) it was salted. Once again, we adjusted reality to fit our speculations.
But over the course of the 20th century, instead of "new reinforcements", the theory of the oceanic origin of the internal environment accumulated new contradictions. Resolving these contradictions, in order to protect the prevailing theory, was mainly occupied by theorists from biology.
The idea with blood is clear. But blood is an intercellular fluid, but what about the internal fluid of a cell? It turns out that the mineral composition (salinity) inside the cell is always different from the external environment. And it is sharply different - there are a lot of sodium ions (+ Na) and few potassium ions (+ K) in the blood, but the opposite is true in the cell. And now biologists, in theory, should continue their thought further.
According to the theory, at the time of the appearance of complex multicellular organisms, the ocean water was close in composition to blood - 1% salinity, including a lot of sodium and little potassium, (+ Na)> (+ K). Then even earlier, at the moment of the emergence of unicellular organisms, when the three-layer protein-fat membranes of cells closed, the ionic composition of the world ocean was the opposite - there is little sodium and a lot of potassium (+ Na) <(+ K). You won't hear about this anymore, because it is still possible to fantasize about an increase in ocean salinity by 3 times, and it is difficult to try to convince people of such a leapfrog of the chemical composition of the water of the entire planet. And there is absolutely nothing to give as evidence. Some speculation.
Thus, today the scientific world calms itself and all of mankind with the untenable theory of the oceanic origin of the internal environment, attracts by the ears everything that does not fit there, and does not see the problem point-blank. Say, everything is correct, everything goes on as usual.
The failure of the theory
The theory is weak, based on a small special case of similarity. Although it is even difficult to talk about similarity when the indicators differ by 3 times. This theory is completely divorced from the general view of the development of planetary ecological systems. Judge for yourself.
Freshwater and terrestrial organisms are now in a constant state of salt deficiency, and marine organisms are in a state of catastrophic excess. This is a big problem, and it is solved by each species independently, as it happened. Within the framework of the article, it is absolutely impossible to describe all the variety of attempts to survive in these extreme conditions.
Often, the methods of adaptation are so original that one is amazed. And it is curious that organisms use already existing systems, loading them with additional work to maintain salt balance. For example, in humans, these are kidneys. Special systems have simply not appeared yet.
The simplest single-celled organisms do not have complex excretory systems at all, but they also really want to live. Therefore, they solved the issue simply and inconveniently. Freshwater unicellular organisms constantly often-often “breathe”, throwing out excess water, which is pumped into them involuntarily and constantly with the help of osmotic pressure, which will be described below. If they stop forcibly ejecting liquid, they will immediately burst with internal pressure.
And marine protozoa, on the contrary, almost do not throw out liquid, because the excessive salinity of the ocean already tends to pump out water from them and flatten them. It seems good, there is no need to strain, but it interferes with getting rid of toxins. You can be poisoned to death. This cannot be called a normal life, since it takes a lot of effort to adapt.
There are worms that are forced to exist in waters with variable salinity. These are the mouths of rivers flowing into the sea. They generally admitted their helplessness to fight destructive changes in salinity, and survive only due to the elasticity of their tissues. When fresh water comes in, they swell, and when sea water comes back, they shrink. That's how they live.
Finally, no one has adapted without loss. The process is in full swing. And today, scientists record the regular extinction of some species. Nature continues to lose variety. They are trying to explain this by bad ecology, but the same thing happened in the 18th and 19th centuries, when people practically did not influence the climate and pollution. So, there is a planetary emergency situation, as the military say.
Of course, modern scientific theory is unable to explain how the ecological system of the planet could develop and flourish over millions of years, having such problems with the osmotic compatibility of the environment and living organisms.
It is believed that the more problems arise, the faster the ecological system develops. We are considering just such an idiotic case. In Russian it would sound like this: the more sticks you put in the wheels, the faster the cart will roll. Stupidity, of course, but adults with scientific degrees are seriously talking about this as stimulating movement. Now everything is turned upside down.
If from the standpoint of the end of the 19th century, the theory of the oceanic origin of the internal environment could be considered progressive, today it is already an unacceptably low analytical level, callousness and unwillingness to go beyond traditional ideas.
But, as you know, to criticize all much. And what can we offer ourselves? The fact of the matter is that we can and offer. First, let's look at osmotic pressure and its role in the survival of organisms.
Salt pump
The most important thing we need salt for is maintaining osmotic pressure. This is a very simple and interesting thing. Imagine a container divided by a partition with tiny holes. It allows water molecules to pass through, but retains sodium and chlorine ions (dissolved salt). These are the properties of cell membranes. If one part of the container is filled with salt water, and the adjacent part with fresh water, then after a while the water level in the salt compartment will spontaneously rise, and in the fresh one it will drop by the same amount. As if the water from the fresh compartment was pumped into the salt compartment. This is because the water tends to dilute the saturated salt solution and equalize the concentration in both compartments. The membrane allows only water to pass through (salt ions cannot get into the fresh compartment) and the process goes in one direction. This creates osmotic pressure, a kind of salt pump.
There is no clear scientific explanation for why this happens. But Nikolai Viktorovich Levashov showed in his books how it works in the tissues of our body. With the help of saturation with salt ions, the dimensionality of the intercellular fluid changes. Each ion bends space around itself. Their combined effect gives such a bias. This very osmotic pressure arises as a difference in dimension.
We are constantly changing the dimension. Sprinkle the road with salt - we change the dimensionality of the space in the volume of the road surface and, as a result, the temperature of water crystallization decreases. Winter snow lies around, and spring is on the way. An ordinary miracle.
Or, for example, we take fresh cucumbers, put them in a glass jar and fill with brine with a salt concentration of more than 30%. At the same time, the dimensionality of the brine is so great that bacteria trapped in the space of the jar cannot resist the osmotic pressure. They shrink and die. And since there is no one besides them to spoil our cucumbers, the delicacy will remain for a long time.
Atmospheric and osmotic pressure are related
Simplified in the body, the salt pump works as follows: if the intercellular fluid gets rid of excess salt ions and becomes fresher, then a certain portion of fluid is pumped into the cell to desalinate it and equalize the dimensional difference. The cell's own internal pressure naturally rises somewhat. It kind of puffs up. And this happens until there is a balance of all forces. If the intercellular fluid is saturated with salt ions (becomes saltier), the pump turns on in the opposite direction, part of the fluid is pumped out of the cell. The internal pressure of the cell drops, and it seems to be deflated.
It is important to understand that pressure fluctuations inside the cell are permissible only within small limits. This scientific experience is interesting:
“If erythrocytes are placed in a saline solution that has the same osmotic pressure (salinity, - author) with blood, then they do not undergo noticeable changes. In a solution with high osmotic pressure (oversalted, - author), the cells wrinkle, as water begins to escape from them into the environment. In a solution with low osmotic pressure (fresh, - author), erythrocytes swell and collapse. This is because water from a solution with a low osmotic pressure begins to enter the erythrocytes, the cell membrane cannot withstand the increased pressure and bursts."
Let's continue the experiment on our own. In the previous experiment, the salinity of the solution changed at constant atmospheric pressure. And now we will change the atmospheric pressure with a constant composition of the solution. Let's put the same erythrocytes in the solution again, corresponding to the usual blood salinity of 0.89%. Of course, nothing happens to them.
But if we put all this in a pressure chamber and significantly lower the atmospheric pressure, then the cells will swell and burst. After all, their internal pressure will become much higher than the external one. Nature has not provided cells with any other mechanism for equalizing pressure, except for a salt pump. It is quite easy to avoid cell death under conditions of low atmospheric pressure. You just need to salt the solution. The salt pump will start and pump out part of the liquid from the cell membranes. The cells will not rupture, and will live happily ever after, if only the intercellular fluids are salted in time.
This experiment shows that if scientists did not consider atmospheric pressure as constant, they would immediately notice that the salinity of blood directly depends on it. It is now believed that the constant salinity of the blood is a must for all organisms. So it is, but only so far the atmospheric pressure has not changed several times.
It is interesting that biologists do not consider such a possibility within the framework of the water-salt balance, although we are talking about hundreds of millions of years of evolution. And if they admit that such an inert environment as the water of the world's oceans has changed its salinity several times during this time, then it is logical to assume that atmospheric pressure has changed much more.
I must admit that all the osmotic processes described above are much more complicated. Otherwise, experts in biology will blame: "Here, they say, he whipped everyone on the cheeks, but did not even go deep into the essence of the issue." Indeed, cell membranes also allow a certain amount of ions to pass through, and active chemical "pumps" of the "Na / K-ATPase" type work, which forcibly transport metal ions through the cell membrane. And water, when penetrating through the membrane, experiences resistance due to the fatty layer between the protein membranes of the cell. It is imperative to take into account that the internal pressure of the cell (turgor) is always greater than the external one in order to maintain elasticity. In animals, this is approximately 1 atmosphere. But in fact, all this does not significantly affect the water-salt balance, and the experience with erythrocytes is an example of this. All these factors only contribute to the state of balance.
How it works in life
Nikolai Viktorovich Levashov wrote that the human body is a rigid colony of cells. Almost every cell in our body is similar to those experimental erythrocytes. It is surrounded by intercellular fluid and fully experiences atmospheric pressure. It is atmospheric, not arterial, since the latter falls strongly when the liquid is pushed through the capillaries. Of course, the human body as a whole is a more durable structure than a single cell. There is a skeleton of bones and strong integumentary tissues. Therefore, we are capable of large, but relatively short-term pressure drops.
When diving to a depth of more than 100 m, divers experience a water pressure of more than 10 atmospheres. Conversely, one of the NASA reports described an experiment with reduced pressure, conducted on monkeys (conventionally a man). The animal was placed in a pressure chamber and the pressure was reduced to vacuum. It turned out that our organisms have strength, allowing us to perform meaningful actions for another 15-20 seconds. After this, loss of consciousness occurs, and after 40-50 seconds, due to decompression sickness, the brain is destroyed.
However, our safety margin does not help with prolonged exposure to reduced pressure. Metabolic processes begin to be disrupted. The pressure of the intercellular fluid, usually close to atmospheric, becomes lower than normal, but in the cells themselves it is still high. The body begins to regulate osmotic pressure (to add blood to the blood), counteracting the skew.
Now, in order for the cells not to experience destructive internal pressure, it is required (as in our experiment with a pressure chamber) to increase the salinity of the intercellular fluid. And it is necessary to maintain this new level constantly. We need more salt than our previous diet contained. Our body strictly monitors this by monitoring the signals of internal sensors. The brain gives a signal: "I want salty." And if you don’t go to meet him, he will get this salt from all tissues, wherever possible. You will not live long and unhappily.
It is extremely interesting that the osmotic pressure is only 60% created by salt ions, the rest of the participants in this process are glucose, proteins, etc. That is, sweet and tasty. Here's the key to our flavor base. A person loves sweets also because these substances complement the counterbalance mechanism to the low atmospheric pressure, help the salt pump to work. We need them as well as salt. And again, all animals that suffer from a lack of salt are also very fond of sweets. Fortunately, sweets are more common in nature. These are fruits, berries, roots and of course honey. Also, sugars are released during the digestion of starch, which is contained in cereals.
conclusions
Organisms of animals, like humans, on our planet are adapted to life under conditions of higher atmospheric pressure than we have today (760 mm Hg). It is difficult to calculate how much more it was, but according to estimates, it was no less than 1.5 times. However, if we take as a basis the fact that the osmotic pressure of blood plasma averages 768.2 kPa (7.6 atm.), Then it is likely that initially our atmosphere was 8 times denser (about 8 atm.). As crazy as it sounds, this is possible. After all, it is known that the pressure in the air bubbles, which contains amber, is, according to various sources, from 8 to 10 atmospheres. This just reflects the state of the atmosphere at the moment of solidification of the resin from which the amber was formed. Such coincidences are hard to believe.
It is approximately clear when exactly the drop in atmospheric density took place. This can be traced back to the industrial achievements of mankind in the extraction of salt. For the last 100 years, several large deposits have been centrally developed. The use of heavy mining equipment helped us out. 300 … 400 years ago, an increase in salt production was provided by the implementation of the technology of evaporation of sea water, or brine from underground wells.
And everything that happened before, for example, manual collection in open salt marshes or burning plants, can be called an ineffective beginning of the birth of salt extraction technology. Over the past 500 … 600 years, this technology has developed much faster than the already established blacksmithing, pottery and others, which indicates its recent birth.
The salt riots of the early 17th century, when salt became tantamount to survival, fit well within these terms. Until this century, this was not observed. Over time, with the development of technology, the demand was satisfied, the severity of the salt issue decreased, and then we no longer see such massive unrest regarding salt. That is, in my opinion, a significant drop in the density of the atmosphere could have occurred in the 15th … 17th centuries.
Alexey Artemiev