Title correction: 'Some flies keep landing on North Sea oil rigs'. I suspect for every fly that lands a very large number doesn't make it. These rigs are the fly equivalent of Ascension.
Just like birds, some species of hoverfly migrate with the seasons. They move to southern Spain in the early autumn and then as far north as Norway in spring (the northern leg is less well understood, and seems to take place over several generations, since each fly only actually lives for a few weeks).
_This paragraph becomes more astonishing as it goes on_
If we do, we'll need to have mastered perfect sustainability and 100% recycling. And/or bring a surprisingly large chunk of ecosystem along with us, also living out their generations.
The flies are perhaps more like nomadic humans in the pre-agriculture era. Moving from one seasonal food source to the other.
If there is a need for it, probably, but we'd need to be able to keep people alive for that long first. To date, the longest anyone has been in space has been 14 months. To make it work you'd need to produce food, artificial gravity, etc.
I can't imagine the efficiency that makes such long flights possible in such a tiny form factor. Compared to our drones, it must be multiple orders of magnitude more efficient.
Not sure whether is a matter of efficiency. Efficiency is more about the desired outcome. Insects are small and very low weight. So I would assume wind will give them more push and can carry them for much longer distances even without doing anything on their own. But the price is a lack of control; they have probably little to no influence where they will end up.
Indeed - and let's not forget that these are the ones that successfully landed somewhere - many many others will have landed in the sea, or otherwise died before they could reach a suitable spot.
The ones that landed here hadn't aimed for or planned to find the rig, they were just in the same physical location and found a space to land.
If you look at the nearest survivor to flying insects' ancestors - the springtails - it seems that's been part of their strategy for a very long time. With controlled flight being a much later addition to the basic "getthehellouttahere" reflex.
I'm kind of keen to see if large electric cargo motor gliders might one day become a thing. Traversing great distances via ambient energy harvesting. Maybe even self landing at certain designated airfields to top up on energy and avoid bad weather.
Most of the stratospheric approaches I've seen aren't so much about exploiting low altitude weather phenomenon but rather flying above it. Which of course is exactly what you want for long term remote sensing.
I'm thinking systems that mostly exploit thermals and updrafts, engaging in a kind of bird like automated soaring.
Oil Rigs seem to be, counterintuitively, very good for a bunch of species.
In the Gulf of Texas there’s been ongoing fights between environmentalists (helping species who live under and around the rigs) and environmentalists (protecting the landscape from ugly metal towers).
If it helps species cross oceans where previously they could not, it is also going to be bad for a bunch of species (those that see their niches invaded at the other side of the ocean, or whatever barrier the rigs help cross).
My comment wasn't clear - I'm talking about abandoned rigs. So the well is sealed.
Some of the more extreme "environmentalist" (in my opinion extreme) also demand that the ocean floor near the well is scrubbed clean to 'leave no trade' which is good in theory but in practice will wipe out the fish and plant life which has grown up around it.
Instead of saying "wasting", OP should have said "emitting CO2 to the atmosphere", which is the real problem here. Including from refinery flare stacks, and emissions of non-CO2 GHGs like methane from leaks.
Unbalanced fractions aren't so much of a problem as they can be cracked.
Oil is not part of the dispute parent is talking about. Abandoned rigs provides shelter for a multitude of species and helps marine diversity. On the other hand, they are manmade structures and essentially ocean trash.
I never knew that insects are capable of crossing oceans...
Seeing close-up pictures of them is always a very humbling experience to me, because it is very obvious how "huge" and complex they are in terms of individual cells. A very visceral experience of Feynmans "there is plenty of room at the bottom" notion.
And then the top comment made me think they must be sending paper documents to these rigs via some light weight flight mechanism. And then I realized I haven’t had my morning coffee yet.
what are the longterm implications of easing the journey of a swarm of insects, does it reduce the attrition, and if so will that have an impact on pollination and predator success at the terminus?
in what less obvious ways does it ease the journey such as energy stowage (in hover flies I presume they depend on their pollen panniers?)
Seasons change primarily North–South, not East–West, right? I think the question is why don't they just go from North American to South America instead of crossing the ocean?
> Just like birds, some species of hoverfly migrate with the seasons. They move to southern Spain in the early autumn and then as far north as Norway in spring (the northern leg is less well understood, and seems to take place over several generations, since each fly only actually lives for a few weeks).
If we go by the article, because there is water between Norway and Denmark. They could cross further south in southern Sweden, but that'd mean they'd have to go around. The Americas is not part of the equation.
_This paragraph becomes more astonishing as it goes on_
The flies are perhaps more like nomadic humans in the pre-agriculture era. Moving from one seasonal food source to the other.
The ones that landed here hadn't aimed for or planned to find the rig, they were just in the same physical location and found a space to land.
A migration of the machines so to say.
I'm thinking systems that mostly exploit thermals and updrafts, engaging in a kind of bird like automated soaring.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-zvzOC8dzA
https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/06/01/128389587/l...
In the Gulf of Texas there’s been ongoing fights between environmentalists (helping species who live under and around the rigs) and environmentalists (protecting the landscape from ugly metal towers).
If so, I'd say that overall, this is bad.
How much percent recyclable plastic could we extract out of raw oil? Like real recyclable plastic, where it is worth money to do so.
Maybe making more bitumen/asphalt for roads/roofs, or graphite for batteries?
Some of the more extreme "environmentalist" (in my opinion extreme) also demand that the ocean floor near the well is scrubbed clean to 'leave no trade' which is good in theory but in practice will wipe out the fish and plant life which has grown up around it.
Burning it isn't wasting it, we get a lot of value out of that.
> How much percent recyclable plastic could we extract out of raw oil? Like real recyclable plastic, where it is worth money to do so.
0. There's no such thing as real recyclable plastic, unless you count burning it for heat/power generation.
> Maybe making more bitumen/asphalt for roads/roofs, or graphite for batteries?
Every fraction of oil has some use. But you're unlikely to get perfectly balanced demand for every single thing you can pull out of it.
Oh God not Factorio again
Unbalanced fractions aren't so much of a problem as they can be cracked.
It's not so much the manmade structures that are problematic, more the associated toxic sludges still residual within structures.
There are also human structures in the ocean that lack toxic sludges.
Seeing close-up pictures of them is always a very humbling experience to me, because it is very obvious how "huge" and complex they are in terms of individual cells. A very visceral experience of Feynmans "there is plenty of room at the bottom" notion.
And then the top comment made me think they must be sending paper documents to these rigs via some light weight flight mechanism. And then I realized I haven’t had my morning coffee yet.
in what less obvious ways does it ease the journey such as energy stowage (in hover flies I presume they depend on their pollen panniers?)
No Americas involved.