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Black smokers

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shvarz:
It seems like the whole black smokers idea is not going to work.  At least I don't see a way to do that.  Here is why: we can't model all the fun stuff about them.

The bacteria that live near black smokers use the released H2S or plain sulfur (S) as a source of energy.  They basically burn the stuff using oxygen.  What comes out is sulfuric acid H2SO4.  The concentration of acid is so high that sometimes it creates pH of 1.  Maybe later we'll model the effect of acidity on bots, but for now we don't have that.

Then there is the issue of oxygen.  The problem is that H2S will react with O2 on its own, without any bacteria.  So the niche for bacteria is very narrow - the area that still has a lot of H2S but already has some free O2.  We don't have a way to deal with gas pressures and chemical reactions within env. grid for now. So that has to go either.

So, what can we model?  We can model a molecular source of energy that has a steep gradient.  That's all.  If you guys want that - it is very easy to add.  But it is not going to differ much from being just another energy-rich molecule, except for a fancy name.  Having a single unlimited source of glucose would give the same effect.

So I say we postpone the black smokers idea for a while, until we get effects of temperature, pH, and spontaneous chemical reactions incorporated into the program.

What do you think?

Numsgil:
I'd say to tentatively work out the reactions that're going on, so if (when) we add those things they'll have something of a framework to hang off of.

I'm in agreance that we need some way to model temperature and spontaneous reactions within the program.  pH I'm not so sure about, but then I'm not really a chemist so it doesn't really interest me.  Chemists might decide that such a thing would be cool, but for me I'm happy to just fudge it.

PurpleYouko:
We may be able to model smokers in a different way.

Temperature in th e-grid should be easy enough to model so maybe we can use that to create the hot smoker environmental niche. All we would need is to add a way for robots to read the temperature from the grid and that will be easy enough.

 :D  PY  :D

shvarz:
Adding the actual reaction is extremely easy.  It is basically a chemical reaction of burning H2S:

H2S + 2 O2 = H2SO4

Only bacteria somehow couple it to energy production.  So for our purposes it would be:

H2S + O2 = H2SO4 + ATP

A stand-alone reaction, not connected to anything else.  Would be extremely easy to do.  So we agree that we leave it off for now?

Numsgil:
On.  Off.  Either way really.  It's trivial to add or not at this point.

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