$disanpoter

[Natural Sciences] This edible is rich in...

I was eating the banana of my breakfast just now, and on licking a bit of mushed banana tip from my fingers I tasted that familiar flattening taste one experiences when eating an unripe banana. Instantaneously my mind offered me the commentary it must be the potassium.

just like that. but that whole mind/voice this is a separate issue.

as is the accuracy of that conclusion, (which i in no way mean to endorse despite the fact that it was my own mind that suggested it to me).

what this here is about is how strange it is that bananas are rich in potassium. not bananas specifically, or potassium specifically - but the whole this fruit/vegetable/other is rich in this valuable compound thing. not on a social/trend level, but on a biological level. is it a biproduct of growing in potassium overrich soil? does their dna produce enzymes that bind with potassium? what is it about bananas that causes them to be 'potassium rich'?

Helium

My grandfather made his annual january trip up from florida to check on his massachusetts house and visit his family this weekend. I so enjoy my grandparents. They've got such spunk. It's lovely to spend time with each of them. I didn't see them yesterday, because i was busy frantically trying to make my apt presentable to guest. I got to see them today, though. My aunt, my grandfather and I went first to the Whitney and then to the Met for a bit. Unfortunately, they weren't so interested in the asian art exhibits that have finally reopened, but we did see the special exhibit on Fra Angelico. Virgin with Child gets a bit old after awhile, but his execution and detail are breathtaking even after almost 600 years. I can hardly imagine how beautiful those tryptics(sp?) must have been at the time they were made. I especially enjoyed the warmth and character in his renditions of older men. That we didn't see the asain exhibit didn't upset me too much, rather it's given me motivation to go back hopefully sometime this week.

In the Whitney, I most enjoyed the work in the permanent exhibit on the top floor -- or rather, the pieces i most enjoyed were among those on the top floor. (I'm not such a fan of the bright flat swatches of color and irregular shapes branch of modernism.) One of the first, though, was of a public park and prominently featured a ballon seller. This was set in the early 1900s, so it got me wondering how they had helium for ballons so far in advance of nuclear physics.

Here are some interesting points in the History of Helium (and to some extent societal use of lighter gases):