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Another potential use for this curious process could be in the field of education. There is a gap between those who have grown up acknowledging and exploring the many intricate interactions that undeniably exist in natural environments, ethylene gas affecting fruits being one of the many, and those who do not see the necessity to pay attention to the more subtle workings of nature. It can become easy to pick sides in that some people dedicate so much to understanding and caring for processes with a minimal effect on the average human life and will be labelled as pretentious. Whereas some refuse the fact that environments on every scale depend upon these many intricate and often unnoticeable to the eye interactions and become ignorant, ostensibly refusing to consider how the eradication of a species in a far away forest matters. One issue in conveying the presence of these natural interactions is that they are difficult to prove in a practical first hand and controlled manner, there is no classroom experiment that shows that ants are a vital part of the rainforest ecosystem. However with ethylene gas fruit interactions one could potentially run a consistent experiment that introduces the concept that even if we can't see or smell the gas between the two fruits it is there causing a visible effect- and help people to develop the understanding that certain interactions are beyond our scope of perception but are still relevant and demanding of our attention. | Another potential use for this curious process could be in the field of education. There is a gap between those who have grown up acknowledging and exploring the many intricate interactions that undeniably exist in natural environments, ethylene gas affecting fruits being one of the many, and those who do not see the necessity to pay attention to the more subtle workings of nature. It can become easy to pick sides in that some people dedicate so much to understanding and caring for processes with a minimal effect on the average human life and will be labelled as pretentious. Whereas some refuse the fact that environments on every scale depend upon these many intricate and often unnoticeable to the eye interactions and become ignorant, ostensibly refusing to consider how the eradication of a species in a far away forest matters. One issue in conveying the presence of these natural interactions is that they are difficult to prove in a practical first hand and controlled manner, there is no classroom experiment that shows that ants are a vital part of the rainforest ecosystem. However with ethylene gas fruit interactions one could potentially run a consistent experiment that introduces the concept that even if we can't see or smell the gas between the two fruits it is there causing a visible effect- and help people to develop the understanding that certain interactions are beyond our scope of perception but are still relevant and demanding of our attention. | ||
[[File:Ethylene effect.jpg|400px]] | |||
Credit to this collection of data relating to fruit release rates and sensitivities to ethylene gas that I have used as the foundation for the ethylene segment: https://www.mykitchengarden.info/2016/10/fruits-vegetables-producing-ethylene-or-sensitive.html | Credit to this collection of data relating to fruit release rates and sensitivities to ethylene gas that I have used as the foundation for the ethylene segment: https://www.mykitchengarden.info/2016/10/fruits-vegetables-producing-ethylene-or-sensitive.html |
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