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No. 1638:

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Permanent URL: https://mezzacotta.net/postcard/?comic=1638

Pounded into a keyboard by monkeys assisted by: David Morgan-Mar

The author writes:

Leaves generate sugars and other carbohydrates by the process of photosynthesis, in which the electromagnetic energy of the sun's rays is used to break and form chemical bonds between the atoms comprising carbon dioxide from the air and water which the plant sucks up using its root system.

The energy driving this process ultimately comes from nuclear fusion reactions deep in the sun's core, in which hydrogen is fused into helium by a series of chain reactions known as the proton-proton chain. (Helium, incidentally, was detected on the sun before it was ever discovered on Earth, by the use of the techniques of spectroscopy, in which the quantum mechanical transitions of electrons between energy levels in the atoms caused by the thermal energy of the sun produce photons of distinctive wavelengths, thus forming a pattern in the spectrum of the sun's light.)

So next time some hippy vegan criticises you for eating a double bacon cheeseburger and says you should subsist on a diet of peace, love, and mung beans, just tell them that those beans are the product of nuclear energy, sunshine!

And don't get me started about what the girl on the other table said when I dipped my fries in my thick shake.