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Why evolution by natural selection didn't make use of RF?

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coppercone2:
also I think the planet would need to have massive amounts of metal, mountains or carbon fiber trees or something because right now RF is too easy to locate if something is emitting it. It seems not favorable to stealth on the planet we are on. and perhaps near some radio noisy star.

retiredfeline:
Unlike light and sound which are pervasive, there is little RF in the natural world and not conveying useful everyday information, so radio waves from space don't count, so organisms would have no impetus to develop for it.

NiHaoMike:
A better question to ask would be why biology hasn't evolved to be able to detect radioactivity at levels well below that which would cause significant damage. My guess is that there simply weren't enough cases where it would have improved survival for evolution to design that in.

Brumby:

--- Quote from: NiHaoMike on August 28, 2023, 03:47:30 am ---A better question to ask would be why biology hasn't evolved to be able to detect radioactivity at levels well below that which would cause significant damage. My guess is that there simply weren't enough cases where it would have improved survival for evolution to design that in.

--- End quote ---

My thought is that detection isn't necessary.  Simply let radioactivity affect biology and see which mutations better cope with it.  Same goes for any other potentially malevolent environmental factor.

T3sl4co1l:
Detect in what way?  DNA damage from diverse sources is repaired by several mechanisms.  Upregulation of those might correlate with radiation, but also environmental factors like high heat and dehydration; D. radiodurans is just a soil microbe, by coincidence also a radiation extremeophile.  Or tardigrades, etc.  Whether any of these effects are worth raising from biochemical to conscious* level, probably not?

*In the sense of whatever counts for behavior, mobility, etc.

Regional radioactivity, of hazardous levels, that would be meaningful to avoid via sensory input, is largely a modern industrial creation; simpler life like bacteria or mold can adapt, and complex life can just roll the dice.

Tim

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