Trees Come 'From Out Of The Air,' Said Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman. Really?

Ask one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century a simple question, and his answer makes me go, "What? What did he just say?"

The question was: Where do trees come from?

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Meaning, when you see a tree, a big, tall, heavy one, and you wonder where did it get its mass, its thick trunk, its branches — the instinctive answer would be from the soil below, plus a little water (and, in some mysterious way, sunshine), right?

Nope, says the late Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, sitting in an easy chair, thinking out loud in a You Tube video clip from 1983: "People look at a tree and think it comes out of the ground, that plants grow out of the ground, " he says, but "if you ask, where does the substance [of the tree] come from? You find out ... trees come out of the air!"

From the air? Trees are hard, branchy, heavy, covered with bark. They don't precipitate out of air. This sounds like sorcery, not science.

But then Feynman says it again, "They surely ... come out of the air."

More: https://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/09/25/161753383/trees-come-from-out-of-the-air-says-nobel-laureate-richard-feynman-really

Carbon-based life form: Carbon dioxide. Not so daft, really.

I'll believe it, only when your Excel Spreadsheet confirms it!

So there!

Trees Come 'From Out Of The Air,' Said Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman. Really?

Trees Come 'From Out Of The Air,' Said Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman. Really?

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