Nutrition

Animals are consumers that get their power from producers, who in turn derive their power from a number of sources.

Most animals grow by ultimately using the energy of daylight. Plants use this energy to change carbon dioxide into simple sugars using a procedure known as photosynthesis. Initially with the molecules and water, photosynthesis converts the power of sunlight into compound energy stored in the bonds of glucose and releases oxygen. These sugars are then used as the structure blocks which allow the plant to raise. When animals eat these plants, the sugars produced by the plant are used by the animal. They are either used straight to help the animal grow, or busted down, releasing stored solar energy, and giving the animal the energy required for movement. This process is known as glycolysis.

Many animals that live secure to hydrothermal vents and cold seeps on the ocean floor are not needy on the energy of sunlight for their food. Instead, chemosynthetic archaea and eubacteria form the bottom of the food chain. These creatures use the energy from compounds seeping from the vents to control the manufacture of sugars and other molecules, and animals live by either intake those microbes them within their tissues.

Archaeoastronomy and Stonehenge
Stonehenge is aligned northeast–southwest, and it has been suggested that particular significance was placed by its builders on the solstice and equinox points, so for example on a midsummer's morning, the sun rose close to the Heelstone, and the sun's first rays went directly into the centre of the monument between the horseshoe arrangement. It is unlikely that such an alignment could have been merely accidental.A huge debate was triggered by the 1963 publication of Stonehenge Decoded, by British born astronomer Gerald Hawkins, who claimed to see a large number of astronomical alignments, both lunar and solar, at the site and argued that Stonehenge could have been used to predict eclipses. Hawkins' book received wide publicity, partly because he used a computer in his calculations, then a rarity. Further contributions to the debate came from British astronomer C. A. Newham and Sir Fred Hoyle, the famous Cambridge cosmologist, as well as by Alexander Thom, a retired professor of engineering, who had been studying stone circles for more than 20 years. Their theories have faced criticism in recent decades from Richard Atkinson and others who have suggested impracticalities in the 'Stone Age calculator' interpretative approach. Today, the consensus is that most of the astronomical case, although not all, was overstated.