# plants generating heat?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plants-generating-heat/809678>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 27, 2018, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plants-generating-heat/809678 "2018-02-27T15:48:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2018, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plants-generating-heat/809678/21 "2018-02-28T19:18:43Z")

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> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#):
>
> Are there any living organisms that don’t produce heat?

No, generating waste heat that is dumped to the environment is a hallmark of life. All life is a process of organization, maintaining or decreasing the entropy of the organism. The fundamental reason that all life must generate waste heat is to satisfy the Second Law, that entropy increases overall.

It may be true that in a temporary dormant state (spores, seeds) there is no heat generated because no maintenance is required. But anything growing or moving is always generating waste heat.

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**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2018, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plants-generating-heat/809678/22 "2018-03-01T19:28:03Z")

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> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#):
>
> Glass is transparent to infrared. .

Glass is transparent to near-infrared, just outside the visible spectrum, but glass is opaque to middle and long wavelength infrared. ‘Thermal’ infrared is in the middle wavelength range, so doesn’t pass through glass.

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**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2018, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plants-generating-heat/809678/23 "2018-03-01T21:35:03Z")

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> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#):
>
> [snip] … What the glass does is stop _warm air_ from escaping and taking all that heat with it.

> [@brossa](#):
>
> Glass is transparent to near-infrared, just outside the visible spectrum, but glass is opaque to middle and long wavelength infrared. ‘Thermal’ infrared is in the middle wavelength range, so doesn’t pass through glass.

Both effect are at play … traditionally **The Walrus** is more correct as the glass prevents convection … but today’s new fangled technologies bring us the kinds of glass **brossa** is speaking of …

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