George and the Dragon

The story of Saint George is so wrapped in myth and legend that it’s difficult to extract the historical facts. Some believe he never existed or that he’s a Christianised version of an older pagan myth.

In the early centuries of Christianity, followers would write up fabulous accounts of the lives of their heroes. This enhanced George’s reputation but left the details of his life very blurred.
What we believe to be the truth is that George was born in the Cappadocia region of central Turkey in the 3rd century; that his parents were Christians; and that when his father died, George’s mother returned to her native Palestine, taking George with her. George became a soldier in the Roman army and rose to the rank of Tribune. The Emperor of the day, Diocletian (245-313 CE), began a campaign against Christians at the very beginning of the 4th century. In about 303 CE George is said to have objected to this persecution and resigned his military post in protest. George tore up the Emperor’s order against Christians. This infuriated Diocletian, and George was imprisoned and tortured, but he refused to deny his faith. Eventually he was dragged through the streets of Diospolis (now Lydda) in Palestine and beheaded. It’s said that Diocletian’s wife was so impressed by George’s resilience that she became a Christian and that she too was executed for her faith.

Myths

In the stories George is said to have been tortured in a number of gruesome and hideous ways. He was forced to swallow poison; crushed between two spiked wheels; boiled in a cauldron of molten lead. None of these attempts killed him and his wounds were healed in the night by Christ himself. George was told his life would be spared if he would offer sacrifice to the Roman gods. The people assembled to see him do so but instead George prayed to the Christian God. Immediately, fire came down from heaven, an earthquake shook the ground, and priests, idols, and the temple buildings were destroyed. However, by this time it was God’s will that St. George should die for his faith, and he was beheaded without further trouble. Stories of this nature abounded about pagan and Christian figures in the early Middle Ages. People would have expected their heroes to have undergone such experiences and in an age when many things seemed mystical, few were sceptical about such stories.

The Dragon

I have encountered 2 versions of this legend.
1: “The Legend in which George slays a fierce dragon, symbolising evil, and rescues an innocent maiden from death is thought to have appeared as late as the 12th century and may have origins in the story of Perseus, who defended the virgin Andromeda against the monstrous Medusa.”

2: “A pagan town in Libya was victimised by a dragon (representing the devil), which the inhabitants first attempted to placate by offerings of sheep, and then by the sacrifice of various members of their community. The daughter of the king (representing the Church) was chosen by lot and was taken out to await the coming of the monster, but George arrived, killed the dragon, and converted the community to Christianity.”

St George and England

The earliest known British reference to Saint George occurs in an account by St. Adamnan, the 7th century Abbot of lona. He’s believed to have heard the story from Arcuif, a French bishop who had travelled to Jerusalem and other holy places in Palestine. The saint is also mentioned in the writings of the Venerable Bede. George's reputation grew with the returning crusaders. A miracle appearance when it is claimed that he appeared to lead crusaders into battle, is recorded in stone over the south door of a church at Fordington in Dorset. This still exists and is the earliest known church in England to be dedicated to St. George. The Council of Oxford in 1222 named 23rd April Saint George’s Day.

Plants on other planets may be yellow or red

By Julie Steenhuysen Reuters - Wednesday, April 11

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The same rules that make Earth plants green may make non-Earth plants yellow, red or green -- but likely not blue, NASA scientists said on Wednesday.

They said their findings -- which look at how plants absorb and reflect different types of light -- may help narrow the search for life on planets beyond our solar system.
And, as a bonus, they may have answered a basic question about life on Earth.

"We've uncovered maybe the best explanation of why plants are green," said Nancy Kiang, a NASA biometeorologist who led the study, which appears in the journal Astrobiology.
Understanding plant colours on other planets is important as scientists prepare for new information to be generated from giant space telescopes planned by NASA and the European Space Agency to study Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars.
"We can guess the plausible range of colours they might be," said Vikki Meadows, an astrobiologist the California Institute of Technology who heads NASA's Virtual Planetary Laboratory.

Meadows and a host of scientists from different disciplines first studied how light is absorbed and reflected by plants and some bacteria on Earth.
That led to computer model for predicting the colour of plants on other planets and new insights about plants on Earth.
Chlorophyll in plants takes light from the sun and converts it into energy through a process called photosynthesis.

Scientists have long known that most plants on Earth absorb more blue and red light and less green light, but they have not understood why.
It turns out that more red light reaches plants on Earth, and blue light is the easiest to absorb. So plants make most efficient use of these two, and that leaves green light as largely superfluous.

"They don't absorb the green because they have more than enough light from blue and red. They just don't need green," Kiang said.
As a result, plants reflect away relatively more green light, which is why plants appear green.
"It turns out plants are actually using the best light there is," Kiang said.
On other planets, where other colours of the light spectrum might dominate, the plants might soak up more green or even more blue light and reflect back whatever is not needed for energy.
The scientists believe the same rules will apply on Earth-like planets in other solar systems.
"It turns out that photosynthesis is one of those things that is likely to be common. If we look for life on other planets, we will try to look for signs of photosynthesis," Meadows said.