On 29 Jul 2004 13:01:46 GMT, Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
"David W.E. Roberts" writes:
|
| Have you read Ringworld by Larry Niven? Those sunflowers were aggressive!
|
| Not enough trace metal in the potting compost to build the silver
| reflectors, fortunately :-)

Don't be over-confident. Aluminium is widespread in soils, especially
clays, and makes good mirrors.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

in fact it's in the top 5 most abundant rock-forming elements in the
earth's crust after oxygen and silicon, and I think the most common metal.
--
Tim C.