signalmankenneth
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Might there be advanced, hyper-intelligent dinosaurs on other planets?
I would say the possibility of plain dinosaurs or hyper-intelligent dinosaurs could exist in our galaxy, if not in the universe?!!
Somewhere, out in the interstellar void, there may be a planet inhabited by hyper-advanced dinosaurs. At least, that’s what a new paper by Columbia University chemist Ronald Breslow says.
This morning, friend and fellow science writer David Dobbs forwarded me an American Chemical Society press release titled “Could ‘advanced’ dinosaurs rule other planets?” Since I was still a little bleary-eyed at the early hour, I thought I had read that wrong.
But I saw it right the first time. “New scientific research raises the possibility that advanced versions of T. rex and other dinosaurs—monstrous creatures with the intelligence and cunning of humans—may be the life forms that evolved on other planets in the universe,” the item explained.
I couldn’t help but wonder if the pronouncement was inspired Planet of Dinosaurs—the awful 1978 film about a futuristic space crew stranded on a planet stuck in the dinosaurian heyday of the Mesozoic. But the paper itself suggests a different origin for what is ultimately a fossil-based non sequitur.
Breslow’s paper is primarily concerned with why the biochemical signature of life on earth is so consistent. Molecules such as amino acids, sugars, DNA and RNA exist in one of two possible orientations, left-handed or right-handed. Instead of showing a mixture of both forms, biomolecules typically come in only one form: Most sugars have a right-handed orientation, while most amino acids exhibit a left-handed orientation. Why life on earth should exhibit these particular arrangements and not the other possible orientations is a mystery that goes back to the origin of life itself.
One idea, favored by Breslow, is that meteorites carried specific types of amino acids and other organic flotsam to earth around 4 billion years ago. This is an extension of the idea that life here was “seeded” by comets, asteroids or meteorites. The origin and subsequent evolution of our planet’s flora and fauna would be constrained by the characteristics of the biomolecules that gave life a jump-start.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dinosaurs-from-space-64403301/
I would say the possibility of plain dinosaurs or hyper-intelligent dinosaurs could exist in our galaxy, if not in the universe?!!
Somewhere, out in the interstellar void, there may be a planet inhabited by hyper-advanced dinosaurs. At least, that’s what a new paper by Columbia University chemist Ronald Breslow says.
This morning, friend and fellow science writer David Dobbs forwarded me an American Chemical Society press release titled “Could ‘advanced’ dinosaurs rule other planets?” Since I was still a little bleary-eyed at the early hour, I thought I had read that wrong.
But I saw it right the first time. “New scientific research raises the possibility that advanced versions of T. rex and other dinosaurs—monstrous creatures with the intelligence and cunning of humans—may be the life forms that evolved on other planets in the universe,” the item explained.
I couldn’t help but wonder if the pronouncement was inspired Planet of Dinosaurs—the awful 1978 film about a futuristic space crew stranded on a planet stuck in the dinosaurian heyday of the Mesozoic. But the paper itself suggests a different origin for what is ultimately a fossil-based non sequitur.
Breslow’s paper is primarily concerned with why the biochemical signature of life on earth is so consistent. Molecules such as amino acids, sugars, DNA and RNA exist in one of two possible orientations, left-handed or right-handed. Instead of showing a mixture of both forms, biomolecules typically come in only one form: Most sugars have a right-handed orientation, while most amino acids exhibit a left-handed orientation. Why life on earth should exhibit these particular arrangements and not the other possible orientations is a mystery that goes back to the origin of life itself.
One idea, favored by Breslow, is that meteorites carried specific types of amino acids and other organic flotsam to earth around 4 billion years ago. This is an extension of the idea that life here was “seeded” by comets, asteroids or meteorites. The origin and subsequent evolution of our planet’s flora and fauna would be constrained by the characteristics of the biomolecules that gave life a jump-start.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dinosaurs-from-space-64403301/
