spontaneous life in space?
- Thread starter evince
- Start date
evince
Truthmatters
August 12, 2007
Dust ‘comes alive’ in spaceRobert Booth
SCIENTISTS have discovered that inorganic material can take on the characteristics of living organisms in space, a development that could transform views of alien life.
An international panel from the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Max Planck institute in Germany and the University of Sydney found that galactic dust could form spontaneously into helixes and double helixes and that the inorganic creations had memory and the power to reproduce themselves.
A similar rethinking of prospective alien life is being undertaken by the National Research Council, an advisory body to the US government. It says Nasa should start a search for what it describes as “weird life” - organisms that lack DNA or other molecules found in life on Earth.
The new research, to be published this week in the New Journal of Physics, found nonorganic dust, when held in the form of plasma in zero gravity, formed the helical structures found in DNA. The particles are held together by electromagnetic forces that the scientists say could contain a code comparable to the genetic information held in organic matter. It appeared that this code could be transferred to the next generation.
Professor Greg Morfill, of the Max Planck institute of extra-terrestrial physics, said: “Going by our current narrow definitions of what life is, it qualifies.
“The question now is to see if it can evolve to become intelligent. It’s a little bit like science fiction at the moment. The potential level of complexity we are looking at is of an amoeba or a plant.
“I do not believe that the systems we are talking about are life as we know it. We need to define the criteria for what we think of as life much more clearly.”
It may be that science is starting to study territory already explored by science fiction. The television series The X-Files, for example, has featured life in the form of a silicon-based parasitic spore.
The Max Planck experiments were conducted in zero gravity conditions in Germany and on the International Space Station 200 miles above earth.
The findings have provoked speculation that the helix could be a common structure that underpins all life, organic and nonorganic.
Dust ‘comes alive’ in spaceRobert Booth
SCIENTISTS have discovered that inorganic material can take on the characteristics of living organisms in space, a development that could transform views of alien life.
An international panel from the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Max Planck institute in Germany and the University of Sydney found that galactic dust could form spontaneously into helixes and double helixes and that the inorganic creations had memory and the power to reproduce themselves.
A similar rethinking of prospective alien life is being undertaken by the National Research Council, an advisory body to the US government. It says Nasa should start a search for what it describes as “weird life” - organisms that lack DNA or other molecules found in life on Earth.
The new research, to be published this week in the New Journal of Physics, found nonorganic dust, when held in the form of plasma in zero gravity, formed the helical structures found in DNA. The particles are held together by electromagnetic forces that the scientists say could contain a code comparable to the genetic information held in organic matter. It appeared that this code could be transferred to the next generation.
Professor Greg Morfill, of the Max Planck institute of extra-terrestrial physics, said: “Going by our current narrow definitions of what life is, it qualifies.
“The question now is to see if it can evolve to become intelligent. It’s a little bit like science fiction at the moment. The potential level of complexity we are looking at is of an amoeba or a plant.
“I do not believe that the systems we are talking about are life as we know it. We need to define the criteria for what we think of as life much more clearly.”
It may be that science is starting to study territory already explored by science fiction. The television series The X-Files, for example, has featured life in the form of a silicon-based parasitic spore.
The Max Planck experiments were conducted in zero gravity conditions in Germany and on the International Space Station 200 miles above earth.
The findings have provoked speculation that the helix could be a common structure that underpins all life, organic and nonorganic.
doniston
Aint I a cutie? HEH HEH
very interesting, and doesn't seem that far fetched.
doniston
Aint I a cutie? HEH HEH
6 billion???We are made of stardust, 6000 yrears ago
FUCK THE POLICE
911 EVERY DAY
“I do not believe that the systems we are talking about are life as we know it. We need to define the criteria for what we think of as life much more clearly.”
Throw this in the face of all the people who talked to who took 8 ambigiously produced "scientific" definitions of life, said a zygote met all of them, and then yelled at me that I believed in "murder".
Throw this in the face of all the people who talked to who took 8 ambigiously produced "scientific" definitions of life, said a zygote met all of them, and then yelled at me that I believed in "murder".
FUCK THE POLICE
911 EVERY DAY
He's referring to the evangalevical belief that the world is 6000 years old, and humans were made at that time.
The Earth is about 4 billion years old, the universe is about 13.8 billion years old, and cro-magnum man is about 10,000-20,000 years old. In a sane persons mind, that is.
uscitizen
Villified User
blackascoal
The Force is With Me
Science fiction has always been the precursor to science and discovery.
Question is, where does this leave "God?"
Beefy
Worst gambler ever
God is what it is. Everything, the whole universe is "god". Not some angry bearded dude who likes to send people to hell for the sake of his fat ego, but everything is part of creation and intelligence and the beauty of the universe.
We're here, life is beautiful, the universe is beautiful and awe inspiring, I don't need ugliness and threats to find the beauty and intelligence of the universe. Its already there without some vindictive cocksucker claiming sole responsibility to it.
blackascoal
The Force is With Me
Well said.
All things that live are a part of God, all connected and each responsible to each other.
evince
Truthmatters
Yeap that is evolution.
Evolution is what creates everything , just because we dont completely understand how it all works doesnt mean it doesnt happen.
All the evidence we can pin down points to time and lifes attempt at successfully filling a spot that can be exploited as the true God.
I just have never figured out why that is NOT beautiful to people , It Is to Me!
Evolution is what creates everything , just because we dont completely understand how it all works doesnt mean it doesnt happen.
All the evidence we can pin down points to time and lifes attempt at successfully filling a spot that can be exploited as the true God.
I just have never figured out why that is NOT beautiful to people , It Is to Me!
uscitizen
Villified User
Because it is too nebulous for most to get their arms around. Therefore there must be A God to explain all of it.
doniston
Aint I a cutie? HEH HEH
That is what makes it new and uneque.
it is NOT life as we know it, but something different. The life of a plant is far removed from th life of an animal.