Posts: 1571
Threads: 179
Joined: October 14, 2010
Reputation:
35
NASA Finds Amino Acids on Impossible Meteorite, Improves Chances E.T. Exists
December 19, 2010 at 3:18 pm
(This post was last modified: December 19, 2010 at 3:19 pm by orogenicman.)
Much more interesting than potential arsenic-dependent life-form found in a lake in California.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1710607/nasa-...-et-exists
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
Posts: 69248
Threads: 3759
Joined: August 2, 2009
Reputation:
259
RE: NASA Finds Amino Acids on Impossible Meteorite, Improves Chances E.T. Exists
December 19, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Quote:But the theory that comets can seed planets with the chemicals necessary to make life just got a huge boost from this new asteroid-meteorite find, which implies amino acids may be far more ubiquitous than previously thought.
And creationist morons will shit their pants in a festival of denial!
Posts: 19788
Threads: 57
Joined: September 24, 2010
Reputation:
85
RE: NASA Finds Amino Acids on Impossible Meteorite, Improves Chances E.T. Exists
December 19, 2010 at 3:57 pm
(This post was last modified: December 19, 2010 at 4:09 pm by Anomalocaris.)
I think laboratory experiments should first be carried out to determine the viability of any amino acid in 2000 degree temperatures before we take the fact that we can't think of how this rock might have been contaminated by earthly amino acid to mean there hasn't actually been any contamination.
I think there wasn't any previous suggestions that where conditions are amenable to life, life can be forestalled by the lack of amino acids. So I might think this discovery does't change anything fundamental.
Posts: 1571
Threads: 179
Joined: October 14, 2010
Reputation:
35
RE: NASA Finds Amino Acids on Impossible Meteorite, Improves Chances E.T. Exists
December 19, 2010 at 4:23 pm
(December 19, 2010 at 3:57 pm)Chuck Wrote: I think laboratory experiments should first be carried out to determine the viability of any amino acid in 2000 degree temperatures before we take the fact that we can't think of how this rock might have been contaminated by earthly amino acid to mean there hasn't actually been any contamination.
I think there wasn't any previous suggestions that where conditions are amenable to life, life can be forestalled by the lack of amino acids. So I might think this discovery does't change anything fundamental.
It is possible that this fragment wasn't subjected to the high temperatures, and was simply thrown off during the impact. That said, I don't know what analysis was done on the meteorite to determine if it had been subjected to high temperatures (other than entering Earth's atmosphere). I wish I had access to the original paper.
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
Posts: 1211
Threads: 38
Joined: July 15, 2010
Reputation:
21
RE: NASA Finds Amino Acids on Impossible Meteorite, Improves Chances E.T. Exists
December 19, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Is it just me, or does it seem like every time we find an organic chemical anywhere, it makes E.T. more likely.
I mean, it's not wrong, but it's not really surprising either. You'd think the media and many journalists who report on these things thought there was nothing but granite, hydrogen, and dust outside of the Earth's atmosphere.
I mean, what would really be surprising is if the arsenic DNA thing were confirmed to be real or we find evidence that silicon-based life is possible. That would be a truely surprising and revolutionary development.
If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools and next year you can make it a crime to teach it to the hustings or in the church. At the next session you may ban books and the newspapers...
Ignorance and fanaticism are ever busy and need feeding. Always feeding and gloating for more. Today it is the public school teachers; tomorrow the private. The next day the preachers and the lecturers, the magazines, the books, the newspapers. After a while, Your Honor, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed until with flying banners and beating drums we are marching backward to the glorious ages of the sixteenth centry when bigots lighted fagots to burn the men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind. ~Clarence Darrow, at the Scopes Monkey Trial, 1925
Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. ~Ronald Reagan
Posts: 19788
Threads: 57
Joined: September 24, 2010
Reputation:
85
RE: NASA Finds Amino Acids on Impossible Meteorite, Improves Chances E.T. Exists
December 19, 2010 at 6:38 pm
(This post was last modified: December 19, 2010 at 6:48 pm by Anomalocaris.)
Actually, I suspect the discovery of granite outside the earth would be very big news indeed, since it implies water lubricated plate tectonics.
Posts: 1571
Threads: 179
Joined: October 14, 2010
Reputation:
35
RE: NASA Finds Amino Acids on Impossible Meteorite, Improves Chances E.T. Exists
December 19, 2010 at 7:30 pm
(December 19, 2010 at 6:38 pm)Chuck Wrote: Actually, I suspect the discovery of granite outside the earth would be very big news indeed, since it implies water lubricated plate tectonics.
Indeed.
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
|
