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Scientists Discover Interstellar ... Sugar?
Vicnice writes: "The discovery of simple sugars in the cosmos raises the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe a notch or two.
Specifically, the sugar molecules were located in a gas cloud near the center of our galaxy. From the National Radio Astronomy Observatory release: "The scientists identified glycolaldehyde by detecting six frequencies of radio emission in what is termed the millimeter-wavelength region of the electromagnetic spectrum -- a region between more-familiar microwaves and infrared radiation."
When speaking about how likely there are to be intelligent civilizations, people often refer to the Drake Equation. Carl Sagan thought that the equation showed that there should be a significant number of civilizations. Although a recent book, Rare Earth has called into question how probable civilizations are.
This is good news, though, adding a bit to the likelihood of their being other civilizations out there somewhere.
-- dR.fuZZo
It's not really that difficult. If you can detect the could in the first place, you can get a spectrograph of the radiation coming from it. All chemical compounds have a unique spectrographic fingerprint (though they might sometimes get lost in the noise of other compounds) and thus can be easily detected.
This is how helium was first discovered: somebody took a spectrogram of the sun and found some interesting spectral lines in it, applied some theory or other, and came up with helium.
Bill - aka taniwha
--
Leave others their otherness. -- Aratak
I don't know about you, but once they find caffiene among the stars, I'll accept that extraterrestrial intelligence must exist. Until then, how can they stay up all night coding? I'm not even sure Terrestrial intelligence could continue without good-old 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine.
Visit me on #weirdness on the Galaxynet.
That's why Genetically Engineered "Smart Mice"[tm] use real interstellar sugar!
Stay up hacking each weekend. Sleep is for the week.
Interstellar aspartame would be a wonderful discovery, inasmuch as aspartame consists of the two amino acids phenylalanine and aspartic acid. Amino acids aggregate into proteins, and we all know what proteins are good for; if it's extraterrestrial/interstellar life, then it's likely/perhaps cold and could use some enzymes.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
I don't think that its a hoax. A sugar molecule is a resonably simple CHO compound and given the amount of Carbod Hydrogen and Oxygen around in the universe I would say that its a safe bet that there is sugar out there.
What *IS* a surprise is that there is sugar in large enough quantites to be detected.
As for how they were detected, the article says:
The discovery was made by detecting faint radio emission from the sugar molecules in the interstellar cloud. Molecules rotate end-for-end, and as they change from one rotational energy state to another, they emit radio waves at precise frequencies. The "family" of radio frequencies emitted by a particular molecule forms a unique "fingerprint" that scientists can use to identify that molecule. The scientists identified glycolaldehyde by detecting six frequencies of radio emission in what is termed the millimeter-wavelength region of the electromagnetic spectrum -- a region between more-familiar microwaves and infrared radiation.
So, as the article says, they used a bit of spectrography (or radio spec as the case is). Its the same way that Helium was discovered in the sun before it was discovered on earth. (Helios --> meaning "sun" hence Helium.)
According to the article and the information presented therin I would find it unlikely that it is a hoax. The beauty of a thing like this (and science in general) is that anyone else with a telescope capable of detecting this and a radio spectrometer can verify the results. Now, I don't have one. Still, I do know people who work at the Dominion Radio Astronomical Obseratory here in central B.C.
Now, I am not going to go ask my friends to verify this - its just not worth my time. It does however show a good point: Good science can be replicated. You can bet that there are other scientists that upon seeing this result will point their telescopes at this portion of the sky and check.
Myself, I would put money on this being good science and not bad science from the general tone of the article. It seems that the scientific method was followed, and a discovery was unvelied.
In the end, even bad science turns into good science. It just takes time.
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
Cosmic sugar found
Glycolaldehyde? how strange
Why not...galactose?
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You are in a twisty little maze of open source licenses, all different.
I'm half-tempted to adopt British spelling
I realize this might be controversial, but I suggest using a mixture of American and British spelling, and throwing in some olde english, and perhaps "nyew fonetik english" as well, just to give all ye grammar nazis a coronary.
Is there anything funnier or more colourful than a spelling troll or grammar nazi twitching on the ground, lost in the throes of a severe stroke?
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Some organic chemistry, simplified
Types of elements used in life
- the four elements HCNO comprise 95% of living matter (Table 7.1)
- these elements are relatively abundant in the universe, therefore the basic composition of life is not itself a barrier
- these elements have chemical properties which make them advantageous for use in life
- carbon can form four bonds
- carbon bonds with CNO are fairly strong (Figure 7.1)
- C-N, C=N, C-O, C=O
- oxygen readily reacts with carbon
- both O and N exist as gases in the atmosphere which allows them to cycle through the environment (in solid and liquid form)
- the abundance of "other" elements in life (e.g., Ca, P) resembles the abundance in sea water
- this observation suggests that life arose in the oceans
- these elements are used in small proportions and serve very specific functions, e.g., Zn in insulin and Fe in hemoglobin
- indicative of a complex interaction between life and the environment
Molecular Structures- life (1) stores and (2) transmits genetic information using polymers
- a polymer is a molecule consisting of the repeated pattern of a small unit, where the units are called monomers
- example: A-A-A-A-A-A is a polymer of the "A" monomer
- example: A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B is a polymer, and both A and B are monomers
- see Figure 7.3
- these polymers store and transmit information by varying (1) the elemental composition and (2) the structure (or shape) of the molecule
- shape - the shape of a polymer can aid (speed up) chemical reactions that would otherwise occur slowly
- these aids are called catalysts
- in life processes, catalysts are called enzymes
- life shows a high degree of selectivity in the compounds it uses and in the shape of those compounds (Figure 7.2)
- example - only 20 amino acids are commonly used out of nearly countless numbers (Figure 7.7 and Table 7.2)
- amino acids are the monomers used to construct polymers called proteins
Reproduction at the molecular level- reproduction relies upon DNA and RNA polymers
- DNA = deoxyribonucleic acid
- RNA = ribonucleic acid
- Note - RNA is not directly involved in the reproductive process, it acts as an intermediary
- DNA (1) stores genetic information and (2) oversees the construction of proteins
- genetic information tells the next generation how to grow, reproduce and carry on with life activities
- DNA is a polymer
- it is made up of monomers called nucleotides (Figure 7.4)
- a nucleotide is a molecule containing:
- sugar + phosphate (PO4) + base
- "base" as opposed to an "acid"
- there are four bases:
- adenine (A)
- guanine (G)
- cytosine (C)
- thymine (T)
- there is a fifth base called uracil (U) that is not used by DNA
- DNA is in the shape of a twisted ladder, called a double helix (Figure 7.5)
- the rungs of the latter are made of two bases, called a base pair
- the base pairs cannot link randomly, rather, only A-T and G-C pairs are possible
Manufacture of proteins- DNA is also responsible for manufacturing proteins
- Note - these three statements, which were in the original document, can be deleted. It is important to know that the base-triplets are used to determine which amino acid is placed in a protein.
- the two strands of DNA can split (Figure 7.6)
- each strand can capture free-floating amino acids which, when complete, break away from the strand to become a free-floating protein
- each amino acid bonds to the DNA molecule using 3 adjacent bases (three of ACGT, e.g., "AAC")
- the allowance is for 4x4x4 = 64 distinct amino acids
- life uses only 20 amino acids
- the remaining (extra) base-triplets are used for redundancy and for a "stop" command
- DNA manufactures proteins that use between 100-500 triplets of bases
- sequences that are significant to the organism are called genes (Table 7.3)
- by splitting down the middle, DNA replicates itself "exactly" due to the unique pairing ability of the nucleotide bases, A-T and G-C
- DNA does not perform the actual synthesis of proteins
- rather, DNA serves as the blueprint
- DNA forms RNA, which is a "working copy" of the gene or protein it wishes to produce
- the RNA does the actual manufacture of proteins by capturing free amino acids
- Note - this statement is not quite correct. The RNA is recognized by a ribosome, which translates the RNA message into a protein using the base triplets. My dictionay (online Webster's) defines "ribosome" as "any of the RNA-rich cytoplasmic granules that are sites of protein synthesis".
- RNA replaces thymine (T) with uracil (U) in its structure
RNA World Theory- DNA uses RNA to manufacture proteins
- RNA resembles a single strand of DNA, i.e., a "half ladder" (DNA split down the middle)
- RNA can catalyze itself, or act as its own enzyme in reproduction
- researchers think that RNA came first in our evolutionary sequence, the RNA world theory (pg 199)
- current research tries to explore the formation of RNA
Mutation- sometimes there is a change in the sequence of nucleotide bases, a mutation
- causes -
- high energy photons (gamma rays)
- high energy particles (cosmic ray particles)
- chemical agents (mutagens)
- error in the DNA copying mechanism - somewhat rare
- the error causes an incorrect amino acid to be entered into a protein
- Note - there are other possible effects, however, only the one we are interested in is described here
- Note - the physical cause of the mutation is that an entire base pair can be knocked out of the molecule, while allowing the molecule itself to remain intact.
- many mutations are neutral, but some will harm or help the organism
- "help" means "more successful in reproduction"
- over time, favourable mutations will dominate the genetic material of a species, called natural selection
Carbon versus silicon- the need for complex molecules is best met by molecules that can bond the most number of times - four bonds - includes carbon, silicon, germanium, titanium and others
- carbon and silicon are the most abundant
- silicon forms weaker bonds: Si-Si-Si is unstable and will tend to break apart
- stable forms of silicon do not participate easily in chemical reactions
- silicon reacts with oxygen readily to form silicon dioxide (SiO2), which is stable (too much so) and unreactive
- it is a solid that is not soluble in water, hence it is difficult to cycle silicon through the environment
- the Si equivalent of methane (CH4) is silane (SiH4) which spontaneously bursts into fire when exposed to oxygen
- hence, silicon is inferior to carbon since it does not form complex molecules, but rather gets locked up in small, stable molecules that are unreactive
- despite these properties, silicon-based life is popular with science fiction authors
- other elements that can form four bonds have very low abundances, which is unfavourable for life
Miller-Urey experimentsYou can't handle the truth.
One, what are the "agreed upon" values for each variable in Drake's Equation?
Two, since our "communicative" span may be about 100 years from first radio transmissions to adoption of less leaky cable/internet/laser stuff, how low is the fb (fraction of time the society is using broadcasting technologies)?
Three, if we DO hear something, do we assume that we'll hear someone out there, during their 100 year burst of transmissions, and then be able to visit them, given that time/space curvature puts their race far ahead of ours?
[
It's interesting to note that the scientists were talking about the building blocks of life seem to be being formed before the planets that host that life. Kind of makes you wonder if there are some interesting life forms living in the gas cloud independent of any one planet or star.
Bill - aka taniwha
--
Leave others their otherness. -- Aratak
I'm convinced now it won't be long before scientists find full-fledged "space twinkies"... mmmmm.....
-colin
-Colin
the Milky Way (hardy har har). Seriously, think of how much you could get for that stuff. Most expensive cookies I ever saw, man.
Interested in open source engine management for your Subaru?
Forgive me Lubeck Streyer (aka 'lubie-babie', when I was in molecular bio) and St. Lehninger, for the sins I am about to commit...
.......H............ ....HO-C-H..___. .....__....... ........\../...| ... /..\...... ......HO-C.....| ....\__/\..... ......HO-C-H...| .........\__.. ......HO-C-H...| ........./..\. ......HO-C-H...| .........\__/. .......H-C-OH..| .............. ..........\____| ...Table Sugar
I really feel I ought to explain what they are calling 'sugars' here -- it's a biochemical term that (very crudely) boils down to 'a chain of carbons with water attached' -- only the 'water' has broken into two parts ( HOH => H + OH ) and these two parts connect to the carbon, instead of each other. you can think of a 'sugar' as a chain of carbon groups that look like HO-C-H and are connected to each other at by the carbons like this:
......._____.
....../.....|
...HO-C-H...|
...HO-C-H...|
...HO-C-H...|
...HO-C-H...|
...HO-C-H...|
....H-C-OH..|
......\_____|
The big loop just indicates that the carbons are generally in a ring. The second figure indicates that not all of the carbons are always in the ring. The last HO-C-H group is backwards to indicate that major difference between many sugars of the same size is simply whether each -OH group points up or down when we lay the ring flat. "up-up-down-up-up-up" is one sugar, but "up-up-up-down-up-up" is different sugar (they may seem like reflections, but trust me, in a 3-D ring, they aren't)
The 'well-known sugars' (most of which you've never heard of) have carbon chain lengths from 3 carbons (e.g. triose) up to seven carbons (e.g. sedheptulose). However, the 'familiar sugars' are usually based on a six carbon (glucose, fructose, etc.) or five-carbon (ribose) ring. Table sugar (sucrose) consists of *two* six carbon sugars connected together. Chains of sugars longer than two can be very 'un-sugar-like' -- cellulose (wood fiber) is nothing but long linked chains of glucose (blood sugar) while glycogen (a stored fuel in your liver) is also just branched chains of glucose, but is very different physically.
Glucose (blood sugar) or fructose (fruit sugar) are C6-H12-O6. Table sugar (sucrose) is C12-H22-O12. In space conditions, it might be useful to think of carbon chain lengths as being like stacked blocks -- the kind children play with. Generally stacking two blocks is easy, but six is more than three times as hard (it tends to fall apart easily)
The so-called "sugar" they found in space is two carbons long (glycoaldehyde C2-H4-O2) and is very unlike the six-carbon (okay, 5-7) sugars we usually think of. In biochemistry, it isn't generally called a sugar at all. Three carbons was a sort of bottom limit to be sugar like, because the 'ends' often have an extra hydrogen, and a two carbon 'sugar' would be nothing but 'end' and can't form a ring. It's not very 'sugar-like'. It is an extremely simple molecule, that would be easy to make ("stack") by random, and it looks like this (where the = means a double bond)
......H.H.... -- glycoaldehyde,
...HO-C-C=O.. -- the so-called
......H.H.... -- "space sugar"
You can find more info at these pages:
The structure and function of macromolecules (an outline)
Some sketches of various sugars (let the pictures load before scrolling, or you'll lose your place)
If you can go to bed, knowing you did a valuable thing today, you're very lucky. If you can't... it's not bedtime
...Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope discoverd intergalactic coffee. There is now speculation that the Big Bang was a result of the early universe being excessively "wired". Starbucks executives declined to comment.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
By spectral analysis, that's how. In this case, the analysis was on radio waves. In essence, they didn't "see" the molecules, they detected them. While the results may not be accurate, I wouldn't call them a hoax.
And yes, I know you're not the real timothy. All you have to do is look at the source of a page you've posted on and you'll see the special character after the 'i'.