Alien Life Found On Earth?

Eris writes: "An interesting tidbit from a UPI story running on Environmental News Network: A Welsh/Indian team of scientists thinks that their high flying research balloon may have picked up actual alien bacteria dropped into the atmosphere by cometary debris. It remains to be seen whether this is any better than our old friend ALH 84001, the Martian Meteorite, and the researcher involved does have a history of pushing the life-from-outer-space theory. But this is just neat enough to merit at least a quick glance." So far, no Andromeda Strain reactions -- a good sign.

Comments

In Other News...

[Cheshire Cat]

An old man and a crying baby were the only survivors of a town, where everyone else mysteriously died off.... :)

Well...

[Auckerman]

I once tought I discovered proof of alien life on Earth, until my mother assured me that she was indeed my sister.

Able to survive in space =/= Coming from space

[Christ-0-Geek]

Every time you hear about these arguments, it seems the people claiming the bacteria are from space base their claim solely upon the observation that the bacteria could survive in outer space. This is a logical fallacy on more than one ground(induction, as opposed to the logically sound deduction for starters). Just because my computer could hurl through space and still be functional, does not mean it necessarily comes from space.

Interesting nonetheless, though :)


-CoG

"And with HIS stripes we are healed"

Re:Able to survive in space =/= Coming from space

[dbarclay10]

Every time you hear about these arguments, it seems the people claiming the bacteria are from space base their claim solely upon the observation that the bacteria could survive in outer space. This is a logical fallacy on more than one ground(induction, as opposed to the logically sound deduction for starters). Just because my computer could hurl through space and still be functional, does not mean it necessarily comes from space.

Yeah, but calculate the odds of your computer leaving the surface of the Earth, going around for a while, and landing on some other planet. Pretty bloody unlikely. Now, calculate the odds that all that would happen *naturally*, with no man-made forces at work. Yeah, damn near impossible now.

Okay, now visualize for a second microbes/organic material that can survive for millions, even billions of years encased in rock(if the organism is simple enough, and it's kept cold enough, it could last indefinetly). All of a sudden, it's very possible that at some time in the distant past, a primitive(or maybe not so primitive) planet/moon was struck by a large meteorite, throwing up huge clouds of dust, full of organic materials(and maybe even primitive life, that survived the blast). A comet passes through the cloud, and carries said organic material all through the solar system.

Calculate the odds on THAT. When you're dealing in time scales of billions of years, it's not so far fetched.

I don't think that the people who believe this is possible base their belief on the fact that bacteria can survive in space. I think it's much more than that. Personally, I don't know. I'll need hard evidence before I'm convinced. For instance, if a probe was built in absolutely sterile conditions(and I mean *absolutely* sterile conditions), and it came back with mold growth, then I'd start to wonder ... ;)

Speaking of probes, what about the Galileo probes? I'm sure they must have some form of Earth-life on them. If it ever falls to another planet, not only is it possible that life has travelled between planets, but it's fact.

Dave

'Round the firewall,
Out the modem,
Through the router,
Down the wire,

Re:"Two possible explanations. ....+1

[deglr6328]

""only two possible explanations. [...] organisms have been lifted from the earth to great heights in the skies and have somehow multiplied there and changed over time." The second, he said, is "that this is an example of primitive alien life."

I fail to see what the first explanation is not the more reasonable!"

And I fail to see why a scientist (who's ideas i am supposed to find credible) refuses to admit that the most probable explanation for his findings is CONTAMINATION! No matter how incredibly stringent your reqirements for having sterile sampling equipment are, it must be noted that the expirament was carried out ON EARTH. you know....that place where there are on average Billions of living organisms per square meter.

Probably nothing to this...

[angkor]

"direct evidence" he says? Wickramasinghe works with a guy named Sir Fred Hoyle--their odd theories have made them favorites of the creationist crowd. They are definitely fringe thinkers.

Among their ideas->insects are smarter than humans-flu epidemics come from space-Archaeopteryx was a fake.

See http://www.talkorigins.org/scripts/search/query.id q?Cmd=Chandra+Wickramasinghe&How=sim ple for more info. The enthuastic tone Wickramasinghe takes in the article is not indicative of a scientist--especially when dealing with such a potentially important discovery.

High altitude life forms

[intmainvoid]

Of course it's always possible that there is a "high altitude ecosystem" and that we're been too ground level focussed to notice. It seems pretty feasible for bacteria to have evolved to survive at altitude. It's not that hard - there would be plenty of energy available from the sun - the main problem would be the cold, and a little less oxygen than at ground level.

Such bacteria probably wouldn't fare too well if it drifted down to ground level, which could explain why we haven't bacteria like this before.

"Two possible explanations."

[raymondlowe]

The Professor is quoted as saying "only two possible explanations. [...] organisms have been lifted from the earth to great heights in the skies and have somehow multiplied there and changed over time." The second, he said, is "that this is an example of primitive alien life."

I fail to see what the first explanation is not the more reasonable!

This is an old argment - they a whole web site: http://www.panspermia.org/

R.

It has settled in Florida

[Scarry Jerry]

These bacteria, being advanced as they are, have evolved into lawyers and descended upon the state of Florida. News reports have greatly overestimated their abilities though. They seem to have problems with propagating their species, since the only thing they seem concerned about is pregnant 'chads' and how they should be counted. They do have a sense of humor, and most of the world, except the members of the two major parties in the US, are laughing at the daily media circus they keep feeding.

Mir: Alien Life?

[ipinkus]

If people are concerned that a comet could contain traces of alien life, why are they dropping Mir into the ocean? Seems like it just might have come into contain with alien bacteria if it is out there... Then we go and drop the thing in the middle of earths womb? Great idea guys... *shrug* Anyone else been thinking along these lines?

But it's DNA

[mindpixel]

The article implies that it is DNA based microbe - I think it would be very unlikely that a true ET would just happen to be DNA - though it's possible - I would be much more interested if it's genetics were non-DNA (A COMPLETELY alien replicator).

If the DNA is really ET DNA - that is it is truely genetically unrelated to anything on earth, it would mean that the universe must be full of DNA for it to just land on Earth.

Can you say Andromeda Strain?

Re:This is probably how we got here

[radja]

>It makes a lot more sense than thinking that our complex ecosystem could arise from nothing more than the hydrogen + nuclear fusion that formed the rest of our solar system.

it may explain how life came to earth.. but it only moves the problem to a different planet where life didn't get by panspermia. the problem isn't adressed at all.

//rdj