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Alcohol Haze At Galactic Heart

Kentai writes: "According to the BBC: 'The detection of yet more alcohol in a giant molecular cloud near the centre of our galaxy could give clues to the origin of complex organic molecules in space.' I knew my life revolved around alcohol!"

9 of 22 comments (clear)

  1. uh oh. by laymil · · Score: 3, Funny

    someones trying to raid God's liquor stash...better watch out!

  2. Mmm... beer... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    When I find myself in a cloud of alcohol, I frequently find myself emitting large amounts of organic compounds too.

  3. I think they want to be quoted out of context ... by pubudu · · Score: 3, Funny
    ... this cloud lies near an area where young stars are forming ... This would liberate the molecules from their chilly nurseries, depositing them into interstellar space ...

    Bureau of ATF officials are now on their way to the region looking for their intergalactic still. "Young adults tend to think that moonshining is a fun way to avoid their state's liquor laws, but the "Dukes of Hazaard" is not an accurate portrayal of this dangerous business," said Agt. Washington Fleming, who is leading the operation. "The quanity involved, although small by galactic standards, suggests that this is not being done just for personal use, and that makes it a Federal matter. Also, once they start selling it, they step on the heals of organized crime, and are so pitting themselves against a more ruthless foe than Boss Hog."

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    under-paid karma whore

  4. Serious comment, trust me!!! by hhe_hee · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Ok, here's a serious comment. This could reveal much of the mystery about our own origin. How life began in the first place in our solar system. And maybe life is forming right now far away in that cloud, think about that for a while. We could be watching the formation of life (at a great distance of course) in that cloud. It's like a giant Miller-Urey experiment where a mixture of methane, ammonia, water vapour, and hydrogen was circulated through a liquid water solution and continuously sparked by a corona discharge elsewhere in the apparatus. The discharge may be thought to represent lightning flashes on the early Earth. After several days of exposure to sparking, the solution changed colour. Subsequent analysis indicated that several amino and hydroxy acids, intimately involved in contemporary life, had been produced by this simple procedure.

    There are several key steps in the origins of life:
    • Formation of complex organic molecules
    • Self-replicating systems
    • Protein synthesis; DNA is the genetic material, but it requires proteins to replicate
    • Compartmentalization: the first cell

    And origins of complex organic molecules are believed to be:
    • Nucleosynthesis in stars to form complex molecules
    • molecular clouds
    • A very significant fraction of the Earth' s carbon came from extensive cometary bombardment on the primitive Earth
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    2 reptiles beneath your current threshold.
    1. Re:Serious comment, trust me!!! by Cy+Guy · · Score: 2

      Nucleosynthesis in stars to form complex molecules

      Wouldn't the part to take place in the stars be the formation of complex atoms (i.e. Hydrogen into Helium via fusion and then into heavier elements needed to create life, notably Nitrogen, Oxygen and Carbon)?

      A very significant fraction of the Earth' s carbon came from extensive cometary bombardment on the primitive Earth

      There is an awfully large amount of carbon on earth, (think of all the limestone, oil and coal that's still in the ground, let alone the carbon in every living thing and in the atmosphere). What kind of percentage are you thinking here, 1%? 2%? ???

  5. I know I'm gonna loose karma on this, but... by wardomon · · Score: 2, Funny
    It's like a giant Miller-Urey experiment [uoregon.edu]

    I'd prefer a giant Miller-Beer experiment.

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    - - - If the sun is a star, why can't I see it at night?
  6. blink by ErikZ · · Score: 2, Redundant


    ....and slowly, though the eons, the cloud coalesces into clumps. In the more massive clumps something wonderful emerges! A star is born...made of beer.

    It's gentle amber light pours over the proto-planets. The inner planets are made of more dense materials, salt, peanuts, etc. The outer planets are mostly gaseous in nature...

    --
    Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
  7. Re:I'm off! by pubudu · · Score: 2
    Ah, if I hadn't already posted to this topic, I'd have modded you up. Well, to atone for my sin ...

    Sleeping, dreaming, waking, weary,
    Rises man with eyelids dreary,
    Looking to voluptuous lass,
    Queezy from the sleeping gas.

    In dreamless sleep he passed the years,
    Oblivious to all men's fears
    That someday might the women see
    The path on which they might be free.

    Yet see he will, as time unfold,
    And finds the fairer sex too bold,
    And needless of his violent race
    And speaking plainly to his face,

    "We have no need of male intrusion
    Having mastered your infusion,
    And can now our 'selves inject
    With something to a sim'lar 'ffect.

    "'T is safer for 'veryone involved
    And humanity has thence evolved,
    Such that not we need burly race
    And can at last true love embrace.

    "And thus we seek this far expanse,
    Far off from home and Nature's chance
    To find the spacial alcohol
    Which attracts th' 'ttension of us all

    "Though of it we will not partake,
    And happiness for this mistake:
    A brief respite from nat'ral woes
    And thrown into dread Nature's throes.

    "Nor we will not of it use make
    As it our souls will surely break
    With gross desires most unhealthful
    With consequences too far dreadful.

    "And so you must, as species rest,
    Comfortable, as if our guest,
    Yet ever knowing thou art slave
    And our experiments must brave.

    "The end of stimulation 't is near
    And soon shall we of sin be clear
    And we shall sexless show the way
    How to keep howling Death at bay."

    Unable to reverse the Curse,
    Unable to embrace the Worse,
    Looking but to future Life
    And how to overcome such Wife,

    He at long last doth join the crew,
    As if in it he always grew,
    And soon doth learn their servile way,
    And from his manhood so doth stray,

    And the alcohol remains uncollected.

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    under-paid karma whore

  8. Bummer... by Robber+Baron · · Score: 2

    From the article:

    Vinyl alcohol, actually a non-inebriating complex organic molecule...

    Awww shit! And I was getting all ready to "boldly go"...

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    You're using her as bait, Master!