Possible Signs of Life Detected On Venus

MoThugz writes "This article from the The Houston Chronicle discusses the discovery of mysterious swirling patches on the surface of the planet which may be communities of bacteria. These bacteria might be a genetically-enhanced version of the thermophiles which are known to survive in extreme temperatures. The article suggested the bacteria could be using ultraviolet light from the sun as an energy source, which would explain the presence of strange dark patches on ultraviolet images of the planet."

Comments

Occam's Razor

[vofka]

This sounds like a case of a bunch of scientists forgetting to properly apply Occam's Razor!!

Life (even microbial life) is so extremely complex, that is seems implausable to jump to the conclusion that life must be present, simply because of a chemical marker which we find hard to make without the help of microbes!

These guys should be concentrating on eliminating other possibilities, rather than just jumping onto the News Bandwagon to get their latest 'discovery of life' publicised.

Re:Occam's Razor

[fstrauss]

Life (even microbial life) is so extremely complex, that is seems implausable to jump to the conclusion that life must be present, simply because of a chemical marker which we find hard to make without the help of microbes!

So we have a chemical marker which we have no knowledge of occuring naturally unless mircrobes are present.
Apply Occam's Razor to that and you come to the conclusion that there is possibly life.

Pretty fair conclusion imho

Re:Occam's Razor

[Fnagaton]

I agree, the more logcial conclusion given the available evidence is that biological life is present. However I find it anoying that debunkers tend to suddenly whip out the holy 'Occam's razor' argument, as if it removes any theory they don't like. I myself am left wondering if it wasn't for the film 'Contact' how many people would know about it? Although I do prefer the spelling 'Ockham' after the name of the Surrey village where he was born.

Definite Possibility!

[purrpurrpussy]

Because otherwise the 99% of the human population who know little to nothing about modern science and don't even watch the news would never get "hooked" by anything. "Life on X" is popular at the mo' there have been many others "The Might Atom" for example.

I think the theory is that you have a coupla "whizz bang" announcments a year and hope that enough people get into the sciencey thing and become inventors, engineers, fizzysists etc...

Otherwise most people would go back to watching "Big Brother" or "Pop Idol" or some equally vacuous "entertainment"... after many years of this the TV system would eventually fall into disrepair and the ensuing social chaos would cause untold destruction.

probly.

Re:Definite Possibility!

[c.emmertfoster]

Ouch.

Personally I would prefer an ignorant populace to the credible, misinformed boobs that surround me.

I work with people who believe we never landed on the moon, because of a television special ... not to mention "John Edward" and some woman who allegedly speaks to pets.

Even as a child I could distingush reality from fantasy. Someone needs to instill these people with a sense of critical, rational thinking.

I think I'm going to go read James Randi and be fanatically skeptical now.

Re:Habitablity

[drudd]

It's pretty hard to take up the argument that the conditions for life on say Mars are better than Earth. Earth has vast forests, billions of species... seems pretty conducive to life, huh? Mars, on the other hand, may or may not have microbial life... pretty dull.

All the conditions you listed off, instable tectonic plates, atmospheric disturbances, etc are all wonderful sources of energy, and most likely helped the formation of life on Earth, rather than hindered it.

Doug

Re:FAR more compelling EVIDENCE = CO levels

[zaffir]

Exactly. This also ties in with the belief that there HAS to be water for there to be life, and that water means life. For all we know there are things living on Pluto that enjoy solid nitrogen popsicles on a daily basis.

Re:See also - Funny! Etc.

[Jouni]

I'm probably not the only one to be amused by this: "Moderation Totals: Redundant=2, Informative=1, Overrated=1, Underrated=1, Total=5"

I believe the appropriate karma to follow should be tagged "Funny". :-) Community moderation at work!

And now, to make my post important enough for it to avoid the dreaded zero...

Regarding life anywhere; Steve Grand makes a very interesting point about life in his book "Creation"; it's not tied to the matter that makes life up but rather the patterns in how things connect. The analogy he drew was how clouds are not static bodies of steam but rather areas inside which the water carried by air becomes visible. Like ripples in the water, we only borrow the atoms in our own bodies for a while, binding them to the patterns of interaction that make us unquestionably alive.

While it's far fetched to imagine even bugs on Venusian surface, it is not impossible to envision bacteria evolving from the complex interactions of heat and gases in the atmosphere. All evolution needs to kick off is a fertile playground, a pattern that can replicate itself with a degree of variation, and a lucky roll of dice.

If there indeed *is* bacteria discovered on Venus it would suggest the dice of the universe are heavily loaded with a bias towards generating life. It's that bias which would determine not just whether we are alone but just how crowded it can this universe get after a while. On the other hand, the Venusians have quite a few hundred million years to catch up with their Terran cousins.

Although, with the moderation above points, one has to wonder. :-)

Jouni

Re:FAR more compelling EVIDENCE = CO levels

[Consul]

I'm wondering...

The Russians actually landed a probe on Venus (in fact, I seem to remember two of them landing). Is it possible this new evidence for microbes might actually be getting caused by microbes we introduced there?

Eh, it's just a random thought. Anything seems a likely explanation at this point. You can't always tell when it comes to the chemical processes of an alien world.

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