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Live Worms Found in Columbia Wreckage
Scoria writes "CNN is reporting that hundreds of live worms, fourth or fifth generation descendents of the subjects of a scientific experiment conducted aboard Columbia, have been discovered amongst the shuttle wreckage. The worms,
C. elegans ,
share many biological characteristics with humans and are the size of a pencil tip."
When I was younger.... smaller and lighter I could easly jump out of a second story window onto the ground without causing myself any injury.
Now I'm older, taller and fatter there's no way I'd jump out of a second story window, it's hurt too much.
It's not too surprising that something small survived whilst the people died.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
This proves that life can survive a fiery impact with the earth -- like that of a meteor impact. On top of that, it's not even a single celled organism... even though these things are as small as pencil lead, they are somewhat organized multicellular organisms.
I would think this might add a little bit more credibility to the people who think life originated in somewhere other than Earth.
I remember the news stories that said if you found a piece of the space shuttle and you touched it you could face a huge fine. Would this also mean if you got infected with a weird viurus or "worm" you could sue? Think of how terrible it would have (or was) if they had biotoxins on board the shuttle?
Does anyone know if these "similar to human" worms are harmful to humans?
What makes them similar to humans anyway?
Does radiation and antigravity make such creatures mutate? What if these worms were carrying some sort of bacteria in their digestive system like tape worms and mosquitos do that are bredding grounds for new super viruses like SARS and illness like Malaria???
Not concerned or scared, just curious ...
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
It was only 4th or 5th generation (times 3 days) - hmmm did they find it 15 days after?
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
But seriously, this goes a long way to prove the panspermia theory. Or atleast to disprove all the nay-sayers. If a pencil-tip-sized worm can survive that impact, then bacteria should be able to survive the impact of a comet.
All this proves is that worms in a locker can survive a shuttle crash.
That's the problem with all these conspiracy theories and wacky beliefs about the world. Someone looks at two statements, one of which is fact, and they conclude the other is fact, because it just seems like it might be true based on the first one. They then use their new 'fact' as a basis for proving other things, and away we go.
The space shuttle did disintegrate, but in terms of space bound meteorite impact, it was quite a controlled descent. It broke apart, looked fiery, but that doesn't mean it was a ball of plasma. A Fighter jet can break down and look fiery at just 200 feet off the ground...
My further point is that this article is somehow trying to strike the "oh look, things that have common characteristics with humans (in that their cells divide, and some of them have sperm <poster's humour>) made it alive through... it's not such a big tragedy after all."
The first thing that's mentionned in the article is:
All seven astronauts were killed when the shuttle disintegrated over Texas on February 1. Columbia contained almost 60 scientific investigations.
Anyways, boo on CNN, it both draws on sensationalism (exploiting a story because of it's tragic sense), and assumes readers are stupid...
5 generations removed x 10 day lifecycle = 50 days, maximum.
Discovery "this week" (say, Apr 25) - Shuttle Explosion Feb 1 = 89 days.
This doesn't account for the fact that the story says the current worms were 4-5 generations removed from worms placed in the can "in January", or the possibility that reproducing a generation may take less time than the life cycle.
Am I missing something, or are they?