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Scientists Offer 'Overwhelming' Evidence Terran Life Began in Space
An anonymous reader writes "Using data from recent comet-probing space missions, British scientists are reporting today that the odds of life starting on Earth rather than inside a comet are one trillion trillion (10 to the power of 24) to one against. That is, we're not originally from around here. Radiation in comets could keep water in liquid form for millions of years, they say, which along with the clay and organic molecules found on-board would provide an ideal incubator. 'Professor Wickramasinghe said: "The findings of the comet missions, which surprised many, strengthen the argument for panspermia. We now have a mechanism for how it could have happened. All the necessary elements - clay, organic molecules and water - are there. The longer time scale and the greater mass of comets make it overwhelmingly more likely that life began in space than on earth."'" jamie points out that the author of this paper has many 'fringe' theories. Your mileage may vary.
That's where God lives.
The great anthropologist Dr. Douglas Adams already showed that we did not originate here. In fact, we were passengers on the 'B' Ark that crash-landed here. Our ancestors come from an ancient civilization called Golgafrinchans. It is a shame that Dr. Adams's work is so widely ridiculed as a "humorous" bit of "fiction" in wider scientific circles.
I for one welcome... uh, myself.
Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!
In an ironic statement, they also claim Protoss life began on Earth...
There was never a better time to tag a story nevertellmetheodds!
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Is there any evidence that comets have such isotopes at such concentrations? This sounds like the sort of thing Lex Luthor would be involved in.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
I think length of time was factored in somehow, the gist of it being that comets have been around a lot longer than the Earth and therefore more likely to have had the incubating effect.
That stated, it'll take more than a few numbers in a formula to convince me. I'm not going to believe this until a cometary probe comes back contaminated with an alien microbe that destroys all life on the planet. And even then, I'll be a little bit skeptical.
When I was in grad school our group was trying to make a particular type of superconducting circuit. After many attempts we got one that worked, wrote it up, and presented it at a conference.
During the Q&A, someone asked my advisor what our yields were. "On a good day, 100%". The followup question was, "what's your yield on good days?"
It's not wasting time, I'm educating myself.
want to tell us that life was created by random comet falls?
i demand equal time for the godly and righteous theory of intelligent comet placing!
comets did not just fall randomly to earth and create life!
god himself intelligently directed comets to come to the early lifeless earth 6,000 years ago!
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Soooooo, they used two numbers (mass of clay & # of comets) to generate a 1e24 to 1 odd against life having started here? Seems like they might have left one or two variables out of their equation. Hopefully this is just junk reporting rather than junk science.
I have a new meta-theory for these sorts of things: if your hypothesis sounds like the Chewbacca Defense, it's almost certainly bogus.
Panspermia: When God masturbates.
If the Religious Right takes issue with Evolution, just wait they find out that little Bobby is going to be taught about Panspermia! In school! Next thing you know Health class will be teaching kids the proper way to masticate.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
No, our universe will not end. We are the embryonic stem cells of the earth embryo. However, we will soon be harvested by the universe entity to be used to find a cure for galactic cancer. Unless the multi-verse government can pass the cosmos-bill banning earth-embryonic stem cell research, we are all doomed.
Isn't the Earth in space?
In a manner of speaking, didn't everything start in space?
My car won't start in space, you insensitive clod!
"Either is happens, or it doesn't"
And there was a 50/50 chance that I'd get the punchline right, and I got it wrong thanks to a spelling mistake.
Either it happens, or it doesn't.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
I like your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsleter!
Atlas Shrugged : Thematic Story
Spore delayed to add pre-cell comet level
As it is written in the scared scrolls, " Life Here, Began Out There"
Panspermia: (n) the theory which states that sperm gets all over everything.
I guess it's more appropriate to speak of the Earth as the final frontier, now. Poor trekkies.
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.