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Interstellar Dust Could Be "Alive"
reezle writes "An international team has discovered that, under the right conditions, particles of inorganic dust can become organized into helical structures. These structures can interact with one another in ways that are usually associated with organic compounds and with life. Not only do these helical strands interact in a counterintuitive way in which like can attract like, but they also undergo changes that are normally associated with biological molecules, such as DNA and proteins, say the researchers. For example, they can divide to form two copies of the original structure. These new structures can also interact to induce changes in their neighbors. And they can even evolve into yet more structures as less stable ones break down, leaving behind only the fittest structures in the plasma. 'These complex, self-organized plasma structures exhibit all the necessary properties to qualify them as candidates for inorganic living matter,' said the lead researcher. 'They are autonomous, they reproduce and they evolve.'" The research, published in the New Journal of Physics, was carried out using a computer model of molecular dynamics.
Great, I may live to hear some alien life form call us "ugly bags of mostly water." Just don't let them near the laser drill.
..that no one has yet welcomed our new dusty interstellar overlords!
Well if no one else does, I, for one, will.
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My god man, do they want tea?
Baboons are cute.
Because if you can't relate everything you learn to Star Trek, then does it really exist?
If the dust decides to invade Earth (the next John Carpenter flick, The Dust), duct tape your door and window seams and arm yourself with a Swiffer and bottle of Pledge.
That's it. I just wanted to make a post with "panspermia" as the subject. You've got to sieze such opportunities whenever they arise...
Maybe our universe is just a simulation, running inside a simulation, in a much bigger universe that itself is just a molecule in an even bigger universe that is just a molecule in that cloud of pot smoke you just exhaled. Ever think of that?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Commentary: The meatbag speaks without clarity. Detail your involvement or the master will splatter your organs all over the floor.
But... if a computer simulation can simulate life, is the simulation alive?
Does it qualify under the Dave Barry definition?
Life is anything that dies when you stomp on it.
The only surefire protection against Microsoft infections is abstinence. - The Onion
Depends on whose brain it was simulating, I suppose.
If the masses can keep you down, you're not the Ubermensch.
Only humans could so self-deprecating as to assume that we're the only species who could be so arrogant as to consider ourselves the premier life form in the universe.
Do astronomers have any idea why the dust chose to be gay?
Intergallactic schools started requiring the reading of "Dusty Has Two Like Progenitor Strands"?
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
I mean really, what other explanation is there? Dust doesn't just act lively because science says so, their has to be some sort of intelligent and purposeful being behind it. I know a lot of people will say that it is merely a extension of the Daemon Sultan Azathoth, but they're all pagan leftists spreading propaganda to detract from the one true God's will!
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
You can't fool me! It's turtles all the way down.
News about the Kettle Open Source project: on my blog
Only humans could be so arrogant as to assume that only humans could be so self-deprecating as to assume that we're the only species that could be so arrogant as to...where was I?
The human mind congeals around age 30...
So mind's younger than that are still at a pudding-like consistency?
Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.
Computer, your petition for citizenship has been granted.
"That's hot."
COMPUTER! You need to stop saying that if you want to be accepted as a member of society!
"I know.. that's so hot."
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
An alternate brane exists where interstellar dust beings are pondering exactly the same thing about us.
In any case, I for one welcome our new interstellar dust being overlords/
Well, he would have backed it up instead of just parroting it out, but he's over thirty.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
Yeah! Blast it into bits of dust!
Oh, wait...
In general, it is safe and legal to kill your children. -- POSIX Programmer's Guide
or EVIL!!!
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Uh yeah, just as much as my PC running Microsoft Flight Simulator X qualifies my computer as a Boeing 747.
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
Oh my God, I just realised that Paris Hilton would fail the Turing Test, therefore, she is a robot.
Mommy! I want a Paris Hilton Fembot for my birthday!
Its the remains of the crystalline entity.
Guess me! Guess me!