Slashdot Mirror
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.
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
But... if a computer simulation can simulate life, is the simulation alive?
That simply means that you need a bigger foot. Or a smaller bear.
Depends on whose brain it was simulating, I suppose.
If the masses can keep you down, you're not the Ubermensch.
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.
You can't fool me! It's turtles all the way down.
News about the Kettle Open Source project: on my blog
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/
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!
Guess me! Guess me!