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Scientists Confirm There Was Life On Earth 3.5 Billion Years Ago (qz.com)
Paleobiologists have confirmed today that life forms existed some 3.5 billion years ago. The new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, uses the latest techniques to date the most aged remains available. Quartz reports: The research, led by paleobiologist William Schopf of the University of California-Los Angeles and geoscientist John Valley of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been in the works for what seems a long time to most, but which the academics know is merely a blink of the eye in terms of life on Earth. The specimens in question, mostly now-extinct bacteria and microbes, were found in 1982 at the Apex Chert, a rock formation in Western Australia, in a piece of rock. In 1993, based on radiometric analyses of the rock, and the shape of fossils, Schopf dated them as biological beings that existed 3.45 billion years ago. The rock held the earliest direct evidence of life, Schopf thought, and inferred from it that creatures existed over a billion years earlier than anyone previously believed. But some scientists argued that this claim was too speculative and that the microfossils, invisible to the naked eye, were really just weirdly-shaped bits of rock, strange minerals that only seem to contain biological specimens but do not.
Since then, technology has improved and Schopf and Valley teamed up to devise a new way to analyze the rock specimen, which now lives in the London Museum of Natural History. Valley spent 10 years developing a method to analyze the individual species that are shaped like tiny cylinders and filaments. Any type of organic substance (including both rock and microbe) contains a characteristic mix of carbon isotopes. Using a secondary ion mass spectrometer (a very rare tool, one of which is housed at the University of Wisconsin), the scientists were able to separate the carbon in each fossil into isotopes. That way, they could measure the carbon-isotope makeup of each fossil, and compare those to fossil-less rocks from the same era. [...] After analyzing the microfossils individually, they identified five species, concluding that two were photosynthesizers, two were methane-consuming organisms, and one produced methane.
Since then, technology has improved and Schopf and Valley teamed up to devise a new way to analyze the rock specimen, which now lives in the London Museum of Natural History. Valley spent 10 years developing a method to analyze the individual species that are shaped like tiny cylinders and filaments. Any type of organic substance (including both rock and microbe) contains a characteristic mix of carbon isotopes. Using a secondary ion mass spectrometer (a very rare tool, one of which is housed at the University of Wisconsin), the scientists were able to separate the carbon in each fossil into isotopes. That way, they could measure the carbon-isotope makeup of each fossil, and compare those to fossil-less rocks from the same era. [...] After analyzing the microfossils individually, they identified five species, concluding that two were photosynthesizers, two were methane-consuming organisms, and one produced methane.
And 3.5 billion years later life spends its days on Slashdot. Progress?
Back in my day we had to force ourselves to commit mitosis and grow flagellum to troll. It was painful; be grateful.
Table-ized A.I.
The bible never said that.
The biggest joke here is that most of those you claim "adapted" don't even think evolution is real and instead prefer to believe that their imaginary friend poofed everything into existence with magic.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Here's the thing: I don't mind hearing Merry Christmas (but I slowly start to DO mind hearing "Last Christmas". C'mon. George is dead, let the song follow). You wish me a Merry Christmas, I'll probably reply in kind.
What bothers me is the asshats that get ballistic if you wish them "Happy Holidays". Who then berate you for wishing them well that "this is a christian nation".
NO. Fuck it, it's not. It's a secular nation. If you want to live in a theocracy, go to fucking Iran. And take a good look at the whole area to get an idea what it leads to if you base your laws on the power fantasies written down by bigoted barbarians millennia ago when it was a-ok to just bash someone's head in because he has the wrong imaginary friend.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
A billion years still is a very, very long time. A billion years is less time than it took from single celled organism to humans.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Sorry. MORE TIME than it took from ... In other words, first multicellular organisms came into existence less than a billion years ago.
I need more coffee.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Should've looked closer, there's a few senators old enough that there's some mold growing on them.
INTELLIGENT life, on the other hand, ...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Here's the thing: I don't mind hearing Merry Christmas (but I slowly start to DO mind hearing "Last Christmas". C'mon. George is dead, let the song follow). You wish me a Merry Christmas, I'll probably reply in kind.
What bothers me is the asshats that get ballistic if you wish them "Happy Holidays".
I've actually never had that happen to me. They give me strange looks, certainly, but no stranger than my neighbour who occasionally sends me videos of this or that person "proving" intelligent design because he thinks that being an atheist is an irrational decision.
To be honest, I'm not sure how to respond to someone who goes ballistic for *any* greeting. Raised eyebrows? I can handle that. Religious propaganda/literature? Sure, I'll just throw it away anyway. Proselytizing? I'm not gonna argue, just get away if I can.
But anger? What the hell do you do there? Get angry back? That doesn't help - now there's *two* angry people.
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
Most life on Earth isn't intelligent. Actually, most life doesn't even have nerve cells.
Chemical self-replication IS basically what life is. If the "building blocks" are available, self replicating molecules will do just that. At what point you call that "life" is debatable, but in the end, this is what life does. Replicate itself from available resources.
You will not observe this again. At least not on this planet. We have an oxidizing atmosphere that pretty much destroys anything that could remotely form like this. There is a reason why the great oxygenation event nearly killed life off. Plus, we don't have a few million years that we could possibly wait.
Personally, I'm more inclined to think that life can and does simply happen when the conditions are right. But, hey, it could just as well be that an interstellar probe from some alien civilization (crash-) landed on our planet those 4.something billion years ago and one of the mechanics assembling it sneezed on it before launching it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Actually, it did a lot. Survived the late heavy bombardment, developed a few ways to synthesize ATP, invented the nucleus which led to the development of eukaryotes, they developed flagella and carnivore behaviour, viruses came into existence, and my personal favorite, they came up with sexual reproduction.
And you now waste all that with a flick of your hand...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Silence is a state of mime.
It has been generally accepted that there was life at 3.45Gya since 2013.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131113/DAA1VSC01.html
Wait, he only said, "The Bible never said that", which you then agreed with. For all you know, the commentor was a devout Catholic.
Oh no, the scary muslims are coming for us all. Grow a pair and stop being such a fucking pussy. Their bullshit is just as valid as yours.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
The problem is that the people who would want to turn us into a theocracy always assume that THEY would be the ones determining which religion is in charge and THEY would be the ones bashing in someone else's head for following the wrong religion (or no religion). They never think that they might be on the other end of that head bashing.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
And you think that would mean that it looks any different than the Middle East does today? You have the same shit going on there, one group claiming to have the moral higher ground so they can suppress the rest, and the rest fighting back. Why does anyone think this would be different in any way if we tried the same shit here?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
>
What bothers me is the asshats that get ballistic if you wish them "Happy Holidays". Who then berate you for wishing them well that "this is a christian nation"..
Will you join us in the Ban Bing Crosby movement?
He's the bastard that started the heresy with that damn Happy Holiday song.
And he sung Little Drummer Boy with that creepy hippie David Bowie. Jesus has been waterboarding Crosby ever since that evil dude died.
In the meantime, Thanksgiving, Saint Nicholas Day, Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Lucia Day, Hanukkah, Christmas Day, Three Kings Day/Epiphany, Boxing Day, Kwanzaa, Omisoka, Yule, Saturnalia, Veteran's day, New Years day, Thanksgiving
And Festivus for the restofus!
There are a lot of holidays, and some that aren't Christmas are celebrated by a lot of people. Many that aren't Christmas are Christian Holidays that these right thinking people have chosen to ignore. November, December, and New Years are considered the Holiday season because there is a traffic jam of them right now.
So - Happy Holidays folks,may you enjoy good health and happiness. May the new year bring you success. If that insults you or you don't like that, Go Fuck Yourselves.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Don't get me wrong. I don't think it'd be any different than the Middle East. I was just pointing out that the people who want a theocracy in the US assume that they would be in charge and thus somehow immune to any bad stuff that happens thanks to a theocracy. This is (one reason) why you can't rationally discuss this with them. They assume there will be no downside because they are in charge and wouldn't do anything to hurt themselves. Therefore, any downside is "someone else's" problem, not theirs.
Of course the reality is that, were a theocracy instituted in the US, the "ruling religion" might be a slightly different sect of Christianity and they'd wind up on the receiving end of religious-based persecution. However, these kinds of people aren't very big on recognizing reality.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
There is no goal, there simply is elimination if you don't reproduce.
That's all evolution is about, it has no goal.
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
Christ has revoked all previous Jewish laws, and left only one: Love one another.
Jewish books have no place in Christianity.
Odd for a man who was an observant Jew, spend his entire life as an observant Jew, and died as one. In fact one of his most famous acts, which likely contributed to his trial and death was making a disruptive commotion about corruption of orthodox Jewish religious practice in the Temple during Passover.
When did he revoke "all previous Jewish laws"?
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age