Earliest Signs of Life on Earth

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Message 1442322 - Posted: 14 Nov 2013, 14:27:54 UTC

I found this quite interesting.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/13/world/asia/australia-ancient-life/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

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Message 1442324 - Posted: 14 Nov 2013, 14:45:22 UTC
Last modified: 14 Nov 2013, 14:50:51 UTC

Hi Steve!

With reference to the mentioned web-article given by you.

In fact, our solar system was once formed. The sun was first, next came the creation of the earth, moon as well as the other 8 planets (there were more than that in the beginning).

Just so simple when it comes to recent history (the extinction of the dinosaurs, for example).

Life forms, mostly bacteria and viruses came into existence because the surface of our planet ended up consisting of what is now roughly 70 % water and 30 % land because of the way the proportions of the surface of the planet is related as a whole.

Volcanoes are able to be formed both on land and on the bottom of the sea. But neither earthquakes nor volcanoes are able to create continents as a whole. One may be tempted to assume that underwater continents may exist as well.

Water was not present at the beginning of the creation of the earth. It is rather thought of as being the result of the bombardment of millions of comets and other space debris, including asteroids since the earth was created.

If the earth is some 4.5 - 5 billion years old or more, life did not exist for 500-100 million years after it all settled down after a chaotic period of past-creation.

There apparently is proof or existence either of something like the dinosaurs existing here on earth back some 500 millions or so either, apparently. The only thing being found were trilobites.

Any thoughts on this, Steve.

Thanks!
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Message 1442333 - Posted: 14 Nov 2013, 15:46:53 UTC

I, for one, would like to see where some genius biologist(s) create a simple form of life in a laboratory. According to what I have seen on the Science channel all that anyone so far has managed are some pre-RNA molecules. I still think it is possible that life was transported to earth (in it's simplest form) via an asteroid or comet. But, if that is true, the question still remains, how did life initially begin? To me this is a much more significant question than the quest to find out what the smallest possible particle of matter is.
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Message 1442379 - Posted: 14 Nov 2013, 18:24:50 UTC - in response to Message 1442333.  

Read "What is life?" by a quantum physicist, Erwin Schroedinger. This book from 1948, before the discovery of DNA, was one of the starting points of molecular biology.
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Message 1442381 - Posted: 14 Nov 2013, 18:33:26 UTC - in response to Message 1442333.  
Last modified: 14 Nov 2013, 18:34:16 UTC

how did life initially begin?


I believe that amino acids and compounds like methane have been found drifting in space and on our Solar System's planets and moons.

I predict we will find evidence of plant life on Mars and possibly slightly more advanced life in the oceans of Europa once we tunnel through the ice layer. This will prove that life is not unique to the Earth and should have profound effect on Religious Dogma.

I also predict that life will be started in the Laboratory relatively soon. This would have to be more life-like than a virus. We shall see.
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Message 1442452 - Posted: 14 Nov 2013, 20:29:23 UTC

Artificial bacteria has already been created in a lab.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/science/21cell.html?_r=0


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Message 1442632 - Posted: 15 Nov 2013, 11:58:25 UTC

But, if that is true, the question still remains, how did life initially begin?


A matter of chemistry and coincidence imho
We're able to clone living organisms and as Skildude's article says, we're able to create artificial life now too. Don't know if we will ever be able to create 'genuine' life though...
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Message 1442638 - Posted: 15 Nov 2013, 12:28:10 UTC
Last modified: 15 Nov 2013, 12:29:29 UTC

Although the building blocks have been identified on asteroids, there are the obstacles of high radiation and extreme cold in space for perhaps eons, and extreme heat and impact during entry in the Earths early methane atmosphere. I would not say life could not survive those conditions, but I find it more plausible that life here on earth originated by the correct conditions being met for an extended period of time, along with the delivery of the building blocks from space.

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Message 1442885 - Posted: 15 Nov 2013, 23:57:13 UTC - in response to Message 1442638.  

A comet is an icy body that releases gas or dust. They are often compared to dirty snowballs, though recent research has led some scientists to call them snowy dirtballs. Comets contain dust, ice, carbon dioxide, ammonia, methane and more. Some researchers think comets might have originally brought some of the water and organic molecules to Earth that now make up life here.
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Message 1457598 - Posted: 26 Dec 2013, 10:23:50 UTC

Fermis paradox explained. We are among the first. Interesting link.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/513781/moores-law-and-the-origin-of-life/
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Message 1457616 - Posted: 26 Dec 2013, 11:19:47 UTC - in response to Message 1457598.  

Fermis paradox explained. We are among the first. Interesting link.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/513781/moores-law-and-the-origin-of-life/



Quite interesting indeed.
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Message 1457689 - Posted: 26 Dec 2013, 17:06:08 UTC

I even a simple single cell life form is created in a laboratory that link will have been found. So close but still so far away.
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Message 1457692 - Posted: 26 Dec 2013, 17:08:10 UTC - in response to Message 1457616.  

Fermis paradox explained. We are among the first. Interesting link.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/513781/moores-law-and-the-origin-of-life/



Quite interesting indeed.


We should all remember that Moore's Law is not a law in the scientific sense of the word. It wouldn't even qualify as a theory. Merely an interesting observation.
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Message 1457770 - Posted: 26 Dec 2013, 23:33:03 UTC - in response to Message 1457692.  

Fermis paradox explained. We are among the first. Interesting link.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/513781/moores-law-and-the-origin-of-life/



Quite interesting indeed.


We should all remember that Moore's Law is not a law in the scientific sense of the word. It wouldn't even qualify as a theory. Merely an interesting observation.



Julie, posted your exact link a couple of days ago.

I think the jury is still out on the topic.
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Message 1457958 - Posted: 27 Dec 2013, 16:28:53 UTC - in response to Message 1457770.  

Fermis paradox explained. We are among the first. Interesting link.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/513781/moores-law-and-the-origin-of-life/



Quite interesting indeed.


We should all remember that Moore's Law is not a law in the scientific sense of the word. It wouldn't even qualify as a theory. Merely an interesting observation.



Julie, posted your exact link a couple of days ago.

I think the jury is still out on the topic.


I am not really sure what you are referring to. I quoted Julie's link to respond to it but posted no link myself.
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Message 1458004 - Posted: 27 Dec 2013, 19:52:29 UTC - in response to Message 1457958.  

Fermis paradox explained. We are among the first. Interesting link.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/513781/moores-law-and-the-origin-of-life/



Quite interesting indeed.


We should all remember that Moore's Law is not a law in the scientific sense of the word. It wouldn't even qualify as a theory. Merely an interesting observation.



Julie, posted your exact link a couple of days ago.

I think the jury is still out on the topic.


I am not really sure what you are referring to. I quoted Julie's link to respond to it but posted no link myself.


Sorry, aka_Sam. I had no idea you knew about Julie's link.
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Message 1458183 - Posted: 28 Dec 2013, 12:42:07 UTC

Reflecting on the development of life.
SETI should implement a search strategy of the nearest neighbors first if we are ever to find ET. Nor any idea of wasting resources on galaxies 1-2 billion light years away.
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Message 1460946 - Posted: 5 Jan 2014, 18:23:06 UTC - in response to Message 1458183.  
Last modified: 5 Jan 2014, 18:26:37 UTC

SETI should implement a search strategy of the nearest neighbors first if we are ever to find ET. Nor any idea of wasting resources on galaxies 1-2 billion light years away.


This is what the upcoming Kepler project is all about... a targeted search of the most Earth-like nearby (well, cosmically at least) planets found by NASA's Kepler mission, to be run via a new SERENDIP receiver at the Robert C. Byrd telescope at Green Bank observatory in West Virginia.

The existing setup would be extremely unlikely to pick up anything outside our galaxy anyways. An Arecibo observatory could communicate with its twin about 50K light years away, about halfway across the galaxy.
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Message 1460955 - Posted: 5 Jan 2014, 19:04:31 UTC - in response to Message 1460946.  

SETI should implement a search strategy of the nearest neighbors first if we are ever to find ET. Nor any idea of wasting resources on galaxies 1-2 billion light years away.




I don't quite agree. I think of the WOW signal then.
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Message 1461149 - Posted: 6 Jan 2014, 15:23:24 UTC - in response to Message 1460955.  

SETI should implement a search strategy of the nearest neighbors first if we are ever to find ET. Nor any idea of wasting resources on galaxies 1-2 billion light years away.




I don't quite agree. I think of the WOW signal then.



Hmmm, didn't that signal come from the direction of the center of our own Milkyway? Doesn't mean it came from the center of the Milkyway itself though...
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Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : Earliest Signs of Life on Earth


 
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