Test Equipment Finds Life In Mars-like Conditions 159
DIY News writes "In a test of equipment that might one day be used to search for biological activity on Mars, researchers discovered life tucked deep inside a frozen Norwegian volcano, a test region said to have geology similar to that of Mars. The test instruments discovered a rare and complex microbial community living in blue ice vents inside a frozen volcano, which is the kind of evidence scientists have been searching for on the Red Planet."
Coral Cache (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Mistake? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Mistake? - or definition (Score:2, Informative)
Studying the radiation from other parts of the universe, it seems that stars out there are made of the same basic elements as the ones we are familiar with here. So it follows that if there is complex life out there, it is probably carbon based. So we have a fairly clear idea of what carbon-based cellular living organism looks like.
Once you get a chunk of some substance under the microscope, it shouldn't be too difficult to make a determination about whether it was or is living.
Re:Better things to focus on... (Score:2, Informative)
If by a 'scientific perspective' you mean 'based on evidence' then no scientist thinks there is life on other planets, as life has not been proven to exist on other planets, no matter how likely it seems. If by 'scientific perspective' you mean 'based on confidence that evolution would probably have happened elsewhere' probably many scientists think life exists elsewhere. Until there is actual life discovered, it could hardly be considered a scientific fact. (Mind you, it's not a topic I follow alot, if life has been proven _not theorized_ to exist outside our planet, by all means let me know). The idea that life exists on other planets is so far in the same category as the idea that life does not exist on other planets, ie: it's an opinion.
Why is it the majority of the population believes in the existance of God, a being with no scientific basis...
Because people have experiences that they beleive are communication with God. You may or may not agree that their experiences are actually communication with God, but people are sure that they have them. Same with other 'experiences' like alien abdictions etc. Not scientific at all, but science is (rightly or wrongly) much less important to most people than their own experiences. I think it is good also to realise that evidence != science, that is, there are other forms of evidence that are convincing to people, for example, in court, eyewitness accounts are evidence, and do not necessarily require scientific evidence to be accepted as true. Science ought not to be a religion where things are accepted as facts just because it seems likely to someone, most people or even everybody. To be credible as science, it must be based on scientific evidence only. Of course, unproven ideas are the fuel of science, otherwise science would never reveal new information. The idea that life is out there is the fuel or motivation to investigate and discover. If the evidence is discovered, the ideas will become science, not before.