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.

Simulated inorganic life ....

[haluness]

They could have mentioned that somewhere at the beginning of the summary. I was reading the damn thing and my heart rate was increasing. And then I saw that it was all from an MD simulation :(

Re:Organic does not mean "alive"

[Chris Burke]

"usually associated with organic compounds and with life"

So you make a post about the distinction between "organic" and "life", motivated by a phrase in the summary which... made a distinction between "organic" and "life".

Eh, okay. At least someone thought it was informative, so perhaps someone was informed.

Re:The actual article

[Henry V .009]

I don't know about this one, but the other story [slashdot.org] was definitely the product of a crank.

The problem is that Fred Hoyle did some screwy calculations about the probability of life, and everybody likes to quote Hoyle. Especially creationists and the "life from space" crowd. If you can't figure out why Hoyle is wrong yourself (it's not that hard) you can check out Hoyle's Fallacy [wikipedia.org] on Wikipedia.

Arguments for Plasma as Origin of Life Mounting

[pln2bz]

Irving Langmuir called it plasma exactly because it appeared to be life-like in its behaviors. For anybody who has a basic understanding of how plasmas behave in the laboratory, your first instinct is that plasmas tend to behave like living creatures. They can have cell walls, which will protect their charge by surrounding invaders. They can transfer current as if it's nutrients. But, after thinking about it for long enough, most people will progress to the realization that life is instead probably plasma-like. The question of whether or not there is good reason for this remains an open, and very interesting, question.

There is a coming together of some interesting theories with regards to the origins of life in the universe that have not yet quite made it into the mainstream press, but which is evolving into a really interesting theory. Wallace Thornhill has been speculating for some time now that life originates inside of the atmospheres of brown dwarf stars. On the surface, this sounds pretty absurd. But, when you dig deeper, he makes some very good points, and his theory is completely compatible with the thesis postulated within the article in question.

Dusty plasmas tend to daisy-chain positive-negative-positive-negative, etc. This creates a sheath, and the right-hand-rule will tend to turn this sheet into vortex types of shapes, as the article mentions. This could explain the shape of DNA. Don't forget that the Urey-Miller experiment required electrical input also.

As for brown dwarfs, they come into the picture because their atmospheres should be low enough temperature to allow life to exist on planets traveling through them (which may sound kind of weird, but is an idea that has been proposed by mainstream astrophysicists in the past). Don't forget that we are inside of the Sun's atmosphere already. On such planets, the entire planetary surface would be bathed in a diffuse light and relatively weak electrical activity at all times. This would be the ideal setting for the formulation of both DNA and lifeforms because there would be no seasons, no tropics and no ice caps. Furthermore, L-type brown dwarfs have water as a dominant molecule in their spectra, along with many other biologically important molecules and elements. Its satellites would accumulate atmospheres and water would mist down from the sky.

He adds:

The problem for SETI is that no radio signals could penetrate the glowing plasma shell. Nor would any intelligent life forms be aware of the spectacle of the universe that we are privileged to witness.