Life May Have Evolved In Ice 159
Philip Bailey writes "An article in this month's Discover Magazine claims that some of the fundamental organic molecules required for the development of life could have spontaneously arisen within ice. Scientist Stanley Miller was responsible for seminal experiments in the 1950s in this area. He used sparks and a mixture of inorganic chemicals to test his theories, but turned to low temperature experiments in later years. He was able to create the constituents of RNA and proteins from a mixture of cyanide, ammonia and ice in trials lasting up to 25 years. A process known as eutectic freezing is thought to be the basis of these results: small pockets of liquid water, in which foreign molecules are concentrated enormously, increases the reaction rates, and more than compensates for temperature-related slowing."
Star Trek (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Star Trek (Score:1, Funny)
Reminds me of a classic Robert Frost poem (Score:4, Funny)
To be sure, some sparks were still needed for the ice theory but there you have it.
oblig. (Score:5, Funny)
All hail Tux!
EXTREME DANGER READ NOW!!! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Why so few cryophiles? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Ice... (Score:5, Funny)
Ice Ice Baby... (Score:5, Funny)
Another early experiment, in which he added Vanilla [wikipedia.org] to the mix still haunts Professor Miller to this day.
Damn it. (Score:3, Funny)
I'd believe it started in the YELLOW ice... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Ice... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:xxx (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Ice... (Score:3, Funny)