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."
Re:Ice ... & full Greenhouse Effect (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Why so few cryophiles? (Score:3, Informative)
http://abc.net.au/science/crude/ [abc.net.au]
Re:Ice... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Ice... (Score:4, Informative)
The Norse had it right!!! (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Oxygen Catastrophe? (Score:3, Informative)
With ice in abundance the ice tolerant creatures have just as much, maybe a greater chance of surviving.
Re:Why so few cryophiles? (Score:5, Informative)
It's FUD just like the anti-global warming FUD they have been peddling for the last 20yrs. Here is a random site [fromthewilderness.com] that debunks the abiotic oil theory, there are many more out there.
And yes, a "-1 wrong" mod would come in handy, but for this kind of thing a "-1 bullshit" is more appropriate.