New Theory Links Biodiversity to the Stars 184
eldavojohn writes "Space.com's Mystery Monday has an article proposing a hypothesis that our solar system's undulations directly affects biodiversity on earth through cosmic-ray exposure. There's data that, through the fossil record, shows us earth's biodiversity peaking again and again until a great cataclysmic period where it is greatly reduced. The theory essentially suggests that this 62 million year cycle can be attributed to how our solar system moves within the milky way galaxy which turns out to be a 64 million year cycle. It's a plausible explanation though very tough to prove, hopefully we don't have to wait around 64 million years to draw a conclusion on this hypothesis."
542 Million year chart (Score:5, Funny)
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Yes.
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Enter we should, the dangerous area, in 10 millions.
start packing now
Re:542 Million year chart (Score:4, Funny)
Fantastic Four! (Score:3, Funny)
I need to become a superhero if I am to have a chance in hell with Sue Storm...uh I mean Jessica Alba.
Preferably I would like super strength and the power to know women's thoughts -- could come in handy! ;)
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He had the ability to stretch any part of his body to great lengths (heh, heh, heh,)and after sex,
she would disappear...
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Lesseee.... I don't play with linux enough to worry about the kernel, so it would be much more useful to know what women were thinking.
Provided of course that such knowledge didn't drive me insane.
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"I will grant you any wish." Says the Genie, and the guy thinks about it for a minute.
"I'm sick of paying high prices for airline tickets. I want you to build a bridge from California to Hawaii so I can drive instead."
"Impossible!" Says the Genie. "Do you have any idea of the work that would involve? Between geological instability and current technology in regards to such massive structures, it just can't be done. Wis
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I've been meaning to re-read Heinlein for a while now that I'm older. This looks like the cynical depressing stuff that drew me to Heinlein when I was a kid.
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Cosmic rays can affect our biodiversity, but heaven forbid anybody suggest the sun affects our weather! It's the evil of mankind! Go green--the new marketing buzzword for people to make money off of (like "carbs"). Thanks, Al Gore.
The sun does affect our weather. But, as near as we can tell, carbon magnifies that effect and turns a cyclic phenomena into an exponential curve. If you're sitting on data that the sun has been consistently increasing in its output over the last fifty years, please do let the rest of us know. (We've certainly been watching it for awhile, and if we missed it then there's something fundamentally wrong with our instruments.)
Oh, and FWIW, "lo-carb" diets really do work, as well as any diet works. It's sim
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hopefully? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:hopefully? (Score:5, Funny)
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*taps his tinfoil hat*
Civilization... (Score:2)
I'll do it. (Score:2, Funny)
I volunteer to conduct the research. I'll just need a small yearly grant for 64 million years.
So when is this doomsday supposed to be? (Score:3, Interesting)
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Any chance of it happening before I'm forced to go to my cousin's wedding? Cuz that's going to be a real waste of time.
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If you read TFA, you'll see that this particular extinction does not fit the cycle. This one is blamed on the asteroid.
TFA says we have ~10 million years to go.
Re:So when is this doomsday supposed to be? (Score:5, Funny)
Rats.
Re:So when is this doomsday supposed to be? (Score:4, Funny)
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The problem I see, however, is that the end-Permian event is too sudden to be explained by this process. The end-Permian extinction, which wiped out about 95% of all marine genera, is thought to have occurred in under 200,000 years. However, if the Earth slowly traveled into a region of increased cosmic rays, you should
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Re:So when is this doomsday supposed to be? (Score:5, Funny)
Do you think I still have time to start going to church, or should I just forget about it and sin like crazy?
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come join the rest of us in sin
Re:So when is this doomsday supposed to be? (Score:4, Insightful)
Millions of people will probably die in the Tribulaton, and you're likely to be one of them. Be a hero and always try save others without regard for your own life. God loves that, plus it just about guarantees a violent and quick death. A head shot maybe. If you know that Jesus is real, then that's really nothing at all compared to the eternal bliss of heaven. Fundies like to hold up the Rapture as something truly awful, but really, it's no different than getting to heaven any other way, plus you have actual proof of Jesus because the Rapture can't be covered up.
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The K-T extinction event occurred about 65.5 mya so, from all appearances, we're in it.
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--
Be kind to the Earth: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user s -selling-solar.html [blogspot.com]
Re:So when is this doomsday supposed to be? (Score:4, Funny)
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55 million years? Possible additional evidence (Score:5, Interesting)
About 55 million years ago the earth apparently underwent a significant warming event called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum [wikipedia.org] that resulted in the extinction of 30-40% of deep sea life, and may have been equally instrumental in the emergence of mammals as the asteroid 10 million years before that killed off the dinosaurs.
The trigger is unknown, but it is believed that warming oceans due to a natural cycle caused the sublimation of large quantities of methanes from clathrate deposits on the sea-floor. Methane, of course, is a potent greenhouse gas. The result was average ocean surface temperatures as much as 10 deg C warmer than before. The cause of the natural cycle is unknown. However, I just did some digging around, and it appears the major long term thermal cycles (based mostly on O-18/O-16 ratios in sediments, is my understanding) run 140 million years on average, but higher frequency signals definitely exist.
Now, there has been some recent research finding that cosmic ray activity may be an influencing factor on global warming (Note: No need to revive the global warming debate...I'm just sharing my thoughts, and am not claiming anything). Basically cosmic rays appear to affect the formation of clouds in the upper atmosphere, which in turn effects solar insolation.
It would be very interesting if this 62 million year cycle happened to coincide with the PETM extinction 55 million years ago. My thought being perhaps a cosmic ray cycle caused a typical warming cycle that happened to induce the "big burp" of methane-clathrates, which significantly magnified the warming effect.
Actually, with some further poking around, I see this basic theory has been proposed for explaining the 140 MY cycle [wikipedia.org], minus the methane-clathrate bonus.
hopefully we don't have to wait around 64 million (Score:4, Funny)
I'll wait.
Apocalypse Later. (Score:5, Funny)
There's data that, through the fossil record, shows us earth's biodiversity peaking again and again until a great cataclysmic period where it is greatly reduced [...] hopefully we don't have to wait around 64 million years to draw a conclusion on this hypothesis.
Personally, I hope we do have to wait that long. :-)
Re:Apocalypse Later. (Score:4, Insightful)
If sheeple aren't in the cycle, how do we get them in?
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Maybe we're the cataclysm.
64M is enough for intelligence to repeatedly re-evolve...
Cool (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Cool (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot needs a -1 disturbing modifier.
God made sheep soft so we could shave them naked first.
Interesting and plausible theory, but not so new.. (Score:4, Interesting)
This general idea has been around for a very long time, I've come across it several times in various magazines like Scientific American, etc.
Cyclic minima (Score:3, Funny)
In Other News.... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Astrologists are freaking out across the world at the first sign of honest scientific news that shows a link between stars and life on earth
Unfortunately since the cycle is 64 million years long every person that's ever been born is the same "sign", and your horoscope doesn't change for millions of years. Astrologists are going to be out of a job if everyone has the same horoscope every day for several million years.
Less than 64M years (Score:2)
Re:Less than 64M years (Score:4, Funny)
31.4159265 Million years, anything else is not Geeky enough.
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Especially if it's pumpkin Pi. And remember Pi R round. Cake R (usually) square.
I blame global warming (Score:5, Funny)
Can we launch a few nukes at a nearby Asteroid? Oh, that's for stopping the apocolyptic end-of-the-world asteroid collision.
What can *I do* to help stop this 64 million year cycle? There must be something I should worry about here. I'll buy some solar panels. Doh! That's for global warming again...
Re:I blame global warming (Score:4, Funny)
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btw, if you actually do have accurate planetary climate figures for the entire solar system stretching back over the past century or so then you should contact NASA, you would be an instant multi-millionaire. Although I do suspect your just making it up.
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Carpool Lane.
Certain hybrids (Prius, Civic Hybrid) are eligible for stickers which allow the driver to use the carpool lane solo.
Given the state of certain freeways in SoCal *cough*CA-91*cough*, this is a major, MAJOR benefit.
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Launch rockets. Just launch as much stuff as you can in the direction of motion of the Sun. That way there will be a net thrust on the Earth (and consequently the solar system through gravity) that will eventually slow down its orbit. Of course we'd end up falling into the big black hole at the center of the Galaxy as a result. But c'est la vie, you can't always get everything you want.
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or you could pray if that comforts you.
Become aquatic (Score:2)
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For sea level and above: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
Humans (Score:2)
Is this where homo sapiens come in? Are we the next cause of a great cataclysmic period?
As for Me... (Score:3)
Nemesis (Score:5, Interesting)
BTW, one of the physcists researching this idea, Richard A. Muller [wikipedia.org] teaches a great physics course, titled "Physics for Future Presidents" [google.com] which is available online for free on google video.
You laugh now (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's an article on extinctions [wikipedia.org] in Wikipedia.
Here's a snipet from that article about mass extinctions:
There have been at least five mass extinctions in the history of life, and four in the last 3.5 billion years in which many species have disappeared in a relatively short period of geological time. The most recent of these, the K-T extinction 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period, is best known for having wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs, among many other species.
In other words, don't laugh about the 62-64 million year cycle. We are due for a mass extinction, according to the fossil record. Maybe this phenomenon has something to do with it. Note that when biodiversity goes down in a species, that's not good, biologically speaking. Less diversity means less chance of a species being able to survive a catastrophic event.
Take it for what you want, but all those people laughing about having to wait 64 million years, my point is, I don't necessarily think you have to wait all that long.
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your use or the word 'Due' indicates you don't understand what the hell is going on.
The most simplistic definition:
On averages x has happenned every y years. That doesn't mean the x is 'due' to happen again. That this is a probalistic chance it may occure.
OTOH, maybe every 63 million years a sentient life blooms up and spreads destructivly around the globe taking more resources then it puts back.
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You probably didn't RTFA... Its point is exactly that those fenomena may not happen by chance, but be strictly periodic.
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You're mixing together two biological concepts that may lead to confusion and panic in people reading your post; those being the interspecies diversity which is the diversity of species within an ecosystem, and intraspecies diversity which is genetic diversity within individuals of the same species.
The benefits of varying levels of interspecies diversity for ecosystems is a complicated issue, and I think if you go to the literature you'll find papers that show a correlation between decreasing interspecies
K-T Doesn't Fit (Score:2, Informative)
We've still got at least 10 million years before we enter the next cosmic ray cycle.
Re:You laugh now (Score:4, Interesting)
Take that, astronomical mutation-mongers!
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Eh? TFA is talking about the overall biodiversity of the Earth - ie the total number of species.
Take it for what you want, but all those people laughing about having to wait 64 million years, my point is, I don't necessarily think you have to wait all that long.
Yeah, could be as little as 2-3 million years. The point is
Why this is not so: evolving DNA repair (Score:3, Interesting)
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Hmm... thereby decreasing the amount of mutation, leading to less biodiversity... wait, which side are you arguing?
(for the record, I think TFA is a bunch of hooey)
64000K out to be enough (Score:2)
out? Out!?! (Score:2)
grrrr...stupid getting old lazy brain.
Hopefully we Don't have to Wait (Score:2)
Hopefully we do have to wait!
Out of Phase? (Score:2, Interesting)
Uh, yeah.. (Score:2)
Because we're going to invent a time machine, or because we're going to teleport the solar system to another part of the galaxy?
Who needs cosmic rays... (Score:2)
Inhibitors! (Score:2)
Don't park near Resurgam next time. And stop trying to solve that puzzle!
I knew it! (Score:2)
Hopefully we WILL have to wait... (Score:2)
Massive die-offs tend to take larger, more complex life (like people), leaving simpler, more robust life (such as lichens, bacteria, and cockroaches) to inherit the Earth.
Am I the only one that sees a statement like "hopefully we do
Re:What? (Score:5, Funny)
Yes. Can I have your stereo?
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Hey, we even get to keep initials.
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I can't wait to play Duke Nukem
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