Life May Have Evolved In Ice

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

[Nerdfest]

He should probably avoid Q if he wants to push up his success rate.

Re:Star Trek

[Anonymous Coward]

No tampering with the primordial soup, such as pouring in a tall steaming mug of the frosty piss!
 

Reminds me of a classic Robert Frost poem

[sweet_petunias_full_]

Some say the world evolved in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

To be sure, some sparks were still needed for the ice theory but there you have it.

oblig.

[owlnation]

I, for one, welcome our new penguin overlords.

All hail Tux!

EXTREME DANGER READ NOW!!!

[Plazmid]

Sir, do you realize what you are doing is illegal in nerddom? Having ESPN and Slashdot in the same window could result in a nerd-jock cancellation reaction resulting in the destruction of the universe as we know it? Your nerd license has been officially revoked for participating in this dangerous behaviour.

Re:Why so few cryophiles?

[Epistax]

I thought everyone knew this. Cryophiles taste awesome.

Re:Ice...

[Skreems]

The only result for "early quiet sun" is a hit on some site talking about early Brian Eno recordings...

Ice Ice Baby...

[fahrbot-bot]

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.

Another early experiment, in which he added Vanilla [wikipedia.org] to the mix still haunts Professor Miller to this day.

Damn it.

[naturalog]

Now all the crazy evangelicals will be saying that scientists think we all came from ice cubes.

I'd believe it started in the YELLOW ice...

[csoto]

but that would be kind of a chicken-and-egg thing, now wouldn't it?

Re:Ice...

[xmod2]

The comet was struck by lightning as it fell to Earth, duh.

Re:xxx

[Hal_Porter]

127.0.0.1

Re:Ice...

[Hognoxious]

nothing I have ever read has indicated that "Earth probably has about another billion years of useful life left before the sun has its midlife crisis"; everything has always said 3 to 5 billion years.

Phew, I was worried for a moment there!