Scientists Fed an Ancient Earth Organism Space Metals. It Started 'Dancing' (vice.com) 43
Scientists have discovered that a single-celled organism, a descendant of some of the earliest living creatures on Earth, is able to colonize a meteorite, growing and synthesizing nutrients. From a report: Their experiment, published on Monday in the journal Scientific Reports, may give us a way to look for the signatures of past life on other planets. "This process was very enigmatic and exciting, how the chemical energy of a stone fragment can be transformed into the biochemical energy of a living entity," said Tetyana Milojevic, the first author of the study. "To find an answer to understand this process, I think it's a great moment." Living on a space rock is just one more oddball accolade that the species, Metallosphaera sedula, can add to its growing list. First isolated from a volcanic field in Italy in 1989, the microbe is considered an extremophile because it prefers to live in conditions that would be uninhabitable to most other organisms. Such organisms are helpful for probing the early history of Earth, with its harsh and inhospitable environments, as well as the possibilities for life in the universe.
we are all descendants of the earliest life (Score:5, Insightful)
"a single-celled organism, a descendant of some of the earliest living creatures on Earth,"
I do have to point out that we are all descendants of the earliest living creatures on Earth.
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What if there was more than one living creature that appeared at the same time but in different places...
While that could happen, it would be extremely unlikely to be based on the same biochemistry. And if scientists had found an alternative biochemistry, that would be huge news.
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What if there was more than one living creature that appeared at the same time but in different places...
While that could happen, it would be extremely unlikely to be based on the same biochemistry. And if scientists had found an alternative biochemistry, that would be huge news.
Not quite, it would have the same chance to be the same given the same environment. Also with the fact that that we don't know of life using an alternative biochemistry can also mean life as we know it for our environment will have this type of biochemistry. So it's likely say a large body of water to have the right conditions for life as we know it to start, even they started 10,000 years apart that's nothing for evolution.
We kind of do have different biocemistry, with life using copper or sulfur or thi
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Not quite, it would have the same chance to be the same given the same environment.
That makes no sense at all. If life can form in 10,000 different ways, and one of them happened somewhere, there's a 99.99% chance that it would happen in a different way somewhere else.
We kind of do have different biocemistry, with life using copper or sulfur or think of viruses and prions.
Those are just variations on the same theme. Viruses can only work if they use compatible DNA and protein encoding.
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the only viruses that would propagate are ones that would be (accidentally) compatible enough, and those viruses also helped shaped organisms.
I think of it as more of a mixing pot rather than 1 life form that spawned all life.
Even a 99.9% chance, across a million of chances still nets 1000 of the same. (one drop of water contains millions of bacteria, let alone the volume of where ever life started, or what one would consider life or the building blocks of)
This is all non factual and purely fun exersize but
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the only viruses that would propagate are ones that would be (accidentally) compatible enough
Viruses may be simple compared to bacteria, but they are still incredibly complex with more than 1000 nucleotides for the simplest ones. Those didn't bump into each other by chance, and then . The compatibility can not be an accident. Viral DNA must have originated from (a piece of) bacterial DNA.
Even a 99.9% chance, across a million of chances still nets 1000 of the same
So where are the 999000 other ones ?
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The other life forms well Out competed or otherwise failed. Or over time before what we call a cell was formed, they evolved into indistinguishable partially because of viruses.
Viruses and such their origins are even more unknown than anything. One of the theories is as you suggested, the another is close to what I suggest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The evolution/mutations are not purposeful, and compatibility of the mutations are accidents. The one that most successfully propagates wins.
Fish in a
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Speak for yourself. I came in on one of L. Ron Hubbard's spaceships during the fall of '97.
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Except for genetically engineered organisms.
Which, many assert, could have happened at no other time in the past.
Not science, but still, good for confirmation bias.
Re:we are all descendants of the earliest life (Score:4, Informative)
Except for genetically engineered organisms.
Which, many assert, could have happened at no other time in the past.
If you mean bacterium made wholesale out of custom genes, then sure, those are new — and in fact they could not have happened at any other time in the past. If you mean genetically modified organisms, then those are also descendants of the earliest life on earth as almost all of their genes are inherited and not edited.
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Re:we are all descendants of the earliest life (Score:4, Informative)
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In any case, the notion that all of biology has a single point of origin is highly suspect [sciencealert.com].
Are you so uncertain of life occurring spontaneously, that you have to cling to it only happening -once-?
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When did Slashdot become filled with moderators with zero intellectual honesty?
If you have a rebuttal, make it. Downvoting what you can't answer is cowardice.
Ah well, -when- I win by reference to every possible selection mechanism, we can revisit.
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When did Slashdot become filled with moderators with zero intellectual honesty?
As long as I can remember.
If you have a rebuttal, make it.
Just accept it, if most of an organism's genes are inherited, it's a descendant. We could argue about exactly where to draw the line, I guess, but why?
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Re: we are all descendants of the earliest life (Score:1)
I do have to point out that we are all descendants of the earliest living creatures on Earth.
And I don't have to point out that we don't know that at all, but I will.
Naturally (Score:1)
Would you say the organism spaced out?
Oh dear (Score:4, Insightful)
Scientists Fed an Ancient Earth Organism Space Metals. It Started 'Dancing'
That means the Baptists will disapprove of space now!
Re: Oh dear (Score:5, Funny)
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I particularly am amused by the Baptist notion that wine, the -primary sacrament- of Christianity, is a sin.
More Origen, less Footloose.
Horror Movie Origins (Score:2)
Come on, this is how *it* begins.
Yeah right (Score:1)
"published on Monday in the journal Scientific Reports"
Stopped reading there.
Space metals (Score:2)
They should replace "space metals" with "metals....from space". It's more dramatic. +1 if they could have the guy from Futurama who says "welcome to the world of TOOOMOOOROW" https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Is this story meaningful? (Score:1)
Some scientists did something and there was a result. They don't know what it means but they have some interesting guesses.
This seems like a good effort to make a story out of very little.
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New science often stems from new observations of things that we had not previously even realized existed or occurred.
Plagues (Score:2)
So now we can blame the origin of the various Dancing Plagues [wikipedia.org] on space invaders?
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Dust to dust, ashes to ashes ... (Score:4, Funny)
... perhaps the extreme Evangelical white batshit crazy under-educated Christians women who elected Trump will latch on to "extremophile" to prove we go back there in a burning hell somewhat similar to the hell extreme Evangelical white batshit crazy under-educated Christians women give is today.
They're very good at proving that LGBTQ should be stoned and that baking a cake would send the back to the extremophile phase.
This seems familiar (Score:2)
Haven't I read this book [wikipedia.org]?