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Tue Dec 15
25 posts in the last 24 hours
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"How does 2017 work for you?"
"Can't, I have a morning meeting."
"2018?"
"Well, I'm supposed to have a luncheon that afternoon, but I suppose it can be rescheduled."
@Roklimber: Martian mega-dairy farms camo'd to look like the surface, you might be on to something. That must be how they are trying to get their planet warm again, cow farts.
@crosis101: Speaking of that, I just realized that our solar system is perfect for party animals.
The Earth is full of water, which is important since when you party hard you need to keep yourself hydrated.
The Moon is made of cheese, and Mars is red line wine. Cheese and wine go well in parties.
Then, of course, you need music and, to be in style, you can choose old 45-rpm records, just like the rings of Saturn.
And, in case there are minors in the party who need someone to keep an eye on them, there's always papa Jupiter with its Red Eye a couple of astronomical units away.
A few years ago I wrote my own version of Darwin's theory of evolution, which I called the Theory Of Revolution. You can read it here, if you're interested:
@Roklimber: But they look like giant Jersey beetles! Then again, I haven't eaten lunch today, and I find myself wondering what Martian steak tastes like...
The difference being that these organisms all evolved from life that existed in the normal environment of precambrian Earth. Jupiter would need to have a life-supporting environment before it could generate extremophiles via evolution.
@psybab: That's the point though. If normal life can evolve to survive in an extreme environment, extreme life can evolve in an extreme environment, because to them it would be normal.
In other words, if you could find a comparable environment, you could transport the extremophile, today, to an alien world.
@Louis Wang:
I'd say more that while it proves that there clearly is no "normal" in terms of where life can exist, it heavily indicates that you should either be able to find life everywhere, or assume that it probably doesn't exist there at all. I mean, life is pretty much everywhere you look on our planet, so what possible logic is there in saying that you might find mere traces of life in a planet the size of Jupiter? Anything that's there should outnumber life on Earth.
@Purple Dave: It could translate to life being on jupiter via panspermia or something, but it doesn't indicate that life could begin there. Only that there are lifeforms on earth that are potentially capable of surviving in a terrain like Jupiter.
@psybab:
I'm not saying that it could spontaneously happen on Jupiter. I'm saying that we can't assume it couldn't, and I'm saying that it should be pretty easy to find if it has and it's still alive.
@Purple Dave: Well, it will be difficult to actually find life because getting there, collecting samples, getting it back, keeping it alive, and determining it is indeed Jovian (and not contaminated by Earth lifeforms) is a tall order.
On the flip side, if you can cart a whole range of archea and bacteria in a sealed/isolated container, and they survive the trip and survive the alien environment, we're golden. The problem is that no one wants to contaminate a foreign ecosystem, first.
@Louis Wang:
All the rest of that stuff aside, just getting the container out of the Jovian atmosphere is pretty much a deal-breaker. Consider how much thrust it takes to get the container out of _our_ atmosphere. Now, you've got to launch a rocket on Earth that carries a second rocket that's big enough to relaunch the container from freefall in Jupiter's atmosphere. That would be one spectacular launch craft. And if something goes wrong during the launch, you can pretty much kiss Cape Canaveral goodbye. Probably the eastern half of central Florida as well.
@phoghat: *People stand up, begin slow clap, velociraptors open doors to theater, no-spine lawyer gets eaten first, kids get away, fade to black, music swells*
I recall reading some years ago about a strain of bacteria that evolved to live almost exclusively in hospital operating rooms and other similarly highly sterile environments. It's pretty much unkillable by any normal means. Fortunately it doesn't much like the insides of humans.
I remember taking a tour of a distillery in Scotland (yes, they did give samples) and being told there's a mold that's evolved to live off the fumes of fermentation.
@Chip Overclock: I recall reading that specific strains of bacteria have been found thriving in the storage pools for spent nuclear reactor control rods ... hearty little buggers....
one thing that is never mentioned in any discussions about this topic is the difference between an organism existing in one type of environment and moving to another and an organism evolving in the second environment...
sure there may be environments 'out there' that are very similar to environments here on earth that contain life (more accurately - that life has moved into) but that doesn't mean that life can /begin/ in those environments...
@goldfarb: The same thing crossed my mind. There's no way to know, at least not until we find life somewhere that doesn't have a life-friendly zone somwhere alongside the more inhospitable areas. Even then, something could still end up living in an unlikely place coming on a meteor from another planet we know nothing about. Can we ever really know for sure?
What makes me hopeful is my belief that there is still so much we don't understand about everything. That which seems impossible today is often proven wrong over time. The same could happen with our beliefs about what is required to sustain or create life.
As neat as this all is, the bottom line is the same as it was back in 1996: we won't prove a damn thing until we discover this sort of thing *on Mars*.
I knew I shouldn't have peed on Mars when I was coming to Earth. But, hey, stupid engineers don't make decent bathrooms in spaceships, you know, and when you gotta go, you gotta go.
So this meteorite was found in Antarctica with Earth like bacteria. How do we know the bacteria simply didn't come from Earth itself and some how got onto the mertorite?
@Rusty626: I'm no scientist, but I believe, that when the Viking landers tested those soil samples, they also tested the exact composition of the sample. And the tests on the meteorite matched that of the Viking tests.
But I welcome anybody here to elaborate further/correct me.
One day a scientist is going to get stoned and lick one of those mars meteorites, the bacteria in his mouth will interact with the dormant bacteria in the meteorite and some time not long after Will Smith will be walking down a street alone.
@Jassen: or the zombie plague will really happen and we won't be sick of all these krappy zombie films cause it will become reality thanks to some martian spooges.
@Brian Fowler: Maybe in the last administration that would have really worked but you need something different for this one. I would go with some new kind of renewable energy that is ultra cheap to produce. Or that the planet definitely has life on it and that life is a terrorist.
12/08/09
12/08/09
"Can't, I have a morning meeting."
"2018?"
"Well, I'm supposed to have a luncheon that afternoon, but I suppose it can be rescheduled."
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
The Earth is full of water, which is important since when you party hard you need to keep yourself hydrated.
The Moon is made of cheese, and Mars is red line wine. Cheese and wine go well in parties.
Then, of course, you need music and, to be in style, you can choose old 45-rpm records, just like the rings of Saturn.
And, in case there are minors in the party who need someone to keep an eye on them, there's always papa Jupiter with its Red Eye a couple of astronomical units away.
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
If only you knew how true that is...
A few years ago I wrote my own version of Darwin's theory of evolution, which I called the Theory Of Revolution. You can read it here, if you're interested:
[blogs.suntimes.com]
12/08/09
12/08/09
I think Martian cow steak tastes like everything else, ie, just like chicken.
12/08/09
12/08/09
Ha.
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/05/09
12/05/09
12/05/09
In other words, if you could find a comparable environment, you could transport the extremophile, today, to an alien world.
12/06/09
I'd say more that while it proves that there clearly is no "normal" in terms of where life can exist, it heavily indicates that you should either be able to find life everywhere, or assume that it probably doesn't exist there at all. I mean, life is pretty much everywhere you look on our planet, so what possible logic is there in saying that you might find mere traces of life in a planet the size of Jupiter? Anything that's there should outnumber life on Earth.
12/06/09
12/06/09
I'm not saying that it could spontaneously happen on Jupiter. I'm saying that we can't assume it couldn't, and I'm saying that it should be pretty easy to find if it has and it's still alive.
12/06/09
On the flip side, if you can cart a whole range of archea and bacteria in a sealed/isolated container, and they survive the trip and survive the alien environment, we're golden. The problem is that no one wants to contaminate a foreign ecosystem, first.
12/07/09
All the rest of that stuff aside, just getting the container out of the Jovian atmosphere is pretty much a deal-breaker. Consider how much thrust it takes to get the container out of _our_ atmosphere. Now, you've got to launch a rocket on Earth that carries a second rocket that's big enough to relaunch the container from freefall in Jupiter's atmosphere. That would be one spectacular launch craft. And if something goes wrong during the launch, you can pretty much kiss Cape Canaveral goodbye. Probably the eastern half of central Florida as well.
12/05/09
Fade to black, music swells
12/05/09
12/05/09
12/05/09
12/05/09
I remember taking a tour of a distillery in Scotland (yes, they did give samples) and being told there's a mold that's evolved to live off the fumes of fermentation.
"Life will find a way."
12/05/09
12/05/09
12/05/09
sure there may be environments 'out there' that are very similar to environments here on earth that contain life (more accurately - that life has moved into) but that doesn't mean that life can /begin/ in those environments...
12/05/09
What makes me hopeful is my belief that there is still so much we don't understand about everything. That which seems impossible today is often proven wrong over time. The same could happen with our beliefs about what is required to sustain or create life.
11/25/09
Get. Your. Ass. To Mahs.
(I don't want to go to Saturn-- I said Mahs!)
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
But I welcome anybody here to elaborate further/correct me.
11/25/09
11/25/09
IF FOUND, PLEASE RETURN TO ZBORKSEVEN, MARS SCIENCE MUSEUM
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
I think the money will turn up pretty quickly then.
11/25/09
"DONE!"
#calendar
11/25/09