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more about #panspermia more comments → Anekanta - Go Play!: Okay, but how did the amino acids get on the comet? Do they just form in space? It sounds like just about any icy or watery ball of rock floating in... more » gorehound: good news post.i love science. more » BadUncle: Comets get the best acid. more » Rocketknight: Does this mean that comets can contain primitive forms of life or is it literally just the amino acids in no particular configuration? more » transbastard: Declaring amino acids and proteins equivalent is rather bold - don't do that. Lots of amino acids do not a protein make! The best you'd get would be a... more » Gann: They found legos on a comet? more » David Alvaro: Once again, the reporting on actual science here on io9 leaves a lot to be desired. I understand the idea behind this kind of post, to take some drie... more » MargaretMoony: Of course they figured it out in Cardiff. It's ALWAYS Cardiff! more » Don't Make Me Ang Lee. You wouldn't like me when I'm Ang Lee.: This puts us one step closer to mass acceptance of the Great Green Arkleseizure theory, so I'm all for it! more » Relbelle: An intriguing but ultimately moot point. Until we know what actually sparks the creation of life, where precisely it first happened is almost impossi... more » icelight: Given that the earliest estimates for cellular life on Earth are at about the 1 billion year mark, how do they envision it arising within a thousandth... more » diverguy: There are those who believe... that life here... began out there. Far across the universe. With tribes of humans... who may have been the forefathers ... more » Pope John Peeps II: The part I don't understand about the "Panspermia" theory is the idea that it's more likely for life to form in space rather than on a planet. And if ... more » bradtem: In fact, any panspermia plot is pretty much going to be scientific nonsense, unless you put the panspermia back close to a billion years. The "Ark" ... more » paragrab: OK, I kind of feel like a dick for mentioning this, but you shorted me two Tales. Or was that cleverly asking for suggestions? Hmmm... more » -
#exogenesis
Building Blocks of Life Found on a Comet
Score another point for exogenesis, the idea that life on Earth has extraterrestrial origins. For the first time, NASA has identified amino acids in a sample of material from a comet, suggesting a comet may have brought proteins to Earth. More » -
#exogenesis
Did Ocean-Filled Comets Carry the Seeds of Life to Earth?
Critics of exogenesis note that the proper conditions to maintain life are rare in the universe, and would not likely survive the trip inside Earth's atmosphere. But new data on comets offers evidence that our ancestors were, indeed, extraterrestrial. More » -
#triviagasm
Our Alien Origins: 21 Panspermia Tales
Planet Earth might be home sweet home, but is it really humanity’s birthplace? We explore science fiction stories where humans come from everywhere but Earth, be it by colonization, alien experiments, or good old-fashioned panspermia. More » -
#extremelife
Meet the Tardigrades: The Solar System's Most Extreme Survivors
There is an organism living on this planet who can travel through space without a suit. Cute, unassuming little invertebrates, these organisms are called tardigrades, or water bears, and usually spend their days crawling around on a piece of nice wet moss in a forest, or meandering through our vast oceans. They only grow to be about 1.5 millimeters long, but over 1,000 species of them inhabit the planet, and they all have a superpower unmatched by any other species on Earth. No now knows why, but tardigrades can withstand temperatures as cold as liquid nitrogen, radiation doses that would kill a human 100 times over, thrive in an outer-space-like vacuum, and survive without water for years. More » -
