Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

Scientists say life was a SEPTILLION times more likely to have begun within a comet rather than on Earth.

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

From the article

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The 2005 Deep Impact mission to Comet Tempel 1 discovered a mixture of organic and clay particles inside the comet. One theory for the origins of life proposes that clay particles acted as a catalyst, converting simple organic molecules into more complex structures

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Nothing new here, Genesis claimed man was made out of clay a long time ago.

Stu

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

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The researchers calculate the odds of life starting on Earth rather than inside a comet at one trillion trillion (10 to the power of 24) to one against.

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What an embarrassment.

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

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From the article

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The 2005 Deep Impact mission to Comet Tempel 1 discovered a mixture of organic and clay particles inside the comet. One theory for the origins of life proposes that clay particles acted as a catalyst, converting simple organic molecules into more complex structures

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Nothing new here, Genesis claimed man was made out of clay a long time ago.

Stu

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Yes, but Genesis also claimed...

Never mind.

Too easy.

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

Hmm I don't know, many top scientist still believe it probably originated on earth.

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

These are the ads underneath the article, not sure if they're article-specific or just tagged to that site generally:
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Just thought it was funny.

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

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Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet


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Its one possibility I guess. Its also more likely that organic matter from comets contributed to the development of life on earth. Or maybe it was just the water that did it. Its certainly likely that the comet bombardment 4+ billion years ago had some influence on the development of life.

Septillion [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] Sounds like nonsense, but amusing to see how they got that figure. Did they just divide the amount of clay on the earth by the amount of clay in the solar system four billion years ago?

I see the article was adapted from a news release issued by Cardiff University. Does that mean it was written by one of the scientists or a reporter?

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

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Scientists say life was a SEPTILLION times more likely to have begun within a comet rather than on Earth.


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Man. Just when I was completely convinced it was multiverses. Guess ol' Crick wasn't totally loony.

Edit:

Hmm, looks like Crick was a little late:


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Abstract

The panspermia theory has antecedents which go back to the Old Kingdom in Egypt, and which are also found in early Hinduism, the philosophy of the Greek pre-Socratic philosopher Anaxagoras, and amongst the Jewish and Christian Gnostics. It is remarkable how explicit some of these early sources are in suggesting that the entire cosmos is full of seeds, and that life on earth originated from them. Here, a survey is undertaken of all these early beliefs, in order to present a pre-history to these conceptions and show that such ideas appear to be as old as civilization itself.


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Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

Well, I dunno who wrote Genesis, but everything started with a Big Bang.

Asteroids : The wadded kleenex of deities. Or something.

Yeah, probably too simplistic. Still a subject ripe for way too much comedy material. o_O

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

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Hmm, looks like Crick was a little late:
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The panspermia theory has antecedents which go back to the Old Kingdom in Egypt, and which are also found in early Hinduism, the philosophy of the Greek pre-Socratic philosopher Anaxagoras, and amongst the Jewish and Christian Gnostics. It is remarkable how explicit some of these early sources are in suggesting that the entire cosmos is full of seeds, and that life on earth originated from them. Here, a survey is undertaken of all these early beliefs, in order to present a pre-history to these conceptions and show that such ideas appear to be as old as civilization itself.


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Looks like someone is a little slow. All of history is full of strange ideas about the cosmos and a heap of different formulations of what happened. Just look at religious creation myths of hundreds of different cultures, for example. It's not surprising that ideas will have been thought of before. If I pointed out that Jesus was at least 500 years late to the "love your neighbour" party, you'd say, so what?

Why aren't you quoting the 18th century idea that life arises spontaneously from the dirt in a few days? Oh that's right, because it's been debunked. In an alternative universe where it had just been proven true, there'd be a NotReady somewhere posting how the scientists are so far behind the ancients in their understanding of the world.

What a big fat nothing. It's not a question of the first to come up with a semi-plausible idea, it's a question of the first to give plausible details and credible evidence.

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

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It's not a question of the first to come up with a semi-plausible idea,


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Na, it's the first to come up with a sense of humor.

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

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It's not a question of the first to come up with a semi-plausible idea,


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Na, it's the first to come up with a sense of humor.

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Humor is funny. Like that flood myth apology you linked to earlier. Great stuff.

You've suggested numerous times that the ancients had scientific knowledge (or were given it by God), some of which supposedly found its way into the genesis account.

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

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Scientists say life was a SEPTILLION times more likely to have begun within a comet rather than on Earth.


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FWIW, my TV guide shows a PBS, Nova, Origin of Life show coming on at 1 A.M. CT, Sunday, 8/19 - the blurb says the most likely origin was outer space - not sure how old this is.

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

i'll take 1000-1

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

while its certainly plausible, this "proof" is based mainly on speculation and not scientific fact

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

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while its certainly plausible, this "proof" is based mainly on speculation and not scientific fact

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has anyone seen the details of the calculation?

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

"International Journal of Astrobiology"?

Is that like the International Journal of Unicorns?

[img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

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Hmm I don't know, many top scientist still believe it probably originated on earth.

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I think the theory states that there were ingredients on both earth and a comet or asteroid that combined to begin the process of life.

I think this is different than stating all material for life simply landed here and took root.

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

There are 2 main theories;

1. The primordial soup theory.

The basic premise of this theory is that the basic elements required for life were floating around in the ocean w/e and with the scope of this eventually combined to form life.

2. Panspernian Theory

Life started elsewhere, and was transported here on a comet.


Basic Outline but bare with me, the 2 theories state that life would at one stage have had to combine to create life somewhere in the universe, the debate is simply whether it happened on Earth or not. The notion that it was created on Earth has much more weight behind it than than otherwise.

Ryot,

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

I'd like to read the original article. I'm sure these popularized science mags omit and distort tons of critical details.

That said, it sounds even more plausible if you consider the possibility that microbial life or protolife in the form of self-replicating molecules form easily and under a variety of conditions. Life or protolife could have formed independently on Earth and some of the comets and say, Mars and other bodies. Earth could have been seeded many times, and the DNA based life we see today may have just been the kind that out competed all the others. Now there are far fewer comets impacting Earth so the likelihood we are still being seeded is much lower.

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

CNN article about possible microbes on Martian surface. Not a lot of hard facts, but it's an interesting read!

Link

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

Never tell me the odds!

Re: Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet
 

Now it makes sense- the comet was sent by god!

Whew, glad that's over with, everyone happy.