Scientists Say Life Originated on a Comet

[FortunaMaximus]

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

[Phil153]

[ QUOTE ]
Hmm, looks like Crick was a little late:
[ QUOTE ]
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.


[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]
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.

[NotReady]

[ QUOTE ]

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


[/ QUOTE ]

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

[Phil153]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

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


[/ QUOTE ]

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

[/ QUOTE ]
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.

[NotReady]

[ QUOTE ]

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


[/ QUOTE ]


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.

[durrrr]

i'll take 1000-1

[billygrippo]

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

[oe39]

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

[/ QUOTE ]

has anyone seen the details of the calculation?

[Borodog]

"International Journal of Astrobiology"?

Is that like the International Journal of Unicorns?

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

[TimM]

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.