The first paragraph really turned me off. Author is throwing wacky statements out hard and fast. Eg. apocryphal Newton apple dropping reference + saying scientists are looking for evidence of life "scittering" on Mars
I was just discussing a similar idea with a friend this weekend. Perhaps abiogenesis could still be occurring on earth. My friend contended that existing life would consume the raw ingredients before they could self assemble. It's a very reasonable objection but I think it's an assumption worth checking.
I'd never heard of desert varnish, that's totally fascinating.
...it would automatically become part of the biosphere. Note that an entire kingdom of life, the Archaea, was only identified in 1977[1]. That was a "shadow biosphere" if you like: an entire separate version of life, unidentified as such until we could sequence RNA. But at least some species of Archaea were known long before, just inadequately classified.
N.B. "Desert Varnish" is not at all the mystery the article suggests[2] and the idea that it represents some kind of biology seems extremely improbable: "Microscopic and microchemical observations, however, show that a major part of varnish is clay, which could only arrive by wind.[5] Clay, then, acts as a substrate to catch additional substances that chemically react together when the rock reaches high temperatures in the desert sun. Wetting by dew is also important in the process.[3]"
Interesting and fun article to read. I'm with Disqus commenter, Michael Hanlon, in finding it strange that the two don't co-exist to some degree. We should've found evidence of it already given all the tools we use on stuff we analyze. I doubt it exists for now. As I told him, the biological mechanisms we see in use might be as fundamental as the reasons that most objects in the universe are stars burning hydrogen. Might just be a constraint in how things are formed given universe's rules. Or not and we discover a shadow biosphere if we're lucky. :)
Far as a different code, I remember reading an article somewhere on an inventor that created a bulk genetic engineering process. It iterates whole sets of modified organisms with tons of different mods until the desired effect (eg production of a chemical) is detected. Then it tries to isolate the modification that achieved that and test its reliability for future, precision work. In response to safety concerns, the article reported that they were thinking about creating an artificial DNA-alternative for their process to keep it from producing out of control creations. I had doubts on their ability to do that or its ability to work lol.
Anyone remember that article or know where that tech went? Closest thing to shadow biosphere concept I've seen in my news feed albeit artificial.
So, on our way out, maybe we can toast this possibility. A beer with cancer or old age, on the possibility there might be alien microbes on earth.
Sarcasm, yes. Lack of imagination -- I clicked on this thinking I would find relevant expressions of daunting imagination. But, instead, unfortunately... when I enter this into my equation of (You are going to die + X = ?), unfortunately this remains zero'd out as entirely irrelevant.
It is almost as if the whole "you are going to die" factor in my equation is the equivalent to zero. And everything else is zeroed out. Except for those dare, rare - often very mad, surely, or genius - sons of bitches that do not actually like being zero'd out and actually expect not to be.
7 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 27.3 ms ] threadI'd never heard of desert varnish, that's totally fascinating.
TBC
...it would automatically become part of the biosphere. Note that an entire kingdom of life, the Archaea, was only identified in 1977[1]. That was a "shadow biosphere" if you like: an entire separate version of life, unidentified as such until we could sequence RNA. But at least some species of Archaea were known long before, just inadequately classified.
N.B. "Desert Varnish" is not at all the mystery the article suggests[2] and the idea that it represents some kind of biology seems extremely improbable: "Microscopic and microchemical observations, however, show that a major part of varnish is clay, which could only arrive by wind.[5] Clay, then, acts as a substrate to catch additional substances that chemically react together when the rock reaches high temperatures in the desert sun. Wetting by dew is also important in the process.[3]"
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaea [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaea
Far as a different code, I remember reading an article somewhere on an inventor that created a bulk genetic engineering process. It iterates whole sets of modified organisms with tons of different mods until the desired effect (eg production of a chemical) is detected. Then it tries to isolate the modification that achieved that and test its reliability for future, precision work. In response to safety concerns, the article reported that they were thinking about creating an artificial DNA-alternative for their process to keep it from producing out of control creations. I had doubts on their ability to do that or its ability to work lol.
Anyone remember that article or know where that tech went? Closest thing to shadow biosphere concept I've seen in my news feed albeit artificial.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_dark_matter
So, on our way out, maybe we can toast this possibility. A beer with cancer or old age, on the possibility there might be alien microbes on earth.
Sarcasm, yes. Lack of imagination -- I clicked on this thinking I would find relevant expressions of daunting imagination. But, instead, unfortunately... when I enter this into my equation of (You are going to die + X = ?), unfortunately this remains zero'd out as entirely irrelevant.
It is almost as if the whole "you are going to die" factor in my equation is the equivalent to zero. And everything else is zeroed out. Except for those dare, rare - often very mad, surely, or genius - sons of bitches that do not actually like being zero'd out and actually expect not to be.
Well. Fuck them. Do not even try.