I always thought he was from the Loire Valley.
Posted on 06/14/2008 12:22:54 AM PDT by LibWhacker
PARIS (AFP) - Genetic material from outer space found in a meteorite in Australia may well have played a key role in the origin of life on Earth, according to a study to be published Sunday.
European and US scientists have proved for the first time that two bits of genetic coding, called nucleobases, contained in the meteor fragment, are truly extraterrestrial.
Previous studies had suggested that the space rocks, which hit Earth some 40 years ago, might have been contaminated upon impact.
Both of the molecules identified, uracil and xanthine, "are present in our DNA and RNA," said lead author Zita Martins, a researcher at Imperial College London.
RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is another key part of the genetic coding that makes up our bodies.
These molecules would also have been essential to the still-mysterious alchemy that somehow gave rise, some four billion years ago, to life itself.
"We know that meteorites very similar to the Murchison meteorite, which is the one we analysed, were delivering the building blocks of life to Earth 3.8 to 4.5 billion years ago," Martins told AFP in an interview.
Competing theories suggest that nucleobases were synthesised closer to home, but Martins counters that the atmospheric conditions of early Earth would have rendered that process difficult or impossible.
A team of European and US scientists showed that the two types of molecules in the Australian meteorite contained a heavy form of carbon -- carbon 13 -- which could only have been formed in space.
"We believe early life may have adopted nucleobases from meteoric fragments for use in genetic coding, enabling them to pass on their successful features to subsequent generations," Martins said.
If so, this would have been the start of an evolutionary process leading over billions of years to all the flora and fauna -- including human beings -- in existence today.
The study, published in Earth Planetary Science Letters, also has implications for life on other planets.
"Because meteorities represent leftover materials from the formation of the solar system, the key components of life -- including nucleobases -- could be widespread in the cosmos," said co-author Mark Sephton, also at Imperial College London.
"As more and more of life's raw materials are discovered in objects from space, the possibility of life springing forth wherever the right chemistry is present becomes more likely," he said.
Uracil is an organic compound found in RNA, where it binds in a genetic base pair with another molecule, adenine.
Xanthine is not directly part of RNA or DNA, but participates in a series of chemical reactions inside the RNA of cells.
The two types of nucleobases and the ratio of light-to-heavy carbon molecules were identified through gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, technologies that were not available during earlier analyses of the now-famous meteorite.
Even so, said Martins, the process was extremely laborious and time-consuming, one reason it had not be carried out up to now by other scientists.
Wow, we’re space aliens...
so Obama came from urANUS?
Not mine.
I do better than him, even after a burrito.
The Scientologists should have a field day with this one.
I think I saw this as a classic South Park episode about Scientology, although it’s everybody’s souls instead of everybody’s DNA which has been misplaced.
...at least we know it couldn’t have been intelligent design, it was a “still-mysterious alchemy”
Not just space aliens, OUTER space aliens, from the planet Kryton most likely. We just lost all our powers after the war lord Luther figured out how to alter our brains and make us weak. This all happened billions of years ago of course, and after Luther was defeated in a great revolt, we’ve been barely existing for billions of years, rising up once in a while to great civilizations, then wiping our selfs out to near extinction, over and over again. It’s part of that Luther programing in our brains.
Or, those meteors originated from earth to begin with, which is most likely.
And that’s why we all grow up wanting to be astronauts.
Wasn't that Beldar Conehead's hometown?
I always thought he was from the Loire Valley.
bump & a ping
De Alien genetic code got dem monkey girls a going and soon dey begat us....I swear
We are star dust.
So God is an alien? The Scientologists are right?
Why does their story of Creation get considered for schools...
All you’re DNA are belong to us.
(just a bit of nostalgia)
And this is a surprise?
It doesn’t matter where they came from, the basic laws of mathematics and probability still forbid complex creatures arising from “building blocks(TM)”.
Which basic laws are you thinking about?
GOD works in mysterious ways, and not always in a “method” approved by the deeply religous.
We are stardust!
Greetings Freepers, from the planet Tharg.
Explains my family’s fascination with rocks—they’re our ancestors...
Personally, I just realized that I am a Cylon. So all you humans better watch out!
So will the Mormons
A key tenet of Mormonism is the belief their god is a space alien living on the Planet Kolob.
It is their sincere desire to become gods in their own right, inherit their own planet, claim their own harem of goddess wives, and spend eternity as a celestial stud cranking out spirit babies.
Explained in more detail HERE.
Jim Carville and Dennis Kucinich to the contrary...I’m not buying it.
Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean ????
CC
Nonsense.
Must be from Perlandra.
I've met some folks, including some family members, who have the intellect of the average rock. On that basis, there could be some validity to this......
George Noory told me that only reptilians are the space aliens. :)
Which basic law am i thinking about?? The one which says that long odds might get beaten once in a while but not on a perpetual basis, i.e. that you might hit one trifecta or draw one royal straight flush in spades in your lifetime, but that you are never going to play poker for an evening and draw nothing BUT royal straight flushes.
not me...
Not from mine.
Makes me want to make some scrambled eggs and wash it down with a beer.
L. Ron Hubbard and Aleister Crowley
Islam, Scientology, and Mormonism have similar beginnings.
It is a well documented fact that the religion of Hubbard was Satanism. Hubbard's mentor was, in fact, the infamous English black magician Aleister Crowley. Hubbard reportedly discovered Crowley's works as a teenager on a trip to the Library of Congress with his mother. Thereafter, Hunnard was fascinated by Crowley's "Magick," and Crowley became Hubbard's mentor, a relationship that would last until Crowley's death in 1947. In one of his later lectures, Hubbard would refer to Crowley as "my good friend." [Miller, p. 135]... Islam, Scientology, Mormonisn and Jehovah Witnesses all reject the Gospel of Jesus -- and therefore these push their members away from the true road to salvation. Jews also reject this. But as Paul says--Jews have been supernaturally blinded.
L. Ron Hubbard
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley Was A 33 Degree Mason
Why Did Joseph Smith Became a Mason?
I don't have the complete ping list - just you folks. If any of you wish to share this, please do so.
Masonic Symbols and the LDS Temple By Sandra Tanner
It is also obvious that the Nauvoo Temple architecture was in part, at least Masonically influenced. Indeed, it appears that there was an intentional attempt to utilize Masonic symbols and motifs. The sun stones, and the moon and star stones, were examples. An additional example was the angel used on the weather vane on the top of the Temple. [Above the angel] is a beautiful compass and square, in the typical Masonic fashion." (Joseph Smith and Masonry: No Help for the Widow's Son, p.18)
Thanks.
Earth is part of space, so I guess so.
First I laughed then was saddened by this sham.
For God to plant us on earth through meteorites seems to be about as good a plan as any other.
It's kinda like Henry Miller said: “To enter life by way of the vagina is as good a way as any.”
What I do find inscrutable--especially considering the infinity and chaos of the cosmos--is the hubritic dismissal of God's presence.
It goes from 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0000,0000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
to
1.1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0000,0000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
By the way, may favorite morning drink contains 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine (more commonly known as caffeine).
I should have said our bodies are star dust. Which would be true whether we get molecules from meteorites or not.
Well we all shine on,
Like the moon and the stars and the sun, ...
I'll preface this by disclosing I'm an atheist (no, I don't deny the existence of any 'higher power', but I don't believe there is evidence for one, either).
Even for those of you who believe in a creator God, by thinking that the universe, and the observable conditions on this planet could not have come about by randomness, how does that get you to the next step? In other words, once you come to the conclusion that there was an intelligent design for this whole complexity of life, how does that help anybody make their choices about what sets of ancient writings to believe, or what sets of rules about what you may eat, drink, or utitilize your sexual functions, or who gets to tell you what organization to donate X percentage of your income to?
I just don't see where the creator-entity also laid down rules to define the above. To me, it looks like the rule-makers simply define their rules as correct by reference to the idea that most people cannot imagine a world or a universe developing on its own, without any starting intelligence, or without any sustaining intervention by that intelligence. They exploit people's inability to grasp science as the means of keeping up old power structures.
Sorry, that's not a basic law of probability, but okay, I hear what you're saying.
However, if we repeat the experiment a hundred trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion times (which may be pretty close to the number of times it gets repeated in the universe), we could get anywhere from a few successes to lots and lots and lots of successes, correct?
We just don't know what the probabilities are yet and so aren't in the position to calculate that estimate. But it's a mistake to think any basic laws of mathematics forbid it successfully happening trillions of times out there in deep space. We just need a lot more data and a better understanding of exactly how it happens.
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