You can bet Captain Kirk will tap it....
Posted on 04/02/2018 6:23:28 PM PDT by LibWhacker
In 2016, NASA sequenced DNA in space for the first time, but alien life, we may soon discover, may be vastly different on other planets and moons, particularly as we expand our efforts to explore ocean worlds with our solar system and beyond. “Most strategies for life detection rely upon finding features known to be associated with Earth's life, such as particular classes of molecules,” the researchers wrote.
DNA and RNA are the building blocks of life on Earth, but the molecules of life might differ substantially on another planet. A new paper by scientists at Georgetown University, published online this month in the journal Astrobiology, suggests a method for identifying alien life using modern genome sequencing technology and chemometrics, a field that uses a wealth of statistical pattern-recognition protocols to analyze chemical data in this case the components of DNA and RNA.
"Ultimately," the Georgetown team writes, "the chemometric fingerprints of living systems, which may differ significantly from nonliving systems, could provide an empirical, agnostic means of detecting life."
Nucleic acids like DNA form structures that will inherently bind to a host of materials and shapes, including organic molecules, minerals, and even metals. In the system that the researchers propose, reports Kristen V. Brown for Gizmodo, a technique sometimes used in cancer detection called the “systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment,” researchers propose creating nucleic acids that can bind to organic molecules that are indicators of life.
The nucleic acids would theoretically act as a sort of sensor than can be amplified, and the binding patterns analyzed, to reveal a kind of biochemical signature—a “fingerprint,” as the researchers put it. The biochemistry of the alien life might be completely different from anything that we have seen on Earth, but if the molecular structures identified are complex, it’s a pretty good signal that it’s actually life.
Because nucleic acids are exponentially amplified by the polymerase chain reaction, even very small input signals could be translated into a robust readable output. The derived sequences could be identified by a small, portable sequencing device or by capture and optical imaging on a DNA microarray. Without presupposing any particular molecular framework, this agnostic approach to life detection could be used from Mars to the far reaches of the Solar System, all within the framework of an instrument drawing little heat and power.
The Georgetown researchers propose is just one idea for how to best ID alien life forms, but it is a much smaller and less complicated system than other methods for detecting molecular signs of life, such as the mass spectroscopy systems aboard the Mars rover Curiosity. The researchers point out that efforts to miniaturize genome sequencers, like Oxford Nanopore’s MinION, which fits in the palm of a hand, could one day make for extremely small, lightweight methods for astronauts to detect life forms in space.
“Without presupposing any particular molecular framework, this agnostic approach to life detection could be used from Mars to the far reaches of the Solar System, all within the framework of an instrument drawing little heat and power,” the researchers wrote.
I am unable to believe God created life only here.
1 trillionth of 1 trillionth of the Universe.
If that.
...
I can believe it.
Regardless of what we believe, it is what it is.
Even is there is life elsewhere, there’s still a lot of real estate with no life. Probably at least a ratio of a trillion times a trillion.
At first glance I thought it read as Tim Allen Observatory
Well you might as well say NASA masturbated in space for the first time, for all the significance that has ... but I wonder if such an event might have passed unnoticed.
You can bet Captain Kirk will tap it....
what
Whut?
That is, if you believe in God at all.
The vast universe, empty of all life and desolate, declares how exceedingly amazing and totally special life is. It is a huge statement by Almighty God! It is a statement that is so true and amazing that the human mind cannot completely rap itself around it. The more one learns about the complexity and fathomless miracle of life any intellectually honest person has to know that only an absolutely astounding, perfect and all knowing God could have created it.
Earth is alone concerning life, but not alone concerning God.
“...Or single sex organisms.”
there are some creatures and plants that reproduce through asexual reproduction called parthenogenesis. for instance, the komodo dragon is one such creature who can reproduce either thru sexual or asexual reproduction.
“Parthenogenesis is a natural form of asexual reproduction in which growth and development of embryos occur without fertilization. In animals, parthenogenesis means development of an embryo from an unfertilized egg cell. In plants parthenogenesis is a component process of apomixis.”
[source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis]
And consider this, if Adam and Eve were superior to current mankind in both intellect and physical form, obeying their own rationality and relying on their own abilities would be far more tempting that it seems to be in hindsight.
People who argue that the Universe is too large for there to be only mankind have a very, very, limited view of both what God originally intended for His creation and of the Creator, too, if they believe in God at all.
JMHo
The problem is yours ! ... as I see it. But thank you for an interesting post.
After learning how immensely complicated even a protein is, to say even less of a functioning cell, I’d say that discovering life out there would be a very literal miracle, and I use ‘literal’ literally.
I believe there universe is so large because His original intention was for us to do exactly what he said to do, “be fruitful and multiply”, on a far grander scale than what we’re limited to on a single planet. I also believe that’s the final reward God has for those trust and obey Him; man restored to being capable of doing what God originally intended before man chose to obey himself rather than God.
***
A quite similar thought has crossed my mind a few times too.
No idea how accurate it is, but whatever the good Lord has in mind I bet it’ll be far better than anything we’ve imagined.
Considering all we've seen in just the past hundred years and the interstellar travel soap operas or science fiction from novels and movies, the above is something incredible to think about.
Wow - I was thinking of posting a reference to the very same LN song.
Just go to San Francisco. You’ll have enough alien life forms to study that will last you two lives.
Could conceivably be life forms that “spontaneously” appear, as life here, according to some, once did. Then, did it spontaneously appear only once in one location, or did it repeatedly appear in many locations over a period of time.
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