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Some scientists think humans descended from Martian microbes
Palm Beach Post ^ | Monday, April 03, 2006 | Stacey Singer

Posted on 04/04/2006 6:13:57 AM PDT by planetesimal

Astrobiology sounds like the stuff of lava lamps and Jetsons reruns.

Yet seven years after NASA launched a formal astrobiology research program, scientists of every stripe — geologists, biologists, chemists, paleontologists, oceanographers and astronomers — have rallied to the quest.

They've spent as much as $65 million a year trying to solve a mystery that has underpinned religion and inspired thinkers from Seneca to Carl Sagan: How did life on the lonely Earth begin? And is Earth really the only source of life in the universe?

With the help of modern tools such as the genome, high-powered computer modeling and robotics, they're finding some out-of-this-world answers, ones that may lead to Mars and beyond.

(Excerpt) Read more at palmbeachpost.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abiogenesis; astrobiology; crevolist; crevosciarchives; mars; origins; panspermia
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To: betty boop
[ But if God really doesn't exist, then why bother "doing battle" with Him? In the end, Dawkins comes across as an ersatz Don Quixote, tilting at windmills; but with far less charm, manners, and grace than the old Don had.... ]

LoL... (humming)
To dream the impossible dream......
To fight the unbeatable foe........
To tell the incredible story.......
To BUY a warm bag of bull squeeze..
To Squeeze and the contents run all out.
To Concieve of Utopian visions.....
To Think of Earthly prognostications.
To limit my unlimited spirit to a Donkey.......

(chorus)
This is my quest, to follow that star ...
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far ...
To fight for the right, without question or pause ...
To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause ...

Oh! sorry.. forgot my keyboard was on..

81 posted on 04/04/2006 11:42:23 AM PDT by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole..)
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To: ARCADIA
The open question is when would this have occur?

Not long after the formation of the Earth.

82 posted on 04/04/2006 12:36:46 PM PDT by RadioAstronomer (Senior member of Darwin Central)
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To: JustDoItAlways; GAB-1955; ARCADIA; darth; Heavyrunner
Alcohol cloud spotted in deep space

Astronomers say they have spotted a cloud of alcohol in deep space that measures 463 billion kilometres across, a finding that could shed light on how giant stars are formed from primordial gas.

[snip]Around 130 organic molecules have also been identified so far in outer space, fuelling speculation that these complex molecules may have helped to sow the seeds for life on the fledgling Earth.

83 posted on 04/04/2006 12:49:46 PM PDT by cloud8
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To: jps098

Twit.


84 posted on 04/04/2006 12:59:39 PM PDT by ahayes
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To: gobucks
Methinks the I.D. momentum is causing a panic to create ANYTHING that shuts up questions about O.O.L...

Hardly, this is an old idea.

85 posted on 04/04/2006 1:02:51 PM PDT by ahayes
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To: betty boop

What about the Christians who are evolutionists? Are they Christian anti-Christian bigots? My head is spinning!


86 posted on 04/04/2006 1:04:37 PM PDT by ahayes
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To: Citizen Tom Paine
I wasn't aware that there was life on Mars.

"Oh, sure Tom. Everyone knows about them we just didn't tell you"

Oh, wait. That's about graboids...

I was thinking the same thing. One Mars mission mixed soil with water, etc, and couldn't detect anything that
should have started to grow/generate waste, and NASA was able to reanimate some staph bacteria that spent some
time, exposed, on the Moon.

87 posted on 04/04/2006 1:07:49 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: planetesimal

these Darwinists just keep digging themselves in deeper and deeper.


88 posted on 04/04/2006 1:08:09 PM PDT by balch3
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To: betty boop

#####I know it's silly, even infantile. But deep-down, I really think that's how anti-Christian bigots think, and that's why they act the way they do. Look at Richard Dawkins: I've never seen anyone invest so much time and energy and sheer spite doing battle against what he insists does not and cannot exist: That would be God and soul.#####


Dawkins is living proof that there's a huge difference between intelligence (which he clearly possesses) and wisdom (which he totally lacks).


89 posted on 04/04/2006 1:09:30 PM PDT by puroresu (Conservatism is an observation; Liberalism is an ideology)
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To: planetesimal

Now I don't feel bad about buying that Klingon Bird of Prey last year.


90 posted on 04/04/2006 1:16:49 PM PDT by Trueblackman (Terrorism and Liberalism never sleep and neither do I)
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To: Calvin Locke

If there was microbial life on Mars and any still remains I'd expect it underground at this point. The surface is too extreme.


91 posted on 04/04/2006 1:24:01 PM PDT by ahayes
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To: ahayes
The surface is too extreme.

That's why I referenced the NASA staph episode.

You don't think germs (poor decontamination) being on the Moon for a few years isn't a harsh environment?

92 posted on 04/04/2006 1:31:57 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: Calvin Locke

Let's compare a few years to, quite conservatively, a few hundred million years. :-D


93 posted on 04/04/2006 1:35:00 PM PDT by ahayes
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To: ahayes
What about the Christians who are evolutionists? Are they Christian anti-Christian bigots?

Well, I'm a Christian evolutionist myself....

94 posted on 04/04/2006 1:47:43 PM PDT by betty boop (The world of Appearance is Reality’s cloak -- "Nature loves to hide.")
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To: puroresu
Dawkins is living proof that there's a huge difference between intelligence (which he clearly possesses) and wisdom (which he totally lacks).

Great point, puroresu. Indeed, he seems to be a champion of "anti-wisdom"....

Thanks for writing!

95 posted on 04/04/2006 1:50:08 PM PDT by betty boop (The world of Appearance is Reality’s cloak -- "Nature loves to hide.")
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To: gondramB
Does it leap off the planet?

Yes, sort of. Blasted off by meteorite impact. It's relatively easy and some of the debris can end up on earth.

96 posted on 04/04/2006 1:51:45 PM PDT by RightWhale (Withdraw from the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty)
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To: Citizen Tom Paine
I wasn't aware that there was life on Mars. Consequently, how could there be Martian microbes??

Whether there are microbes on Mars would have little to do with whether anyone was aware of life on Mars or not.

97 posted on 04/04/2006 1:53:33 PM PDT by RightWhale (Withdraw from the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty)
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To: hosepipe; Alamo-Girl; marron; gobucks; xzins; TXnMA
This is my quest, to follow that star ... No matter how hopeless, no matter how far ... To fight for the right, without question or pause ... To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause ...

My! What a splendid baritone you have, hosepipe!!! Got me humming right along with you, LOLOL!

Just between you and me, even Satan knows that you can't beat God, and that not-so-good-things happen to people who try. That's why Satan seduces us to try -- to try it his way, as it were. It's his "impossible dream" I guess, his second reality. Satan rebelled against First Reality, as you recall, a long, long time ago....

Satan knows the only way that he, in his implacable, irrational hatred of the Creator -- Who also happened to have created him, for Satan like us is immortal creature -- the only way he can "get at God" is through man. And the real point is he knows that this cannot "hurt God," but only man. Perhaps he knows there is sorrow in heaven over this sort of thing.... Maybe the "Father of Lies" considers this sufficient recompense for his tireless efforts at undermining the Truth that lies at the foundation of the Great Hierarchy of Being, which undermining has caused such great physical and spiritual suffering among humankind -- past, present, and future one expects -- in this world and the next.

Jeepers, talk about a disgression here!!!

Nuff said. Thanks so much for writing, oh tuneful one!

98 posted on 04/04/2006 3:32:16 PM PDT by betty boop (The world of Appearance is Reality’s cloak -- "Nature loves to hide.")
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To: gobucks
Can't understand why I.D., which is pure creationism in disguise, as I keep being told, and thus it is a pure hoax, has such a profound ability to upset very smart, intelligent people.

Because there is a virulent political movement to force it into the science curriculum?

99 posted on 04/04/2006 4:48:08 PM PDT by Right Wing Professor
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To: betty boop
[ Jeepers, talk about a digression here!!! ]

I know.. it really is a big subject.. Universal even..

It appears that God created man to drive the Lord of the Flies .. NUTZ...
All his work can come to nothing upon a mere epiphany.. or a major one..
For man can be derailed to a false God or rejecting God altogether..
Or even made a synthetic believer to a Synthetic God..
I've been all those things.. and a few others..

What an adventure being human is.. truely a spiritual adventure..
C.S. Lewis was a genious in creating The Screwtape Letters...
A genious.. He rode over religious dogma into trench warfare..
That book is true even if Satan is a merely a mental boogey man.. or not..

100 posted on 04/04/2006 4:57:53 PM PDT by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole..)
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