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24HourForums.com > Supported Forums > Brian's Science & Nature Shack > New Study Confirms: Component of Genetic Material Extraterrestrial in Origin |
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Brian Grand Poobah of Moderation 
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A study by European and American scientists at the Imperial College at London confirms that a meteorite that crashed to Earth in Australia in 1969 contains uracil and xanthine, which are precursors to DNA nucleobases. This has some pretty profound implications. As a scientist in the article says, it means that life could potentially be very widespread in the universe. Anywhere that is hospitable to life can potentially be seeded by such meteorites.
 "It's been a long December, and there's reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last." -- "A Long December", Counting Crows |
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pmh1nic Pioneer100© Member 
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"MAY have come" "the finding SUGGEST" "we believe early life MAY have formed" "understand how life MIGHT have formed on earth" also "Materials formed on Earth consist of a lighter variety of carbon." Could the heavier carbon have formed during the heat and pressure of impact of the meteor strike? Profound implications?
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Brian Grand Poobah of Moderation
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pmh1nic wrote: "MAY have come" Hi, PMH. The use of qualified phrases in the article relate to the idea that the type of material found in the meteorite did get adopted into early DNA, not the idea that it could get adopted. Also, it's important to quote the article exactly, or you'll get the wrong idea. When you quote, "we believe early life may have formed", you're not quoting correctly. The quote from the article is: “We believe early life may have adopted nucleobases from meteoritic fragments for use in genetic coding which enabled them to pass on their successful features to subsequent generations.” [emphasis mine] Note: The idea that there are the nucleobases in the meteoric fragments is not the idea the scientists are uncertain about. The uncertainty comes from the idea that the genetic material was adopted into life on Earth. Whether it was adopted into life on Earth remains an open question. According to the article, the dating appears to be correct, but that's certainly not proof. I'm not sure what would constitute proof, but the matter will obviously get more study as time goes on. As far as your question about the pressure of impact, the answer is no. As the article says, the carbon found forms only in space. It can't form on Earth (by natural processes, at least -- I don't know if it can be artificially created). The profound aspect of this study is the idea that there are precursors to nucleobases floating out there in space. What that means is that life could be much more common in the universe than we previously believed, because a planet doesn't necessarily have to come up with these precursors "from scratch", as it were. If stuff like that floats around in space, it's a real game changer.
"It's been a long December, and there's reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last." -- "A Long December", Counting Crows |
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24HourNut Administrator  Body pillows rock!
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Space itself, via meteors and debris, can be a big seeding factory. Good point in remembering a planet doesn't have to come up with everything on its own.
The best human beings start good new topics and vote on the better posts. |
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pmh1nic Pioneer100© Member
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"The use of qualified phrases in the article relate to the idea that the type of material found in the meteorite did get adopted into early DNA, not the idea that it could get adopted." Wrong. The use of qualified phrases in the article express that these are speculations about what might have happened. "Also, it's important to quote the article exactly, or you'll get the wrong idea." I haven't confused anything. This article is making speculations about how genetic material MAY have formed on the Earth. To jump from these speculations to a discussion of a profound impact is an expression of hope.
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24HourNut Administrator Body pillows rock!
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Well, we can feel confident about one thing - stuff from space delivers foreign materials to planets.
The best human beings start good new topics and vote on the better posts. |
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Brian Grand Poobah of Moderation
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pmh1nic wrote: "The use of qualified phrases in the article relate to the idea that the type of material found in the meteorite did get adopted into early DNA, not the idea that it could get adopted." The speculation is about whether or not the genetic precursors did get incorporated into early DNA, not about whether they could. Again, look at the quote: “We believe early life may have adopted nucleobases from meteoritic fragments for use in genetic coding which enabled them to pass on their successful features to subsequent generations.” That's what the scientists said is speculative. pmh1nic wrote: "Also, it's important to quote the article exactly, or you'll get the wrong idea." The excerpts you used in your first post are almost all misquotes from the article. As I've already pointed out, nowhere in the article does the phrase "we believe early life may have formed" appear. This is important because the scientists believe that early life adopted the bases found in the meteorite. It's not even directly about how life formed (except in regards to how it may have adapted extraterrestrial material). The article never makes the claim that all the genetic material needed for life is extraterrestrial in origin. Rather, the claim is that this material could've been adopted into primitive life (presumably, simpler forms of genetic material that didn't have these bases). pmh1nic wrote: To jump from these speculations to a discussion of a profound impact is an expression of hope. Well, I didn't talk about a profound "impact". I talked about profound implications. The implications for this work are, indeed, profound. It means that there's the potential for seeding of other planets by this material. Is this a certainty? No. But it's a potential mechanism. And the fact that you find this stuff floating around in meteorites at all means that it's possible that life doesn't have to start from scratch. And that does have profound implications.
"It's been a long December, and there's reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last." -- "A Long December", Counting Crows |
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Brian Grand Poobah of Moderation
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24HourNut wrote: Well, we can feel confident about one thing - stuff from space delivers foreign materials to planets. I think that's pretty much a no-brainer. 
"It's been a long December, and there's reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last." -- "A Long December", Counting Crows |
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24HourNut Administrator Body pillows rock!
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Brian wrote: 24HourNut wrote:Well, we can feel confident about one thing - stuff from space delivers foreign materials to planets. Yep! But so is the next step, perhaps: we can feel confident that stuff from space serves as a mechanism to introduce things like the basic building blocks of life.
The best human beings start good new topics and vote on the better posts. |
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Brian Grand Poobah of Moderation
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24HourNut wrote: Brian wrote:24HourNut wrote:Well, we can feel confident about one thing - stuff from space delivers foreign materials to planets. I think "introduce" is the right word. What I still want to get a better handle on is whether or not these things combined with early life on Earth. As I said, the fact that these things are floating around in space at all means that it's possible that life didn't have to start from scratch, but whether or not these compounds actually did combine in early life is another question. The fact that these meteorites (according to the article) rained down on Earth around the time that primitive life was forming is highly suggestive that the compounds combined to form more complex structures, but there would need to be some kind of evidence of a causal relationship found (e.g., a boundary layer, where before the meteorite strikes, simpler life, without the extra chemicals, existed, and after the meteorite strikes, where more complex life, with the extra chemicals, existed).
"It's been a long December, and there's reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last." -- "A Long December", Counting Crows |
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24HourForums.com > Supported Forums > Brian's Science & Nature Shack > New Study Confirms: Component of Genetic Material Extraterrestrial in Origin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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