Could Alien Life Exist In The Form Of DNA-Shaped Dust?

New Scientist ^ | 8-10-2007 | Stephen Battersby

[blam]

Could alien life exist in the form of DNA-shaped dust?

18:09 10 August 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Stephen Battersby

'Plasma crystals' that behave like life could exist in Saturn's rings, where the 'dust' would actually be fine ice grains, and the nourishing plasma would be supplied by the solar wind (Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)Tools

Could alien life exist in the form of dancing specks of dust? According to a new simulation, electrically charged dust can organise itself into DNA-like double helixes that behave in many ways like living organisms, reproducing and passing on information to one another.

"This came as a bit of a surprise to us", says Gregor Morfill of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany. He and colleagues have built a computer simulation to model what happens to dust immersed in an ionised gas, or plasma.

The dust grains pick up a negative charge by absorbing electrons from the plasma and then this charged 'nucleus' attracts positive ions, which form a shell around it.

It was already known that this system can produce regular arrays of dust called plasma crystals, and some experiments have also shown hints of spiral structures. Now, Morfill's simulation suggests that the dust should sometimes form double helixes.

Like DNA, the dust spirals can store information. They do so in the scaffolding of their bodies, as they have two stable states – one with a large diameter and the other with a small one – so a spiral could carry a series of wide and narrow sections.

The specific order of these sections can be copied from one dust spiral to another, like a genetic code. The researchers aren't sure how it happens, but they think each narrow section of spiral creates a permanent

[SampleMan]

According to a new simulation, electrically charged dust can organise itself into DNA-like double helixes that behave in many ways like living organisms, reproducing and passing on information to one another.

What else can dust do itself? Drive a car? Make a DVD player?

[battlegearboat]

Yikes, dust bunnies.

[Mr_Moonlight]

What else can dust do itself? Drive a car? Make a DVD player?

Vote Democrat?

[G8 Diplomat]

Could Alien Life Exist In The Form Of DNA-Shaped Dust?

I dunno, but it can exist in this form:

[Perdogg]

[donna]

A civilization full of miniature aliens living in a locker in Grand Central Station . . .

[Cheburashka]

What else can dust do itself? Drive a car? Make a DVD player?

---

If we elect it president, it will give us free health care.

No, really. Free.

[SampleMan]

That’s just plain funny.

[SampleMan]

Vote Democrat?

Well that's proven.

[Doe Eyes]

More info pointing to Intelligent Design.

[doc1019]

Dust bunnies that will eventually, over gazillions of years evolve to drive a car and make a DVD according to evolutionists (LOL!).

[MHGinTN]

"Like DNA, the dust spirals can store information." I have to ask, 'by what criteria is there stored information that is more than the same stored information which one crystal conveys to build another crystal?' Have these demigods produced a single protein from a static charge created dust spiral?

[samtheman]

this will lead to the trouble with tribbles

[Mr_Moonlight]

Then there you have it. Had Gore counted the trillions of DNA Dust votes from the third ring of Saturn then he'd be President today! Instead he counted on a few thousand Hanging Chads in three counties of Florida.

Maybe the Saturn votes got lost in transmission due to a bent antenna prong and are now on their way to Alpha Centuri .... Gore was kept waiting for the transmission until Dec 2000 before conceding that the votes were lost in space ......

[muawiyah]

To the degree DNA (or DNA-like molecules) can serve as a combined memory and processor, the rings of Saturn might well "think" and be self-aware.

[sittnick]

So, is “Horton Hears a Who?” non-fiction?

Boil that dust speck!

[SampleMan]

To the degree DNA (or DNA-like molecules) can serve as a combined memory and processor, the rings of Saturn might well "think" and be self-aware.

Sure. The ring in my bathtub finished a novel the other night. It just sorta arranged itself in such a manner to do that.

[Calpernia]

Who?

[muawiyah]

Better stop drinking in the bath.

[RatRipper]

Loved “Men in Black”

[Texas Songwriter]

This is science. This is science and your tax dollars at work.

[gcruse]

I don’t pay taxes to Germany and doubt you do, either.