Deep space.
Posted on 07/18/2002 10:17:50 AM PDT by nuda_veritas
|
|
|
| 10:57 18 July 02 | |
| Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition |
|
|
An amino acid, one of the building blocks of life, has been spotted in deep space. If the find stands up to scrutiny, it means that the sorts of chemistry needed to create life are not unique to Earth verifying one of astrobiology's cherished theories. This would add weight to ideas that life exists on other planets, and even that molecules from outer space kick-started life on Earth. Over 130 molecules have been identified in interstellar space so far, including sugars and ethanol. But amino acids are a particularly important find because they link up to form proteins, the molecules that run, and to a large extent make up our cells. Back in 1994, a team led by astronomer Lewis Snyder of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign announced preliminary evidence of the simplest type of amino acid, glycine, but the finding did not stand up to closer examination (New Scientist magazine, 11 June 1994, p 4). Now Snyder and Yi-Jehng Kuan of the National Taiwan Normal University say they really have found glycine. "We're more confident [this time]," says Kuan. "We have strong evidence that glycine exists in interstellar space."
The researchers monitored radio waves for the spectral lines characteristic of glycine. They studied emissions from more locations than before - giant molecular clouds, huge blobs of gas and dust grains. They have also identified 10 spectral lines at each location that correspond to the lines created by glycine in the lab; before they had just two. The discovery of glycine supports recent lab-based simulations of deep space, which show that ices containing simple organic matter could form. When researchers bathe those ices in ultraviolet light, amino acids are created. "Glycine is the holy grail," says Jill Tarter, director of the Centre for SETI Research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View. "Let's hope they've got it this time." |
|
|
Rachel Nowak |
|
|
For more exclusive news and expert analysis every week subscribe to New Scientist print edition. |
There is no such thing as chaos or order in God's world. Only processes that are observable and predictable ("order") and processes that are non-observable and/or non-predictable ("chaos").
Both ideas are constructs of the human mind, not of the universe. The human mind needs a comprehensible framework, not the universe.
All truths discovered by science are products of God. So why should people of faith fear any truths that scientists discover?
Should we fear to "touch the face of God"?
Even the Pope has come around to my way of thinking? ;^)
BTW: Dictionary definitions are mere semantics and does not represent any real objective truth. Define "liberal" for instance. (that's why there are so many different dictionaries etc.) That is also why mathematics tends to be the language of science. Even though mathematics is rapidly reaching its limits as a modelling tool for complex systems.
<creationist>
Ho! That's what YOU say. Well, you atheistic science-types have slipped up BIG TIME. The odds against even ONE amino acid assembling itself were already 200 jillion to one. But now somebody let the cat-feline-BENGAL TIGER out of the BAG. Space is full of the gosh-darned stuff! The odds against THAT happening are...well, MORE than 200 jillion to one--big--HUGE. OMG, I am laughing so hard...there's no way Richard Dawkins is going to be able to shriek this away, and Gould...well, he's burning in HELL! OH, HA, HA, HA! My sides hurt. Lord, please take me.
</creationist>
Yes there is, it is called an entropic sink, and it occurs whenever you consider an isolated part of the universe for which entropy need not hold. Entropy is only an ironclad law when taking a closed system as a whole. When you consider, for example, a planet circling a star, for a finite amount of time, entropy conservation does not enter the picture. The sun is free to erect anti-entropic entities on the earth--the piper does not need to be paid until the earth and the sun dissolve into one.
Yes, and all the time scarfing up those juicy research grants. What we need to clean up this mess is a good ol' fashioned jihad!
I'll need to find something suitable to wear...
Hmmmm, I wonder why it is cherished?
Could it be because they have so much at stake?
Many people cherish this theory because they want something to validate their belief in spontaneous generation. They continue to push their faith in spontaneous generation because that is what they have been teaching and putting into the text books all along and it supports their teleology.
It should not surprise anyone that this is a theory cherished by enough people to be noted in this article. Afterall there is a lot more at stake than science. When you peel off the veneer, there is an eternity of accountability at stake.....and when they pillow their head at night, they know it.
Ain't Evolution Wonderful??
Doc
hehehe...I'm sure Barney Frank would loan him a few though...
Yes, but not their eternal souls. What we have here is a new professional field of employment. Credentials, university appointments, academic degrees, refereed journals with peer-reviewed articles. All the great stuff that self-motivated highly-competitive doctoral candidates live for. This time it's Astrobiology. They'll get their own department, then their own building, it's just a matter of time.
Carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, and energy. The four elements are all present in space in one degree or another, and the energy is plentiful as any number of forms of radiation. Though the likelihood of amino acid formation is far higher on earth, where oxygen is more abundant, it is not impossible to conceive of it happening in space.
Deep space.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.