Posted on 09/02/2013 10:49:25 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Evidence is building that Earth life originated on Mars and was brought to this planet aboard a meteorite, said biochemist Steven Benner of The Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology in Florida.
An oxidized form of the element molybdenum, which may have been crucial to the origin of life, was likely available on the Red Planet's surface long ago, but unavailable on Earth, said Benner, who presented his findings today (Aug. 28; Aug. 29 local time) at the annual Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Florence, Italy. [The Search for Life on Mars (Photo Timeline)]
"It's only when molybdenum becomes highly oxidized that it is able to influence how early life formed," Benner said in a statement. "This form of molybdenum couldn't have been available on Earth at the time life first began, because 3 billion years ago, the surface of the Earth had very little oxygen, but Mars did. It's yet another piece of evidence which makes it more likely life came to Earth on a Martian meteorite, rather than starting on this planet."
Organic compounds are the building blocks of life, but they need a little help to make things happen. Simply adding energy such as heat or light turns a soup of organic molecules into a tarlike substance, Benner said.
That's where oxidized molybdenum comes in. Inserting it or boron, another element, into the mix would help organics make the leap to life, Benner added.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
My wife is from Mars...I’m from Venus.
MARGE: Men are from Mars, women are from Venus.
HOMER: Oh sure! Give us the one with all the scary MONSTERS!
When they left Mars, did the leave the flag behind?
NASA shopping for more tax dollars.
This notion is nonsense.
PANSPERMIA is the hypothesis that life exists throughout the Universe, distributed by meteoroids, asteroids, comets and planetoids.
Sir Fred Hoyle (1915–2001) and Chandra Wickramasinghe (born 1939) were influential proponents of panspermia.
In 1974 they proposed the hypothesis that some dust in interstellar space was largely organic (containing carbon), which Wickramasinghe later proved to be correct.
"...which may have been..."IOW, this is a WAG but he needs the grant money to keep rolling in so he'll doubletalk his way around it."...was likely available..."
The current state of scholarly science is pitiful, IMO.
I recall that being mentioned in science-fiction as the “Starseed”.
This is news? We knew this back in 1967! FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062168/?ref_=sr_1
I knew it! We’re all aliens.
Riiiiiiight...
Is it scientifically reproducible? Isn’t that how science works? Have they zapped some ooze and gotten life yet?
If that were true, all it would do would be to move the question, “Where did life begin?”
60 years ago.
There are many FReepers who have seen my antennae...No, not that one (sheesh, clean your thoughts up).
5.56mm
So... life on Earth came from Mars. God created life. Ergo, Mars=God. And we all know that Mars is the god of war. So, I guess that makes sense. :-)
Of course life started on mars. Why would life start on a planet that just happens to be perfect to support life? Makes much more sense to start elsewhere, then get knocked off the planet from a meteor strike, tumble through space for however many centuries in a state of suspended animation, then survive crashing through earths atmosphere at tens of thousands of miles per hour.
This is because scientists are incapable of explaining how life came about on Earth, so they push the origin of life on to another planet, where it can be neither proved nor disproved.
Come on, scientists! if life came about on another planet, it evolved so as to survive on that planet, not ours.
Come on, you brilliant researchers! surely you can figure out now life came about on Earth without resorting to a Deus ex Machina.
If you don’t know what a Deus ex Machina is, you shouldn’t be a scientist.
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